Free Time, Drawing, and Gratitude

Though we often forget to, it’s good to practice grateful. Doesn’t matter whether it’s for your cat, the fact that you have a roof over your head, or that you’re not a peasant in the Dark Ages. I was told enough times I don’t write about what’s good with my life, and that I only write about what’s fucked up with the world today, or my adventures. I thought about it, and reasoned so because no one’s interested in my contentment, they’re interested in intrigue and surprise. I thought I’d change it up. This here’s a short post about something my mom’s been urging me to do for ages since I left art school – draw.

I started drawing late fall last year. Kind of by accident, mostly so my mom would stop nagging at me about wasting what art school taught me. Slow to start, it wasn’t until I got on the road to travel again that I found a place for it in my life. I drawing opposite my diary entries for each day. Previously, I’d only write in the different languages to keep from forgetting them. I would often describe where I am, or what I saw. Now I draw where I’m at instead of painting with words, and it’s more gratifying.

My first drawings were OK at best. I can’t say they’re any good now, but I see progress from the first ones and it’s something I can be proud of. I can see where I experimented with a new colors, or I botched the perspective completely, or where I tried to draw moving people and it ended up looking like black hay. With time I’m seeing a transformation in my style, and though it’s not refined, it’s fun.
Plus, I have something that I can look back at and instantly recall where I was in that moment. Instant nostalgia!

As much as me and my mom disagree on how to live our lives, I’m grateful that she nagged me into drawing because now I have a visual collection of memories. Here are drawings from my diary. Thanks mom 🙂

Enjoy!

You can see the entire album here.