3WW (Erase, Meadow, Trace): God's Hand

Mr. Humboldt, a teacher of mine at university, walked us through an exercise today. He gave us each a white board and a dry erase marker. An odd medium for art, but he always likes to challenge us to make visual art with different mediums using everything from Etch-a-Sketches to condiments. I’ve heard tell he once encouraged a class to use their own blood to create a masterpiece. It’s a wonder he wasn’t sacked for such a display. Still, I think they chose not to sack him because he has a knack for attracting the kids of wealthy parents based on a piece that made him famous early in his career.

He began in his eccentric whispery way with a directive to draw something comforting. I immediately thought about the meadow directly adjacent to Nana’s house out in the countryside. I used to play for hours in the high grass; it was my own little kingdom of animals and flowers aplenty. Humboldt – we rarely user the prefix – told us to draw, using only the black marker. We collectively sketched as quickly as we could until he commanded us to cease. He told us to erase it. One of the more brilliant students told the professor that he had nothing with which to erase the board. Humboldt simply said, ‘Lick it for all I care, you witless dolt. I’ve given you the tool to make the art; you can, at least, have the wherewithal to find a way to dispose of it.’ No one else asked about an eraser.

Humboldt then instructed us to draw something wicked. A few of the more ‘unoriginals’ – as I refer to them – chose silhouettes of witches and bats and other symbols associated with Hallow’s Eve. I drew the meadow again, smaller this time. And above it, I sketched billowing clouds, roiling thunderheads bringing with them torrential rains and bolts of naked lightning. Humboldt made it a point to view my sketch and simply harrumphed, a complimentary reaction if you knew the stooped old man. Again, he told us to erase the boards.

He gave us his final directive. He wanted us to relate the first two prompts with a personal touch. He gave us nothing more than that, just a personal touch. Suffice it to say the entire class was stumped. Some couldn’t even relate the first and second prompts. I had the luxury of having had connected them already – most likely the reason he harrumphed – but I still couldn’t think of how to personalize it any more than I already had. I then had an idea. I put my hand down on the white board so that it spanned the earth and sky. I traced the hand very deliberately, and allowed the smudge from my skin to remain on the board. I titled it the ‘Hand of God’. Although I wasn’t particularly pleased with the aesthetic result, Humboldt took the board from my desk and dismissed me, telling me that I had nothing more to do for the day.