a drawing i made today haha

[torpe]

ta daaa

[fauxartist]

facinating

[torpe in reply to fauxartist]

thank you very kindly!! ♥️

[mrmonk]

Though my grasp of visual art is tenuous at best, the surrealism in this and the other piece you posted are so striking and evocative, the details seem rich in personal symbolism -- it would be fascinating to hear how you created them, how you came to include certain elements, like the writing that appears in both of them (I think the previous one included writing that appeared to be in Cyrillic, though I'm not sure). Anyway, I think even my untrained eye can recognize your raw talent; thank you for sharing it. 😺

[torpe in reply to mrmonk]

ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!! wow thank you so very much this is a big compliment...any eye is a good eye in my book :)💖 a lot of what i do is very dear to me yes....i’ll tell you i was feeling pretty nuts making it and i think it highlights the lust of a crush a bit...in some pictures i look for a word or a phrase and it’s usually not a very nice one i like that words can take different forms and look beautiful in different languages! thank you again very much i really appreciate this feedback! i love hearing what others feel or think about my drawings

[mrmonk in reply to torpe]

Oh, you're quite welcome! 😺

I love what you say about the visual aesthetics of words, the way they look on the page -- be it in a drawing or in a poem -- their placement and arrangement are so key...and how a word in a different language can take on a tone or tenor one wouldn't have in one's native language...it's another kind of color.

[torpe in reply to mrmonk]

i like that you can understand the nagging of it all exactly 😳 the placement is so finite but it matters so much....so interesting that you say it a color...your mind goes amazing places and i really find that intriguing! thank you again for this feedback

[mrmonk in reply to torpe]

This is why I so enjoy talking to artists (of any medium) -- because I feel like we share a common language in some sense, which allows me to better understand their creative process and gives me a new perspective for looking at my own. I really appreciate you sharing your work and your willingness to talk about it -- it's illuminating to me, thank you. 😺

[torpe in reply to mrmonk]

i rarely ever have had actual give and pull like this about something i’ve made so thank you for offering something up! you’re very right about that...the communication aspect. i do not commonly communicate with many other people that do art..i think it’s a feeling of home that i can see that you see and make an effort to pull apart and understand and i can talk about it with you!! i’m really appreciative that it can give you a new perspective and thank you for you appreciation that means a lot, really it does..oh gosh thank YOU for your kind words and understanding 💖

[mrmonk in reply to torpe]

Anytime! 😺 Yes, it very much is a feeling of home! I only wish I were more educated about visual art, so I could offer more input, but I try to look at your drawing as I would a poem -- different elements, yes, but in an unlikely way, the same -- features of line and color, white space and shadow, image and symbolism ... and even though visual art doesn't exist in time in the same way poetry and music does, I can see movement and motion throughout your drawing -- in the tentacled arms, in the curve of the tongue. I would so love to hear more about how your art comes to fruition...does it happens spontaneously? or are the little touches and details very deliberate?

[torpe in reply to mrmonk]

oh i myself am not educated about visual art no worries 🥴 the input you offered is more than enough! i think the way you look at it is quite an eye i’d like to hear more of..i like that you see it in a similar way…thank you again for that lovely bit, so charming to read like swimming in words 😭 oh gosh..sometimes i’m feel ripped in two and so i draw something of the same...usually i just sit down and come up with something with no idea how i’d like it to be! sometimes i get an idea of one thing (for example big dragging eyes in the picture above) and come up with the picture outside of that with whatever i feel...for the most part the details have something i hold to my heart at that moment...the heart itself as if to put mine on display sometimes, aching love...or the L for loser because i feel like one at times was definitely feeling like one making this...a lot of the little things have personal meaning to me or where i live or how i feel and sometimes i just like them there (ex. the tongue rings)...whew! sorry if that was long winded and didn’t make sense but thank you for your question!!! i really like your mind! i’d love to know what your mbti results would be if you ever have the time? i feel you might be an inf() type but i could be wrong!

