The Mukudori Looked Heavenward

Saturday afternoon, it was the trill of the tiny Shijukara (Japanese Finch) that called me to the hill at Far End. But while looking around for the background, context in which to draw the bird--who kept hopping from one tree to another--I saw the gutsy Mukudori (Starling), ambling toward a tree and looking up towards the top of it. The greenery at the foot of the tree, the black and white of the bird, the rough brown trunk, the paralell shapes of the bird and the tree trunk...before I knew it, I found myself whipping out my memo pad and sketch brush and quickly scrawling outlines of what I wanted to draw.

What I've taught myself to do is to make really lousy sketches at first, mostly drawing things I have to remember about the living thing, which I know will probably take off in a few seconds. If somebody looked at my drawing then, they'd think elementary kids could draw better, and feel sorry for me but leave me alone because I'm not hurting anybody.

That's probably why most artists don't want people looking at their work until they're done; a lot of their things look ugly halfway through. That's the way it is with children of God, isn't it? Until Glorification, some of our hearts look kinda ugly, like elementary kids tried to draw us.