BY LESLIE REGO
Meandering is a contemplative endeavor. It is best done in solitude (or with a very understanding husband!). I love to wander when I have no agenda, when I can stop at will to ponder something.
In 1845 the American naturalist Henry David Thoreau wrote, “You must walk like a camel, which is said to be the only beast which ruminates when it walks.”
Ann Zwinger, in her book “The Nearsighted Naturalist,” remarks that Thoreau could only have written this as a “competent and convinced, true and dedicated, wanderer. He was well aware that you cannot wander if you have to get some place on time. You cannot wander if you’re in a hurry, or at someone else’s command.”
For me, inherent in wandering is sketching. Thus, every year I renew my pledge to carry (and use!) pencil and paper during my hours spent in the field. It really doesn’t matter if you can draw or not, just take the time to observe with pencil in hand. The marks you make on paper do not drift off into the air like a wrong note played on a piano, but they can be erased, or the page can be turned and the sketcher can begin anew.
Ann Zwinger comments, “Enjoy the feel of pencil on paper without imposing goals you cannot meet. I don’t know why this setting of impossible goals happens more with drawing than with other creative endeavors. People who accept that they can’t sit down and write a symphony in a week, or rip off a Beethoven sonata first time at the piano, expect to produce a skilled drawing the first time out. Potters spend hours learning how to center on the wheel; violinists practice scales all their lives. Drawing is in the same category: it takes time to develop the basic skills. And patience.”
And observation. What is the color of the snow. Is it white? Or a combination of different warm and cool tones? The bare branches give great opportunity to study the outer shapes of a particular species of tree. What are the textures and the marks of winter bark? There are so many questions to ask. Stop and take the time to wander. Put pencil to paper. Enjoy this New Year.
Leslie Rego is an Idaho Press Club award-winning columnist, artist and Blaine County resident. To view more of Rego’s art, visit www.leslierego.com.