Saturday, Laurie Wigham’s Meet-Up group, SF Sketchers drew in and around the Presidio Pet Cemetery.

This meet-up attracted experienced artists, art enthusiasts, beginners, and the drawing-curious.  Laurie introduced us, and then we briefly pitched Falsework, the project.  We described our interest in the Pet Cemetery, defined falsework (the temporary structure that protects the cemetery) and invited everyone to share their drawings with us. And they did: another post will follow with scans of the 29 drawings we’ve collected so far.

Then everyone was off.  Some stayed a safe distance.  Others, um, very close indeed.

The conversation afterwards was more show-and-tell than classic crit, which was perfect: the artists focused on process, what they saw, how and where they started, what impressed them, their aims, pleasures, and frustrations.  Technical matters dominated.  We’re very interested in the relationship between this practical-discourse and the complexities of this site: how to look at these massive structures, how to translate what-there-is into marks and then into words. The lure: make a short film that uses the artists’ words (without the drawings per se, except as part of a larger installation work that includes the film) and filmed images of the structure. Just a thought.