I have the unerring ability to attract a certain type of person. Like flies to a cowpat. Okay, that’s not very savoury. Like bees to honey. Well, that’s just ridiculous. Bees are attracted to pollen in order to make honey. Like moths to a flame. Well, that’s a bit derivative. Like goats to a cabbage. Better, but it’s a bit early for Chinese New Year. Like…
You know what? Forget the analogy. Just trust me that it happens.
There is, within my psyche, a need to draw to myself Button Pushers, Gauntlet Throwers, Challengers, Comfort Zone Destroyers…. you get the picture.
These are the ones who say “You should run a half-marathon”, “Come along to this songwriting circle and write and perform your own songs”, “I want you to play a part in this play and you’ll need a Yorkshire accent”, “You’re a great writer, you should start a blog”.
In response, every shy and insecure cell in my body (which is, let’s face it, most of them) starts screaming, “NOOOOOOOO!”
But the reckless, unthinking, adrenaline junkie who lurks in my dark corners, always gets her way.
“OKAY!” she says while I try and work out how that happened.
One of the Button Pushers had her way with me a couple of weeks ago. We were due to catch up and in response to the question of what we should do, having been stuck at home with three teenage boys for a very long, long summer holidays, I said, “Something girly. And creative.” More fool me.
A plan was hatched and I was not to know what it was, only that I was to dress respectably but with comfortable walking shoes. That’s the other thing they do, you know. Spring it on you so you don’t have time to back out.
Setting off together, all was revealed. I was handed a small knapsack that contained a selection of art supplies – paints, pencils, pens, sketch paper. We were going on an urban art excursion.
“You’re gonna make me draw…. in public??!”
Well, I did ask for something creative.
You know those teen horror flicks where the friend dares the other friend to walk in the creepy forest or sleep in the haunted house? This was like that, only more cultured.
The first stop was our State Library, a grand old building with a breathtaking domed reading room. I don’t know if it was the permeation of decades of higher learning but I found the experience intimidating and I was depressed by my efforts.
This is not what left the library. At the Boundary Pusher’s insistence, I added the middle bit with the arches and gave it a bit of watercolour after the event. It made me feel a little bit better. Maybe.
The next stop was beside the river. Maybe it was the open air, or the gently flowing water, or maybe it was the boathouses across the river and the scullers going past that made me feel more in my element. I was happier but still not convinced.
There was to have been a nature element to our excursion with a visit to the extensive Botanic Gardens but by then the temperature was into the 30s and tea and cake sounded more appealing. This was the girly part. Tea in china pots and teeny cakes served on white tablecloths at the swishy little café attached to the Art Gallery.
The table had white paper overlaid on the linen tablecloth. And this was an art excursion. (I like to carry a purple pen. I feel like Harold and his crayon.)
It has taken days to prepare this post and quite some measure of nerve to bring myself to make my art pieces public. I am yet to be convinced I possess any real artistic ability.
But that is what the Button Pushers are for, aren’t they? To believe in you more than you believe in yourself. To push you out beyond the view you hold of yourself.
And so, despite my fears, I am truly grateful for the friends that scare me because I would achieve nothing without them.
But I’m not sleeping in a haunted house.
Master of Something I'm Yet To Discover 
Was a fun day. Best part? Seeing the colour drain from your face when you opened the knapsack… Love the drawings – colourful, whimsical. Just like you. X
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Yes, that sadistic joy in my terror also seems to be a common thread… 🙂
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Yay, for the Button Pushers!!
I think it sounds like a terrific outing and I’m sure you remember that artistic ability is all relative … if I had been there, my drawings would have given you a feeling of superiority 😉
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Not if you did it left-handed.
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I may have been impressed with my left-handed drawing, but it was still inferior to any of yours 🙂
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Hm. Well, lacking any evidence, I suppose I must believe you. (But I don’t really.) 🙂
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Have you thought of incorporating a button in the cushion that you sit on? Just imagine, the inspiration coming from ‘down under’ each time you sit?
Hope this helps.
