Billy Collins often asks us to write about what we’re doing and to post it on his poetry broadcast thread. This morning, I woke up thinking I was in Oban, of all places, I haven’t been there in years! and so I did a quick sketch of Alexander McCall Smith’s inlet near Argyle from a video he had posted, with friends singing an alfresco Jubilate Deo in the gloaming. My good drawing pencils and watercolor set were in the car, far away, but I happened to have nearby, an odd jumble of prismacolor pencils in a baggie I was planning to give away. I was desperately trying to finish a complicated multi-year Cal Arts Council Artists in Schools grant due at midnight, my head was a slaughtered pumpkin, I was working off the arse-end of a four-day migraine, and was flummoxed by the Covid/community access questions, and this wee drawing was my one lone procrastination distraction that I allowed myself. I tucked in, and got the blasted grant in on time. An odd solstice gift. Sometimes you just have to find the time to waste a little time. And sometimes the best art supplies (or camera) are the ones you have on hand. And yes, I did post it on Sandy’s Facebook page. No comment was the loud reply.