[mrmonk in reply to torpe]

Thank you so very much for all this insight into the work! I'm always grateful to be privy to how artists work because I know they often don't like to talk about how a given piece is made, it's so very personal. That poet Philip Larkin I mentioned to you in chat once expressed his incredulity at poets giving talks about how they write, saying something to the effect of "it would be like going around talking about how you sleep with your spouse." But I disagree with him; whenever I hear/read a poet (or any artist) talk about their own process, it encourages me when I recognize similarities and it deepens the understanding of my own process in the differences.

Anyway, like I was saying, thank you, thank you, thank you! You weren't long-winded at all and what you said resonated with me. Not only can I see your drawing in a whole new light (the duality of the figures, for instance), but I also feel the fellowship of knowing how you might start with just a single part or image and build out from there, just the way I often do when I start a poem -- for me, it often just starts with a word or two, a collection of sounds attuned to a certain feeling, then I build the poem up from there.

Do you often start with an idea or feeling first and find images (or words, if a poem) that sort of attach to it? Or does the image or phrase just come unbidden, as if out of nowhere?

I hope you don't mind me picking your brain like this...right now, writing about craft seems to be one of the few things (outside of revising poems) on which I can stay focused (I'm hoping I can build up enough steam to start writing on other things, too), so thank you for the motivation!

I did see a free MBTI test online, but, I must admit, I'm really terrible with these sorts of things because my answers very often don't correspond with the options given. My inclination is to respond very specifically, and that isn't possible, plus it's counter-intuitive to the spirit of the test, if that makes any sense (I'm not a very sensible cat 😸). I find I think and act differently depending on and specific to a given circumstance -- for instance, I am introverted in profound and significant ways, but in certain circumstances, I can be incredibly extroverted (i.e., I would jump at any chance to read poetry at an open mic...even now with hardly any teeth left in my mouth! 😸) So, maybe I'm an amalgamation of all of the types -- you wouldn't be wrong in that sense, I think!

[torpe in reply to mrmonk]

oh no trouble at all...itfeels safe to share with someone that takes the time to ask it is quite hard in certain senses..especially for me in real life where i cannot sit and think and often feel on the spot when questions are pointed at me...i get that! both sides i guess but more leaning towards the telling of your heart because it can be so fun being up in the air and a mystery because it could be anything but i like the understanding of why something is what and what it can possible mean...an artist that paints four squares of varying size and color could be expressing anything but everyone has their own personal sense...i really like hearing the why as well...that’s so important! oh i really find that interesting thank you for thanking me but i should thank you 😂! i totally understand what you mean poem wise again that’s really interesting...wow....i really think it’s an amazing thing how the brain conjures up such things in this way...

hmmmm always a feeling...i just have a feeling and follow whatever my brain is doing..making it as ugly or confused or as upside down as i feel. betrayal, embarrassment. for poems i also go with feeling and wrap them in a blanket in such a way that i know my heart and the mood is such that i feel others can grab a general idea of what i mean or pull it apart and they still get a piece of what they think they found..very up to your mind and memories and things to process i guess if that makes sense!! 😭 i might gravitate towards certain words because the pull is greater because i really want it to be hard felt..it kind of just comes and most of the times when i’m making songs it happens like that too where i already know what to say before i say it but poetry is more of a sitting down and really pushing for it. oh no worries at all, my brain is for the picking! i really hope you do build up the steam your works are honestly so amazing and soothing to read. i’m so glad you could gain motivation more power your way my friend! i understand what you mean! it can be difficult because it varies from time to time...it can be a bit stress inducing 🥴 hmmmm i’ll stop trying to type you i promise but that seems isfp-like...hmmm i don’t know!! they have the power to be so many types at times...agh thank you again!!

[brokenlight]

Dope!

[torpe in reply to brokenlight]

thank you so much!!