will draw for food

A couple of weeks ago, J brought home a form from school, advertising drawing classes. I looked at the cost of tuition and had to bring down the hammer on that one. As much as I would love to see him grow as an artist, my money is already tied to his other activities. Plus, I figured that drawing is something that he could practice on his own time.

I remember being in awe of my mom's freehand sketches as a little girl. I believe that I even asked her to teach me how to draw like that. I started requesting coloring books that had the best pictures...not necessarily the cartoon characters that I enjoyed. I sat in my room and I stared at those pictures and attempted to sketch them instead of color. My mom saw the drive in me and just encouraged me by making a big deal out of my "talent", lol. Even if I had a stick figure on a white piece of paper, it was a work of Picasso to her. So, I kept at it. Next thing you know, I sold a painting in the Fren.ch Quar.ter for $20 when I was 13 y/o. You would've thought that I sold it for $2000. Anyway...

Earlier this year, I discovered that the local visual arts center was offering free parent-child art classes. I signed J and I up for them b/c you can't beat free with a bat. And, of course, he and I both enjoy stretching our creativity. We took pre-Columbian clay sculpture, batik, cartooning, knitting, and hula-hooping (don't ask, but I got hit in the head with a hula-hoop a few times when we were supposed to be decorating them). Even though J and I had creative differences, it was interesting to see his little mind at work and his ideas come to life. When I saw that they were offering those classes again, I had to sign us up.

Today, we took cartooning again. We had a different teacher. We learned how to draw cartoon characters, their profile, their figures, and their figures in action. At the end of the class, we had to draw a comic strip. The last time that we took this class, I drew a little girl that I named "Pen.elope Pon.ytail", who could shoot fire through her "Pippi Long.stocking-like" ponytails. Today I decided to draw a teacher choking a kid that placed a whoopee cushion on her chair. As a teenager, I won a city-wide contest for creating a cartoon strip that warned against drunk driving. So, I know what I'm doing...lol. However, both art instructors from each session probably walked away thinking that I was a few cards short of a good deck. J, on the other hand, was in awe of my work and once again I was Pica.sso.

I watched as J conversed with the instructor about his idea. He really enjoyed this class and has been motivated to practice sketching since we've been home. Now understand this, he draws like the average 8 y/o but no matter what, I praise his work as if it's the best that I've ever seen. I always hoped that one day, he would grow to surpass my skill and actually take it farther. I've dreamed of seeing his work in a museum or his name in the credits for some cartoon on Dis.ney. I've often thought of how beautiful it will be to see someone in my family FINALLY make use of a gift.

But once I get my head out of the clouds, I realize that it's already bigger than that. The beauty has been in the bond.