The Hawk and the Handsaw

Holding the moment between things in order to create life. Not one thing not another.

"I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw." 
Hamlet

How to keep a static image perceptually ‘alive’ was an issue that several ‘morning drawing’ sessions were designed to question. (I’ll at some point return to what ‘morning drawing’ was, but for now bear with me)The eye-brain had to be engaged in a variety of ways to ensure that somehow the flicker of life was embedded within the image. There were both non-figurative and figurative approaches to this and ideally at some point the lessons leant from both would be combined to form a visual synergy.

The non-figurative session could involve folding a sheet of A1 paper and cutting it in half and adjusting it to size so that a series of folded squares could be made. The pieces of paper would be fitted back together so a band of squares was ready to be drawn into. A line drawing of a square designed to occupy the majority of the space available would be put onto the first paper square and a line drawing of a circle on the last. Drawings of squares would then be slightly adjusted square by square, each one taking on more and more characteristics of the circle, whilst on the other hand drawings of circles were to take on more and more characteristics of the square. At some point in the process students should arrive at a drawing that was of a format exactly between a circle and a square. However because these had all been drawn by hand each one would have a slightly different energy and character, forms arrived at which started from a square being of a different character to those arrived at when a circle was the starting point.

The critical issue here was that different drawings had a tendency to visually ‘pop’ at one moment swaying towards a square and at another moment towards a circle and it was this visual ambiguity that gave the form its ‘life’. It was never one thing or another, therefore the brain couldn’t rest and an implied visual movement was created. These types of forms that lay between one thing and another were seen as essential if visual energy was to be embedded into a surface.

This particular approach had been a favourite of Harry Thubron and his legacy to the college was the Jacob Kramer red spot. The college symbol in those days had been taken from one of Harry’s constructions which included a red shape which was not quite a circle but which had some characteristics of a square, i.e. it was in Harry’s terms still alive as it was moving towards a circle, but not quite there. (It’s still in the collection of Leeds City Art Gallery) When it was proposed as the new symbol for the college it caused quite a stir, as on first glance it looked exactly like the Japanese flag, a red circle on a white ground and one of the staff had been in a Japanese prisoner of war camp during WW2. It must have been a wonderful confrontation, Harry explaining the subtlest nuances of formal meaning to a man who had a pretty clear idea of what a Japanese flag stood for and it wasn’t perceptual harmony.

Harry Thubron: Construction

Jacob Kramer College logo

Of course this type of drawing could be done with figurative imagery. The ‘Hawk and the Handsaw’ was a particularly clear example, (although as a drawing experience it had several problems in that to some extent the visual relationship was too easy). Once again you set out a series of squares, in square one place a drawing of a hawk in flight and in the last square draw a handsaw. Adjust as before and at some point hawk-saws will arrive, being neither saws nor hawks. They will flutter between forms, flying and cutting space as they seek to become one or the other, thus raising life energy via the brain’s searching for a rational resolution to a visual paradox. Of course the initial relationship was taken from Shakespeare. It was one way of reminding students that literature was a wonderful source of imagery. 

Other types of similar experiences could be obtained by examining how to use aspects of optical illusions and visual paradoxes such as the ambiguous duck/rabbit image or figure/ground switches, and of course there were a variety of other ‘morning drawing’ sessions designed to trigger other related issues. From time to time I will record them as my memory returns.