I’ve managed to get in another gallery visit in Sydney in between all the other running around I have been doing. This time to the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) – I really enjoyed the drawing exhibition I Walk the Line, New Australian Drawing that is currently on until the 24th of May. It reminded me yet again the value of drawing and how I don’t do nearly enough of it. I think one of the reasons I don’t is because it always seems like “play” and from quite a young age I was always being told that I should be “doing something productive” and as an adult there are always other things that I should be doing which seem more productive. In all honesty I fully admit this thinking is probably very flawed, particularly for an artist. Every time I start a project I have to sketch and draw out ideas… so drawing is a very productive process and I just have to be more disciplined.
I also think another reason I don’t draw as much as I should is because I am a perfectionist and unless my drawings are brilliant first time round I am left with such a sense of dissatisfaction I am loathe to repeat the process. I know this is silly – we all have good days and bad days and I should just get over it.
Two artists whose work I really admired in the MCA exhibition were Maria Kontis and Cassandra Laing. I’ve seen Maria Kontis’s works before down in Melbourne and her attention to detail and subtle observations just strike a chord with me. She draws photographs and letters which look like they are being viewed through a lens with very shallow depth of field, so her work very much appeals to the photographer in me, whilst also satisfying the need for tactility within artworks which I think is so important.
Cassandra Laing’s work is a first glance so simple, yet the care and observation taken to produce the works is stunning. Her black and white graphite drawings have a photorealistic quality about them, yet the joy of drawing hasn’t been removed. 
"It will all end in stars" by Cassandra LaingLaing was born in 1968, 5 years before me, and she died last year. It seems just such a great loss to the art world that someone as talented as her had such a fleeting career. I found a review by The Age of her work, just before she died and reading it now, reminds me how precious each moment is, and how I really should make much better use of my time than I do.