Dec 31 2006
Blind Pig Drawings: An Introduction
I know, I know. I should be working. But one has to prioritize: make a living, or write about pigs. The choice is clear.
A hundred years ago, before people could avoid reality by playing on the Internet, a favorite pastime was putting together a pig book. I don’t think I’m making this up, the way my friend made up that there used to be sugar in toothpaste.
You’d sit in your dark Victorian parlor (smoke-stained wallpaper with big pink flowers all over it) and ask your friends to sketch a picture of a pig. The only catch was that they had to draw without looking.
Since 1978 I’ve been asking people to do these blind pig drawings. And while I don’t frequent Victorian parlors much, last week I got some great pig drawings at a tattoo parlor. You can see it and more throughout this Blind Pig Drawings category.
— Ginna
Postscript: I was just going through some of my old pig books and found I’d pasted in this column from the May 8, 1978 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle. Now I have someone to credit for having inspired me all these years.
Excerpted from Autograph Hound by William Hogan
Around the century’s turn, [author Ray] Rawlins explained, many people kept “pig books,” albums filled with drawings of pigs done blindfolded …
My pig book began on that very same day. Thanks for the years of fun, William and Ray.
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