2. A LITTLE HISTORY:
Back in 1971 I was fortunate to receive a research fellowship to the Center
for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT. The Center was a wonderful place. It’s stated
purpose was to foster the creative interaction between artists, engineers and
scientists and many of the projects were large environmental art works involving
public participation and celebration.
3. That year I had also just taken up jogging and wanted
to find some way of combining my exercising into an art form
that I could continue at the Center.
I came up with this idea: if I stood against a wall and
swung my fully extended arm around with a piece of chalk in
my hand, I would draw a circle (fig. 1). Now the first circle I
drew wasn’t all that round, but the next one was much
rounder, and not only that, but it was larger in diameter and
higher off the ground as I relaxed and stretched. Then I
realized that if I did a deep-knee bend while I was drawing
that exact same circle, I would draw a vertical ellipse (Fig 2).
I developed a whole ‘alphabet’ of movements and
combinations that would generate all kinds of graphics, and
went around the Center drawing all over the walls.
4. ! But the most important thing about my work WAS NOT THAT I
COULD DO THIS...IT WAS THAT EVERYONE COULD! I began inviting
people to try it and the results were great. It was kind of a ‘self-
celebration’! People were pleasantly surprised at their own abilities,
the resultant drawings were graphically attractive and the whole
experience left everone smiling. It was truly a participatory art
experience that we all had in common......COMMON DRAWING!
5. While at MIT, I also was the Exhibits Designer at the original
Boston Children’s Museum. After my fellowship I moved to New York
and continued my museum work, mostly designing educational
experiences and games to help kids understand the exhibits. I also
continued to promote COMMON DRAWING. I received a CAPS
(Creative Artists Public Service) Grant that allowed me to go into the
NYC schools, and with these large blackboards I had built, I
introduced kids to my work.
6. I also had a show at a small Soho gallery where, on weekends I
set up my blackboards on the street and invited people to try it...
7. ! ! I was on live TV, AM New York, to demonstrate my work....
I was on live TV, AM New York, to demonstrate my work....
10. In the 1980’s the computer came along and the games I’d been
creating for museums turned into a field called ‘educational software’,
and I was offered a job at Mattel in California. That led in time for me
becoming the the Director of Mattel’s New Concepts Group...the toy
‘think-tank’.
I didn’t think much about COMMON DRAWING until this
year...THIRTY YEARS LATER!
Why now? A couple of reasons:
1. I’m retired now and I want to keep stretching and exercising
2. People in California, especially here at the beach, are very
much into physical fitness and I thought they’d appreciate it
3. From what I’ve been reading about children’s exercise/weight
issues I thought kids might really profit from this now.
With some help I built new blackboards in my backyard. I
invited some friends over to check it out and, as you can see, they had
the same ‘physical fun’ as ever.
11.
12. But frankly, I knew they’d like it. I’d been there before. What
really surprised and delighted me was the new work that I was now
doing....
13. I was deconstructing my original basic exercises into their
elemental arcs using these beautiful pastels, and aided by the natural
changing light thru the trees, I found a new cosmic beauty in my old
ideas.
14. So, that’s it. All based on the circle, and although the seeds were
planted long ago, I’m thinking that COMMON DRAWING’s re-
emergence now could be something both new and needed, for me and
others, and I hope you will too.
