Earlier this year, attending my children’s Back to School Night where parents walk through their children’s class schedule and meet the teachers, the calculus teacher had us do a warm-up exercise that has nothing to do with math. (He is a quirky teacher.) He gave us an index card and asked us to take a minute or two and draw a pig on it. After giving his spiel about calculus, he then read a list of pig attributes which allowed us to psychoanalyze ourselves.
So, in honor of April Fool’s Day, and taking a break from heavier subjects of discussion in the Cafe, how about getting a nice drink of your choice and draw a pig? No fair looking at the list below until you are finished!
Do you believe this sort of thing actually does have any sort of subconscious psycho-artistic truth to it? Is it any more accurate than astrology?
Some visual “musak” while you are drawing, from www.maniacworld.com/April-Fools-Day-Images.html
OK, “answers” are below. Did you draw your pig? Don’t blame me, I did not make this stuff up.
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If the pig is drawn:
Toward the top of the paper, you are positive and optimistic.
Toward the middle, you are a realist.
Toward the bottom, you are pessimistic and have a tendency to behave negatively.
Facing left, you believe in tradition, are friendly, and remember dates (birthdays, etc.)
Facing right, you are innovative and active, but don’t have a strong sense of family, nor do you remember dates.
Facing front (looking at you), you are direct, enjoy playing devil’s advocate and neither fear nor avoid discussions.
With many details, you are analytical, cautious, and distrustful.
With few details, you are emotional and naive, you care little for details and are a risk-taker.
With less than 4 legs, you are insecure or are living through a period of major change.
The size of the ears indicates how good a listener you are. The bigger, the better listener.
The length of the tail indicates the quality of your sex life. And again more is better! You a drew large tail, WOW!
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It’s been a while, but I believe my pig was drawn facing forward, in the middle of the paper, few details, ears larger than average, part of the body and all four legs visible. Those attributes are reasonable indications of my personality; but not entirely accurate. As to the tail, that’s privileged information … but my pig did have a big smile.
And with that, and June’s kind permission, I am taking a sabbatical from Ragged Cloth for a while. I will check in and try to comment as my dwindling spare time permits. The posts have been so well-written and informative I need to make time in my schedule to at least read them, and keep RCC a part of my artistic education.
Angela Moll
clairan
eileen
gabrielleswain
Jane Davila
june
karenmusgrave2013
kate
kathleenloomis
lindafrost
martinehouse
mcooter3
olganorris
pamdora
sandyw
snicklefritzin43
terrygrant
websandthreads
Ragged Cloth Cafe, serving Art and Textiles 
Perhaps we could come up with a better set of criteria more particular (and more representative) to artists.
Did you erase any lines? Then you are a perfectionist.
Did you use the first mark-making object to hand? Then you are a pragmatist.
Did you draw a pig with wings? Then you are a dreamer.
Did you draw a horse? Then you are an anarchist.
Well, my pig is looking at me, rather foolishly. We will not speculate what a foolish looking pig says about its artist….
I always wonder what to make of these kinds of analyses. In a lot of workshops, they are used as kinds of ice breakers and once touched on lightly by the speaker, put aside as frivolity. “Now that I’ve allowed the children to work off their energy, we can get down to the serious business of parking permits!”
Me, I’m wondering why my pig has no mouth. Maybe it’s because I talked too much last night in a critique session where we had to “explain ourselves.” Ugh. It certainly can’t be that I am a silent observer. Although in December I did do an abstract painting I called Silent Song.
My pig has four ears (or perhaps the first set is a pentimento, since it was composed of ears that are rather narrow and long and sinuous which then got penciled over with nice fat pointy ones). Is this like listening with “forked tongue?” And I picked up the first pencil that came to hand, which turned out to be a 6B drawing instrument which makes lovely dark fat lines so the ears are rather fattish, too.
You see what I mean — the exercise gets to a certain point and then, my mind drifts away to other things, like pork chops and sad eyed critters with fat ears (and a very big snout). But not parking permits, which is perhaps for the best, albeit disappointing to the speaker.