The inspiration for my piece was Jason Polan’s Every Person in New York drawings. What I liked the most about Polan’s work was that the final product was his sketches. Polan used pen, sketchbook, and observation to create his drawings. Most of his sketches happened while he only looked at the people he drew, giving his drawings a blind contour drawing style. His art also reminds me of doodling. He drew during the day around New York City with his favorite spots being The Museum of Modern Art, the American Museum of Natural History, Soho, and Canal Street (Rizzi). He was inspired by his desire to interact with New Yorkers. In his book, Every Person in New York, Polan discussed that his initial inspiration for his piece came from his college project called “I Want to Know All of You.” Another of his pieces called “The Every Piece of Art in the Museum of Modern Art,” where Polan drew every artwork on display at the museum, showed him how he could learn about the artworks and the people viewing them by drawing. He thought of the title “Every Person in New York” before starting his project, and he chose to draw people to improve his artistic skills in that area (Polan). His NYC drawings were intended to be a love letter to the city and to the people in it to express NYC’s diversity and uniqueness (shashasha). Polan stated that many people have shown interest in his work and sent messages to him through his blog to request him to draw them. Polan tried to draw them without being noticed, so that the people would be surprised to find a drawing of themselves on his blog (Rizzi).
I took this technique and applied it by drawing about 50 people in City College. For my piece, I used pencil and copy paper because this was the medium I was familiar with, so it helped me make quick drawings. In my piece, I intended to capture the culture of the City College community likewise to how Polan captured the uniqueness and diversity of NYC. In alignment with Polan’s art style, I only drew the people while I could see them, so most of the drawings of people in motion are missing body parts. Polan stated that his drawings are usually random, but he subconsciously chooses people that have a striking characteristic, such as a unique haircut or body position (Polan). For my drawings, I mostly chose to draw people that were preoccupied working or talking, so they would not notice me, but I also leaned towards a few people in unique sitting and leaning positions. My locations were dependent on which building I had a class in that day. My favorite place to draw was the North Academic Center’s Cohen Library due to the variety of people there and their sitting positions, so it was exciting to try to capture all of them.
I always enjoy sketching and drawing movement gestures, so I resonated with Polan’s art style and wanted to explore his type of observational drawing myself. Polan chose to draw people instead of inanimate objects to improve his drawing skills in that area, and creating these drawings has certainly helped me to improve my skills in sketching people. As I repeated similar features in different people, I found how I could use shapes to capture body parts and clothing quickly, such as a triangle for a sweater hood and trapezoids for bookbags. This project has helped me to understand the society in City College’s community since I was able to actively observe the behaviors of those around me.
Works Cited
Polan, Jason. Every Person In New York. Chronicle Books, 2015. Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/Every-Person-York-Jason-Polan/dp/1452128235?asin=1452128235&revisionId=&format=4&depth=1.
Rizzi, Jennifer. “Artist Attempts to Sketch “Every Person in New York.”” YouTube, 31 August 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FEnUpYrxTg.
shashasha. “Jason POLAN “Every Person in New York vol 2.”” YouTube, 24 February 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuCQpzOXWFg.
This project helped me explore the role of arts in the lives of New Yorkers and the community because it showed me how art can be a tool used to learn about people and culture. As I drew different people at City College, I became observant of the people in my surroundings. I noticed things such as the way they dressed and activities they were engaged in which I would usually not give a second thought to. This shows how artists in New York highlight details in their work that what they are recreating is otherwise overlooked. To add, I also realized that there is art in an individual as well, such as the way they sit or dress, that can all be captured in a quick sketch.
