12-24-00

method: HB pencil on medium-tooth paper, unfixed

The assignment was to show our hometown. We had to have drawings, original, and text if we wanted to.

I can't draw. How am I going to do -this-??

I planned on going to the Mission Inn district, a place with little shops and great big California Mission Style Baroque buildings, housing the oldest Inn in Riverside -- where six presidents have stayed. Riverside's claim to fame.

When I got there, though, I couldn't seem to get it right. I love this district. I'm too close to it. My lines were fuzzy. My emotional state fuzzier.

In the car, I drove around despondent. I can't draw. How am I supposed to show these things if I can't draw??

I found myself in front of the citrus groves. National park, or State historical park or just a local historical park -- something. I looked at the old pickup truck, the palm trees and the fences, the banners waving in the breeze coming off the San Bernadino mountains in the background.

And I put pencil to paper in a meditation of art and soul.

Someday, I'll draw the Mission Inn. But first, I have palm trees to play with.