DRAWING THE SIX DIRECTIONS

 

Recently, I was heartened to have an artist pay attention to my book of drawings DRAWING THE SIX DIRECTIONS. This is one of my most ignored books (no doubt since no one knows me as a maker of drawings; here are some examples:

 

That my book is not widely known made it all the sweeter to receive this letter from artist Scott MacLeod:

 

Eileen, 

 

I'd planned on trying to write a cogent response to yr book before I left for Europe, but didn’t manage it. Now I have a little time because I am laid up with fractured ankle (who knew Welsh poetry/translation conferences could be so dangerous?), but my mind is scattered in a million ways (more than “six directions” anyway) fighting depression (it’s my driving foot, so I'm feeling caged) being anxious about physical ability to do all the traveling I want to do this year, trying to finish Brief Amaze, and another book, of drawings, ironically, so I’m afraid this will be a non-cogent response, just random thoughts written off-the-cuff as I return to your book for a quick refresher.

 

Interesting that you went from sculpting to drawing. Isn’t it usually the other way ‘round?

 

The gourd certainly is a human shape, yet also not. This is intriguing and, I think, fortuitous. As it is both a recognizable finished form, denoting and symbolizing, but it’s also abstract enough to use it, as you do, as a discrete element, like a point or a line or… a circle.

 

The drawings themselves remind me of so many things. They are different from Aboriginal Australian drawings/paintings, but I was strangely reminded of them when I looked at the ones on pages 26-27, which made me think of Roeg’s Walkabout, because of the scale, the implied distances, the shape that looks like a mesa and the blue ones that could be a small pond. To me there’s an implied horizon to these two.

 

Other drawings make me think of some of the battle maps I used to draw as a younger person, this kind of thing:

(a map randomly grabbed from Internet)

And others, where I’d draw small circles for individual soldiers.

 

Also the flattened perspective of Plains Indian paintings:

Others bring to mind some Thangka paintings I saw in Taos once, and some mail-art pieces I’ve received over the years.

 

As for the poetry,

 

Dear One and The World Is Yours together felt like strolling around someplace like the trailer parks and deserted motels surrounding the Salton Sea, on a lazy Saturday, with no cares and no agenda.

 

At Bryant Park is a very sexy poem…

 

I like them all, actually.

 

And I’m really astonished at how you keep track of all the places your lines come from or refer to. When I first started strip-mining other texts for ore for my own, I briefly considered keeping those kinds of records, might have even done so once or twice, but I quickly decided that for me is wasn’t worth doing. But I am awed by your deep notes, which of course are works on their own.

 

In closing:

 

“Allah does not subtract 

from the allotted time of man

the hours spent writing.”

 

Would that that were entirely true…

 

All best,

Scott 

 

***

Needless to say, I was delighted by Scott’s response. And I asked if the above (1^st image) was one of his childhood drawings. But he said he would “draw a real one, just like I’d have drawn many times over the years.” As it turns out, he drew several to my enchantment, as follows with his comments:

These are slightly embarrassing. Very quickly done. Back in the day I would spend a lot of time on them, drawing in terrain etc. Partly OCD and partly just to decommission my brain when it would get too overloaded. I guess I’ll narrate, but not sure that’s germane.

 

Typical map, with different fills denoting infantry, cavalry, archers etc. Arrows for troop movements.

Each battle might need 2-4 drawings to show how things progress.

Another style would be this, with circles representing individual soldiers. You can’t see it too well here, but blue is on top, green on the bottom.

 

 

Red marks are shots fired:

 

 

Soldiers are wounded if it on the line, killed if hit inside the line. A lot of judgement calls are needed:

 

Denoting troop movements can be very laborious. Shooting goes on until one side retreats.

There’s a lot more I could say about this and the numerous other games I play/played on paper and/or in my head, but I’m not going to. Maybe someday. I have mixed feelings about this, but yes you can post any of this that you want. I’ve always valued truth more than propriety….

 

Scott

 

***

I love my exchange with Scott, in part because it touches on art-in-progress. The "in-progress" aspect of art forms (my first book BLACK LIGHTNING was about poems-in-progress) is one of my favorite topics. Thank you, Scott, for your generosity and insight!