Sketch by EZ Going Sketch Artist
Kenneth Barton
Growing up in the old neighborhood I use to spend hours sitting on the couch sketching on whatever paper was available. Mom & Dad use to buy me sketch pads and sketch books to draw in. I still have many of them here and there, hidden in boxes in the attic, others still within an arms reach.
When the school counselors came around school asking us what we wanted to do when we got out of school, as if any of us really knew what would truly make us happy and help us make a living. (LOL) I was one of those kids who enjoyed everything about Science, I could draw anything, even blue-prints in drafting class, but one thing my Dad told me that stuck with me was, "Artist were a Starving Breed!" So, I never considered using my artistic side to earn a living, and I never pursued Art classes in College because of this. Still, I have always kept up with my drawing for pleasure's sake. I've given sketches away to waitresses, classmates, relatives, friends, basically anyone who ever wanted a sketch.
Once, I watched a professional Artist up at the Mall sketching you young girls picture while a crowd of people stood back watching. I struck up a conversation with the young girls Mother and found out the guy doing the drawing was charging $20.00 to sketch her daughter's picture. Wow, I thought, that's a lot of money, which 36 years ago, it was.
How Stupid I was back then! I worked building trusses, and wall panels for a company called C&R Homes, I worked in the bottling room at Pepsi, I was a bouncer - security guard, and a machinist where I stood in one spot for 15 years while my body crumbled around me. Mostly, all my jobs were miserable jobs that barely provided an income. My last jobs amounted to babysitting in a school setting where I worked as a Substitute Teacher. Though there were times when this was very satisfying and rewarding work, the majority of the time my efforts were disregarded leaving me feeling irrelevant.
Sketching, is the one skill I came into this world being able to do Naturally, as easy as taking a breath of air, but Artist were a starving breed. How ridiculous that advice was!
Now, all these years later I finally find myself unemployed, older than most people want to hire and train, bills we have no way to pay; but, the Lord's gift to me is I can still Sketch. Maybe, not as easy as I once did when I was young; but, with His help I hope to redevelop that gift and use it to draw our way out of debt. I ask the Lord to Bless my efforts and to help me take His gift to the heights he always intended me to. "Lord, . . guide my hand, in Jesus name." Amen
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