EDM 29 - Something Architectural

Architecture is not my strong suit when it comes to drawing. It pains me to say this because my father's career was architectural engineering. My problem is that I have not studied or practiced perspective enough. I never even learned the concept until my one and only year of studying art in college. Even then, it was a day or two of practice, and then we moved on. I must work on this. But, until I do, I will choose close-up shots of buildings with lots of curves. You can fake the perspective that way! I just happened to have some shots of St. Patrick's Cathedral on my iPhone from a trip I made to NYC for Mother's Day this year. Of course, the entire cathedral was draped in scaffolding. I say, "Of course," because the joke in my family is that every great landmark is in scaffolding the day I visit. It's uncannily true.

What a gracefully gorgeous building St. Patrick's is! I loved studying about cathedrals in art history class. There's so much meaningful symbolism in the architecture itself. Everything has a purpose, and it's usually to draw your eye upward toward the heavens: stunningly high ceilings, lots of architectural detail over your head, gracefully curved arches, clerestory windows that pull warm light across what would otherwise be a dark and cold stone space. And what a space it is! It is vast with relatively little internal structure to clutter the view above you. The structure is in the walls. Those beautiful arches are functional. They allow the upper space to be huge and open, and you feel very small. But, somehow you feel like you're part of the beauty, too, sharing in something glorious. It feels like a privilege to get to see this amazing thing. It's brilliant really. When you're trying to communicate that this is God's house, it had better be pretty fantastic.

EDM 29 - Something Architectural, 3x3" pen and ink