Bob Dylan

I was somewhere that had dozens, maybe hundreds of pencil sketches by Bob Dylan on display.  I was surprised because I didn’t know that he was an artist and these weren’t just doodles, they were really good.  Some were black & white and some were full color.  There were fascinating, intricate geometric patterns, little randomly spaced portraits of people and animals, landscapes, and word art.  Some sheets had been completed as single scenes and others were obviously collections made at different times.

Somehow I understood that he had done all this work as part of his creative process that he used for songwriting.  It apparently helped him think of words and music to draw what he wanted to write, although I couldn’t identify any sketch that told me it was related to any song of his that I’m familiar with.

There was one constant on every page:  his signature.  Every drawing had his name in block letters that looked like leaded glass work in the lower right hand corner.  The color drawings had it in color, and the black & white ones had it in black & white, and it always was blended into the drawing, not out on its own.