Saturday, February 4, 2017

Found Artwork


Something a bit different today! As I was walking home from work on Thursday, I saw something unusual lying on the ground. It was this page, apparently from a sketch book or doodling pad.

It had been raining, and the page was sopping wet, but I couldn't resist picking it up and puzzling over the design. I liked the scratchy, feathery black lines.


This was on the back.


Then I found a second page -- a continuation of the same theme, but with some color, and also sopping wet. I didn't have a container suitable for carrying wet paper, so I simply cradled the pages on my open palms as I walked, looking like Jesus bestowing some weird avant-garde blessing. Every once in a while the wind would catch one of the pages and flap its corners, inflicting a tear. They didn't get home undamaged.


This was on the back of the second page -- bringing in some other shapes and elements.


Then, yesterday morning, walking past the same area on my way to work, I found this third page.


I took it to work, unobtrusively so my coworkers wouldn't think I was insane, and set it gingerly on the carpet under my desk to dry.

Very mysterious! I love stuff like this -- a glimpse into someone else's creative mind. I would have hated to see them get ground into the pavement, or swept up by the street cleaner.

12 comments:

e said...

Really interesting...I wonder if a school kid dropped them? One of those mysteries that one may never get to the bottom of...

Yorkshire Pudding said...

Rather than providing a view of someone else's creativity, I would suggest that the pages point towards an unfortunate fellow citizen's insanity.

Marty said...

Or perhaps it's a diagram of a medical procedure down the arteries of some hairy being - brown bear or hirsute person.

ellen abbott said...

apparently the artist thought they were trash. so on a related note during our wanderings through some of the huge antique stores in Rosenberg we came upon one room that had prints and original watercolors clipped to pant or skirt hangers and then the hangers were propped on a ledge. terrible system. just trying to look through them they kept cashing to the ground and everyone of the original watercolors (not great art mind you) were torn at least once.

Sharon said...

Very interesting. Someone spent a lot of time making those feathery lines. It does make you wonder what it represents.

37paddington said...

I think they are quite beautiful, and I might even frame them, battered as they are. The foot print and dirt add something I think. Of course, I might first want to know what they represent before hanging them in my home. Then again, perhaps all that matters is what they represent to you, art in the eye of the beholder and all that.

Catalyst said...

It's a strange way to be paged!

Lesley UK said...

Sorry, I didn't explain that very well/ What I meant was, if you go into a peaceful place and concentrate on these pages, you will understand what they mean They are not random sketches. Blessed Be

Lesley UK said...

Sorry, I didn't explain that very well/ What I meant was, if you go into a peaceful place and concentrate on these pages, you will understand what they mean They are not random sketches. Blessed Be

Red said...

I would think there are many more of these sketches somewhere else.

jenny_o said...

They are rather odd and remind me of the way children draw someone with a wide open mouth and teeth showing all around the mouth! But the rest doesn't appear to be a child's drawing. A mystery!

You made me laugh with the image of you "bestowing avant-garde blessings" and trying to avoid having your co-workers see what you were up to. On occasion I've done the same thing, but not with art - with the many freaking elastic bands I pick up from the roadways and sidewalks so the birds don't swallow them and die ... (they can mistake them for worms)

Shooting Parrots said...

Now if you were Dan Brown you would have stumbled upon the start of a great adventure that would take you to foreign climes and the world to the edge of catastrophe. And at least $1m in advance royalties!