Drawing by Charles Hunt (aka Edward) & text by Gabe Shapiro
As time passes, I realize more and more that I am not just Old School but Old World. Overall, I greatly prefer the analog life. I want to be in direct contact with people and places and things, as opposed to witnessing the world in externally mediated ways. I prefer to walk in the woods rather than watching someone else do so via the internet or another of the multitudinous and voracious reality interlopers.
Nonetheless, I do appreciate the digital; for instance, it allows me to easily transmit the evocative drawings of Charles Hunt.
Last year, there was Charles, sitting nine rows of seats from me in his own analog world as the Metro sped through the cornfields near Belleville, Illinois . . . and he was drawing! On a tablet sans batteries: simple pencil to simple tablet of paper. I don’t see enough of this. It’s a kind of mediation I heartily endorse; it seems so much closer to the subject than using a software interface. Less steps to the thing itself.
Although I had never met Charles, I could not resist talking to the East St. Louis resident about his drawings, which he has been “doing in a serious way for about 20 years. Ever since high school, I started taking it seriously, trying to get better all the time.” Charles has piles of sketchbooks. The above sketches were all drawn while aboard Metro. Almost all are pre-pandemic. You can find but one face mask.
Charles signs his artwork with the name Edward because his father is also a Charles. Family has always called him by his middle name. “I like the name Edward, and it stuck.” While mostly self-taught, when I first met him he was heading home on the Metro from an art class at Southwestern Illinois College.
Things are different now. Just like us, Charles Hunt does not have the opportunity to see as many full faces. Random faces. So many of them are half covered by masks. Perhaps that is why he is drawing less.
Charles has lived in the St. Louis area for 35 years. He awaits the time when there are more full faces to see and to draw.
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These drawings warm my heart. Charles Hunt manages to capture authentic experiences with people in repose, deep sleep, or the young people with headphones. These are inspiring. Just imagine what some of us could create if we weren’t always staring into our phones.
These are beautiful and expressive drawings. I’m happy that they are published here so that many people get to see them.
Great drawings! We need the masks — but I miss the faces. Plus it’s nice to see proof that people in public aren’t multi-tasking, staring at their phones, or otherwise escaping into their electronics. I prefer Charles Hunt’s facebook to the one on the web.
“Lots of little heads…”
I really like the drawings in this piece and all the unique faces riding the metro. There is such a variety of people (most probably not even realizing that they are being drawn).
Thank you for sharing this with the people of the area. I can’t wait to get back out there and do it some more.
I hope that you will be able to publish a second set of drawings here!