Sarah Melling
My blogs
| Location | San Jose, California |
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| Introduction | “The object of art is not to make salable pictures. It is to save yourself." —Sherwood Anderson In 2009, at the age of 51, I was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Parkinson's behaves a bit differently in everyone: my future was one giant question mark: Would my symptoms develop rapidly? Would the symptoms remain only on my left side? (I'm right-handed.) The answers fell into the "wait-and-see" category. As a former interior and graphic designer, I loved to draw, but hadn't spent much time drawing recently. If I was going to renew my passion for pencils and paper, I knew I'd better get crackin'. But what to draw? I find beauty in simple things, especially from nature: a handful of acorns from a morning walk, an artichoke at the farmer's market, a huge sugar pine cone, a tiny honeybee. A new world opened up: online friendships were forged, even a few business transactions took place. I've been attending a weekly life-drawing meet-up for several years now. Later, I opened my Etsy shop; I should be out there marketing, but I'm really in this for the calm and the joy. I draw to save myself. |