With gentleness and depth, Caldecott Medal Winner Allen Say traces his beginnings as an artist in Drawing from Memory. It begins:
I was born in 1937 by the seashore of Yokohama, Japan. Our house stood near a fishing village. My parents were the children of fishermen. Mother constantly worried I might drown in the sea. She tried to keep me home.
Say apprenticed to a cartoonist, Noro Shinpei, at age thirteen when he was living in Tokyo in his own apartment(!) and going to school. The book ends when he leaves for America. I love this exchange with his Sensei:
"But I can't draw hands, Sensei. How long do I have to practice?"
"Bad word, Kiyoi. Drawing is never a practice. To draw is to see and discover. Every time you draw, you discover something new. Remember that."
1 comment:
After reading this, I want to post Say's words on my studio wall; something to remember. Thank you for this.
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