Straight Lines And Circles & Triangles
He did the usual things. He changed his diet and exercised. He listened to programmes about meditation. He tried to find positives in what had happened. He read lots of the books he’d always intended to read but hadn’t, until now, until this time. He took up drawing. All through his life he had wanted to learn to draw properly but never found the time. Now he had time. He practised a lot but was disappointed by his efforts. All he seemed able to do was the kind of drawing he had learned at school; technical drawing with straight lines and circles and triangles. He wanted to draw expressively, abstractedly, freely. He studied artists like Mondrian and Ben Nicholson who used straight lines and geometric construction in their abstract compositions. When he tried to emulate them his straight lines and triangles looked like so many straight lines and triangles. He wanted to give up on his drawing.but knew that while there were times in life when it was all right to give up on things this was not one of those times. He was going to persevere. He would carry on. He would carry on until he had learned to make the straight lines and circles and triangles he had learned to draw as a schoolboy speak, say something.
James Coffey is a Civil Servant in Warwickshire