Heather Hansen, a contemporary performance artist and dancer in New Orleans, has come up with an elegant and creative way to capture her dancing motions on paper ? she gets up-close and personal with a big piece of paper and some charcoal.
For the performance aspect of her work, Hansen invites observers to watch her dance on a huge piece of paper. As she dances and prostates herself on the piece of paper, she marks it with charcoal, gradually building a beautiful diagram of her seemingly ritual dance. She has also created a video called ?Emptied Gestures? that features studio recordings of her graceful and dramatic work for those that cannot see it live.
Hansen says of her work; Emptying Gestures is an experiment in kinetic drawing. In this series, I am searching for ways to download my movement directly onto paper, emptying gestures from one form to another and creating something new in the process?
Hansen is a very prolific artist. In addition to numerous gallery performances and exhibitions of her dance drawings, she also spent all of 2013 creating an artistic sketch a day and plans to do so 2014 as well. By the way ? forcing yourself to create one piece of artwork a day is a great way for people to stay creatively occupied and motivated!
