Remote Control Ferrari Drawing (First Series 2002)
When I was experimenting with the Wind-Sail drawings, I thought about other 'remote' ways I could draw and paint. I saw a remote control Ferrari in a toy sale and the idea formed came to use it in an experimental way for drawing.
Over the toy Ferrari I fitted a frame made with a child's construction set (Meccano). The frame allowed marker pens to be fixed to the car. The pens left marks whereever the car travelled. The Ferrari's movement allowed both quick and slow pen-marks to be made on the paper. The 'Ferrari' experiment was made with serious intent, but it was also a lot of fun.
In 2002 I participated in bigartsweek, (www.bigartsweek.com). One of bigartsweek's intentions is to encourage creative interaction between schools and professional artists. I figured the Ferrari set-up I'd created in the studio would be a perfect way to enthuse children to seeing different ways of drawing.
I worked with children at Weedon Bec School in Northamptonshire. With plenty of willing volunteers to work the remote controls, there was soon plenty of drawn lines. Later the children, teachers and I had an enthusiastic discussion about the quality of the lines the car had made. The discussion was about slow, very fast, heavy and light drawn lines. The demonstration showed the dynamic qualities of line in an immediate and graphic way and the children became aware of a fundamental quality in drawing.
After the fun of drawing with the 'Ferrari' the children began to make suggestions about how the qualities of line demonstrated in the remote control drawings could be translated into how a pen, pencil or paint brush held in the hand could have energy from the body's movement transfer into different qualities of line.
I moved on to doing other things after the drawings were done, however in 2009 I am revisited and developed the project further.
