What do you see when you see a bird? Is it the grace of its flight? The intelligence in its gaze? The sharpness of its beak? The softness of its down? Each of us has been gifted a way of seeing birds, unique to our eye alone. When we are in the woods together, I can see my bird, but not yours.
But what if we draw our birds for each other? And the next time either of us is in the woods, we find our capacity to see has grown? Your drawing can teach me to notice strength, softness, swiftness, grace, I otherwise would miss. It does not need to be a "good" drawing. It has energy and life simply because it is yours.
What abundance, to be surrounded by the drawings of other people! Each overlapping in ways, but at their core, inherently unique. Each one, in its own small way, the gift of sight. Making our perception of the world a little sharper, brighter, deeper.
Ours is an age where, increasingly, capital would like to teach us how to see birds. Smooth, flat, digestible. But real nourishment will always come from each other. I want to see birds the way people do. I want to see birds the way you do.
A 4 page comic about drawing, made for the Portland Public Library's new exhibition, "Why We Make Comics: Reflections on Storytelling"
If you live in Portland ME, you can see this comic, as well as 3 others by other cartoonists, on display starting October 6! www.portlandlibrary.com/lewis-gallery/
