Stanford Arts Grant Projects

In exchange for my temporal absence in this blog, here is a small summary of how my project developed throughout the summer.

I just had a plan and an ambitious idea; I wanted to make a series of huge charcoal portrait drawings (and by huge I really mean big). The beginning was very frustrating. It turned out to be extremely difficult to get the paper I needed for the drawings in Mexico, since I was living in my hometown this summer, Mexico City. After searching literally dozens of art stores for a roll of paper bigger than 1.5m tall I managed to find the one I needed in a little art shop in San Miguel de Allende, a small but beautiful town north of Mexico city filled with new artists. I was happy and ready to start drawing, now that I had my “big paper”. Of course the next problem was where to draw such a big piece. After discussing with my mom I took control of a room in my house where I could do everything I wanted. This is a picture of the room, with an adapted drawing table and the paper.

Everything was ready now, except I didn’t had a subject to draw. I knew I wanted portraits, and I wanted to mix them. After thinking a while I decided to make my own portrait, since I had never drawn myself and it felt exciting. So I started…

The way I do my drawings is buy first painting the paper as dark as I can with the charcoal, until it ends like black velvet texture, then I begin “painting” the light with an eraser; so I basically do it the other way around, draw the light instead of shadows. After two weeks and a loooooot of charcoal I finished the drawing.

It was time to start the second one. I decided to make a portrait of my best friend. I thought it would be interesting to have both portraits mixed, for he is like my brother and we have twin souls.

The next step was not easy. I was afraid of cutting the drawings. If I did one wrong movement, that would have been weeks of hard work destroyed. My hands were shaking, but I manage to do it. I cut both drawings in small squares of 10x10cm. Each drawing ended up in 300 small pieces. I then began mixing them, like building a puzzle. It was very interesting to see what new faces came out. Each new drawing had a unique expression, some were happy, others angry, other neutral. It was very shocking to see myself in those drawings, for I could recognize myself, but also my brother at the same time; it felt very creepy, but also extremely captivating. I mixed them a couple of times until I was satisfied with the expression. These are the final drawings:

These drawings have a special meaning. The drawing represents the two souls together; two friends united by experiences, dreams and hopes; two souls that are one and who’s image only exists in our minds and a new spirit which I hoped to capture in this drawings.

Here is a picture of me (left), my brother (right) and the finished drawings; to give a better idea of the size of the drawings.

I hope you like it.

Jorge