What Is the Most Interesting Tool You Work With, and Why?

My most interesting tool is vine/willow charcoal to draw with. I use it mostly to compose paintings, drawing on a gessoed linen canvas. (I’ll be doing that all day today.) Every time I use it I feel connected to the first figurative artists from 40,000 years ago—literally unchanged in all that time. And I have a delicious feeling that when I use this ancient and universal tool, that at the same time I can create an artwork that is new, unique, and sometimes evolutionary. A magical experience. Going even deeper, this simple tool, was the catalyst that led towards art which integrates three pillars of human cognition: thought, emotion, and perception. An integration that was before then unverifiable, and very likely it was figurative art that created the mental pathways that created modern human cognition. When I draw with it I feel an intense connection the wonder that humans exist, and feel a responsibility to honor its living legacy.

#art #drawing #cognition