Thanks, Danny

Sketchbook Skool logo designed by
Jean-Christopher Defline

It started, perhaps in April of 2014, the series of three courses--Beginning, Seeing and Storytelling--offered by Sketchbook Skool, I read about the program in Danny Gregory's blog. 

Danny Gregory must be one of the most beloved artists alive today.  That's what I think anyway. He began sketching after his wife was left paralyzed after an accident in the New York City subway.  He found that it helped him through that difficult time. Now he says it changed his life.  Through sketching he met other artists and traveled around the world. He has created numerous books filled not only with his own drawings as is Every Day Matters but also with the work of the many artists he came to know and appreciate such as in An Illustrated Life (the first book of his that I purchased) and An Illustrated Journey, another book I'm happy to have on my shelf. Some of the artists from these two books were teachers in Sketchbook Skool offerings.

I took all three of the Sketchbook Skool courses.   Even though I'd had art in my life all my childhood and into my adult years, I'd let a crazy thought keep me from making art for 15 years. Danny calls thinking that undermines self-confidence and raises the volume for "I can't" statements a monkey. I've had my share of monkeys.  Self-deprecation is my tragic flaw. But this thought was even crazier. It was the question, "What is my art FOR?"    I'm one of those forlorn souls with Pluto in Leo for whom every fool thing must have a Grand Overarching Purpose. 

Monkey: the Inner Critic

The other thing that made me stop creating art was that I lost my studio. I'd forgotten that. Remembering the pain of that loss was too unbearable for me to hold it in my mind.  It was HUGE.  In that studio I had let myself blossom.  I'd made huge pieces.  The visions of my heart began to paint themselves on canvas. And I couldn't continue to pay the rent.  I was heartbroken. I couldn't bear to go back to smallness.

Sketchbook Skool gave me my art back. It gave back the joy, the absorption,  the adventure, the comradeship of other artists.

The sketching genre showed me how to make my studio portable in a canvas bag and useable at a moment's notice. I write this gratefully now because I'd forgotten what a hole in my soul losing that studio was and the sketchbooking culture  makes the studio ever available and rent free. These three $99 six week courses have completely healed that loss.  Wow!  For me, that is BIG.

Not only that but who cares if the thing I create is 5" X 8" instead of measured in feet.  Who wants those ridiculous huge things anyway? We want an expansion of heart and what does that takes no space outside me anyway.

Storytelling, the third kourse, ended today. There may be more.  There may not be more. The benefit I got from these online offerings is beyond my ability to measure.  Thank you, Danny.