Sitting in my usual environment, listening to the musicians at the Mulberry Tree Sunday Folk Session. Tonight, there are two differences. 1- I've just got back from Ireland. 2- I don't have a sketchbook with me. I've been attending this session fortnightly for almost a year, and it has provided a platform for public sketching, allowing me to push my own boundaries - testing new mediums, such as painting with beer, and giving me the opportunity to sketch people that are seemingly unfazed - so absorbed in their own creativity. This is the first time I've been here without a sketchbook. Since I first came here, I've helped to build a group of sketchers, ranging from 2-6 each session, complimenting the 10-20 musicians that attend each time. However at this session, I was neither musician or sketcher, I was an outsider. The first time I have felt that way here. Two of the sketchers that regularly attend, have been encouraged by myself, having come from either no or little experience of public drawing. I found this a strange place to be emotionally - acting as art mentor each week, to then remove myself from the practice, like letting students go at the end of a course. Talking to another sketcher here - I told him about my month sketch ban. After an hour of processing the notion, he told me that my not drawing is making him uncomfortable. I found this flattering and sad at the same time, I love being part of this artistic unit, and to pull away is a strange concept. At the same time, I'm noticing more and less - more in the sense that I'm normally hidden behind a book, so details such as the flow of the music and conversations amongst my friends are overlooked - something I hadn't noticed before. Less in the respect of general detail - when drawing I don't have to think about what I'm doing, seeing is instinctive. However while trying to force myself to write, it's then more of a mission to get myself to focus. I know for a fact that this was once the same with drawing.
