The Secret of Drawing – All in the Mind touched on an interesting view of drawing that I hadn’t given much thought. The documentary looked at the aspects of drawing connected to both the conscious and unconscious mind. I was especially interested in the part about unlocking your unconscious through drawing and how children are able to draw freely creating art that even trained artists struggle to create.

The studies done by John Tchelenko stood out to me. With his experiment of tracking eye movement, he was able to spot the difference between armature and professional artists. It was interesting how a trained artist moved their eye much less because they are able to absorb their subject matter and convert that to drawing more fluidly. This brought to light the uniqueness every individual’s perspective and approach to art. I think this key theme is part of why exploring “automatic drawing” is so fascinating. Without having been taught anything about art, art can act as a form of communication and peek into someone’s head. I loved this about the “outsider art” at Creative Growth in Oakland California. Every individual had some type of mental disability, but they were all able to express themselves and communicate their mind through artwork. I found this beautiful. It was also incredible to see the work in the Las Monedas and Altamira caves in Cantabria because these show that art has been used as a way of communicating for centuries. These captured something free and beautiful before there were rules or strategies behind drawing and painting.