1 00:00:00,140 --> 00:00:03,100 [Sounds of birds chirping] 2 00:00:03,340 --> 00:00:08,800 [New York Close Up] 3 00:00:09,620 --> 00:00:11,640 [Fort Greene, Brooklyn] 4 00:00:14,580 --> 00:00:16,910 I find that being able to work at home... 5 00:00:18,060 --> 00:00:19,720 that I wake up in the morning, 6 00:00:19,720 --> 00:00:22,439 I have breakfast, I start working. 7 00:00:22,439 --> 00:00:25,480 And it’s a very smooth transition 8 00:00:25,480 --> 00:00:27,609 directly into the work 9 00:00:27,609 --> 00:00:31,759 that comes from a quieter, 10 00:00:31,759 --> 00:00:34,079 more centered place. 11 00:00:44,680 --> 00:00:46,800 [Louise Despont, Artist] 12 00:00:48,400 --> 00:00:50,580 [Nicole Wong, Assistant] 13 00:01:08,180 --> 00:01:11,640 I think we’ll do white dots on these ones, 14 00:01:11,640 --> 00:01:13,780 up until you reach this small... 15 00:01:13,780 --> 00:01:15,299 stop before you reach this smallest one. 16 00:01:15,299 --> 00:01:17,179 So stop on this one. 17 00:01:21,460 --> 00:01:26,600 What I like about making work this way 18 00:01:26,600 --> 00:01:30,320 is that I don’t need to wait for an opportunity to be given to me. 19 00:01:30,320 --> 00:01:33,990 I don’t have to apply for money to do this idea 20 00:01:33,990 --> 00:01:36,810 when I can do what I need to do 21 00:01:36,810 --> 00:01:39,640 and what I want to do simply on paper. 22 00:01:42,800 --> 00:01:45,960 I like that--that there’s no excuse not to do the work, 23 00:01:45,969 --> 00:01:48,289 because it’s so contained. 24 00:01:48,899 --> 00:01:53,570 To be focused and dedicated to doing one simple thing 25 00:01:53,570 --> 00:01:56,439 can perhaps be the most transformative thing. 26 00:01:56,439 --> 00:02:00,180 That as narrow as it is, 27 00:02:00,180 --> 00:02:03,780 it can be infinitely deep. 28 00:02:04,200 --> 00:02:10,259 ["Louise Despont Draws Deep"] 29 00:02:15,420 --> 00:02:18,720 We always associate drawing as being more personal-- 30 00:02:18,720 --> 00:02:21,709 as being more intimate than painting. 31 00:02:21,709 --> 00:02:24,209 Because, historically, drawings weren’t shown, 32 00:02:24,209 --> 00:02:26,730 and then when they were, they were shown as, sort of, 33 00:02:26,730 --> 00:02:28,730 the private notebooks of so-and-so, 34 00:02:28,730 --> 00:02:32,350 or the sketches from these very famous paintings. 35 00:02:35,080 --> 00:02:38,790 I was doing more oil painting before-- 36 00:02:38,790 --> 00:02:40,080 ten years ago-- 37 00:02:40,080 --> 00:02:42,480 and then, suddenly you see it, 38 00:02:42,480 --> 00:02:44,349 and you think it's all wrong 39 00:02:44,349 --> 00:02:47,870 and you need to take a completely different path. 40 00:02:47,870 --> 00:02:50,670 And that's when I started working in notebooks 41 00:02:50,670 --> 00:02:52,470 and doing a lot of collage-- 42 00:02:52,470 --> 00:02:54,629 where there was just, you know, collecting images 43 00:02:54,629 --> 00:02:57,480 and taping them into the book. 44 00:02:57,480 --> 00:02:59,450 To fill up a book felt nice, you know? 45 00:02:59,450 --> 00:03:01,640 It didn’t even have to be with anything good. 46 00:03:01,640 --> 00:03:05,580 It was just nice to complete a book. 47 00:03:07,880 --> 00:03:11,200 I think it’s also the nature of working in a book. 48 00:03:12,080 --> 00:03:14,140 It’s that the work is private, 49 00:03:14,140 --> 00:03:16,760 that you’re not making work for people to see. 50 00:03:16,760 --> 00:03:19,909 Because if you’re always imagining that somebody will look at it, 51 00:03:19,909 --> 00:03:22,700 then maybe you don’t let yourself make the mistakes 52 00:03:22,700 --> 00:03:25,660 that need to be made on the way. 53 00:03:35,560 --> 00:03:38,480 These ledger books, they’re mostly all for accounting-- 54 00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:40,099 keeping track of your expenses, 55 00:03:40,099 --> 00:03:42,799 of debts and accounts owed. 56 00:03:43,900 --> 00:03:46,950 I think it’s a different way of accounting for time 57 00:03:46,950 --> 00:03:49,770 and for a life spent. 58 00:03:50,390 --> 00:03:53,650 It becomes the account of every day, 59 00:03:53,650 --> 00:03:56,050 that I put into the drawing. 60 00:03:58,069 --> 00:03:59,750 When I started using the stencils, 61 00:03:59,750 --> 00:04:02,870 it completely changed how I drew. 62 00:04:11,020 --> 00:04:14,800 This is the first stencil I ever bought, 63 00:04:14,800 --> 00:04:16,420 which is now all broken. 