This is a drawing I did many years ago for a life drawing class- we had to select objects that we felt contained elements of being sacred or profane in a still-life arrangement and draw them from hand.
From Wikipedia: The concept of sacred and profane comes from French sociologist Emile Durkheim; the dichotomy between the sacred and the profane to be the central characteristic of religion: “religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden.” In Durkheim’s theory, the sacred represented the interests of the group, especially unity, which were embodied in sacred group symbols, or totems. The profane, on the other hand, involved mundane individual concerns. Durkheim explicitly stated that the dichotomy sacred/profane was not equivalent to good/evil. The sacred could be good or evil, and the profane could be either as well.
I had chosen an African head sculpted from ebony wood, a hair comb of my grandmother’s, an unidentifiable translucent shell, a glass ball used to buoy sea nets, the broken top of a guardrail holder and a scarf with alternating silk and matte stripes.
Philosophically, the objects made little sense as being imbued with either good or evil, but the arrangement and atmosphere of the composition gave them a greater mysterious pull. It was the longest life drawing I’ve ever done, taking around 60 hours to complete over the course of weeks of 3-5 hour sittings. I used hot-pressed 300lb heavyweight Fabriano paper (which I highly recommend for any serious drawing) and the finished image measures 18″ x 30″.
