Telling It Like It Is...

A morning stroll along a lane in farming country today resulted in a written find of a nature most appropriate, specifically, to a description of recent progress here at TOoT &, generally, to the preferred, prevailing approach to life & the contemplative engagement with, more conducive to the meditative concentration upon the creative process, not least of course that of looking & drawing as exhibited hereabouts...


The viewer might appreciate that, unlike officially-painted advice notices of such nature that might be found upon tarmac road surfaces (notice also how such such a find, then, is maintaining a certain integrity with the whole 'roadkill', 'double black lines' project, the photographic recording of such found incidents upon tarmac roads, that had continued, until the recent physical relocation of operations, on frequent occasions almost since the blog's inception), the script here has, in perhaps a counterpoint to its message, a more hastily drawn, rough-hewn quality, spray-painted as it has been, a personal touch & take upon a generic theme.

Painting & Drawing

More can carnage to be found upon a couple of discrete sections of the double black-lined local roads this morning, pictured thus, with both stretches of the thrice-painted & -layered straight lines featuring instances of flowing pencil-thin lines, fissures, incised into one of each of the pairs, along the framed lengths, providing an interesting visual contrast, & an additional element of 'drawing' into the scenes:


(note how the fissure lines of 'drawing' also spread across the tarmac surface in this first instance, & the significant incidents of underlaying & revealed yellow paint colourfully enlivening the overall mononchrome surface)


Somewhat 'reduced circumstances' for each of the 'roadkill' objects, the first appearing rather 'whittled down' (to its essence, one might argue, given the significant synecdoche of its brand name remaining available to view), & the second instance being neatly, sharply folded into a more compact form...



On the subject of curious & possibly unique road markings, here's another example of such, illustrating a certain, slightly absurd news story that caught TOoT's magpie eye last week (as inevitably it might), also concerning an item of 'roadkill' in relation to such a feature (indeed, the poor deceased in question being the catalyst for the occurrence of), albeit of a more conventional kind (i.e. animal in nature) than habitually appears hereabouts...

Found 'Drawing'

Now, the presence of found objects haunts TOoT through the provision of subject matter for the processing of drawings - most specifically the ‘roadkill' diptych series of such that have occupied the most significant area of operations over the past year & more - & also photographs, as many a recent example might attest.

However, this particular post marks the occasion of (re)presenting the found source itself (or at least the image of a digital reproduction of), which item came to hand but yesterday during one of the frequent ‘tidies-up’ that form an aspect of the day job duties.


found 'drawing'
printer toner on paper/21x16cm

Departing somewhat from the norm, in an act not of process but, rather, of aesthetic perception & designation, one might consider this as being ‘art’, a ‘readymade’ example of such, in the form of a found ‘drawing’: it is, in fact, the obviously-trimmed & subsequently discarded residue of a larger sheet of paper that has passed through a monochrome photocopier, bearing the ghostly trace of an image of the pin-prick marks upon the inside of the machine’s lid, that part which comes into direct contact with the screen, fixed with toner powder.

Thus it is the proposal today that to anyone sufficiently aesthetically-inclined (the premise upon which TOoT exists, of course) - & quite possibly having passed through a process of art education – the potential exists to view such a ‘mere’ by-product & the mark-making thereupon (or therein) as a drawing (as both object & process, indeed), in, stylistically, something of a minimalist idiom – measured, cool, subtle, yet possessed of a quiet, compelling intensity all the same, classically modernist one might even say, not least in the manner in which the regular pattern of the marks implies the presence of a grid without actually describing such explicitly (in fact, a grid could be imaginatively constructed by joining-the-dots horizontally & vertically).

Trouble is, even when considered & designated as such, which way up & around is the ‘drawing’ meant to be viewed, for the most appropriate & profound aesthetic appreciation?
In ‘portrait’ fashion as initially presented? Or otherwise ‘landscape’...


Or flipped on either vertical or horizontal axes...



Or perhaps this very ambiguity, this versatility, these complications, this further ‘leaving open to interpretation’, are the clearest indications of all of the object’s status as ‘art’...

For another particularly well-presented & thought-provoking example of 'art' as found amongst the duties of the day job, please refer to this entry in Jazz Green's ever-excellent artist's journal (& Jazz's website as a whole for much intriguing & aesthetically-engaging 'found art' - 'paintings', 'drawings' & more)

Found Out

More on-the-way-to-the-day-job finds, following the opportunity to indulge in a little light drawing, the first being an item of the familiar aluminium can 'roadkill' upon a stretch of the old double black lines...



& then some linear 'drawing' against (& thus upon the 'ground' of) a beautiful bright blue sky, with a distant vapour trail bisecting some overhead telecoms wires...

'Found Drawings'

A glance out of the window at 7.50ish a.m. gave cause to disrupt the finely-calibrated getting-out-to-work routine (a monstrously uncivilized & soul-corroding activity) this morning, but the drawing of vapour trails to be observed in the cool blue sky was simply too good an example not to capture, thus...


then tracking the progress of one of the lines-in-motion, the drawing further unfurling before one's eyes/camera lens...


More examples of such 'found drawings' as networks of vapour trails can be observed on Page 1 of the found drawings resource on Loughborough University's TRACEY contemporary drawing research website.
Jazz Green, as mentioned previously, also has photographic work, in the manner of her 'found paintings', featured at this very same location.

Frost Patterns

This morning brought the discovery that the hard overnight frost had 'drawn' the most beautiful, delicate, fern- or conifer-like filigree patterns upon the various surfaces of the car...







Not wholly dissimilar from Richard Wright's Turner Prize 2009-winning gold leaf mural, perhaps, in both form & temporal fragility...

Art On The Road

More 'Pop Art roadkill' encountered in proximity to the double black lines road markings during the course of today's purposeful potterings, with the broader view also incorporating some additional markings into the 'readymade' composition...



Also this fabulous kerbside find, in the finest Ab-Ex tradition, extending some distance across the road surface - the complex traceries of delicate tendrils of the splattered white paint create some quite beautiful, dynamic line drawing...