Just a scribble or two

I didn't have much time for drawing while I was on vacation. I tore one effort up into small pieces and threw it away because I had lost the plot. I was left with only 2 attempts. The first one is mainly coloured and fairly jolly:

scan of dingbat 19

The second drawing is not finished, as you can see. I had drawn a blind string as I do for most A3 drawings. It was being worked on when a friend of my friend came in and she was curious. She wanted to know if the drawing - or the one in colour - was a pattern for embroidery. No, it's just a drawing, I said. What? Just a drawing? No reason for doing it? I just draw for the fun of it, I told her, and sometimes I get quite involved with trying out patterns. The lady could not understand why I wasn't going to do something useful with the result. I could not convince her that the act of drawing was itself useful, if only to me!

dingbat 20 (unfinished?)

Looking at the unfinished drawing I realize that I still want to add to it, though at the time I was depressed by the woman's remarks. Most people are so sure that they cannot draw, even abstract patterns - doodles(?) - that they won't even try, so the reaction to the drawings is quite often astonishment with a little admiration and a lot of skepsis and remarks such as: I couldn't do that, I wouldn't want to do that, It's a waste of time...

I think this business of whether something has to be useful can also teach us a lesson or two about perseverence. You cannot learn anything without even trying, even or especially artistic things. The Zentangle (keyword) craze in the USA and elsewhere in the world has brought people (mainly women) to the drawing board who would never have dreamt of doing anything artistic. OK, you can argue about whether something is art or not, but the fact remains that creativity is the human expression of a inherent need for self-expression that is innate in every child and often gets hidden under the pile of ordinariness that comprises everyday life. The artist pursues the goal of maintaining that self-expression. But doesn't that mean everyone if creativity is inborn? And does that not mean that all, or some facets of a person's character are stifled, sometimes life-long?

Rather than continuing to preach on this topic, I think I should get my pens out and do some drawing.

Back soon...