Gone, Drawing, Gone

Today we’re starting with the exercise. Maybe you’ll like it. Maybe you’ll come to regret it.

The Tools:

2H or softer Pencil. One sheet of paper. eraser.

The Duration:

5 minutes.

The Exercise Part 1:

Fill the entire page, top to bottom, side to side with graphite. Draw for five minutes straight, with intensity. Do not stop. Get rid of that blank page.

DO NOT MOVE ON TO THE NEXT PART UNTIL YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE FIRST PART! NO CHEATING!

The Exercise Part 2:

Erase as much as you can.

The Duration:

However long it takes.

The Lesson:

In 1951 Robert Rauschenberg (probably drunk) was obsessed. What was he obsessed with? Erasing his own drawings. He had this idea that erasure could be a way of making a drawing. Cool idea.

After erasing for a couple years, he realized that he wanted to erase someone else’s drawings. He needed drawings that would be missed. Drawings that were treasured. Drawings that were by a famous artist (he wasn’t famous yet).

So Robert (probably still drunk) went a-pounding on the studio door of the probably drunk Willem De Kooning. Here is their imagined conversation:

Keep in mind, Rauschenberg isn’t famous, he doesn’t know De Kooning. He just strolls into De Kooning’s studio and starts picking out drawings like he’s Michael Jackson in Regis Galerie Las Vegas.

Anyway, so Rauschenberg went home to his erasure laboratory with a really good De Kooning drawing. If it was me, I woulda balked on the whole erasure thing and flipped that shit for beer money. But no, he, a real dedicated artist, erased the shit out of it. AND IT TOOK FOREVER! Why did it take forever? Because it was fucking oil crayon.

Not too bad. I mean, if it were me I woulda tried to erase a little more. So… why am I telling you this?

1. Treasure your eraser.

2. Let go of what you think a drawing should be.

3. Enjoy that art grows bigger the more you chisel away.

4. Try to avoid peeing on artist’s shoes.