How Do You Draw a Frog? A Visual Conversation

Abstract

I opened up this project to Kiran with a rather structured idea about process—a blind drawing game whose rules resembled Exquisite Corpse. When I work on my own, I usually work within boundaries that describe the images and methods I believe suit me. With Kiran, I started simply by putting pencil to paper next to a friend I know, who loves drawing as much as I do. After beginning, I soon learned about Kiran’s process. She expressed to me that she learns through doing. So we drew (and ate, and chatted). These pages came from that. Neither of us would have done this on our own.We swapped drawings, reached over each other to find new materials, marked over each other’s work, and tried weird imagery just to see what the other would do with it. We lost track. This collaboration forged an exploratory path. An unknown place. These pages feel laid bare to me. There are “mistakes” and vulnerabilities. I actually changed and found that I am willing to bring imagery unlike myself into my own work again.