The Shallows

"Finalist"

"In Nicholas Carr’s book, The Shallows , he talks at length about what is gained and lost by technological progress. He writes that older forms of technology—such as the book, expanded language and consciousness. Reading and writing enlarged people’s sympathetic response and enriched their lives even when the book was put aside. It strengthened people’s ability to think. I could say the same thing about drawing. New technologies are remarkable tools of connectivity, self-expression, and self-empowerment, but they need to be approached with some caution. Thoreau wrote that the true cost of anything is the amount of our lives given to it, so without a discussion about the price of our progress we leave ourselves open to sticker shock. Drawing is highly effective in helping us slow down and see things in a new way. The minute you pick up a pencil and try to depict something, everything halts. You find yourself marvelling at small details and realising that you may never have looked at anything this closely before. Learning to draw is often called learning to see, because it’s our eye that is sharpened before our hand. Observational drawing and painting can turn the most uneventful life into a place of breath-taking significance and beauty. Art demands careful observation, whether in writing or drawing or painting, poetry or prose. Deep, focused attention is necessary in every art form, helping us see significance in everything around us. Ernest Hemingway for example, in giving advice to writers, noted that most people don’t really look or listen. He said the best way to learn to write is by carefully listening and seeing. The same is true for the visual arts. A physical object of art exists on a separate timeline from normal life. It is an attempt at permanence and strives for eternity. It has a presence, like a person has a presence with a physical body. When you’re holding a device, you can summon and dispel images as you like. You can watch a YouTube video and you can flip to a painting and a stream of images—but a virtual picture will not outlive you and there is no a physical encounter. With a painting or drawing there is only one original, with digital art you have copies often without an original. When the electricity goes out only a drawing on paper still exists. Contrast the virtual experience with a physical visit to a museum. It is a shared, larger experience with a community, existing apart from us, where we can’t change the channel and are exposed to things we may not normally encounter. The scale of art, the materials used, the way the paint is applied, all factor into our love of the piece. The very way it ages speaks to us. The very fabric of the buildings and the quiet of the communal spaces bring to mind the idea of the museum as a temple, the home of the muse."