Red's Wrap
Happiness. It's relative.
Tomorrow I Will Draw a Tree
I told my husband that I needed a way to be creative, that I should paint or knit or make something that didn’t exist before and he said, well, you go upstairs every day and write your blog, but I told him, that’s not the same as making something physical although words on a page have a peculiar beauty and sometimes people read the words and carry them around in their pockets for a while, at least until they have to make room for something else, so listening to me with this tiny, infinitesimal desire, he bought me a tiny sketchbook for Christmas that is spiral bound with an image of the Lake Superior shore on the front and fifty thick cream-colored pages waiting for intelligent and sensitive sketches of leaves floating in winter ponds, but I can’t draw I said and put the tiny sketchbook aside but this morning I ordered a fountain pen from Amazon with a medium nib with the idea of creating a pen and ink drawing of a tree, perhaps the one from whence the leaves fell into the pond, maybe, we will see.
9 Comments on “Tomorrow I Will Draw a Tree”
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Snow Door | wisconsinacademy.org
Listen to Jan read her essay “Billy” presented on WUWM’s Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “At the Breakfast Bar” on WUWM Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “The Parish Hall,” on WUWM Lake Effect
“Fury Cannot Touch Me,” Modern Love, NYT, 9/29/11
There are a lot of “learn to draw” programs around and I used one — from Audubon — and by the time I got to lesson 3, I was drawing things that looked like what they were supposed to be. A lot of people can draw. They just don’t try it so they think they can’t. Maybe you can. I suggest you invest in erasers (you can buy them in things that look like pencils and can be easily reloaded) and PENCILS. Then try very thin-lined drawing pens — Pentel makes good ones and a .5 is a good starting weight. The whole point of them is that they dry very fast and generally don’t smear.
Then try a grand experiment: Try drawing something (with a pencil) without looking down at the page. You might be pleasantly surprised. Just let the drawing flow from you eye to your hand. Don’t get fancy. Just try it.
You can do it, Jan!!!
(it doesn’t have to look like a tree… it will be YOUR tree. you’ve seen Picasso’s women …
the ones with two eyes on one side of their head. What’s THAT about?)
It’s likely to have two eyes on one side. LOL
Bless him, how sweet and thoughtful. I started doing watercolors (no, I’ve never painted anything in my life) last July and am having a ball. I am learning so much from You-tube. Check it out – you’ll soon be saying “I can do that!”.
I’ve thought about watercolors, but it seemed very daunting. I should probably do something with crayons. LOL
Now I think community work is daunting, although there may be a lot in common. Fluid beings that are sometimes difficult to control. But watercolors don’t fight back.
Your husband believes… believe in yourself with this just like you do when leaving your mark in so many other ways.
wonderful, leave your mark.
A husband who listens and nurtures dreams. Lovely!