Monday Motivator: The Compulsion in a Line

Monday Motivator Motivation Quote

“Abstract drawing has always been for me a particularly exciting adventure. First there is one’s mood; then the surface takes one’s mood in colour and texture; then a line or curve …

“then one is lost in a new world of a thousand possibilities because the next line in association with the first will have a compulsion about it which will carry one forward into completely unknown territory.”

— Sculptor Barbara Hepworth, “Rhythm and Space 1946-9”, quoted in Barbara Hepworth: Writings and Conversations”, edited by Sophie Bowness, p68

If you’re adding paint to a minimal composition outline rather than a meticulous pencil drawing, you’re creating the possibility of following a compulsion into unknown territory. Even though you’re setting out in a particular direction, with a destination in mind, there are possibilites still to be discovered. Things you can see only through that artwork.

Looking through Barbara Hepworth "Corinthos".

Looking through Barbara Hepworth "Corinthos".

(Photos I took one visit of a Barbara Hepworth sculpture in Tate Britain.)

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