The Symbolic Gesture
“Yeah when you are young you see a trick
You think its magic
But you grow up you see magic
And you think it’s just a trick”
- “The Trick” by Bob Heath
“Yeah when you are young you see a trick
You think its magic
But you grow up you see magic
And you think it’s just a trick”
- “The Trick” by Bob Heath
Gesture Drawings are warm up exercises that artists typically perform before starting a large drawing. They loosen up the artist’s toolkit and prepare them to look more carefully at what it is that they are drawing. “Gestures” as they are typically called, can be done with virtually any drawing tool.
The Gesture: a brief movement of a body part. An action that can have a throw-away quality about it; a movement that appears to be without meaning, a gesture that demonstrates no intention to be anything other than to be a simple gesture. On the other hand, a gesture is also a simple, expressive movement, used to express an idea or meaning, like a gesture of apology, a kind gesture, or a charitable gesture.
Ironically, the Gesture is also a complex kinaesthetic action with the sole intention of creating beauty. Creating beauty from a motion. A pianist flourishes a hand over the keyboard and a splash of beautiful sound appears. An artist drags a burnt stick over a piece of paper and the ineffable curve that describes the precise spot where a breast turns into a shoulder appears. A dancer moves her arm and a swan appears. All as if by magic.
People say that an artist “has a gift.” In truth, the artist is giving a gift. The implication is that the artist was “gifted” spectacular talent “from God,” when in truth, the artist sacrificed their life to give their audience a gift. The artist wasn't “gifted,” the audience was. The audience was gifted the artist's childhood in an artistic gesture.
The Gesture appears spontaneous. The charitable gesture might be a spur-of-the-moment occurrence: dropping some coins in a busker’s guitar case. The busker coming to be on the street corner in the first place, with enough confidence to sing and play in public, comes from practice, sacrifice, and discipline.
The Artistic Gesture is always the result of deliberate practice. Artists don’t get the gift, artists give the gift. People aren’t born knowing how to sing. The only thing people are born knowing how to do is to cry.
Dr. Jacques Despres, “Sarabande” excerpt from Debussy’s “Pour le piano”, excerpt from Brahms’ “Ballade, Op 10, No. 1”.
Professor Despres is the head of the Keyboard Department at the University of Alberta’s Music Department.
Teresa Williams, “Improvisation”
Teresa Williams is a student in the Fine Art Department of the University of Alberta.
Even though the dance moves Teresa created appear to be synched with the piano music in the first video at the top of this page, in fact she created the dance off-the-cuff without any music whatsoever.
Norman Fournier
Norman Fournier is a student in the Fine Art Department of the University of Alberta. Norman is the author of this document.