64 00:04:16,420 --> 00:04:18,200 I’m really sad about it. 65 00:04:19,360 --> 00:04:22,920 I think the triangles are the ones I use most. 66 00:04:32,220 --> 00:04:35,380 Laying out the paper and seeing the dimensions 67 00:04:35,380 --> 00:04:38,010 can sometimes be the beginning of a drawing. 68 00:04:38,010 --> 00:04:39,450 You only have to make the first few marks 69 00:04:39,450 --> 00:04:43,320 and the whole drawing will unravel itself 70 00:04:43,320 --> 00:04:44,720 in response to that, 71 00:04:44,720 --> 00:04:48,760 even if you change completely what you thought you were starting at. 72 00:04:48,760 --> 00:04:53,080 Those few marks contain the seed of the entire drawing. 73 00:04:54,900 --> 00:04:58,060 It’s almost like the drawing guides itself, 74 00:04:58,060 --> 00:05:00,590 and you’re there to do the weeding 75 00:05:00,590 --> 00:05:02,800 and the watering and the planting. 76 00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:05,420 But it will grow on it’s own, 77 00:05:05,420 --> 00:05:07,840 to a certain extent. 78 00:05:17,940 --> 00:05:19,600 It’s nice to look at something 79 00:05:19,600 --> 00:05:21,780 and feel some sort of awe for it, 80 00:05:21,790 --> 00:05:23,570 that you don’t fully own it 81 00:05:23,570 --> 00:05:26,090 but that you worked for it. 82 00:05:28,760 --> 00:05:31,860 Even if it looks very controlled and detailed, 83 00:05:31,870 --> 00:05:34,330 I feel like I own 84 00:05:34,330 --> 00:05:40,430 maybe one quarter of it at most. [LAUGHS] 85 00:05:44,940 --> 00:05:47,100 Each drawing is a discovery-- 86 00:05:47,100 --> 00:05:48,280 tiny discoveries-- 87 00:05:48,280 --> 00:05:52,160 but each one unfolds in a way 88 00:05:52,160 --> 00:05:55,660 that removes the drawing from total control. 89 00:05:55,660 --> 00:05:58,170 You’re responsible for your part, 90 00:05:58,170 --> 00:06:02,350 and something else is responsible for the other part, 91 00:06:02,350 --> 00:06:05,130 which makes it very exciting. 92 00:06:06,660 --> 00:06:09,860 It’s a complexity that you can’t think up. 93 00:06:11,940 --> 00:06:14,760 It’s like little mineral deposits build up 94 00:06:14,760 --> 00:06:16,900 and make an entire surface. 95 00:06:18,580 --> 00:06:22,060 I think it's expressive on an energetic level, 96 00:06:22,060 --> 00:06:23,980 at least that's what I hope. 97 00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:29,020 I think the work accesses something 98 00:06:29,020 --> 00:06:31,080 to me that feels very universal. 99 00:06:31,800 --> 00:06:35,920 There’s something so personal and raw and unconcrete 100 00:06:35,930 --> 00:06:40,780 about your relationship to the spiritual, 101 00:06:40,780 --> 00:06:46,860 and my words will always be this clumsy approximation 102 00:06:46,860 --> 00:06:50,220 of something that I feel I'm beginning to touch 103 00:06:50,220 --> 00:06:53,100 in a symbolic language. 104 00:06:53,820 --> 00:06:57,920 I feel it’s best explained in the drawings. 105 00:07:19,380 --> 00:07:22,120 [White Mule, Chelsea] 106 00:07:23,160 --> 00:07:25,460 [DESPONT] And that’s the Japanese rice mulberry paper? 107 00:07:25,460 --> 00:07:26,300 [ANNE GIBBS] Mmm hmm. 108 00:07:26,300 --> 00:07:28,960 The paste that we use is a rice paste, 109 00:07:28,960 --> 00:07:29,850 so it’s water soluble. 110 00:07:29,850 --> 00:07:31,530 It can easily be taken off with just a little... 111 00:07:31,530 --> 00:07:32,900 [Anne Gibbs, Framer] 112 00:07:32,900 --> 00:07:35,780 you know, humidifying it a little. 113 00:07:52,260 --> 00:07:53,880 [DESPONT] And then, 114 00:07:53,890 --> 00:07:58,850 when I have to make the final step from taking the drawing to the framer, 115 00:07:59,560 --> 00:08:01,600 I take a last look at it 116 00:08:01,610 --> 00:08:04,530 because I know it’s the last time to make changes. 117 00:08:04,530 --> 00:08:06,310 And when I look at the drawing 118 00:08:06,310 --> 00:08:11,340 I can see areas that aren’t fully connected 119 00:08:11,340 --> 00:08:14,460 or fully resolved. 120 00:08:15,140 --> 00:08:17,340 And those are all openings 121 00:08:17,340 --> 00:08:18,640 to add something. 122 00:08:18,640 --> 00:08:20,740 And then when it’s done, it’s like, 123 00:08:20,750 --> 00:08:21,990 "Don’t touch me!" 124 00:08:21,990 --> 00:08:24,960 Like, there’s no entry point anymore. 125 00:08:24,960 --> 00:08:25,900 And that's... 126 00:08:25,900 --> 00:08:28,020 that always feels very clear.