Drawing for Changes and Disappearances No. 33 1979 - 1982

John Cage made this drawing, one of many in a series, using pencil on paper. There’s something so open and breezy about seeing the underpinnings of a creative process. Here, the lines are tentative, searching, like thoughts forming on the page. The handwritten notes scattered around the composition give the impression of a map, or maybe a musical score, something not just to be looked at, but performed, or followed. I love how the simplicity of the materials – just paper and pencil – puts the focus squarely on the artist's hand and mind, capturing a moment of pure, unadulterated creativity. It makes me think of the drawings of Cy Twombly, but with a more diagrammatic feel, as if he’s showing us his working out. Ultimately it reminds us that art is less about answers and more about the questions we ask along the way.