Artists draw a lot of lines. Lines are stories. Lines travel. And if its true what they say that happiness lies not in the destination but in the journey then lines might just be happiness. Lines can connect.
Lines also delineate. They can close in on themselves to suggest shapes. They can form borders. Inside/Outside. This/That. Here/There. But if you leave the line open around a shape then inside gets out, outside comes in. If you turn the border between shapes ninety degrees then the slash becomes the hyphen; This-That (this is that), Here-There (here is there).
Popular song shows us how we use the word to say all kinds of things:
“There’s a thin line between love and hate.” (similarity)
“Send me a postcard. Drop me a line.” (a message)
“The Witchita lineman is still on the line.” (the wait)
“Don’t hand me no lines and keep your hands to yourself.” (the pretty lie)
“Because you’re mine, I walk the line” (fidelity)
Lines can be regimental. Everybody line up. Fall in line. The line shows us the norm. And that’s all you’ve got until you learn to draw your own. If you can draw you’re own line then you are an artist, whether it’s a piece of art you make or a piece of your own life.
Well you’ve got to draw the line somewhere, right? Seems almost arbitrary. Might as well be here, I guess. Like you should have drawn it earlier but now you’ve let it go and you’d better draw it now before things really get out of hand. Like you’ve got no choice but to draw the line. Why can’t you just NOT draw the line?
Not an option I guess. The artist in me just has to draw his own line. The line describes me, leads me, becomes me. I draw it, or it draws itself, depending on my view of the event at any particular moment.
Life has a way of becoming fragmented and diffuse but when that happens it helps to start drawing lines between things. Sometimes those lines need to delineate, make shapes, create borders, add clarity. Sometimes those lines make connections, suggest relationship, show us the unity of the parts.
All in how you draw the line.