Good timber....some drawings, a poem, and...army worms
"Good timber does not grow with ease:
The stronger wind, the stronger trees;
The further sky, the greater length;
The more the storm, the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow."
Good Timber by Douglass Malloch
I don't know about the rest of you, but I have been quite taken by the HONY story this past few weeks, which has focussed on a young man named Vidal, his principal Ms. Lopez, his school Mott Hall Bridges Academy, and his community Brownsville in New York. If you haven't read about it yet, I suggest you head over to the Humans of New York Facebook page and get cracking. It will lift you up and make you feel that much is possible. And make you realise, as this poem illustrates so well, that for some things you need to struggle for them to grow tall and proud.
It gives me hope that despite some, lets call them challenges on the taking art seriously front, I might be able to turn this obession/life blood into something more...and that it might be considered more than just a hobby.
I live in hope. On that front, I finally got my camera working again, and was able to take some photos (albeit not the best photos) of the drawings I popped in frames the other day. What do you think?? I think they come up well, and am feeling a bit more confident to take them up to the local gallery for them to consider.....
I also have had a crack at drawing for the first time on coloured pastel paper with my pastels, which I have struggled with...but here is the result for your input. I had a LOT of difficulty with this drawing which you can probably see because it is very naiively drawn with pretty clunky brush work....but then there is a lot more vibrancy than the others, so maybe I should just work with it and see what happens.
Apart from that, on a separate and unrelated note...oh my word, you should see what is going on around our house at the moment...There is a fantastic german word to describe what it is, and if you don't know it, look it up. The word is ekelhaft....or ekelig.
You see...the army worms are invading and killing everything green in their wake.. See in the photo below where all the grass is yellowing and dry looking...look up the hill as well, see the big dead patch....that is where the army has been...I kid you not, you walk along the ground and it squirms and pops below you. It makes me want to vomit. So gross.
gross disgusting yuck eewwwwwwwwwww army worms on our gate post.