This past week marked the end of the second round of the online Journal Project that I am participating in this year. As a quick reminder, we are a group of 14 artists across the US and in Canada who are creating a 12″ x 12″ interpretation of a one-word prompt every 60 days. You can read more about the project in my post “Creative Yoga”.
Flight of Hand ©2016 Elizabeth Fram
This latest challenge was “hands”. My contribution integrates a shadow puppet with American Sign Language (the signs at the bottom of the piece represent “b”, “i”, “r”, & “d”), inspired by watching a sign language interpreter at our annual Town Meeting in March.
I have included images of my hands off and on in my work since college. In many ways, I identify with them as a more apt representation of myself as self-portrait, than I do my face. After all, I only see my face when I look in the mirror, but I watch my hands all day, every day, as they express the core of who I am through the things I make and tend.
Below are a few of the pieces in which my hands have stood in for me in one way or another, pointing toward issues I was moved to express at the time.
Beneath the Layers © 2001 Elizabeth Fram
Crossroads IV, Detail ©2002 Elizabeth Fram
Knock on Wood © 2013 Elizabeth Fram
No question, hands can be a huge challenge to draw. But I found Jon deMartin’s article/lesson in the Winter 2015 issue of Drawing Magazine to be very informative and a big help. You can buy a back issue, in either in paper or downloadable form, here.
To end on a humorous note, enjoy these links on the subject of hands: You can tell a lot about a woman by her hands and Irish Hand Dancing…or something