Last night I sat with seven people in a Spanish restaurant. I looked down the table at these beautiful faces and I felt grateful. They have all come to Galway to spend a few days sketching under my watchful eye. They’ve come from the US, the UK and France, and even Dublin, because social media and a love of art introduced us to each other, and they like the cut of my jib. A couple of days ago I picked up one of them when she arrived at Shannon Airport, partly because it was an uncivilised hour and I like to look after my guests - but mostly because this person has become a dear friend, even though calling her name across the airport forecourt was the first time we have ever communicated through any means that didn’t require a satellite (how does the internet work anyway?).
Yesterday afternoon, walking along a very crowded Eyre Square full of tourists bustling to and fro, I passed a woman wheeling a small suitcase. Neurons snapped in my brain and synapses whizzed (how do minds work anyway?) and I recognised this lady from a crowded zoom screen nearly two years ago. I called her name, with my voice, old-school, and she turned around.
My students and I have sat with each other in our online class (I can’t decide if that’s “with” or just with), some sitting cosy in PJs at 5.00am with snow outside, others in t-shirts sweltering in tropics at eight in the evening, united by a love of creativity and colour. Of company and comradeship. We kept loneliness at bay through those hors-séries months of lockdown, some clutching desperately for human contact with more alacrity than others, but I felt for the first time in my life that I had done something good, despite having started (and continued) classes for self-interested reasons. Now we’re together, and won’t be more than a few feet from each other in the next few days, same time zone, same weather, same bedtime.
Technology is good, and I am thankful to the folk who know a lot about how the internet works, and no doubt minds too.
Spot on! I returned to sketching 3 years ago after a 40 year gap (I don’t know why I stopped… family life and work I suppose) when I discovered local Isle of Wight line and wash classes run by another clever art teacher - a woman of course! Within 6 months it was all forced “on line” by lock downs (does it involve lines much?) and began to pick up students from all over UK and (mostly) EU. What a fascinating community in which to learn! The teacher (Julie Sajous) then also recommended you! Now the local classes are back in the studio - or rather, “out and about” for my sketching interests, but you’re still “here” too! Long may that continue. Thanks Róisín.
Wonderful online connections. How delightful to put them into real time.
I remember preparing for the urban sketching symposium in Porto and being warned that when you book for workshops it's a free for all and make sure you have chosen at least double the number you want to join because you probably won't get your first choice...i am not tech savvy and the anxiety associated with the process was high. And what do you know i sat in awe as i managed to register for both my first choices, one being with you and what a delight to interact with your warm and encouraging personality in person.