Drawing, Art Theory for Beginners, and Margaret Kilgallen

lion drawn by me

          The art that we all do and look at today and in the past couple centuries is considered modern art. This era started when painting and other media were used as art rather than a purpose. What I mean by that is it was made to enjoy and ponder rather than just portraits and sculptures of religious or rich figures. The modern era started when our society was industrializing and developing rapidly. “Modernism valued ideals of uniqueness and progress, while responding to the new, fast developing and changing industrial world” (pg 99). Within the modern art era there many different art movements that were still considered modern art. There is Futurism, Vorticism, Dada, Surrealism, Abstract, Formalism, and many others. Modern art is anything that was different than the art in the past. Society was changing and the artists wanted to reflect the new changes in their art. “[I]deas of tradition and history were rejected; what modernists wanted was originality and newness” (pg 100). It was a whole new idea that reflected and responded to the 

modern change. 

        One type of the modern art is surrealism. Surrealism means “transcending the real” which is exactly what these artists did. “Surrealist artworks, although often stylistically different, showed an interest in the unconscious, in chance, in sexuality and the taboo” (pg 102). A lot of surrealist art was derived from ideas written about by Sigmund Freud in The Interpretation of Dreams. This book completely changed people’s thoughts of the human mind and the unconscious. “The surrealists wanted to tap into their unconscious, and even employed techniques that were used in Freudian analysis” (pg105). This type of art consisted of writing your train of thought exactly as your thoughts change, or scribbling and rubbing and making random marks because that is what your unconscious is telling you to do. It is art that isn’t made from something real, it is what your unconscious is telling you.

           
Drawing can be a method used to make modern art. Drawing is defined as the graphic representation of something. I think that drawing is much more than that, and also has the potential to be much more than that. As Laura Vandenburgh said drawing doesn’t necessarily mean pen or pencil, it can be anything that makes a mark. I found it interesting that a jetty that makes a design in the ocean, and landscaping is also considered to be drawing. When I hear drawing I think about sketching and doodling, not rocks and plants. Drawing is also very different than other types of art media. It shows everything that went into making the final product. It is also a medium that is used to plan out projects for other medium. It is a medium that works on its own or used to aid with another type. There are a wide variety of things you can do with drawing which makes it way more than a graphic representation of something; it can be anything that makes a mark.

            One artist that entails drawing in Margaret Kilgallen. She is an artist that was born in 1967 in Washington DC. “Kilgallen has a love of things that show the evidence of the human hand.” She is an artist that draws directly onto walls, and makes murals the size of rooms. She intends her art to “recall a time when personal craft and handmade signs were the dominant aesthetic.” Not only does she do art in galleries she does them in communities. Often times her murals portray women that seem to be heroines, or dominant figures. She states, “I do paint a lot of women and I do have a lot of heroines, as well as a lot of heroes too. But I definitely paint more women and I think maybe it's because I'm a woman. I like to paint images of women whom I find inspiring.” I also find these women inspiring, and also aesthetically dominant. When Kilgallen does art in the community she lets the community help her. The art that Margaret Kilgallen does is inspiring and also gives back to the community. She uses drawing to show that woman can be dominant figures as well as men. Margaret Kilgallen uses the drawing medium to show her version of modern art.