Doodling to an art major

                                                                 Photo by Lydia Huggins
Abstract Composition in progress by Lydia Huggins.

            Chalky pastels cover Lydia’s hands. She’s frustrated with the college art project that she’s working on. Stepping back and crossing her arms, she stares at the picture. The abstract piece seems to mock her. She has no idea what she’s supposed to be doing. 

            Turning up the volume of her music, she picks up different colors, but none of them seem right. Lydia puts them back because she doesn’t want to ruin what she has already drawn.

            Lydia feels like giving up. She sits down and swings her legs back and forth.

            A younger even shorter version of Lydia swings her legs back and forth as she sits on one of the pews in the back of the church. She wants to kick off her black shoes and lace socks. Her older sister Mary tells her to sit still and stop fidgeting. She clutches her miniature purse and takes out a small notebook and a pen. The blue ink slides across the page. She draws a beach scene with a mama turtle and three baby turtles going out to sea.

            When Lydia finishes the doodle, she feels a tap on her shoulder and turns around. An elderly man said, “That’s a really good drawing.” Then, he handed her a two-dollar bill.

            Lydia didn’t understand why he would give her money. She looked up to her best friend’s mom, Allison, and asked, “Does he want me to put this in the offering plate for him?”

            “No, it’s for you,” Allison said.

            Lydia still looked confused. Allison and Mary explained that two-dollar bills are rare and he thought that her drawing was good so he was being sweet.

            Excitedly, Lydia turned around and thanked the man. From then on, she would draw pictures for the elderly man, Mr. Moorehead, almost every Sunday. She didn’t draw them for the money, but for his happiness when she gave him the drawings.  

            Lydia stands up and picks up an orange pastel. She draws it across her abstract art piece. Now she’s excited to finish the piece and wonders what Mr. Moorehead would think about it.

                                      Photo by Lydia Huggins

Abstract Composition by Lydia Huggins 

featured in the J.M. Bowell Art Gallery

 at University of the Cumberlands.