The Nature of the Monkey is Irrepressible…

It’s around a year ago now, that I decided to go back to art… though now, I realise that I’d not actually really left it, more mislabeled it…

So… It’s been an almost daily practice to get out a sketchpad, there’s been the odd day here or there where it’s been skipped but a couple of weeks ago, I went a whole eleven days without putting pen or pastel to paper… eleven days!

And it put me into such a tailspin! See… I had it in mind that I’d gone from 1985 until 2012 without drawing… and I panicked! I thought sh*t! I’m 44 and 3/4 that’s way too old to take another 27 year gap year… I may never draw again… and the more I fretted the worse it got! I put myself into paralysis until I could bear myself no more and thought – get a grip! that’s the most pathetic whiny crap I’ve ever heard! Never draw again you idiot! Just pick your pad and pastels up…

So… the Mandrill appeared…

My dear old husband found it all most amusing and he laughed at my pastel portrait and followed me around the house saying – Ah! Karen! My Monkey! The nature of the monkey is irrepressible hahaha…

Which made me laugh but then to be fair… most things do… but it also brought back memories of my first masterpiece…

So… from tailspin to tale spin…

So… again about a year ago… I’m sat with my sister having a conversation and up pops this tale from my very early days…

She said to me – you’ll never guess what I was thinking of the other day… remember when you drew all over the bedroom walls?

I said – yes! funnily enough I do, it also came to my mind a few days ago…

But turns out, I’d only remembered half of it… this half…

It was a summer’s evening and me and her shared a bedroom and we’d been sent to bed pretty early by today’s standards but probably a pretty average time for early 70s… what ev’… anyway.. It was way too light to sleep… And I had found a black biro.

I took this biro in my little hand and started to draw… birds and trees and houses and people and on and on and on it went with me chitter, chatter, chitter, chatter as I went and telling such a tale to my younger sister and yeah… on and on and on I went… until I had covered every last bit of paper I could reach. I’d climbed on the furniture and stretched as far as I could stretch until I ran out steam and flopped into bed to sleep happily exhausted.

I woke in the morning and I was elated with what I saw sprawled in all directions in black ink…

Not so much my mother! And while we’re on the subject of monkeys… I think it’s fair to say she went apesh*t 😀

I said to my sister – Oh! I got such a beating for that! But worse was what happened next… For the next week or so… every time there was a visitor to the house, I was dragged up those stairs for a walk of shame and to be tut tutted at…

My sister said to me – but don’t you remember what happened next?

No…

So… here’s the half she reminded me of…

We got sent to Fred’s….

Oh… vaguely… oh… yes! yes I do! How could I forget that? Fred was our one legged Bible wielding Granddad… A booming voice that started most sentences with – Now then my girl.. then insert what ever bible quote you like… I’ve heard them all! He was a uniform toting member of the Salvation Army and for a group who preach temperance, they are pretty militant 😀

So… I said – Yeah… we got sent to Fred’s while the room was redecorated… So?

When we got home? yeah?

Ummmm?

The big floral wallpaper?

Oh! Yeah! It was upside down! Yeah! I remember walking through the door now and being told – Right! You keep this room tidy now! No more drawing? What do you think?

I said to my sister – oh! I got another beating for saying it was upside down! 😀

She said – No… Karen! That was NOT what you got the beating for… That was met with dumbfounded silence… What you got the beating for was for standing there with your hands on your hips and your chin up in the air and saying…

I LIKED MY DRAWINGS BETTER!