Doodle Art

When I tilt my head to listen during a lecture or listening to music or I look up to the left for ideas, it's like the hose with a kink is opened up and I can feel my creativity flow to my hands.  It feels odd and unconventional which has been my whole learning life.  It wasn't until I became older and through my children's struggle recognized mine that I accepted that my life was for a fact when learning ~ odd and unconventional and that was ok, because the end result was something noticed.

Mrs Smith, my sixth grade art teacher, taught me how to doodle and find pictures in the shapes.  It caught me like a bug.  I would look for shapes in wood grains of the doors at school.  I would draw shapes on paper that I was supposed to take notes on.  I could never read my notes as I spread them out all over my page and I could not read my own short hand.  So they became interlaced with doodles. 

I took a college course at our community college called Elementary Design.  I learned a lot about instructions in that class.  My teacher was French Canadian and pronounced my name Caaren.  I explained that I had learning difficulties and she gave me concessions with turning in my assignments.  Her medium was acrylic paint ~ I hated painting.  I was so sloppy, couldn't make a straight line if my life depended on it.   My first assignment was a D for the very reasons I did not like painting~!

I remembered later why I had a block with painting.  My Mom got painting lessons for me with a lady in town that did oil paintings.  I remember her demanding I hold the paintbrush a certain way, not explaining that the reason the paintbrush was held that way was so that you could pivot on your picture without smudging your paint.  It was always demand without explanation, and when I struggled, determined I was incapable.  She told my mother I wasn't interested in learning and stopped my classes. 

Funnily enough I was later in the position of starting her with horseback riding lessons ~  Yeah she wasn't great at listening either :P.

I finally realized with my Elementary Design teacher, that the reason I was struggling in her class was because she was wanting me to open my mind and explore, which I already knew how to do.  I told her that I needed more definition of boundaries instead.  So I get to class a few minutes late driving through rush hour one day.  I pulled a sheet of paper, looked at the assignment sheet and saw DOODLE.

I doodled all over that page and saw my next project.  A duck on a lake on a mountain.  Immediately after that she caught me and said I needed to get started on the new assignment.  I told her "I just did".  She went, "no you need to start your assignment".  And I was "I did start my assignment" and she was "what is it?"  where I answered " a duck".

She just kind of dazed at me and said "a duck~?" and I answered "yes a duck" and she kept dazing at me and said "a quack quack~?"  I looked at her and said "yes a duck on a lake on top of a mountain ~ here look!"

I got an A on that assignment and she asked me if she could copy it and share it with her future classes.