In Kabbalah, the word “Creator” does not describe someone who is looking down at us from the heavens, serving out reward or punishment according to the way we behave. Rather, the Creator is an unchanging force of absolute love and bestowal that enlivens the whole of Creation, including us.

But if the Creator is unchanging, how does Kabbalah explain that sometimes we feel as if He is kind to us, and other times cruel? Kabbalah explains that we feel these changes because we change. Namely, the changes we feel reflect our harmony or disharmony with the Creator, and the more we resemble the Creator, the more we feel ourselves to be in harmony with Him.

In a way, this resembles the relationship between parents and their child. The parents want the child to act in a certain way for his own good, but if the child does not want to act that way, he feels that his parents are being mean to him. But as the child grows up, he begins to understand his parents more and to agree with them on things that he disagreed with before. Eventually he becomes a parent himself, and suddenly Creators Graffiti Artists sees that his parents always treated him with love and kindness.

In other words, the parents always remain the same, and only the child’s feelings and understanding undergo change. Like the unchanging Creator, the parents always want the same thing for the child—to benefit him, but the child’s ability to understand and justify the parents depend on his maturity and resemblance to them.

In the same way, Kabbalah explains that the way we experience our relationship with the Creator depends on how we change. Religion, on the other hand, says that it’s the Creator who changes His attitude toward us. This means that in practical terms, these two approaches are completely opposite: When using the method of Kabbalah, a person knows that if he changes himself, he will perceive the same Creator differently, whereas religion asserts that by making certain actions, one makes the Creator change with regard to him.

From Kabbalah perspective, this is like asking the force of gravity to change its “attitude.” Obviously, this is futile. “But,” one may ask, “Is Kabbalah saying that we shouldn’t hope for things to improve when they’re not going well?” Quite the opposite: Kabbalah doesn’t say that we should passively sit with our hands folded in our lap when unfortunate things happen to us. Rather, it offers a method by which we can improve our lives actively, rather than asking or waiting for a higher power to do it for us.

Kabbalah directs man to first learn who the Creator is and what His qualities are. It then enables a person to change himself in order to resemble the Creator, and thereby experience harmony with Him. Then, just like a child who grows up and becomes a parent realizes that his parents were always kind, we will attain the same status as the Creator, and realize that He always treated us benevolently.

So a “prayer” in Kabbalah, is when one asks for a change to take place within him, because he knows that this is the way to change his relationship with the unchanging Creator.

http://www.kabbalah.info/engkab/kabbalah-video-clips/thought-of-the-creator

You know I saw a cartoon not to long ago, it was a young graffiti artist standing beside an executive dressed in a suit ‘n hat … both with spray cans in hand. Only the executive used capital letters and punctuation marks on his tags and he looks at the kid and says…”You bet! Correct Spelling and Punctuation- that’s the way I roll.”

It’s funny how true to form this cartoon really is. The advertisers of 21st century have taken a lesson out of the urban graffiti artist’s rule book and pulled down the cluttered unsightly and more often than not… ignored… billboards; opting for a more interactive and in your face style of medium. Down in the streets, right where the high volume traffic is. Using a medium guaranteed to grab and holding onto your attention. Ok, that is until the next best thing hits the scene. But for now, this is the next best thing!

It is however relatively new so accurate data and metrics are yet to be formatted and translated into some viable white paper as of yet. I don’t see this becoming a flash in the pan “come one day and go the next” fad. No this medium is here to stay and my guess is there will be a push to grab a hold of the attention of the public “out and about” in day to day (daylight) rush hours as well, because at the moment projection marketing is restricted to indoors and dusk /dark settings for optimum view ability. Stretching the time-line availability for the medium will provide for a bigger reach and the end result a bigger bang for the advertising dollar. Just like the advent of any new idea or technology, once the kinks are worked Animated Graffiti Cans out, cost effectiveness kicks in which in the long run making the medium more viable for mainstream marketers to utilize. For all you nay sayers that say projection technology is for dusk/dark nighttime traffic only, limiting it’s uses … look down at your iPad and tell me that again… I dare you!

Projection Advertising is well suited with the culture we live in now… where we anticipate to be “wowed” at every turn to even get our heads to turn. Movement is key in this culture. Moving Ads in the form of animations, laid the pavement towards adoption of video marketing and now eye candy of a medium. It just keeps getting bigger and better…can’t say I’m not liking it though, I am after all a part of this “entertain me culture.” (To catch a visual of how fascinating and effective projection advertising can be type in projection advertising – outdoor projection, video mapping into your web browser and buckle up for some pretty fascinating stunts.)

Video mapping has taken the still life out of advertising and replaced it with interactive “wow,” just about anywhere: on tables, buildings, floors, sidewalks, walls, windows and water even. One is only limited by the creative team it has hired and this is such a fun medium, I bet the juices and enthusiasm is at peak for each project. This form of advertising can be set up for short viewings like special events, outdoor stunts, as well as permanent installations. In many instances permits are not even required if the building being projected on is not owned by the vendor, but out of sheer politeness perhaps a heads up for the building’s owners would be appropriate. Just a thought!

Video projections are opening up doors for creative career potential as well. In my research i have came across many listings calling for creative staff with the skill to plan, design and co-ordinate video mapping activities. In addition I also ran across a free download of the type of program used for such mapping, for those who are curious as to the production process behind this highly creative interactive new form of graffiti. you can link into it by following this: http://createdigitalmotion.com/2009/03/projection-mapping-made-easy-with-free-mac-windows-projection-tools/

I am excited about where projection advertising is taking us. That high rise which has become mundane has now the possibilities to transform it’s face into a moving, entertaining billboard. Yet unlike stationary billboards which change their face here and there, this high rise can host a multiple of attractive and interactive messages before the viewer can ever get bored with the message. Anyone want to hazard a guess though where we might venture to next? What ever it is, I am looking forward to it!

Learning to produce great pieces of graffiti art takes time and a lot of practice and dedication. You need lots of artistic ability and plenty of attitude that you can translate into your art. Generally great graffiti art will:

- be painted in vivid colours, to create emotive images and grab attention

- include graffiti style lettering with letters that overlap and are drawn in 3D

In particular the use of the bold style lettering is really distinctive to graffiti art. The images themselves will usually be hard hitting, and be painted in stark colours utilising strong shadows and outlines to add depth and definition. Images usually depict social or political issues close to the artist’s heart.

Before you start a piece of graffiti art, you should draw a small scale version of the large piece Graffiti Simples you want to create first, then when you begin your actual piece, its a simple task of just scaling up your graffiti sketch.

If you need ideas for a graffiti font to use, there are plenty of sites online that have examples for you to copy. For the outlines, use a fine marker pen. In order to produce a 3D effect, shade around the letters you’ve outlined with a different colour. Then use permanent markers to colour in your letters.

Once you are ready to paint your sketch on to your larger canvas or wall, you need to draw a reference grid over your small drawing. Sketch a full size replica of the grid on to your wall or canvas that you are using for your scaled up graffiti piece. Use either chalk, charcoal or diluted paint to draw the large grid. To make marking the grid out easier, the simplest thing to do is to use a piece of string.

Use chalk or charcoal to transfer your small drawing on to you larger canvas. Use an aerosol can to paint the background in using diluted paint, keep the layer thin and allow it to dry before you start your colouring. When you’ve finished the outline and the background, it’s time to add the colours and detail. Again use aerosols to add the colours. Start with the lightest colours first and the largest sections, and then move on to the detail and the smaller areas last.

When you’ve coloured your work in, you can add the fine definition with a brush to enhance the fine lines and borders around your figures and letters. You can preserve it for years to come with a thin layer of varnish.

These are all the steps you need to master if you want to paint impressive graffiti art.

No longer do car fans have to wait for a national or local car show to check out the latest hot metal on the car scene. As the Internet becomes ever more important, websites provide a platform for car fans to attend a 24-hour seven day-a-week car show from the comfort of their own homes.

There are many social network sites dedicated to people who love cars, which offer registered users the ability to place pictures of their cars on the web. The most popular sites, like Flickr, Facebook and Motoraddicts all have photo uploading options and doing so couldn’t be simpler. And, you needn’t worry about having too many pictures on your profile page, as web users are hungry for images and videos – especially when they see something they like!

Entering your pride and joy into the realm of online car shows requires a great shot. This can be easily obtained with some simple preparation and a decent digital camera. Unlike a real car show, in the online world the pictures are everything. People viewing your car cannot simply walk around it – they are relying Make Graffiti Online Walls on you to provide the best views, so get the pictures right. People produce some great photos because they know their cars better than anyone else and know what is going to look best and which areas of the car should be highlighted.

When taking your photographs, the best shot to try to achieve is a low front angle, rather than a flat front or side picture. The three quarter angle allows a look at the front and side profile of the car, allowing the viewer to see more in one shot. Also take into consideration the backdrop to the picture, there is no point trying to capture a black car on a dark coloured background – and its amazing how many people do! Keep it simple for better results.

You can make your car photo look a lot more professional by deciding on a good location for your shoot. A graffiti covered wall or plain brickwork can achieve a desired effect without the use of lighting and high tech camera equipment.

Making sure the car is looking its best goes without saying, so always snap your shot after your car has been treated to a wash and buffed up using your favourite brand of wax.

Once you have the snap you want, you just need to upload the image to your preferred website. Some websites need images to be a certain size to be uploaded – this helps with the speed and you should always double-check the requirements before attempting to upload your car’s photo.

Once the pictures have been uploaded make sure you take the time to include the spec and details of the car. It is a nice touch to try to include some background information: viewers are interested in learning where the car came from, or which part caused you the most trouble to fit.

This gives the person viewing your car a little more insight into the work and effort which has gone into your car, rather than just a bare image. Plus, it could be the difference in getting extra votes and making your ride stand out from the crowd.

Bristol may not be the culture capital of the world but it has given rise to prominent figures in the modern art scene like graffiti big-shot Banksy.

His true identity has never been confirmed but the underground artist is believed to be 34-year-old Bristolian Robin Gunningham, whose conquests include stencilling the wall of a London office space with an alleged portrait of himself and later selling other original pieces of his artwork for vast sums of celebrity money.

Secretly graffitied onto the walls of houses, car parks and offices, the works add interest and a cool edge to otherwise Graffiti Stencil Art Bansky dull and unexciting spaces. The addition of a Banksy portrait can turn a forgotten location into a much visited place of interest and draw in both passers-by and art lovers wanting to see the contemporary creations in the flesh.

This works in contrast to the traditional view of graffiti as being the shared domain of activists and troubled teens who want to make a statement. Their painted handiwork often ends up being loathed by neighbourhood residents and workers who deem them as ugly additions to their clean streets.

Banksy’s clever compositions have sequestered that old image and forged a new identity for the misunderstood art. His pieces still make a statement but his classy and well devised compositions attract rather than repel. Banksy’s graffiti is believed to embellish instead of damage the aesthetic beauty of a cityscape.

Bristol office space might just benefit from the attention it receives from his spray-on creations if the graffiti mastermind decides to return to his native city.

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27 day and night, when the time to 20:30, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Changsha and other cities invariably out of the major landmarks of the light. Normal lights in the city, at this moment, quiet, quiet stance with a long absence, added to the 2010 “Earth Hour” Global activities.   Beijing: “Water Cube”, “Bird’s Nest” and other landmarks extinguished lights

Reporters in Beijing that the Olympic central area, in nearly a hundred community spontaneously came to the scene, Sohu users of the last sound, looking forward to this year’s most Chinese Internet users out of the blue “Water Cube” was first put out lights, followed by around the “Bird’s Nest” from top to bottom the red light is gradually extinguished. The Olympic central area into darkness, the distant lights especially rosy.

Lights off, the whole friends with sticks put ” CO” (minus the carbon) words. User Miss Sun told reporters that she was called to see the activities of the Forum decided to participate, “we are all strangers, but because such a public service activities and become friends, which I think Graffiti Events 2009 makes sense.”

According to report, on the hour after lights-out what to do, the National Internet users warm in the relevant forums, such as at home to enjoy candlelight dinner, organize a treasure hunt in the dark tour, sitting in the dark about story or simply a walk, a walk the dog.   Shanghai: “Pearl of the Orient” Different beautiful in the dark

From crystal clear to shining on the Oriental Pearl Jin Mao Tower, Shanghai buildings over a hundred buildings in the 20:30 lights out quietly, this is the second in 2009, the Shanghai Second participate in the global “Earth Hour” lights-out relay.

In the dark Riverside Avenue Pudong Shanghai, just returned from Taiwan to Shanghai, Mr. Zhang lamented: “had heard the night view of Shanghai is very beautiful, really deserved reputation today to see the Oriental Pearl. In particular, did not expect the lights-out after the Pearl of the Orient in the dark there is a different kind of beauty. ”

Lights-out period, Shanghai’s commercial establishments have to use many candles to create a warm, romantic atmosphere. Shanghai is also the rise of fashionable young people a “light trace of graffiti” art: in the dim light, their graffiti with a flashlight in the air, using a digital camera a long exposure to the shooting down, creating unique images depicting.   Guangzhou: landmark “Xiao Manyao” haircut 1 hour

South bank of the Pearl River, the “Xiaoman Yao,” said the Guangzhou TV Tower lights lost because of the colorful past, looked far looming. Guangzhou New TV Tower high 610 meters, the opening ceremony of the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games will in the sea near the tower at heart sand island. Internet voting in the previous “most looking forward to lights out” list, “Xiao Manyao” top three. Mr. Zhan walking in the river, said: “Although the surrounding darkness, but Environmental protection Is that everyone should support something everyone should do the utmost for this. ”

Business district in the days of Hebei, reporters saw the big shopping malls in Guangzhou Grandview Mall grass LED lights have been put out, another large mall department store facade Grandbuy lights this close. Mr. Wu, who lived in days of Hebei, said: “The lights-out event is of great, hope we will continue to adhere to environmental philosophy, to do little things, do not forget to leave the office lights.”

Not so long ago, drawing became the new painting. From small-scale and intimate to wall-sized, highly-worked or resolutely low-fi; whatever its format, the re-appearance of a once side-lined medium marked a dramatic shift in its fortunes and indeed, assumptions about art in general.

But why the change? Was it that, in an art scene increasingly driven by fads, drawing became du jour simply because it hadn’t been for a very long time? Or were other, less obvious factors at work?

In fact, the re-emergence of drawing was far from market-driven, and its increase in profile a far slower process than any newly voguish status might suggest.

To understand something of its current impact, it’s necessary to look back at the closing years of the 20th century. A time when, to the eyes of many, the art scene looked very different indeed.

Throughout much of the 1990s visual austerity and a certain restraint governed the work of a new wave of artists; many of them British, many high-profile.

Figures such as Darren Almond, Damien Hirst, Martin Creed, Rachel Whiteread and a re-discovered Allan McCollum typified an art scene driven by hands-off, conceptual practice and stringent theoretical undertow.

Even artists whose work, by contrast, seemed more ludic and theatrical – Maurizio Catellan, the Chapman brothers, an ever-enduring Jeff Koons – shared a taste for slick, expensive, mechanized output. And in fact, looking back, there’s a certain synchronistic poetry to the fact that Marc Quinn’s ‘Self’ portrait, a principal icon of the era, quite literally froze the blood.

Further tendencies underpinned the general sense of pristine, chilly surface. Graphic design in the late 90s exulted in the hard edges of its newly perfect digital genesis, while on a popular level, serious flirtation with ‘minimalism’ induced homeowners to replace comfort with pristine surface and spacious void.

