On John Berger and Rediscovering Drawing During Lockdown

“One evening during the strange, in-between time when lockdown was over but we were far from back to normal life, I finally sat down to draw. I found an old sketchbook and a box of charcoal sticks, and took them out to the garden. It didn’t go well to begin with. The first thing I chose to sketch, a bough on the apple tree, was dishearteningly flat, and rather that risk giving up, I immediately turned to my left and tried to draw a pillow case flapping crazily on the washing line. Unsurprisingly, this was no better. I went to the kitchen, and picked up the first thing I saw: a cluster of cherry tomatoes still attached to their vine. Back in the garden, I set them down before me on the table and flipped the page. This third drawing was as clumsy as the other two, but as I scuffed the creamy surface of the paper with rich black charcoal marks, I felt something shift.”

A good reminder of what drawing is for and why folks do it. It reminds me a lot of Lynda Barry's posts on Instagram right now, she's teaching her Images class remotely and sharing a lot and I love seeing students discover drawing with her.