Response to Emma Dexter article

           The article “To Draw is to be Human” by Emma Dexter is very provocative in its ability to make the reader rethink the concept of drawing and expand it to include a wide variety of marks made on the world, including a person’s footprints in the snow or breath on a window.  Dexter points out that drawing is really the only artistic medium that can apply to these actions or that can be explained in the way she describes the concept of drawing in relation to human action.  One of the things I found most intriguing in this article was the comparison that Dexter creates between drawing and painting.  I would consider myself more of a painter than a drawer in the traditional sense, but after reading some of these ideas, I can begin to see some of the ways in which some of my art could be seen as drawing in the conceptual way that Dexter presents it.  

           Drawing has some aspect of transparency and allows for the feeling of incompletion in a work of art.  According to this article, one of the main differences between a painting and a drawing is that a painting has a feel of completion and totality while a drawing may always seem incomplete in a way.  Drawing also lets the viewer see the process of creation and every mark whether purposeful or accidental is seen on the paper.  Contrastingly, in a painting the “moment of making is hidden” and any mistakes can be hidden by layering of paint and reworking of the surface.  One thing that was mentioned that I found very interesting was that the art of watercolor falls between these two concepts.  According to the article a painting completely covers the paper or canvas on which it is painted, while the blank background of a drawing actually plays a role in its composition.  Watercolor is not completely a painting, because the background shows through the pigment, but it is not a drawing either, because the paper is completely filled with color.  This I found very interesting, because I have been working a lot with watercolor lately and I think this explanation of the effect of the transparency of watercolor is very accurate.

Nora Brown