Community Psychology

When I first thought about the "community" I felt I belonged to, I immediately thought of our beloved studio culture. Over the past two years we have been each others help, frustration, and savior through every untrimmed iteration, obnoxiously loud conversation, and those occasional critiques that just didn't quite go our way. But for the sake of MX I decided to venture to another community I have also been quite fond of.

Back in the day I attended figure drawing classes with fellow class mates as an after school activity (I went to an arts high school, we didn't just one day decide to find naked people and ask to draw them). For just five bucks a session we all carpooled three times a week with our bristol pads and charcoal in tow and for two hours we sat in silence and put charcoal to paper.

There was some chatter and socializing in these gatherings, we were friends and all, but the beauty about this after school activity for me was that we enjoyed the solitude that came while documenting the figure in front of us together. There was no pressure to create master pieces during these drawing sessions, just the pure enjoyment of translating a physical form into a two dimensional space. This community was very open and had very little structure, perhaps its what made it so appealing and why I felt so comfortable. It seems that the wonder of something dies when it is complicated by rules and regulations. I would like to keep this in mind when we take our bigger steps into this project. I would like to maximize the purpose of each community and help strengthen its presence while focusing on the essence of the community.