Can we sit down for a moment and talk about expiration dates?
Not the ones that we find on packets at the back of the fridge, but the ones we have invisibly tattooed on the back of our hand (or even worse, upon our heart) that tells us that time has passed us by or it’s too late for us or that thing that we want to do that’s showing up as curiosity is meant for other people, not for us. We do love to get in our own way.
Here’s someone you may never have heard of, but she is one of my creative heroines. Her name is Isabella Ducrot. Below is a paragraph from an article that featured her in the New Yorker:
“Only in the past five years has Ducrot, who turned ninety-three in June, become internationally recognized for her art, which she didn’t even begin making until she was in her fifties. When creating her works, she stands and uses a brush sometimes attached to a stick, sweeping loose arcs of ink or paint onto paper or fabric. She often later incorporates scraps of other papers or textiles. Her painted collages usually depict ecstatic figures and stylized landscapes; arrays of ovals or checkered patterns are a recurring feature. Typically made in series, her works are light, energetic, and uninhibitedly beautiful.”
I have read this article countless times, and every time it makes me cry. Not because she is an inspiring older artist. But because she is an inspiring artist full stop. I mean, imagine your work being summed up like this:
“Ducrot’s work and life offer an alternative possibility: that an individual might remain wide-eyed and open to experience—in an enduring state of naïveté, and with a capacity to be joyfully surprised—until the very end.”
If I have a life goal, that would be it.
You might not have aspirations to be internationally recognised for your art. I don’t care (in the most loving way) what it is you want to do. Whatever it is, if you’re telling yourself it’s too late, it’s really not. I can even argue against you with neuroscience, but we’ll save that for another day.
In just over a week, my bird drawing course, Winging It, is opening and if you are keen to start drawing or continue on exploring, I would love you to join me. We’ll work with drawing from reference, from life and creating illustration. And I can even help you prove yourself wrong if you’re telling yourself you cannot draw.
Staying wide eyed and open to experience is exactly what we are going to focus on, through the medium of observing and drawing birds.
You can learn more about Winging It here: www.janepike.com/winging-it
