"Why do you do it?"
"What?"
"Draw all the time."
"I don't know..."
"Seems a bit... well, it smacks of insanity."
And yet another Mum had this to say about my creative output:
"You need to get out more."
Yes, people, it's true. If only I would stop wasting time checking email, writing blogs and most of all.... drawing.... I could fit in so many more chores in my day. So much more cleaning, hoovering, washing, childcare and, what would please many, ironing of my husband's shirts. But alas, no, I persist in this futile sketching and scratching away with pen, pencil and any sharp instrument on any blank surface. Really, what is wrong with me?
Specially, being a mum of two small children, I really shouldn't be frittering away my rare, spare minutes thus. There's certainly enough to-do lists to fill a lifetime around here. The school runs, baby playgroups, playdates, housekeeping, pureeing, nappy-changing, tantrum-defusing, etc... I ought to have left all self-indulgent creative pursuits behind in the distant past, as soon as baby popped out. I can understand other committed mums or, as in the above conversation, dads, being shocked by my irresponsible behaviour. Indeed people have made a special effort to seek me out to tell me how unhinged I am. And I really had no explanation for why I do it, save that I have always done it. I can no more stop sketching, drawing or designing than I can stop breathing.
How, you may rightly ask, does one find the time to do anything creative in a typically full Mom's day? Between feeds, on coffee breaks, waiting outside school gates, you might find me with my £2 sketchbook journal and £1 black rollerball pen in my hand, often with a baby in the other arm (feeding or sleeping). Its difficult to draw anything legible with just a pen on a madly jiggling tube train or with a madly jiggling toddler on the other arm... but I have done it. The results were only mildly messy. It has taken me longer to scan and upload the comics than to draw them.
So, I started this comic blog, with at least one drawn entry per week, to help me find out why I do it. Will you join me on this quest?
