Lynda Monick-Isenberg: The Enso drawing lessons

Opening Reception: Friday, December 6 from 5-8 p.m.
Gallery Talk: Tuesday, December 17 beginning at 7 p.m.
Show closing and art pickup: Saturday, December 28 from 4-7 p.m.

In addition to the above scheduled events,  Lynda Monick-Isenberg will hold “office hours” each Friday, (December 6, 13, and 20) from 3pm to 6pm.  During these hours, Lynda invites any and all gallery visitors to spend some time drawing with her. A variety of materials will be available…or you may bring your own favorite notebook, pen or pencil.

About this show and her commitment to drawing, Lynda writes:

I have always drawn. I began drawing because it felt good and when I was young and feeling forgotten Sr. Carol noticed that something I drew looked like something she recognized. So, I drew more and began a lifetime of drawing.

 

Drawing has taken me places. It accompanied me to new lands and ideas, enabled me to support others and connected me to the environment. It has provided insight, empathy, and ideas.

 

Drawing continues to challenge me, at times frightening me with failure and at other times filling me with admiration. I don’t find perfection in drawing, rather I discover ‘non-perfection’. Failure to perfect releases me to look and draw more. Drawing always asks me what truth is, and my perception of truth seems to change as I draw.

 

For a long while, I have kept rough, messy sketchbooks documenting time, objects, ideas and play.

 

Recently, I have been working on a series of mixed media drawings that begin with a singular, circular yet uninhibited brush stroke – the ‘enso’* – which initiates subsequent drawing decisions, resulting in an abstract, unencumbered process. These disparate processes teach me how drawing connects the observed and the contemplative.

 

I leave you with a question to consider: what might drawing teach you? 

*The enso (‘circle’) is one of the deepest symbols in Japanese Zen,  the revelation of a world of the spirit without beginning and end. The Zen circle of enlightenment reflects that transforming experience — perfectly empty yet completely full, infinite, shining brightly like the moon-mind of enlightenment.