Louise Despont Draws Deep | ART21 "New York Close Up"

[Sounds of birds chirping]

[New York Close Up]

[Fort Greene, Brooklyn]

I find that being able to work at home...

that I wake up in the morning,

I have breakfast, I start working.

And it’s a very smooth transition

directly into the work

that comes from a quieter,

more centered place.

[Louise Despont, Artist]

[Nicole Wong, Assistant]

I think we’ll do white dots on these ones,

up until you reach this small...

stop before you reach this smallest one.

So stop on this one.

What I like about making work this way

is that I don’t need to wait for an opportunity
to be given to me.

I don’t have to apply for money to do this
idea

when I can do what I need to do

and what I want to do simply on paper.

I like that--that there’s no excuse not
to do the work,

because it’s so contained.

To be focused and dedicated to doing one simple
thing

can perhaps be the most transformative thing.

That as narrow as it is,

it can be infinitely deep.

["Louise Despont Draws Deep"]

We always associate drawing as being more
personal--

as being more intimate than painting.

Because, historically, drawings weren’t
shown,

and then when they were, they were shown as,
sort of,

the private notebooks of so-and-so,

or the sketches from these very famous paintings.

I was doing more oil painting before--

ten years ago--

and then, suddenly you see it,

and you think it's all wrong

and you need to take a completely different
path.

And that's when I started working in notebooks

and doing a lot of collage--

where there was just, you know, collecting
images

and taping them into the book.

To fill up a book felt nice, you know?

It didn’t even have to be with anything
good.

It was just nice to complete a book.

I think it’s also the nature of working
in a book.

It’s that the work is private,

that you’re not making work for people to
see.

Because if you’re always imagining that
somebody will look at it,

then maybe you don’t let yourself make the
mistakes

that need to be made on the way.

These ledger books, they’re mostly all for
accounting--

keeping track of your expenses,

of debts and accounts owed.

I think it’s a different way of accounting
for time

and for a life spent.

It becomes the account of every day,

that I put into the drawing.

When I started using the stencils,

it completely changed how I drew.

This is the first stencil I ever bought,

which is now all broken.

I’m really sad about it.

I think the triangles are the ones I use most.

Laying out the paper and seeing the dimensions

can sometimes be the beginning of a drawing.

You only have to make the first few marks

and the whole drawing will unravel itself

in response to that,

even if you change completely what you thought
you were starting at.

Those few marks contain the seed of the entire
drawing.

It’s almost like the drawing guides itself,

and you’re there to do the weeding

and the watering and the planting.

But it will grow on it’s own,

to a certain extent.

It’s nice to look at something

and feel some sort of awe for it,

that you don’t fully own it

but that you worked for it.

Even if it looks very controlled and detailed,

I feel like I own

maybe one quarter of it at most. [LAUGHS]

Each drawing is a discovery--

tiny discoveries--

but each one unfolds in a way

that removes the drawing from total control.

You’re responsible for your part,

and something else is responsible for the
other part,

which makes it very exciting.

It’s a complexity that you can’t think
up.

It’s like little mineral deposits build
up

and make an entire surface.

I think it's expressive on an energetic level,

at least that's what I hope.

I think the work accesses something

to me that feels very universal.

There’s something so personal and raw and
unconcrete

about your relationship to the spiritual,

and my words will always be this clumsy approximation

of something that I feel I'm beginning to
touch

in a symbolic language.

I feel it’s best explained in the drawings.

[White Mule, Chelsea]

[DESPONT] And that’s the Japanese rice mulberry
paper?

[ANNE GIBBS] Mmm hmm.

The paste that we use is a rice paste,

so it’s water soluble.

It can easily be taken off with just a little...

[Anne Gibbs, Framer]

you know, humidifying it a little.

[DESPONT] And then,

when I have to make the final step from taking
the drawing to the framer,

I take a last look at it

because I know it’s the last time to make
changes.

And when I look at the drawing

I can see areas that aren’t fully connected

or fully resolved.

And those are all openings

to add something.

And then when it’s done, it’s like,

"Don’t touch me!"

Like, there’s no entry point anymore.

And that's...

that always feels very clear.