New Hooked Wool Drawings, and the Benefits of Doodling

 I've always doodled during meetings. When I was teaching, my notes at department meetings were covered with little inked shapes, but they had little to do with my artwork. They were a way to keep my hand busy while my mind was both concentrating on the matter at hand and wandering about. I still ply my pen during the rare meetings I now attend, usually building interconnected piles of flat and volumetric squares, sometimes with circles added. Nothing much, just doodling. For some reason, at my last meeting of my local town library's trustees, I began to doodle little images that could work as sketches for my ongoing series of drawings. And I came up with some pretty good ideas, which I later filled in with color at home. I could call this group of works "The Library Drawings".

 

2012 #2, hand dyed wool and egg tempera on linen, 16 3/4 x 13 1/4 in.

As with most of my drawings, these have centered images, and as with many, they have a light, humorous quality. I pushed the primaries red yellow blue, so that they become a zippy brilliant flag, like that of a hot and happy country.

 2012 #3, hand dyed wool and egg tempera on linen, 14 1/4 x 12 in.

An orange square creeps out and ensnares a green circle.

 2012 #4, hand dyed wool and egg tempera on linen, 16 x 12 3/4 in.

Three cuddling ovals sit atop two hooked circles.

2012 #5, hand dyed wool and egg tempera on linen, 13 3/8 x 12 1/2 in.

And I leave it to you to find a metaphor for this one (I'll keep the image that pops into my mind to myself for now).