The image above is an example of one of my various experiments or explorations with automatic drawing, it is titled Lady of the Land and was created via a process of allowing the pen to unconsciouslly be directed in the creation of the image. The title of the piece was created via automatic writing in which I allow the unconscious to direct the writing of the name with no conscious involvement. When I create these, I have no idea what will come out until it’s finished. Yeats, Crowley, Wilson, Gerrold, and others all used similar forms at one point or another in their own work, albeit mine are introspective and in no way intended as examples of high quality. They are usually for me. There is a much better scan of the image here if you want a better look at it.
Some people will tell you that automatic drawing is a form of channelling when one speaks to spirits, ghosts, gods, or aliens. Others call it a form of fortune telling. Still others just explain it as a derivation of an experimental artform originated with the Surrealists, based upon random movement of the stylus upon the paper.
For me, automatic drawing doesn’t mean any of those things. It is a simple expression of what is essentially the psychological phenomenon of the ideomotor effect. Occassionally, I create automatic drawings or communicate through automatic writing. The automatic drawings that I occassionally create are done so via indulgence in the psychological principle of the ideomotor effect.
Essentially, I rest the pen upon the paper and allow my unconscious mind to move it to create an illustration . . . I often have no idea what the final result will be until the moment when the pen gently and without conscious volition lifts from the paper. Many cultures use automatic drawing or automatic writing as a means to communicate with spirits, ghosts, or even the gods . . . I use it as a means for introspective exploration and rather than communicate with exterior beings find that the only gods I need to use it to communicate with are the ones that reside within my own soul.
I have created a gallery for some of my pieces which I will add to every once in awhile. Some will seem to express unconscious processes at the time and others will merely be random bits of inspiration but all will be drawn via ideomotor processes, without concsiouc will, even the movements or touches of pen to paper will be unconsciously directed, unlike what many of the surrealists did or what many of the stream of consciousness writers do . . . so, if you’re lucky . . . or unlucky . . . perhaps you will get a glimpse into the inner workings of my mind . . . or, not.
Here are some other places with information on automatic drawing, a number of which are just plain wrong . . . but, perhaps the galleries will give some insight:
- Automatic Drawings Gallery by Brian David Phillips
- Automatic Drawing, widipedia entry.
- Automatic Drawing by Spare and Carter, essay with gallery.
- Biroco Journal, automatic drawing journal and gallery with a piece on the nature of automatic drawing.
- Automatic Drawing by Jean Arp, single image dated 1918.
- Automatic Drawing Gallery by Catherine Jo Morgan, she has an essay on how to do automatic drawing here.
Look for entries to the gallery which will be mirrored here . . . very soon.
All the best,
Brian
www.BrianDavidPhillips.com