In June 2020, I was invited to join two friends in a whatsapp group doing a daily drawing in response to a word. They had made a list of thirty words for June, I started on the twelfth. Each day we were given the word and then posted our drawings to the group. When we got to the thirtieth we thought we didnt want to finish, so decided to take it in turns to provide the word. As time went on it was clearly fun and more people were invited to join. More people meant a greater variety of words too! We got up to eight at one point. Gradually lockdowns faded away and everyone got busier, but the stalwarts carried on. Three years of daily drawings ended up with nine books of different stoutness filled with drawings.
Ohmygolly, what is a person to do with around a thousand drawings? The oportunity arose from a callout for work involving text and image – perfect. I made a nice bookshelf of chained volumes, modled on the chained library at Hereford Cathedral. They were exhibited at Fringe Arts Bath 2022, in an excellent exhibition, Word and Image, curated by Geoff Dunlop at 44AD.
Next question, how to get the drawings out of the books? A book of drawings seemed to be an obvious answer and since many of the drawings focused on the human condition I chose ones that fitted that broad brief. Titled Couragious Existence, after a drawing about courage in the face of continued existence.
Many of my drawings are now on instagram – anwylcooperwillis
Take a look.
anwyl cooper-willis's Weblog 