There’s
a wonderful passage in Goodbye Columbus by Philip Roth (perhaps
autobiographical) that describes an encounter between the young librarian, Neil
Klugman with a young boy who tiptoes up to him and asks to see the
heart section:
“Hey,
he said, where’s the heart section – a perplexed Neil, confused by the “ thickest
sort of southern negro dialect” asks him how to spell it.
The kid repeats – “The heart section.
Ain’t you got no heart section? Heart. Man, pictures. Drawing books. Where you
got them?
Then
Neil understands that he means ‘Art’ and directs him to the appropriate section
of the stacks.
On reading this an association between heart, artist and library has clicked in my mind, totally pre digital.
Interestingly, Roth dedicated this novel to his parents with an inscription - The heart is half a prophet - Yiddish proverb.
But
then the internet itself has become like a vast library and contact with other
bloggers continues to be extremely inspiring and nurturing!
Some recent drawings from December 2012 and older:
