About Dwg Club

When I was 19 years old, I was a somewhat clueless young high school dropout in Atlanta, Georgia. I’d already decided within myself that my primary focus in life was to be an artist, but I had no idea how to make that happen. As Atlanta was at that moment in the throes of the highest unemployment rate ever, I somehow came up with the idea of joining the Air Force. The outcome could have been horrible, but instead, I found myself working as a graphic artist and draftsman during the Cold War, living in Rome, NY.

Those drawings I had to work on were communications for top-secret missile silos and the like. Throughout each, the word “drawing” was abbreviated as “dwg.” And that’s where the name for Dwg Club came from.

It’s a “club” as opposed to a class, a workshop, or any other such thing where someone is transferring the knowledge they have somehow banked onto others. Instead, inspired by the theatre games of Augusto Boal, Stella Adler, Stanislavski, and many others, as well as the pedagogical notebooks of Paul Klee, the Dwg Club endeavors to share a series of “games” with artists that will hopefully introduce some ideas of art making that might not otherwise emerge. The hope is that when you’re back in your studio, perhaps alone, that you’ll have a few more tricks to get out of your funks and be your most creative being.

While the Dwg Club holds weekly meetings here at ArteSumapaz, you’re invited to participate in any way you can.

-Ric Dragon

“Rules”

You ARE encouraged to talk about and share Dwg Club games and inspirations with others. Please, yes. However, we have only a couple of rules or exhortations. The first rule of Dwg Club: “Don’t worry about your output, the product, or the artifact. It’s about the experience of drawing.”

“Don’t be concerned with how well or poorly you’re doing.” Keizan Jokin wrote that about sitting meditation in Zen, and it’s every bit applicable here, too.

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Half-length Portrait of Bodhidharma, Hakuin Ekaku

The second rule, or request, is that members refrain from commenting on works in progress without the artist’s consent.

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