My drawing has dried out; I’ve found it again. Time has
worked on it.
Before I start again, I tidy up and wipe things down. I
gather a few tools. I remove anything that
distracts my attention. These actions are not
separate from the work. They create the conditions
for resuming it.
Little by little, everything falls into place: my breath, my
gaze, my body, the space.
I can draw at a table, on a train,
under a tree, in a room, in a notebook
resting on my lap. The light changes. The
sounds change. The position of my body and the
surface available to me change.
The place changes. My focus remains.
I have never needed a canvas to draw. A
sheet of paper is enough. Sometimes a sketchbook, sometimes just a simple
pen.
The medium welcomes me. It does not dictate.
My studio is not confined to a single place. A
table, walls and tools may facilitate
its existence, but they are not enough to create it.
When I change location, I recreate certain conditions: finding a position,
clearing a surface, choosing a few tools,
removing what distracts me, regaining a sense of time. I
do not transport an intact studio from one place to
another. I reassemble it.
But every place influences this reassembly.
On a train, my body is not positioned in the same way as
when I’m at my table. On my lap, the paper does not
respond to my movements in the same way. A
room produces neither the same light, nor the
same distance, nor the same movements around
me as an outdoor setting.
I reconstruct conditions that are stable enough
to work in, whilst the location introduces
its own variations.
Moving then becomes a tool for
exploration. By changing location, I observe what
depends on the environment and what remains
constant in my practice. I distinguish between what I need
to work and what I was simply
used to finding around me.
Moving does not erase my points of reference.
It reveals which ones are necessary.
I am not pursuing an idea. I am pursuing
an encounter.
The drawing resumes.
The place has changed. Something of my practice
remains: something else has shifted
along with it.
I am not seeking a work of art. I am seeking
a sense of rightness.
The studio is no longer just the place where I
work. It becomes what I rebuild so that the
work can begin again.
Find Juliette Savaëte on her official website: www.juliettesavaete.fr
