For Art's Sake

Smiled at Benjamin Chee's illustrations in his private little book 'Dreams To Dream- A love lettter to my daughters'. Love the idea behind this book. It's a gift to the man, and I happily picked it up to flip through and decided it's going into a permanent slot on the bookshelves.

21 sketches completed mostly in black and white of ballerinas in various classic poses. Mostly done with  "Staedtler Mars Lumograph pencils on Canson 90/95 gsm drawing pad" and digitized into this collection. Let's not talk about the technicalities of the art or the poses, shall we? That's a separate discussion which requires more than one blog post.

In the introduction, Benjamin stated that he "used to love to draw, just for the sheer joy of expressing himself [myself] and letting his [my] imagination go." But a meeting with one of his oldest friends and reminiscing over lost youth made him realize that he hadn't drawn for a long time. "Most of my adult friends, it is fair to say, probably have never realized that I can draw." Benjamin Chee dedicated this book of ballet sketches to his daughters who love to dance. That's really sweet. I suppose he hopes his daughters would dream too, and live out some of the beauty of fearless imagination. If you'd like a copy, it should still be available on Amazon.

Isn't it? What is that we used to do as precocious talented children that we don't do now? Lost youth, indeed. The man and I have always tried to hang on to our dreams that way. Not futile. Simply making the best of our situation, perhaps without the accoloades, but just being good at what we do love and to pursue it as far as we can in our limited capacity.

The man enjoyed the sketches, although in rather different manner from the way I do. One sketch that made me giggle. The six o'clock. Ahhh. That elusive six o'clock. I could do it for years. Daily practice. Not now though. It's dwindled to something like a 4.50 or 7.10. Oof.