WEBVTT

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[Bali, Indonesia]

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Because the sun sets at the same time
all year round in Bali,

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there's a sense that time is standing still--

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that it's just one long summer.

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There's this feeling of peacefulness

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and of not feeling rushed.

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This routine that is really tied into
the rhythm of the world around you.

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[Sound of ducks quacking]

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["Drawing from Life in Bali"]

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New York is where I'm from,
and it's where I grew up,

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and it's still where
I will always come back to.

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But I also know that the most important thing
to make good work

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is time

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and space.

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Living in Bali,

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that's where I was going to
have the most of it.

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I wake up around 6:30

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because the sunrise is so bright.

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By 8:30, I start setting things up
in the studio.

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The cat gets locked outside
so that he doesn't run all over the drawings.

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Nopi and Wiwik would arrive at 9:00,

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--Draw from here to here?

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--Yeah.

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and Nyoman around 10:30
to do the offerings for the house.

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It's this nonstop flow of
ceremonies and rituals.

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Everybody is tending to the energy
of the island.

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Everybody is feeding it.

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In Bali, there are these temples
built around naturally occurring springs.

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You approach the water and have this feeling

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of deep reverence and deep respect

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for this place and this substance.

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And then, that you get to go inside of it
is really powerful--

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this feeling of going down and going in.

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The next day, I always felt
that something had been let go of--

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that something really had been washed off
that I was carrying around.

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I wanted to be able to draw something
from that experience--

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to try and make a visual memory.

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Drawing is not something that flourishes
in the tropics.

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Paper will not last.

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The air is extremely humid,

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so many pages are going to warp in a few days.

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I was able to have this
very simple glass case made

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so I could put a small dehumidifier in.

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Anything that I wasn't currently working on
would just stay in there.

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Penestanan was a small village
that was built by

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the community of traditional Balinese artists.

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Expats started moving there

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and things started to develop
further into the rice fields.

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There was a big footprint that happened

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from all of us tourists being there.

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In just the three years that I've been there,
I've seen it change a lot.

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But life manages to go on somehow,

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uninterrupted by it.

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I had moved to this new country
and I didn't have any friends there.

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The scariest part was
my relationship had ended,

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and I wasn't sure how I could make the work
not being in love,

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because it always felt like
love brought so much exuberance

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and that was really the source for my drawings

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for a very long time--

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at least for what I considered to be
my best work.

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And I just thought,

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"I don't know if I can draw if I'm sad."

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"I don't know if I can draw if I'm depressed."

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"I don't know if I can draw when I'm fearful."

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And, actually, it was so nice to be able to
have drawing,

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because it was like the one part of my life
that was still the same.

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Me in the studio with paper

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was there whether or not I was in a relationship.

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It's definitely not as easy as
when you're in love,

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but it's possible,

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and it's so nice to have a practice
that sustains you.

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[The Drawing Center, SoHo, Manhattan]

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When I had the opportunity to
do the show at The Drawing Center,

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I wanted to imagine energy
taking a form of a physical body.

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I drew an embryo forming.

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I looked at some scientific diagrams
of how cells divide,

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and then just sort of follow that
through a life--

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finishing at the disintegration of the body

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and return to formlessness.

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I knew I wanted to do this oval room
that was one big drawing

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and in the same air as you were.

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That it was fragile but it held together.

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Having the work unframed was this
really nice aspect of vulnerability.

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That was really how I'd felt
that year back in Bali:

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super vulnerable.

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Aaron composed the music in the space
for the drawings.

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It was this sort of very sparse compositions

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that felt like a slow breath.

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And, really, I think it was

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the sound of Aaron's gamelans
that gave this very peaceful atmosphere

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where people kind of felt this sanctuary
that they had stepped into,

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having come off the street.

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I know, for myself,

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even when I come across
something that I love--

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that maybe I've travelled far to go see--

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sometimes you only spend
thirty seconds in front of it.

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I was really thinking about

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how much time we spend
in front of a work of art.

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And I always wanted to make an atmosphere
where someone would have long enough

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to travel through the drawings in their mind.

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I realized that that moment is actually
more beautiful to me than any finished drawing,

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because it's the potential of a drawing
that I'm never actually able to make.

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[Since filming,
Louise met someone new and they had a child.]

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[They still live in Bali.]