Bushes and Thoughts

Here is today’s drawing. Drawing this was a bit like squeezing blood from a stone. My drawing teacher in college, whenever we would try to describe something to him, would say, “Draw it. Draw it.” He wanted us to think visually. I generally use his approach in this blog. I try to let the images speak for themselves. I figure that if an idea is both present in my work and relevant to my audience that it will be evident to those who choose to look.
Today, however, I really feel like writing. So, I am going to write.
It’s been a few months since I had more or less settled into a routine: Draw for a bit in the morning and sometimes make things in the service of my ministry. “Drawing” takes a few forms and serves a few different purposes. When I say “drawing,” I mean any visual art project that can be finished in an hour or so and that is a response to either visual or interior stimuli. The purpose of drawing is to develop and maintain the skill of responding to and visually representing things. Integral to this representing is, of course, observing and recording things I see. The other purpose of drawing is self expression. There are actually often things I draw which I do not publish on my blog because they are a bit too personal to be appropriate for a blog. The things I do publish; however, all have an element of self expression. For instance, the colors in the drawing of “Kitay in the Garden” were (as far as I can put it into brief words) my expression of a desire to be at the beach. Self expression is important to my sanity. So, developing skills and self expression are the two-fold reason for most of my posts which are primarily “drawings.”
I sort of thought drawing and sometimes doing graphic design or street art for ministry would be enough to satisfy The Creative Urge, but I feel restless. Maybe it’s time to do a long term project. More mold making? I’ve really been wanting to do a large painting of the Council of Days from the Man Who Was Thursday. Or, maybe it’s time to suck it up and feel restless for awhile. Or, maybe the restlessness isn’t really about the art at all. It’s not like I have much discretionary time. Hm.