Clearly, any attempt to rapidly define a moment in art history is doomed to over-simplification. A vast array of artists stand in lush counterpoint to Hirst’s surgically steely cabinets or Whiteread’s pale, negative spaces. The work of Peter Doig, Marlene Dumas, Daniel Richter and Jörg Immendorf – to name just a few – all manifest an obvious delight in exuberant mark-making or absorbed, painterly gesture.

Yet it’s certainly true that what generally made the headlines – the dissected sheep, the on/off lights, the unmade beds – were essentially ‘conceptual’ works that side-lined direct artistic intervention. And it’s also true that, with the internet truly coming of age in the ’90s, such highly publicized aesthetics became instantly and widely accessible for the first time in any history. In the mass public eye, art had gained a hard, new edge.

Yet elsewhere, a wildly contrasting vision was being far less well documented. On America’s West Coast, in particular, the long-gestating seeds of a brimming alternative scene were beginning to bear considerable fruit. Its influences were multiple and diverse, yet shared the fact that all lay well outside the contemporary mainstream.

In LA, for example, the ‘underground’ drawings of Ray Pettibon – linked initially to the rock scene then distributed through short-run zines – had garnered fervent admirers throughout the late ’70s & ’80s. A major exhibition in 1992 succeeded in raising his profile both throughout the States and abroad.

Yet Pettibon’s work was merely the best-known facet of a burgeoning counter-culture. One which, since 1986, had found a major advocate in the now legendary La Luz De Jesus gallery in downtown LA.

This space, located incongruously above an offbeat gift store, focused entirely on artists whose backgrounds and influences sprang from an array of popular cultures such as illustration, folk art, comics and tattooing. And this output, crucially, tended towards an intricate figurative craftsmanship more closely associated at the time with illustration than so-called ‘fine’ art.

The gallery and its stable of artists proved a speedy and influential local success, and in 1994, Juxtapoz, a magazine founded by Robert Williams (himself an artist and friend of famed underground artist Robert Crumb) also began to showcase this growing wave of alternative art.

Utterly at odds with the rarefied, theory-led aesthetic dominating contemporary practice at the time, this new sensibility came to be regarded as a movement. Its roots and position were defined by not just one label, but two: Low-Brow, or Pop Surrealism.

Resolutely populist – bordering, even, on kitsch – its appropriation of popular style and content within a fine art context questioned long-held assumptions regarding the parameters of art itself. Revisiting the earliest tenets of Pop Art, it nevertheless totally dismissed that movement’s later associations with Warholian mass production.

And in San Francisco, too, similar trends were at work.

In the 1990s a group of artists including Chris Johansen, Clare E Rojas and Barry McGee emerged to form a distinctive new scene. Their work, though sharing much with the Low-Brow phenomenon, differed in several important respects and became known as the ‘Mission School’ in recognition of its essentially San Franciscan flavor.

Local influences contributed to a more whimsical, looser approach to image-making than LA tendencies at the time. Street art such as graffiti formed an intrinsic part of the scene, but was generally refined into a figurative rather Tattoo Graffiti Pens than textual medium. The legacy of underground comics pioneered by the likes of Robert Crumb was also evident in cartoon-like characterization and a witty, humorous edge.

More importantly still, while painting lay at the heart of the Low-Brow movement, drawing was much more widely adopted by the Mission School artists.

In a nod to the hand-drawn agitprop and pyschedelia of ’60s Haight-Ashbury, they revived techniques such as detailed patterning, hand-lettering and découpage. Materials, too, were frequently unconventional; ball-point pens, markers, recycled paper, wood or metal all found a part in the Mission School look.

This ‘regional’ distinction was clearly underlined in publicity for a 2000 show at LA’s New Image Gallery:

SAN FRANCISCO DRAWING SHOW curated by: Alicia McCarthy and Chris Johanson. May 19 – June 17, 2000.

Straight out of San Francisco, drawings of over 15 artists will be exhibited …. Currently there are important artistic trends developing out of San Francisco. Drawing is at the root of this development.

Meanwhile, however, America’s East Coast found itself forced (for once) to gradually acknowledge a nexus of creativity occurring elsewhere. While many commentators, curators and gallerists became increasingly aware that some kind of real cultural shift was taking place, others seemed slow or simply unwilling to recognize its impact or legitimacy.

