I sat on the cold hard floor of the Getty museum with 20 other adults, trying to sketch a marble statue. The subject was Faustina the Elder, the Empress and wife of Antoninius Pius, Emperor of Rome. We made several different sketches with different instructions from the teacher/artist. Each person made four drawings. Some of the sketchers discovered they were natural artists, others did not. I learned the latter.
At the end of the exercise, the instructor had us lay out our sketches for everyone to see.
We were all sketching the same marble statue and for the most part, all the drawings represented Faustina the Elder, BUT...they were all so distinctly different. Apprx. 40 drawings of the same object all interpreted differently. Some were classic, some comical, some primitive; others emphasized lines and the geometry of the space, others were embellished with background.
The lesson was apparent-this was VOICE, the indescribable, coveted, VOICE. It can't be imitated, it can't be copied. It is only truly voice if it is original. Drawn from what is at the core, only us. Nothing else.
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