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So without further ado, let's meet Lewis!
Wes Douglas (WD): Hello Lewis and thank you for taking the time to chat with me here today. I used to wonder, Lew, if what you are doing at the JazzO music events relates to “urban sketching” at all. I mean, you sketch on location, you draw/paint from observation, and you share your work online. Those are all Urban Sketching guiding principles and even one more “we welcome all styles and mediums.” That seems to fit withint the urban sketching manifesto if you ask me. What do you think?
Wes Douglas (WD): Hello Lewis and thank you for taking the time to chat with me here today. I used to wonder, Lew, if what you are doing at the JazzO music events relates to “urban sketching” at all. I mean, you sketch on location, you draw/paint from observation, and you share your work online. Those are all Urban Sketching guiding principles and even one more “we welcome all styles and mediums.” That seems to fit withint the urban sketching manifesto if you ask me. What do you think?
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I don’t differentiate between black and white and color either. It’s either dry or wet. Dry is sketching. Painting is wet. That is how I categorize the process. And the gig usually dictates dry or wet. But I will use the term ‘sketch’ to make it simple.
WD: Why do you sketch? How does it help you?
LA: I create to music, mostly, or at least it is what I’ve become known for, which is cool with me. So I sketch to hear the music, in the way my brain likes to hear it.
In general, I sketch to get a grasp on what is going on in the world. It’s my vehicle to understand; my default tool in my toolbox. Sketching slows thing down for me, so I can hear, and even rewind what I’ve just heard. I can look at a drawing the next day and residual hear the gig from last night, in a sense.
LA: I like the caveman grit of charcoal, right now. Pastel, chalk too for the dry work. Acrylic is the functional wet on-sight media. AD markers for small moleskine sketches.
WD: Where is your favorite place to sketch?
LA: I love Constellation Chicago. It’s the vibe of the place. I feel welcomed there, to create. And I have a mental archives of great sound experiences from there. And they have me formally paint large scale on canvas. Which you cannot do without permission from the owner, and blessings from the musicians. So it’s a relationship thing too.
And I like to combine the music and exterior spaces thing, which is why music festivals have become a favorite gig.
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WD: What is the inspiration for the sketches you selected?
LA: Well, music is the simple answer. But it’s really knowledge that I seek through sketching, and wisdom through that. How else, as artists, are we to communicate to others, except through our gifts/talents/tendencies? I get to ‘tell’ the musicians how I have just felt about the live performance, by showing them a live document of my experience. I dialogue through visual means. So my inspiration is also the ability to ‘be heard’.
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LA: So the artworks are special because they represent a personal memory (a concert) but they also embody this impossible task and continuing adventure. The task of capturing fleeting live music while it’s lingering in the air. And the adventure of documenting this impossible gig: trying to sketch something that doesn’t really visually exists (except in my imagination). And I’m trying not to force the colors and forms onto the music. I let the music tell me what to do. What colors and line quality to use. The music tells me what personal references to touch on, and use as push off points, to create an authentic artwork, where I am just a vessel, present in front of the paper/canvas, getting the music ‘out’. If that makes any sense.
LA: I do a decent amount of organizing, networking and self promotion. Which has all to do with the Jazz Occurrence project; where I produce events so that I can curate and paint larger scale next to the musicians, and really physically get ‘into’ the music. If I am part of the show, I can cut loose and even influence the music happening in appropriate ways.
I also educate; teaching improvisation and ways/means of cross influence and collaboration with students.
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WD: If anyone wants to follow you or to find out more about Jazz Occurrence, do you have any links online?
LA: Yes, there are a number of links where I post information about Jazz Occurrence and when the next events will be:
Website: www.lewisachenbach.com
Twitter: @lewisachenbach #jazzoccurrence
Instagram: lewisachenbach #jazzoccurrence
WD: Lewis, I greatly appreciate the time you’ve given us here today and I really enjoy how your Jazz Occurrence project has redefined common perceptions of what a “sketch” can be. I look forward to the next time you and I can hang out with one of your group of jazz musicians and sketch together.
Spotlight Sunday is a series of interviews designed to introduce and highlight Chicago Urban Sketchers individually. Now that our chapter has over 500 members it has become more of a challenge to meet every sketcher in person and have a conversation. These posts concentrate on individuals and speak in their own words and sketches.
Spotlight Sunday is a series of interviews designed to introduce and highlight Chicago Urban Sketchers individually. Now that our chapter has over 500 members it has become more of a challenge to meet every sketcher in person and have a conversation. These posts concentrate on individuals and speak in their own words and sketches.
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