Sara Signing

Oops I can't believe I haven't written about this - what an oversight!

Recently I met up with two really cool people named Sara and Darrel. They're both deaf, they both sign beautifully and Sara's been signing some of the hands poems for me.

Watching her talk with her hands is close to watching a flock of birds take off with a flurry of wings - very lovely!

So I've been making small movies while she signs. I plan to work from them later, to make large scale drawings that scroll at each end.
I hope to capture the movements of her hands as well as the sign shapes and I want to associate the shapes and phrases from the poems with loose imagry and underpainting. I've got a huge roll of Fabriano paper and a blank wall to pin it on ... I'm looking forward to beginning the first drawing as soon as I've worked on these gesture pieces a bit more.

It's funny, but I find working on large paper ( like metres of paper) ... both exciting and daunting. I've spent all month procrastinating beginning this part of my project - why, now that I have the time, have I chosen to make gesture drawings?Ironic.