A novelty nose and glasses on a pencil drawing
Conté Pierre Noire pencil, novelty spectacles, paper 42x30cm 2021-2024
The pencil drawing was executed in December 2021 using a Conté Pierre Noire pencil. The novelty glasses and nose were added in September 2024 to create a montage or assemblage.
It was created in the typical way that works of this type are often created: the drawing was lying on a work surface and the glasses were lying nearby. I’d already placed the glasses on a few other pictures to suitable comic and/or bizarre effect, so I thought I’d try them on this drawing for size. They fitted (at least as far as I’m concerned).
The nose/glasses combination are sometimes called disguise glasses or Groucho glasses (after Groucho Marx, whom I think used to wear them).
The process of coming up with new ideas as a result of inspiration generated by things around you applies to everything in life, not just art. By ‘things’ I don’t just mean objects (such as novelty glasses) but ideas. When a person comes up with a new idea it’s very often a fusion of ideas that are already around and which the person picks up and combines in a new and interesting way. As a result,in any given culture, new concepts tend to be predetermined by the concepts that the culture already holds.