Yet the growing appeal of Low-Brow and related work – especially amongst a generation of new and emerging artists – was undeniable. New galleries opened to deal exclusively in the genre, and Juxtapoz, along with many of its featured artists, began to acquire a cult following. Its international distribution and the broad reach of the internet helped ensure that this new sensibility filtered beyond the US.

The ‘unofficial’ Californian scene gathering pace in the ’90s was intrinsically linked to a rejection of prevailing artistic practice – the notion, as Fred Tomaselli later put it, “…that people are a bit tired of the over-rationalism (sic) of the art world, this idea that you can get to everything through the cerebral.”

Yet its ethos was otherwise hugely democratic and unifying, a statement of validity for neglected or side-lined art. There can be little doubt that its emergence provided an impetus behind the current interest in drawing.

But this interest – and with it, the resurgence of a particular kind of artistic engagement – was not, of course, solely confined to America’s West Coast.

Elsewhere in the States, Laylah Ali’s first major show of meticulously patterned, faux-naif works took place at Chicago’s MOCA in 1999 (she had been featured, along with Chris Johansen, at New York’s Drawing Center in the summer of 1998).

Julie Mehretu, likewise emerging towards the end of the ’90s, fused painting with drawing in a myriad of complex mark-making, while Canada’s Royal Art Lodge, formed in 1996, produced whimsical drawings, paintings and objects reminiscent of the Mission School’s output.

In Europe, similar trends were also underway. As the 20th century drew to its close, Sweden’s Jockum Nordstrüm was gaining recognition for his beautifully rendered, twisted tableaux of far from ordinary life. Switzerland’s Marc Bauer produced vigorous drawings that exemplified the medium’s strength, and in Britain the hand-drawn zine was adopted by Olivia Plender, albeit in a highly polished form.

While drawing, obviously, had never disappeared entirely from the gallery, these artists represent just a few of those contributing to its rapidly growing visibility towards the end of the ’90s. A resurgence now so evident that, though prompted by certain definable factors, it nevertheless seems organic, almost essential; a phenomenon that quite possibly identifies as well as answers very current needs amongst today’s young artists.

And what are they?

Well to start with, drawing is cheap. For those struggling with the high costs of studio space and materials, it’s a medium that’s financially viable as well as a manageable means of production.

What’s more, it’s hugely inclusive. Everyone, at some point, has experienced the act of drawing at some level, a participation which affords even the most casual observer a sense of involvement in the medium; a visceral engagement in its use that conceptual art forms often lack.

Yet despite this refreshingly egalitarian glow, it also appears that much of today’s output seems directed towards highly individual, even arcane expression, a practice exemplified by intricate, almost obsessive mark-making.

On the one hand, this wholly supports an ethos by which today’s artists seem to demand an intimate, personal and evident engagement with their art.

Painstaking detail and labor-intensive mark-making represent artistic endeavor for which the artist alone is responsible. No third-party construction teams, no assistants on hand to dab a brush as directed. This art is about making in the purest possible sense.

A parallel explosion in use of craft elements – beading, glittering, collage, embroidery – as well as the growing popularity of zines and artists’ books – mirrors this quest for hands-on, highly personalized involvement.

Yet more intriguingly, demands for creative ownership may well serve needs besides a revision of artistic involvement.

Art, of course, has always been about reflecting and interpreting the world, but the early 21st century seems to have experienced a particularly profound re-appraisal of exactly what the world involves. The outlook is an uneasy one, marked by a growing sense of schism and dislocation, and in particular, the notion of circumstance veering out of control.

To return briefly to Pop Surrealism, true to its ’surrealist’ label the movement is marked by subversion of apparent reality. Typically, this takes on disturbing, anxiety-ridden form; bio-morphed figures inhabit scenarios laden with threat; an undertow of violence is darkly enhanced by imagery plucked from childhood.

