This isn’t really a post about Michael J. Fox. I don’t know him and have never met him. It is a post about drawing, and about believing in yourself. Just so you don’t expect something juicy, and get disappointed when it’s a rather mundane story about an art kid figuring out she could be a good art kid.
I don’t remember exactly when it was. It could have been right after Back to the Future or right after Back to the Future II. In any case I am aging myself, but who cares.
A friend and I were in my room drawing. We were sitting on the floor under my slanted roof. She was my only artsy friend, and she was really good at drawing, which I thought was so cool. I enjoyed drawing, but wasn’t particularly good at it. I hadn’t gotten out of the “kids drawing faze” and started to draw “properly”. She had and it was such an inspiration to me.
I have no idea what she was working on, for how long we were sitting there or what we talked about. I can only assume we talked about drawing, perhaps school, and that we were sitting there for quite a while, because I finished a portrait of Michael J. Fox.
Anyway, the point of all of this is: the drawing was good! I don’t have it anymore – I wish I did – but I was amazed. She was amazed. “The eyes are amazing,” she said. Or something to that effect. The eyes were particularly good, I remember. And I also remember thinking “I can do this, I am actually good at this”. I think it was the first time ever, I had that feeling.
Then, for many many years, I forgot I was good at it. I became good at many other things, and not so good at even more things, but the feeling never left me. How I remembered I was good at drawing again is a story for another day (it involves an angler fish and a smoking man with a fat neck) but the point is; most days I know I can draw. I am good at it. And I am proud of it. Other days I don’t think I can do it at all, but isn’t that just life?
The trick, I think, is to draw anyway, to sit down and work, and if you and your brain can’t remember how good you are your hands definitely will.
