the end of my pencil

There are hundreds of things that happen at the end of my pencil. 

But perhaps the most important thing that happens at the end of my pencil is being present. Completely and in the moment present.  I love photography, but it’s such a fast moment that happens between you and the shutter and the image capture. Drawing is a longer experience – more of a meditation that requires sitting, and looking, and looking even harder. And when I’m drawing from something – a tree, a person, an animal,whatever, there is an energy that runs through the end of your pencil from you to that object. This is how it is for me anyway. If you want to see, really see something, sit down and draw it. Get to know it intimately.

You can’t do anything else when you concentrate and give yourself up to a drawing, so you are forced to BE HERE NOW. And that’s a very good thing for correcting a life out of balance. (photo and drawing by Catherine Massaro)