I have written that it is important to know how art functions in order to use it as an effective means of communication.Does this mean that someone must have an innate ability for technique? Not necessarily—although technique is important, there is far more to art than technique. “In comics, the realism or flashiness of a drawing is nowhere near as important as its ability to convey information." (1)
In fact, drawing less polished or realistic illustrations may even allow the words to carry a greater weight. Mary Ruefle does this in Go Home and Go to Bed! She primarily uses the medium of poetry, but the comics medium allows her to take her work even further. The amateur drawings have a charm about them, almost as if she’s drawing colloquially. Her work presents itself humbly and ordinarily, it becomes a celebration of the mundane. It shows a subjective point of view on life—that it is depressing; yet it is light-hearted due to Ruefle’s informally-drawn colloquial comic style.
This holds some similarities to the attitude of haiku. The “comic” aspect of haiku lies in its ordinary colloquial diction as well as its focus on mundane natural events. Basho writes “The profit of haikai lies in making common speech right.” (2) Of course, Ruefle’s events aren’t of nature, but they still hold some Haiku spirit. Haiku presents ordinary events as far from mundane by demonstrating the human mind’s ability to selectively perceive reality.
And every mind does perceive it differently. Picture two people sitting in a park. One of them is looking at some rhododendrons. She looks closer at the specks on the petals and thinks that they make it look like a spotted fish. Her friend, however, is listening to some finches flit around, rustle branches and chirp frantically at each other. “Did you hear that?” he might say, but she has been focusing on a drop of dew rolling down the stamen of the rhododendron. Meanwhile, a woman walks by with her dog and notices neither flower nor bird, but instead she is thinking about a conversation she had with her boss.
All of these people have valid unique experiences. The first person will never hear exactly the same birds as the second, the second person has no idea what the third is thinking about, and the third person was entirely oblivious to the rhododendron.
And even if they do focus their attentions on the same thing, they each have different feelings and reactions to the thing itself. The girl who is looking at the flower remembers a fish, if her friend saw it he might think of a rhododendron bush at his home, and the third woman might think about the weather that caused the dew.
In fact, drawing less polished or realistic illustrations may even allow the words to carry a greater weight. Mary Ruefle does this in Go Home and Go to Bed! She primarily uses the medium of poetry, but the comics medium allows her to take her work even further. The amateur drawings have a charm about them, almost as if she’s drawing colloquially. Her work presents itself humbly and ordinarily, it becomes a celebration of the mundane. It shows a subjective point of view on life—that it is depressing; yet it is light-hearted due to Ruefle’s informally-drawn colloquial comic style.
This holds some similarities to the attitude of haiku. The “comic” aspect of haiku lies in its ordinary colloquial diction as well as its focus on mundane natural events. Basho writes “The profit of haikai lies in making common speech right.” (2) Of course, Ruefle’s events aren’t of nature, but they still hold some Haiku spirit. Haiku presents ordinary events as far from mundane by demonstrating the human mind’s ability to selectively perceive reality.
And every mind does perceive it differently. Picture two people sitting in a park. One of them is looking at some rhododendrons. She looks closer at the specks on the petals and thinks that they make it look like a spotted fish. Her friend, however, is listening to some finches flit around, rustle branches and chirp frantically at each other. “Did you hear that?” he might say, but she has been focusing on a drop of dew rolling down the stamen of the rhododendron. Meanwhile, a woman walks by with her dog and notices neither flower nor bird, but instead she is thinking about a conversation she had with her boss.
All of these people have valid unique experiences. The first person will never hear exactly the same birds as the second, the second person has no idea what the third is thinking about, and the third person was entirely oblivious to the rhododendron.
And even if they do focus their attentions on the same thing, they each have different feelings and reactions to the thing itself. The girl who is looking at the flower remembers a fish, if her friend saw it he might think of a rhododendron bush at his home, and the third woman might think about the weather that caused the dew.
1. Jessica Abel and Matt Madden. Drawing Words and Writing Pictures. New York: Roaring Book Press 2008, 9.
2.Basho. “Advice on Haiku.” The Essential Haiku. Ecco Press, 1995, 234.
Image from Mary Ruefle. Go Home and Go To Bed! Pilot Poetry, 2007.
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