Dot Day? What the heck? So I looked it up.
This day is based on the classroom introduction of a very clever book by Peter H. Reynolds called… you guessed it, The Dot.
The story features a child who doesn’t believe they have the ability to draw. In protest of an art assignment, the kid stabs a piece of paper with a pen and creates a dot in the middle of the page. The teacher asks the student to sign it and then proceeds to frame it and hang it on the classroom wall. When the child sees the framed photo of their art, they decide to paint better dots! And that’s when the child taps into creativity they didn’t know they had.
This story was very familiar to me, since I had a similar thing happen to me in one of my life drawing classes. Life drawing classes are when a model poses in the nude and the students are supposed to draw them as a study of the human form.
One morning, I wasn’t feeling great and just wanted to go home. So, out of frustration, I drew a big squiggle on my oversized pad of paper that looked something like this…
Hardly looks like a person, doesn’t it? Now the way these classes are structured, you have a class where the time is spent drawing, and then on another day, the drawings are displayed for discussion. On one discussion day, the instructor asked us to display our least favorite drawing, so I put up this one. When asked why I liked this one the least, I said it was just a scribble because I felt frustrated. Much to my surprise, many people in the class said they liked the “energy” and “expressiveness” of the drawing. And the instructor agreed!
Throughout the ages, people have pondered the question, “What is art?” I’ve always thought of it as a form of expression. With that in mind, a dot or a squiggle can be considered “art” when viewed within the context of how they were created. For The Dot character and me, our art was a creation from feelings of frustration. A creative outlet for venting our pent up resentment that was taking away from our mental wellness.
Too often, I hear people say they can’t draw. And it may be true when it comes to drawing a portrait of a person. But you can draw a dot. Give it a try!
• • • Happy Dot Day! • • •
Very encouraging post, Deb. Thank you for sharing this. And about “What is art? I used to think it’s something other (talented) people do. Not anymore, thanks goodness for that! 🙂 We’re all capable of creating art, if we want to, I believe.
Yes, Khaya! Your beautiful poetry is definitely worthy of being called art. ❤️ Keep up the great work! And thank you for the encouraging comment. 😊