I started doing this around 10 to 15 years ago. I was making films. I drew a lot to explore thoughts, to calm my head. I wasn’t doing so much live performance. I missed it.
A curator dared me to do real time drawing that I had done in my film, Tick Tock Lullaby, as part of a live cabaret night.
I wondered if it could work. I didn’t really research it. Just began with a tripod on the table which I had to cradle around in order to draw.
I think at that first performance in a small room, I still found I wanted to use a microphone connected to speakers. I liked the amplified sound, it felt different, than me just talking and projecting my voice.
Whenever I’ve tried to do a live drawing show without a microphone whilst projecting the drawing being made at the same time, it lacks something. It needs both the energy of the light rays onto the screen combined with the sound waves vibrating through the speakers.
I was thrilled by this combination of drawing, immediate performing and making cinema from a set up on a table. The DIY nature of it. No green light of approval. Even easier than my low/no budget filmmaking.
I went to a camera shop when I had a bigger commission, in a larger room. The tripod set up was not working. So at the camera shop they helped me move to using a lighting stand to hold the camera.
By now, I’d begun to use my phone as a music player, this was linked to the sound system alongside my voice. It was the film soundtrack. Music and voice.
The screen was getting larger. I would perform in theatres and sometimes even cinemas. DIY cinema comes to the big machine, plush seats and static design of the cinema. I liked it. Playing with a hallowed room.
The making of my live drawing shows keeps developing. I’m excited to see what new equipment I can bring to the table. Drawing and performing, whilst also cueing the sound and using paint, pastel, ink or pencil to bring out different emotions and ideas.
After I began to make these shows, I realised through research, that there was a precedent for it. One of the seeds of cinema were lightning sketch shows - where artists would draw and perform, totally live first and then after a while it was filmed, creating some of the first films in the late 19th century. It was vaudeville meets early cinema. When the live audience got more involved with what was happening.
In my DIY cinema I like audience involvement and shared creativity. I present drawings on screen, in real time, whilst alongside I talk, perform. There is a split focus or you can concentrate on one or the other. The audience is the editor.
For my new performances of Drawing on The Bottle at The Camden People’s Theatre this April from the 17th to the 19th, I am working with a dramaturg, Jen Harvie, and also Karen da Silva who is providing additional direction. I always need an outside eye and perspective to find the possibilities of the show and to expand its potential. To keep exploring how I can bring in elements of cinema into the live drawing setting: editing concepts, sound design, the screen, mise en scene. Building up a new film language based on the production being live.
Drawing in The Bottle is a personal story about a universal theme - the journey to addiction and the pathway out of it. It’s a show for people who have experienced the toxic hold of alcohol, are intrigued about it and also it's for anyone keen to explore and experience this novel medium of live work. Please come, please get in touch with me via my website lisagornick.com or find me on instagram @lisagornick.