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You are, as always, enormously helpful, Gerard. 😀
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What a wonderful outing with high tea to finish with. I hope they served the tea with a Leunig teapot! Drawing and painting are activities that can consume one, so beware! You are lucky to have friends that push your buttons. Though I do like Gerard’s suggestion. 🙂
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Oh, a Leunig teapot would have been perfect. I will suggest that next time I am there. (Just plain white, I’m afraid.)
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Long Live Harold and his purple crayon and your button-pushing friends! Enjoyed this post very much…..though now am hungry for tea…..
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I loved Harold.
Oh, that baby croquembouche was to die for (and yes, I have to look up the spelling every time…).
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Ah good… I was hoping no one else actually knew spellings like that by rote!
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[H covers her mouth with her hand and whispers] I Google it and then copy and paste!
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The mini croquembouche! I would endure numerous art humiliations (cannot draw a decent stick-figure) for a chance to devour one of those. You are a very lucky woman to have friends like yours, and I’m certain you add to their wealth of experience too (and suppress to the urge to say NO!) What a wonderful, friend-affirming post. We need each other so much in so many ways!
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It was divine! Such a beautiful end to an interesting day.
Sometimes I think I must secretly thrive on this heart-pumping terror they put me through because I keep coming back for more. 😀
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Because you know the real terror would lie in stagnation….
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Well I think you are SO lucky to have such friends, ANY friends, and what a fun day out. I have no idea who Harold is or was, but I like the thought of a purple crayon and drawing on tablecloths (…OK I know it wasn’t actually the tablecloth, but still.)
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It was a fun day, once I got over the whole terrified-out-of-my-wits thing. Oh, Jude, you simply must get hold of a copy of Harold and the Purple Crayon. Such a fabulous book. 🙂
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I shall hunt it down 🙂
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Just looked it up and can’t believe I have never heard of these books! I had a voracious appetite for books as a very young child, but obviously Harold stayed in the US (and Australia it seems). I am now going to draw myself a house with a gorgeous garden 😀
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Oh, so glad to have introduced you to Harold. Have fun with your crayons. 🙂
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All I know how ot draw are stick men. Your drawings look fantastic. What a good sport you are to try. I am afraid I am one of those people who are always trying to get others to push their boundaries.I think I deserve a button pusher t-shirt. 🙂
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Thanks, Sue. Despite the fears, I think I push on because I have such respect for the Button Pushers, I don’t want to disappoint them. (Which is actually something of a double-edged sword because some of the fear of attempting the task is not succeeding and thus disappointing them.)
Hm. I sense a marketing opportunity. I shall think on that…. 😀
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I love my button pusher friends (and really, need more of them), they always challenge me to try new things – to get out!
I love the idea of an art excursion! Such fun 🙂
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One day I hope to get up the nerve to do another one. Maybe in winter when there’s fewer people about.
Half of this blog would not exist without my Button Pusher friends – no songs, no drawings, no Flying Beetroot. Actually, the blog itself wouldn’t exist because that was a result of another Button Pusher. They may scare me but my life would be boring without them.
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You are a genuinely witty|funny person, H ! I have never read a post of your that hasn’t made me laugh, somewhere within it.
Whoever pushed your button re blogging did us all one very big favour; and I should like you to call that person today and tell her/him so, if you please ! 🙂
As for the sketching: personally, I believe you need to generate your own work. Being plonked in front of something to draw is nothing like having an idea, imnsvho …
XOXOXO
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Thank you, M-R. Ever the generous one. 🙂
Two things from that excursion:
1. Much of the fear I was feeling was precisely because I can’t draw ‘things’ unless they are things that are only in my head. The thought of trying to replicate something, knowing it would end up looking nothing like it, terrified me.
2. What I failed to realise is that was not the point. The point was still to generate my own art and only use the locations as inspiration. That it was okay to put my funny little people into the picture and just utilise the background.
What I need to do now is summon up the courage to have another crack with that learning in mind.
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Well, as you are NOT short on courage, it is going to happen. And you are going to share the results with us.
XOXXO
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You left off “I have spoken. Obey my word.”
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I never say that directly to anyone ! – only to the hooling masses. [grin]
P.S. May I have an opinion on the current theme, if you feel strong enough ?
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Interesting. I found your first two drawings–of things, and people in them–quite good. The second one, of the scullers, reminded me of Madeline’s Ludwig Bemelmans–charming.
