Meditative drawings 

expandism, meditative drawing

During last 7 years I have done meditative drawings. I have named this very simple way of art making expandism. Idea is just to begin to work on some spot of the matrix and construct the drawing or other medium by focusing on details step by step. It’s more like some sort of relaxing or meditation than serious art making. But still quite often the result is nice piece of art.

Art as mental exercise

expandism

I believe that the working process is the core element of art making and it is connected to the very essence of art itself. If I’m about to make a drawing or a collage, the starting point is always a quiet empty paper or canvas. The process begins by putting one simple detail on the matrix. This act of mine breaks ‘the silence’ and the new situation on the paper is like ‘saying’ something to me. That makes me to respond by making another focused detail on the matrix, which transforms the composition again and leads to new ‘demands’ and ‘answers’. And so this process of discussion keeps on going until there is nothing to say, and the work of art is completed.

For me the artwork is a visual outcome of this kind of meditative working process. Performing that process well means that I’m giving my best. Art making is a kind of ‘evolution’. There is no originality, but constant flow of variations. The first result of some new idea is not self-evidently the best one, but some of the later variations might be. But, it’s not my duty to valuate art, not even my own, rather simply to do my work as well as I can. That means focusing on the paramount – the process and its every detail in turn. The most important words for my art are: concentration, process, respect, details, discussion, balance, solid, meditation, spirituality and faith.

This blog is a part my home page www.atelierhannula.fi. I also wrire Expandism blog about meditative aspect of art making and Luovuksissa blog in Finnish.

I live in Finland, at Espoo next to Helsinki. My main media are collage, acrylics and etching. I have done lot of art commissions of  various kinds.