Artistic Manifesto

Today I picked up this book on drawing that's been knocking around my pockets for ages. Its short and out of print and was sitting at the bottom of an antiques shop wicker basket just outside of Micanopy. I stole it. I don't feel very good about this because the woman at the register was 83 and pinched my cheeks, but I knew at the time I wouldn't feel very good about it, so chalk this up to curious stupidity.

Before this becomes any more like a diary entry I should tell you about the "Principles of Drawing". As a 1920's approach to drawing the book had less to do with drawing, than on the mental and physical preparations one must go through before drawing. Chapter 1 deals with supplies, Chapter 2 deals with hand exercises, Chapter 3 deals with observation and developing "acute perspicacity", Chapter 4 deals with which artists you should be familiar with and which ones are "rubbish", and Chapter 5 talks about "Developing One's Art Manifesto". There is a Chapter 6 but its just a list of absurdly practical drawing exercises (IE: "Draw a Tree in Precise Detail Without Loosing the General Image of a Tree").

I can't say "The Principles of Drawing" was a bad book, it really wasn't. As you might be able to tell though from the table of contents, the book is covered by a thick historical dust that just begs me to draw a few penises in it with my finger. Chapter 4 especially. In it the author, who's name I never really learned, calls Picasso a passing fad and preaches about the new English Renaissance about to grip the world. His passion in this section breaks through the book's even tempered tone and causes nothing but a happy giggle fit.

At any rate...Chapter 5 claims that the most essential aspect of learning to draw was developing an Art Manifesto. This was somewhat shocking after Chapter 4's fit with the avant garde and its masturbatory praise for classical pieces, but I decided before laughing at it I'd see what he had to say. Artistic manifesto by his definition "implies the creation of one's artistic aims through its statement in a lucid though dynamic prose".

I turned that idea over in my head for a bit. I ended up writing a page long manifesto but unsatisfied I slipped it between pages 87 and 88 leaving "The Principles of Drawing" in the library restroom attached to a post-it note that read "please steal me" in red ink. In a strange way I felt like I'd done something worthwhile.

Walking out I came up with a new artistic manifesto that was precisely detailed without ever loosing the general idea:

Manifest of the ? Style

1. Lightening my pockets.