So I’m taking this beginner’s drawing course at CityArts, our local arts education center. My buddy JJ convinced me it’d be a good way to sharpen up my eye, in an effort to up my design skills. I was reluctant at first: while I’m proficient at playing the piano and designing websites, I’ve always been less than sufficient at creating visual art by hand.

I’m happy to report that, thus far, the class has been really engaging. I’m learning a lot about observing and recreating perspective, breaking objects into shapes, and how to navigate a pencil. Our homework assignment this week was to draw up an object in our home. So I put up some hip hop tunes on last.fm, sat down with a cheap candelabra Liz and I have at the apartment, and went to work.

Now, anybody who knows me knows that I’m not a lyrics a person. Even when I’m listening to hip hop, I’m drawn more to the action in the beat (no matter how repetitive) than the flow the mc is dropping. My girlfriend will tell you I’m bad at listening in general (haha). But here I was, focusing as much brain as I had on drawing this object, but for some reason everything around me in my environment came through really clear. While I felt like drawing had my complete concentration, I was also deeply engaged by Madlib’s lyrics. I found this even more strange because I can’t listen to music with lyrics while I code/design on a computer.

There’s something real therapeutic about drawing. I dig it.