My friend John and I were hanging out listening to some live music a few weeks ago…
Open Mic night in a small local venue… Conversation? Out of the question.
I remembered my pack of ATCs (artist trading cards) and fountain pens. We decided to take turns sketching on the cards…
We each sketched for a few minutes, and then swapped cards and continued the drawing the other person had been working on.
Here you see one of the sketches. Maybe John will scan and post the one he kept…
I love that I can hardly even remember which lines are “mine”, versus “his”.
I often consider “my art” so personal, so self-expressive…
Giving away authorship on these sketches bumped me out of self-absorption and into a new understanding of the Emptiness of “art”.
leslee hare 
I love your sketches… so full of character! :-)
Best,
Eliz
Thank you for the comment! More to come soon :D
i love your atc! i need to get back to doing them, i had so much fun trading with people around the country! way to go on the spontaneous art!
thank you so much! they are very liberating, altho I’m not sure i’m ready to “liberate” any of them! I think I’ll start using them as my “.” posts ;D
Authorship is a real trick… I think we will become artists ultimately when we give up on authorship. It’s hard to forget about it but the idea of marking art is like the idea of grabbing rain. In other hand you never loose authorship for you art is a part of you that you pass to others and live in others. I love the idea of collaboration. It’s so invigorating! Now something to enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDdUxdxVTH0&feature=player_embedded
Wow, that is amazing! Is this one of your videos? Thank you so much!
I hope it was… it’s really beautiful… They are tattoo artists and they also paint. Very fresh stuff…
Yes! I really admire the steady hand painting those curves so confidently…
I’m loving your sketches. I’m inspired to do some more myself. Perhaps I’ll get brave and scan them in sometime.
Oh, I’m glad you’re enjoying them! Yes, get brave!!!
Great concept – especially the discovery of being unsure which lines are yours.