12/12/12

12/12/12 Copic Multiliner SP pen, Tombow markers

According to an interpretation of the Mayan Calendar, whose last date is 12/12/12, the world ends today. 

 

A few days ago, some sketcher friends and I were pondering what we might sketch on the last day of the world or how we would sketch the world as it is ending. I didn’t give it much thought then, but today when I remembered that it is the fateful date, I started thinking about time.

 

The concept of linear time and how we keep track of it – calendars, clocks, sundials, hourglasses – are all creations of humans trying to make order of our lives. Dates and times are important to us so that we can wish each other Happy Birthday, return library books by their due date, and clock out at 5 p.m. Apparently some cultures have no use for such constructs, seeing time as a continual flow, like air or water.

 

I’m not philosophical enough to give any of this much thought – say, more than three minutes. But during those three minutes, I decided I wanted to sketch something today to commemorate this date, which is numerologically interesting, if nothing else. Then it hit me: If keeping track of time is an artificial construct, then depicting time abstractly is no better or worse than depicting it accurately.

 

I decided to make a modified blind contour sketch of the small clock on my desk. Happy 12/12/12!

 

Please note: I sketched the clock in my Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook, which is made of archival, acid-free paper that is supposed to last for many decades. Just in case.