Last month (24Jul2016) I read a piece in The Guardian about children’s love of particular books and authors. In the middle of the article there was a story about Kurt Vonnegut which I was so taken with that I copied it and mailed it to myself. I have just got round to dealing with it in my mail queue and I’ve realised it is a highly appropriate postscript to my attempts to do something artistic with my doodles. I make such artistic forays, despite not having any technical talent, to satisfy an inner creative desire; and sometimes I’m aware they may appear to be a bit weird. This story about Kurt Vonnegut provides encouragement to all in the face of such weirdness or uncertainty:

Kurt Vonnegut, prisoner of war and survivor of the Dresden bombing, wrote some of the most singular and humane fiction of the last century. Towards the end of his life, some schoolchildren wrote to invite him to speak to their class and reflect on what he had learned. He wrote back with all the wisdom anyone probably needs: “Dear Xavier high school, you really know how to cheer up a really old geezer (84) in his sunset years. I don’t make many appearances any more because I look like an iguana.

“What I had to say to you, moreover, would not take long, to wit: practise any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, no matter how well or badly, not to get money or fame but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow… Do it for the rest of your lives!”