GG: art & empathy

["Joseph Podlesnik" <veronese@jerseycape.com>]

Josh:

Similarly, I find when I'm in class teaching students to draw, my left hand
(usually my non-drawing hand) tends to follow (on its own) along the
contours of the shapes which I'm drawing. I do it unconsciously -- similar
to GG's hand gestures (in '81 Goldberg video) where it seems like he is
trying spatially to *feel* the structure of the musical phrase he is
playing. In my case, I think I am essentially trying to draw (understand)
the form with both hands. As an undergrad, my instructors used to tell us
to draw with both hands. Perhaps there's a connection here.

Regarding your empathetically making faces when you draw the faces of
others: there is a brilliant essay on this titled, "The Mask and the Face:
The Perception of Physionomic Likeness in Life and in Art" in the book:
Art, Perception and Reality by art historian/theorist E.H. Gombrich.

All the best,

JP

P.S. Hope list members don't mind our mixing disciplines here. Then again,
isn't it this kind of cross-hybridization that leads to stimulating ideas?