And importantly, unlike Surrealism, which investigates the interior spaces of the human psyche, Pop Surrealism obliquely focuses on physical, actual realities. Those genetic hybrids, ruined landscapes and constant simmer of threat don’t merely exist in our nightmares. They’re with us now.

The movement itself may have had its day as far as the art market is concerned, but the zeitgeist it portrays is clearly here to stay.

Consider, for a moment, Jean Dubuffet’s famous description of L’Art Brut

“Those works created from solitude and from pure and authentic creative impulses – where the worries of competition, acclaim and social promotion do not interfere – are, because of these very facts, more precious than the productions of professions. … we cannot avoid the feeling that in relation to these works, cultural art in its entirety appears to be the game of a futile society, a fallacious parade.”

Though written in the 1950s, the proclamation reads now like a perfect manifesto for the kind of anti-establishment art scene we’ve been discussing. Yet quite apart from epitomizing a ‘purer’ alternative to the mainstream, the kind of art Dubuffet describes now carries connotations far beyond those of his original assessment.

The ’simplicity’ of naïve or folk art harks back – in popular nostalgia at least – to carefree, less complex times in which a sense of place and purpose were clearly defined. It’s little wonder that its revival coincides with acute apprehension regarding our own, turbulent times.

By contrast, much outsider art is clearly associated with not belonging – a characteristic most evident in its embrace of art produced by the mentally ill.

Yet here again there’s a definite connection. Such work often originates through its use as a therapeutic tool; a fact that throws interesting light on the intricate, involved delineation of much recent drawing and painting. Indeed, in its conspicuous efforts to order, pattern and negotiate space, such complexity provides almost casebook examples of conflict-solving Gestalt.

More interestingly still, a significant proportion of contemporary practice doesn’t just seek to interpret complex realities, but actually sets out to create them through construction of highly personal, alternative worlds.

Paul Noble’s well-known drawings of fictional ‘Nobson Newtown’ are devoid of human figures, yet imbued with visual invention and idiosyncratic textual comment. A clear intention is to provide a reflection of the mind of their maker: as Noble himself puts it, “town planning as self-portraiture”.

Other artists’ fictional worlds provide similar arenas for grappling with issues that echo or parallel our own.

Michael Whittle, a recent graduate from the Royal College of Art, creates intricate drawings melding religious iconography with motifs garnered from heraldry, alchemy and science. The resulting images, snapshots of impossible states, underpin the artist’s own desire to “make sense of reality” while also investigating “… man’s attempts to come to terms with existence”.

Camille Rose Garcia (whose practice, though largely identified with painting, includes much drawing) is well known for deceptively enchanting visions of what amounts to a near-dystopia. A recurring cast of characters battle to save or destroy a poisoned, dying world. The baddies, unfortunately, seem to be winning.

Art today appears to be grappling with a spiritual, political and therapeutic function that arguably, it hasn’t reflected quite so clearly for centuries. And the fact that drawing, the most immediate and spontaneous of mediums, forms a vital aspect of the interpretation of a complex world should come as no surprise.

Postscript: Drawing right now – who we’re liking

The energy of the California scene continues apace, with San Francisco still arguably the epicentre of new drawing – check out the wonderful work of Sara Thustra, Sacha Eckes, Andrew Schoultz and Simone Shubuck (a San Francisco native, though now resident in New York).

LA practice remains particularly diverse, but artists who make exciting use of drawing include Travis Millard, Adam Janes and Gina Triplett.

Elsewhere in the States, we enjoy the work of Carter, Aurel Schmidt and UK-born Dominic McGill (best known for his epic, 65ft ‘Project for a New American Century’).

In Europe, Richard Höglund produces interesting drawings informed by semiotics, and in the UK, artists of note include Sarah Woodfine and Adam Dant (the latter have both been recipients of the Jerwood Drawing Prize.

Most exciting of all, newcomer Laura Oldfield Ford creates large-scale, beautifully rendered drawings with astute political commentary at their core, as well as the cult zine ‘Savage Messiah, an extraordinary foray into the psycho-geographic terrain of London.