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[Joan Jonas: Drawings]

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[SOUND OF DOG TOY SQUEAKING]

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I don't think that you could ever really

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capture what it's like for an artist to be
alone

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working on their work in the studio;

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I don't think that's possible.

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It's always a set up, you know?

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I mean, I got dressed in a certain way,

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and I wanted it to look nice.

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I cleared up the mess.

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You know...

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It's just a very different situation.

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I'm not interested in having my private moments
truthfully represented--

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at all, because I don't think it's possible.

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I do this kind of work a lot--

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in this case, experimenting with how these
drawings

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are just going to come out if I do them very
fast,

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with this particular tool and this ink.

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So, it's almost accidental if they turn out
or not.

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["Reanimation" (2012)]

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When I perform for the audience, I'm in another
mode--

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another world.

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There's two categories of drawings:

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drawings I do in performances,

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and drawings I do just in my studio.

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Drawing is like practicing the piano;

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because the first ones that I do often don't
come out,

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so I have to practice and do it over and over again

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until I get what I like.

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So I have an owl that I got in Nova Scotia.

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And so I started drawing this owl.

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I'm interested in the mask-like quality of
an owl's face.

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But, it's not in my work;

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it's just part of my drawing archive.

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["Celestial Excursions" (2003)]

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Robert Ashley asked me to choreograph

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a movement and visual element for his opera,
"Celestial Excursions".

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[Robert Ashley, Composer]

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So one of the things I did

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was make a lot of drawings like this,

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very fast.

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And they're kind of approaching a cartoon-like
method.

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["In the Shadow a Shadow" (1999)]

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I did, for many years, make drawings of my
dog, Xena.

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I drew her a lot because she interested me;

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she was very strange looking.

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I haven't started drawing Ozu yet.

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Poodles are difficult to draw because they
all look alike.

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I began to draw my dog with the "Organic Honey"
piece.

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["Organic Honey's Vertical Role" (1973)]

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I was telling stories referring to myth,

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["Melancholia" (2005)]

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and for me, the dog is in the same way

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that a horse is involved with a myth as being
a helper--

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or a cat.

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So for me, the dog is the animal helper.

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So that was the way I justified having the
dog.

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But then I just simply because interested
in

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drawing this image over and over again,

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and making portraits.

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If you make a portrait of somebody,

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you have something about their character,
of course.

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So, I'm interested in getting that quality
into the other drawings,

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otherwise I don't think they're very interesting.