What Is Your Why?
What is your why?
I’ve been listening to Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s new book called The Art Of Power. The above question is an important part of why she went into politics, it’s something she asked herself early on. She says that it’s a key question for anyone going into politics, because “politics is not for the faint of heart.” Her “why” is helping to end childhood starvation in the US.
But I ask myself the same question. Still working on the answer.
Today was a day of coming up with cartoon ideas, and it’s always really tough for me. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. While working, I did some drawing on Instagram Live—some might say I was avoiding the task at hand!
I call my live-draws “Time To Draw.” Simply drawing mindlessly is soothing for me, almost meditative. I hope it is for the viewer, as well.
Cartooning is not for the faint of heart!
Below is a reel I did, as well. Always trying to find new ways to express.
Happy Saturday, see you tomorrow. Thanks for being here.
I really enjoyed watching the video of the person jumping over the cat. I especially liked the sound of your pencil scratching on the paper - soothing in its own way.
A long time ago (I'm old) I worked through Betty Edwards's book, "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". Following her exercise of contour drawing, I realized why drawing quiets my mind: the part of my consciousness that processes verbal stuff tends to recede, while I get very non-verbally involved in spatial stuff, intuitive stuff around proportion, etc.
You mentioned that it's tough for you to come up with cartoon ideas. For me, creative ideas can come up easily sometimes, but other times not; I think part of "hitting the wall" has to do with the very personal nature of creativity: at the best of times, we're digging deep, trying to express things that are very real to us, not trivial, not cliches. And we're going to show this to other people (in your case, quite a few other people: I've read that New Yorker readership is close to a million and a half.) So, no, cartooning is NOT for the faint of heart; no honest creative endeavor is. Bless you for your courage and perseverance.
I love the "live" drawings (I love all your drawings)