I have been looking at your drawing for a couple of days now and I must admit that I can't see anything. I've given it the title 'Sleeping Stone' because I'd just come back from a walk and on my walk I passed an auction house. I had a closer look in the window because I was drawn to an oddly shaped piece of white marble that turned out to be the head of a woman. The features of the face were indicated only very slightly. The artist is Gerda Fromel. (You can find some info here:
http://www.tcd.ie/artcollections/assets/pdf/FROMEL.pdf) The sculpture fascinated me so much that it made its way into your drawing. The features of the drawn head are more pronounced and clearer, also more pointed, than those of the sculpture.
The only thing I get from the drawing is the notion that perhaps you need to wake up from something or to something. Perhaps you are on the brink of some great revelation that is too scary to look at. Perhaps you are petrified, you are afraid to make a move on something that is important, possibly life-changing, but also scary, and perhaps you feel safer in your stony sleep.
Sorry, this is all a bit lame and vague, but perhaps you see more than I do?
It's strange, I've hardly been here for about a week, and today without really having the time this afternoon, something made me check in - and also I've been ignoring this thread's showing "unread", knowing I was quite a way down the queue... but I clicked on it anyway and you have just posted my drawing 6 hours ago!
I have one or two responses beyond what you've seen, but I'm not really sure what to make of it either.
I don't feel afraid (I do know that doesn't mean I'm not, that could be what I'm not looking at!). But I am living with two knowledges: on the practical side, everything is on my shoulders and if I screw up it will all collapse - this is the reality, not my emotional reaction, and in fact how I feel about it is rarely fear or anxiety, most of the time it's enjoyment, the power of being the decision-maker, the celebration of this freedom (only freedom is so dangerous, after all) and of the fact that overall I have succeeded since stepping into this role a year or so ago.
So that's my situation in "real world" terms. On the spiritual side, I am certain I'm on the brink of something. I'm sure that when I recognise it, I'll say I knew it all along. One of those things. I'm not particularly impatient, it's a natural development (though
not gradual, like shedding a skin for the next one); I do feel its time of "revelation" is not far off now; when I imagine how it may change my life, the role it may push me into, that scares me a little - but I know that's the now-me feeling scared, not the me that will be doing it. If that makes sense...! Sometimes, I'm impatient instead.
Other thoughts. My first feeling was disappointment, sorry! and when I thought about why, it is only that there's no colour. Nothing else about the picture disappoints at all. Then I imagined the shape without a face on, and saw a baby's back - newborn, you know that curve they have when very small? The kind of "waist" halfway up makes it very sensual and warm when I see it as a baby. Not trying to interpret here, just throwing out responses. Next (or could have been first), I was embarrassed by that great high forehead! As a child I was self-conscious about being "clever", it was uncool to like learning and to do well at school, but it was the only part of me that I knew was of any value, so I had very much a love/hate relationship with my own intellect and I'm sure that's why the brow here made me react. I'm ignoring that it reminds me of the classic "alien" face with the very high head and slanty eyes.
Do you think your drawings pick up on my energy when I posted asking for a drawing, or my energy while you were doing it? Or neither? I've been in and out of flare-up almost a week, and if your couple of days is literal, two days ago I was getting sunburnt, waiting around for hours for my son's 21st birthday treat, which was an odd day as my ex was there with his new wife and her daughter, plus my son's girlfriend with her parents and sister... odd to have all the families/parents thrown together to make smalltalk for hours! (It was a skydive and it's pot luck how long you wait on the day.) I'm wondering if that somehow shut me off from "emanating" whatever it is that you're tapping into with these.
I like that there is the shadow; makes it 3D, gives it context. Context ("setting", I suppose) is as important as colour.
Just realised that the face you drew is sexless; it has been female to me to the point that I didn't even think there was an option. (Despite that little "moustache" shadow!) Did you feel it to be female or male?
I like the mouth. I like the pointiness. I like the impression of bowing, genuflecting almost, to some light source. And the sense that this head, this person, is emerging from something like a curtain or backcloth. Emerging willingly...
The more I look at the mouth, the more i like it.
The only other thing is the nose - like the gnomon of a sundial. I could say a knife, a wing or fin, the keel of a boat - but it was sundial that struck me first. This seems almost the most significant thing of all. But I haven't a clue what it signifies.
I'd like to...
Does any of this help you see any more? I'd love to know if/when you do get anything. Or maybe the sculpture inveigled its way too much into your work...?
Did you see that before drawing, or before naming it?
Thank you for the link to Gerda Fromel; glancing at some pencil drawings of hers, this is very like on first impression - I'll read up some more as well. And thank you for drawing for me! You've given me something to ponder for at least as long as you already have pondered it...