I’ll tell you the truth. I thought this picture was a bit of an embarrassment at the time I posted it, because it had no polish, no technique. But actually that is the point of it. We don’t have to know how to draw like “the artist” or paint like “the painter” or write like “the writer” – we can just draw, paint and write however the heck we want to. We can play. We can tell stories. We are all artists.
We don’t have to wait.
This morning I woke up thinking about the above drawing I drew back in March of this year. It went along with a blog post I wrote called, Once upon a time the world stopped not for war but to save lives. It’s been hanging on the door of my studio all this time and I’ve appreciated seeing it there especially in these strange times.
The drawing is simple, no prize for the artist on this one. It tells a story I can see and feel that stands firmly in the future and yet it is also a living story about today. This picture does not convey the story I understand to others easily. It doesn’t have to – I know the story – words are not needed. Stories don’t always have words. Like the broken and glued mug on my kitchen shelf, I know the story whenever I glance at it.
Then there are the stories that pull us out of bed to tend to them. This morning, out-of-the-blue, I had it on my mind to embellish the drawing above with some of the things I look forward to seeing and feeling in the future. No dates are attached, but this is an image, a story, I will come back to – to remind me of the many stories in the making, and the joy in living right now.
We can play. We can value our stories. We are all artists..
This year has brought some amazing invitations. And some of those invitations, like some stories, are better shared without words.
Enjoy the stories and have a playful day,
– Mary
P.S. If stories were songs, and sometimes they are, what song might you be humming?
P.P.S I texted a friend of mine about this drawing this morning around 3:30 am. I was up that early to do some weekly errands. She surprised me by asking to see the drawing later in the day. I knew that my little drawing just wouldn’t convey the story I understood. So this post is also a response to my friend.
Edited: 1/1/21 for clarity.
