marie j.engelsvold

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What is your drawings all about?

It can be challenging to make sense of an intuitive drawing, because it is made in connection with your feelings and inner space.
 (see my blogpost, let your feelings be your guide).

I like to sit for a while when a drawing is done, looking at the drawing. I just look, and at the same time feeling my body, feeling sensations, emotions. Very often I only have to wait a couple of minutes before some words begin to pop up. I write them down. And immediately I start to formulate a title. For me it's important to do this mindwork right after the drawing is done, while I'am still in the process. The drawing is a visual of my inner state, right at that moment. If I put on a title days or weeks after, it tend to be not so accurate.

When you have done around 10-20 drawings with titles, you can look at all the titles, and see if you can formulate a little text on base of that. In that way you will slowly get a pattern, of what you are working around. Every time you have a pile of drawings. Could be every month if you make a drawing a day, and it's not unrealistic. (You can be quite depended on your daily drawing time.:-) Try to formulate a little text. It's very rewarding to explain your drawings in words, actually that process can also generate new ideas.

In the beginning, my drawings didn't have a title. I wanted the viewer to make their own interpretations. But one day I had a talk with another artist about the issue, and I suddenly realized that my work was totally unapproachable to the viewer.

I actually had a lot of thoughts about what I tried to express. Immediately I started to write about my process. I guess I was ashamed of discussing my work, because it was so personal. All my drawings is about feelings and thoughts that I rarely speak of, and are barely aware of. Complex mixtures of all kinds of contradictory sensations that is hard to explain in words. 

And I realized that I didn't have to write a novel, but just to give a few words to help the viewer, and myself sharing my inner world. Sometimes I even incorporate the title into the drawing, like I have done in this drawing. 

Marie J.Engelsvold “Try to flow with life”, Acrylic tusch on paper. 42 x 29,7 cm./11,8 x 16,5 inches. 2014

I hope to inspire you to create in an authentic way,  getting in contact with feelings which might have been buried inside, letting it out on paper to have it released and integrated...and at the same time making some fantastic and unique artworks.

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