Pages

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Adventure, Destruction and Mayhem in Sketching



The boys and I took a walk late last week to check out the amenities in the apartment complex where we've been living this past month while our house is being built. We found a nice playground, a basketball court and a cute little barn that I hadn't even realized was back between apartment buildings. I really like old barns, especially if they are dilapidated, as this one was. So, having brought along my trusty Moleskine and a 2b pencil, I decided to sketch the barn.


One of my goals for the year was to start sketching in public, so I was feeling pretty happy at attempting it - wasn't really thrilled with the sketch, but that's all part of the process. I never intended to even post it, as a matter of fact, except for what happened the very next day...

DH called and asked us to meet him at the house construction site to check on the progress in building, so we hopped in the car and headed out. As we neared the entrance to the complex, I came across 4 fire trucks and 1 ambulance blocking our exit. I got out to look at what was going on, and lo and behold - the barn, which I had sketched only the day before was engulfed in flames!! We got out and watched the firemen work, being stuck completely now as other neighbors had plugged up the way back.





















Well - the old barn is nothing but a concrete block rectangle now. I'm feeling strangely responsible, as if my sketching it caused it to ignite. Maybe I have some strange telekinetic powers I've been unaware of so far. I guess I'll find out on my next sketchcrawl...

7 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:09 PM

    How strange. Please don't sketch ant of my belongings!

    ken
    http://ken.bricksplit.net

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous3:36 PM

    What a treasure you have! A memory that will only exist in your sketch! Wouldn't you have been sad to have missed that experience! Just goes to show that we shouldn't take anything for granted! It may not be there next time we look.

    ReplyDelete
  3. No, you in no way caused it--the barn called you to draw it in it's last hours!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I like what Nita said! :-)
    The weather will be getting better soon and I'm going to contact you about running around together drawing -- I'm just busy busy busy right now.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I like what Nita said, too!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Geez I hope that doesn't happen to all your sketching subjects!! LOL. It's great though that you got to record the old barn before it was lost forever. This really drives home for me the importance of recording in art form, the things that capture our eye in our environment. We just never know how long we will have them for.

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a blessing! How many others do you think just happened up on that barn and actually had the skill, tools and want to do it? I agree, it wanted you to make it immortal in your art. Isn't God great how He makes all things (even the one we aren't thrilled about) work together for good!

    ReplyDelete