All of my life – well save 6 or so years – is has been an accepted fact that my brother is the artist of the family. And me not. That is okay with me – I have many talents that have got me through so far. He can just pick up a pencil and . . wel. . . draw. It’s almost like the image was there the whole time and he is just tracing it. It’s always proportional, identifiable and usually funny.
I cannot draw at all. My stick men even look sick. So, when Selina – who’s 7 – offered to give me an art lesson, I took her up on it. Perhaps she would teach me something I didn’t know. Alas, an art lesson to her was telling me what to draw and then critiquing it. “That’s Pretty”, “I like pink” – you know very constructive statements.
She told me to draw a fairy, and so I did. I drew a fairy flying in the night sky over evergreen trees, holding a wand, and wearing a pink ball gown. It was pretty amateurish. But I took my time – trying to set an example to the kids that you always do your best work even if you aren’t as good as someone else. I coloured carefully in the lines, I drew five fingers on each hand and made sure there was twinkling stars in the sky.
September 17th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary: “Flora the Fairy” blew these kids’ minds. They clamoured for me to draw them one so they could colour it in. They think I am a great draw-er. I’ve just been hanging out with the wrong people. Perspective.
The Daily EO 