Welcome to Studio Sessions, where I take you with me for a walk around the studio. Today, I’ll share with you the new finished drawing ‘From Our Ruins, pt.2’, talk a bit more about the Ruins-project and give you a peek at what’s to come.
From Our Ruins, pt.2
Is there beauty in the breaking? What can grow from the fissures in our soul?
And in the stillness of it all she noticed that between the fractures the cracks the pain there was healing all along
On ‘Ruins’
The From Our Ruins-project is one I hold dear. Since I started drawing 2.5 years ago, I’ve been scouring the internet for references to draw. But then, near the end of this past January, the idea for this project popped into my head. A series of drawings of broken statues, that’s what the world needs. And thus I proceeded.
Ever since posting Ruins1, I’ve heard lots of beautiful interpretations of the drawing and I’ve been asked the question what I try to tell with them.
First and foremost, I am a firm believer that art should speak to you and that you, as the viewer/reader/listener should infuse it with your interpretation1. Will you still be able to emotionally resonate with the drawing should I come out and tell you I drew it because my cat knocked over the bust in my living room?2 The artwork should not need the artist to tell its story to you3, it will do so in a whispered conversation with you.
But let me make an exception for Ruins. Feel free to skip ahead if you want to preserve your mind from absorbing my interpretation.
The greater theme of this series - which will be about 5 to 7 drawings, give or take - is connection. These first two comprise the first part of the series, connection with ourself, how we can lose it and the cracks that appear if we do. They are about mental health, with pt.1 representing hope4 right after we break and this pt.2 representing healing along the way.
Hence the tagline: Is there beauty in the breaking? What can grow from the fissures in our soul?
Bombshell
To finish this Studio Session, let’s have a chat about the next project.
I mentioned earlier how I am moving away from references from the internet to make my own original pieces. They are, however, tonally heavy and quite introspective. Even I need a break from that once in a while, and I consider myself to be a member or the Tortured Poets Department. So to have some light fun, I had the idea of doing a drawing of Marilyn Monroe5.
Not only am I drawing one of the most iconic women of recent history, I’m doing a collab on this project with the lovely and talented Jonneke. We’re taking the same reference, but where she’s doing it in colored pencil, I’m tackling it in graphite.
Say what you will about social media, and God know I have my gripes with it, but they sure make being an artist a little less lonely.
a mossy endnote
Thank you for reading all the way to here. I hope you liked it, or at least appreciated the drawing. Next time you hear from me, it’ll be with another poem. After the playful Come, Poet and the soft and sweet Sunday, I’m ever so slowly ramping up the tortured-factor and aiming for melancholy.
Between the drawing and the writing, I’ll be filming a tutorial on how to draw the moss that growing abundantly in the drawing6. So you can expect that somewhere in the weeks to come. It’ll be fun.
For now, from the archive —
in ruins.
Nick.
I will never forget the interview I read with Sarah McLachlan, the Canadian singer. Her song Possession got used a lot as the first dance at a wedding, cause the couples really resonated with it, while in fact it was about her experience with a stalker.
I don’t have a bust in my living room. Never had.
Which is why you can’t convince me that a banana stuck to a wall is profound art. At least to me. I just might need the artist here to tell me the why’s. I’m sure I’ll be able to come with some existential reflections of my own - hello, have you met me? - but to get there I’ll have to get past hurdles of the likes of ‘I’m getting a bit hungry, now that you mention it’ or ‘did he pick a banana cause a pear would be trickier to stick to the wall? Image a pineapple or a watermelon!’
For pt.1, head over to my website Nick V. Reys Art where you can find it in my portfolio.
I’m currently watching the tv series Smash, hence why I picked Marilyn. It’s a crime this was cancelled after two seasons, but that travesty deserves a rant on its own and does not belong in the archive. Should you feel the same, though, hit me up and we’ll grab a sparkling water and bitch about the unfairness of it all.
Who doesn’t want to know how to do that? Right?! So be sure to get on it before the trend catches on.
For real, it’s actually fun to draw moss. I’m not kidding.
Nick, it is a sheer delight to get to know more of your story, your gorgeous art, and all of your many various talents.
I'm so thrilled you've shared all of this! I am intrigued. Isn't it beautiful and exotic to be a poet.
Also, I'm laughing about the banana and smiling at the thought of sharing a sparkling water and bitching. <3