I think you show native talent.
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Wow. Thank you so much. 🙂
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Natasha scares me all the time…into singing karaoke, among other things that I would never do on my own. I am grateful to her for that, she pushes my “You can do it” button regularly.
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And learning lines and wearing a tiara? 😉
It’s such a love/hate relationship with a Button Pusher. You want to hate them for pushing you outside your comfort zone but then when they do, the achievement is inevitably a rush and you end up loving them for it.
The art excursion day ended with the Button Pusher deciding our next outing would be to go busking. 😮
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What the heck is busking? Funny, Natasha was just saying that we need to find another theater project. Oh boy!
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Busking? You know, standing on a street corner and hoping people will give you money for singing out of key and playing guitar really badly? What do you call it?
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A homeless person with a guitar.
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In Australia we pay for the privilege. We have to buy a busking licence if we want to torture shopkeepers with 200 renditions of Away In A Manger on recorder.
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Banjo busking ? That’d be fun !!!! 🙂
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Hm. Considerable skill level attainment would be required before I’d take that public.
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But why ? – no-one else thinks of that !
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😀
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Fairy nuff … sighh … always searching. 🙂
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How does she threaten you, M-J ? – I mean, you say ‘scares’ … Natasha has Something Over You: I wanna know what it is !!! [grin]
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I’ll never tell… 😉
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😀
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The button pushers merely challenge us to bring to the surface what is already within. That little girl at the top of the tree did not need a button pusher!
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They sound like good friends to have!!! Just think what you might miss without them??
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They are, Elaine. I whinge and moan a lot about what they make me do but I wouldn’t really be without them. (Fortunately, they’re used to me and know that. 🙂 )
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It sounds like secretly you had a good time. I think your drawings are pretty good, because I can’t draw a straight line! It was worth the agony to have that yummy afternoon tea anyway.
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Oh, you’ve got me pegged already. 🙂 Yes, I did secretly enjoy it. There really is an adrenaline junkie inside me somewhere. And yes, doing art out in public is equivalent to abseiling. Truly. Well, okay, the cake may have helped in forming my positive opinion.
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I don’t think I have any button pushing friends. Well, yes there is one. I think ?? The where’s wally teapot is delightful, and whilst I paint, most of my technique has been learnt
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The Where’s Wally teapot only happened because I made a mistake with the lid. 😀
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Typing a comment on my minute phone keyboard with enormous(?) thumb/finger its nigh impossible not to hit the post button when you try to hit backspace! So I was about to say that I don’t believe I have any modicum of natural talent in art, but my interest in it keeps me persisting, which results in lots of mediocre stuff with an occasional stroke of brilliance and that is what keeps me plodding along. I think your drawings are delightfully naive, and not in a childlike way, but in the naive ‘genre’ kind of way! I do wonder what the button pushers will come up with next? I am also sorry I missed this hilarious post and comments until now…
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Dontcha hate that? Happens to me all the time.
Having checked it out, I dispute your claim to no natural talent. Your work is beautiful and you clearly have an eye. (Hm, I should say that on your blog not mine. I shall do that anon.
Thank you for your lovely comments about my ‘I have no idea what I’m doing but what the heck’ efforts. 🙂
The same Button Pusher has decided we shall prepare a set of songs and go busking next. I’m already hyperventilating at the thought.
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That does sound scary. I tried for months working on my voice, and joined a choir, but after getting a respiratory infection and not singing for a few months I was back to square one, and my family kept telling me I can’t sing….. 😦 so I gave up. To sing in public takes a lot of guts! And thank you for the lovely things you said about my art. Again, I have had to work on that for years, as it didn’t come naturally….
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You need to not listen to your family and find a great community singing group in your area. One that doesn’t expect you to sing like an opera diva or a popstar and just wants you to have fun. No work involved.
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The choir I was with is just that, except that sing in Scandinavian languages!!!
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I find your drawings to be a very pleasing combination of precision and whimsy… much like your writing. So keep at it, MOSY. We’re all buying what you’re selling!
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Oh, Steve! Such a wonderful thing to say and from someone of such calibre. I feel enormously encouraged by that. THANK YOU! 🙂
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