Continuing on my ‘Narrative’ brief, after my decision to base it on the stories and lives of the homeless, I’ve recently been going out on walks with my sketch book. I decided to go and sit where people living on the streets might in the day or may even sleep there at night. I sit on a bench maybe or even on the pavement and I draw their view of the world. To anyone looking at my drawings they just see a normal everyday mundane scene, maybe including the end of a bench. When in fact it could mean a lot more than that to someone living on the streets, it might be the view they wake up to and have done so for many years.
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The way I lay out my sketch book has become really important to me since starting these particular drawings. On the left page I list key points from stories I listen to on the blog ‘Invisible People’ (http://invisiblepeople.tv/blog/ ). Whilst on the right I have one of my sketches, in the case above its the view from a bus shelter. Immediately you know the two are linked but you don’t quite know how. On the other hand if you see the drawing alone you have no idea of its underlying meaning. I kind of enjoy the fact that anyone looking at it on its own doesn’t really understand why I chose that scene. As usual you will then get those art critics that have some in-depth reading about how I had some subconscious thought… So maybe I should reveal it’s real history to the viewer for their peace of mind?
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Eve Kershaw 