Harassed and tense

The act of drawing. Any fixed contour is in nature arbitrary and impermanent. What is on either side of it tries to shift it by pushing or pulling. What’s on one side of a contour has got its tongue in the mouth of what’s on the other side. And vice versa. The challenge of drawing is to show this, to make visible on the paper or drawing surface not only discrete, recognisable things, but also to show how the extensive is one substance. And, being one substance, it harasses the act of drawing. If the lines of a drawing don’t convey this harassment the drawing remains a mere sign.
The lines of a sign are uniform and regular: the lines of a drawing are harassed and tense. Somebody making a sign repeats a habitual gesture. Somebody making a drawing is alone in the infinitely extensive.