My life has the same feel as making a continuous line drawing:
I begin in one area, let’s say the cat, and pretty soon my lines have traveled off into the pillow or chair, without completing the cat. Then, before I know it, in the midst of lines describing the chair, I find myself drawing the bookcase or the chairs in the background. Flitting from one thing to the next as my eye carries me around the scene and my pen follows on the paper.
My days are the same. Flitting from one thing to the next…work, take kids places, draw, work, take kids places, go here, go there, grocery shop, clean some part of the house, take kids places, maybe knit a bit, go here, go there. None of these are ever really “finished” in one go, I have to come back to them later, figure out what I was doing, then go off again. Perhaps you know this type of life.
What I need to remember in the midst of it all, is that when I step back after I think, maybe, my line drawing is finished (or has rather “stopped in an interesting place”-Picasso?) I actually LIKE the look of things…the crazy, haphazard look of the lines, the restatements, even the “mistakes”.
This way of drawing isn’t “pretty”, it actually looks a bit “off”, wonky, all “sigh-god-lin”. But whenever I see continuous line drawings, I’m drawn in, hooked, mesmerized…love, love, love that way of drawing. So why do I fret when my life feels like this?
Edith Schaeffer, in her book, Hidden Art, speaks of our lives as being tapestries that God is weaving. Here in this earthly journey, we only see the underside of the tapestry…all the knots, tangles, dangling threads, crossovers, etc. But one day, we will see the other side…the beauty He has been weaving out of the chaos of our lives. I’m banking on that!
**Note: “sigh-god-lin” is my feeble attempt to spell a word that I’m not sure is in use today…I grew up , summer after summer, on the stage of Horn in the West, an outdoor drama in Boone, NC. Widow Howard used this word in describing what happened in making the new quilt she had made for young Mary & Jack’s wedding. Preacher Sims asks her, “What’s that quare (queer) lookin’ thang in the corner?” She replies, “Why it’s a log cabin pattern, ere ya blind?” and then as the realization dawns on her that the corner log cabin is upside down, she says, “Lawdy mercy it IS wrong…I got that thang in there all sigh-god-lin!”
Oh I love the continuous line drawings too…especially yours. But the analogy to our daily lives is perfect. I thank you for posting this. And the description of “sigh-god-lin” … just great.
Oh, Wow! These are wonderful. So exciting. How I wish I could do that.
Charming drawings, and yes, my life was a lot like that when I was mothering my 6 kids. Living alone now, life is a little “neater” but only a little.
Good stuff… thanks for the reminder. I get lost in the tangled mess underneath the tapestry. Well put. I’ve never done it, but single line drawing looks HARD!
I’ve tried single line drawings and they ain’t easy. Mine have ended up all sigh-god-lin! 🙂 These have an elegance and are very well done – I especially like the one with the cats.
I love these kind of drawings. Great thoughts, too.
Great drawings. I can’t get them to look like this. Oh, that is just what life is for so many of us. My daughter is so busily scattered keeping up with kids, animals and everything she ended up washing her daughter’s cell phone. She wrote a note to herself which she posted above her washing machine saying “You are stupid. Check the pockets.” I took it down and wrote “you are not stupid, you are too busy and distracted” and put it back up. Life! I guess hers is more like my line drawing would be rather than your more elegant one.
Wonderful lines — exquisite drawings. You inspire me to do some myself.
I love this type of drawing and I do them constantly! They are definitely addicting. To me, these are perfect!