drawing letter 1 ( to Kayle)
12th August 2007

Dear Kayle,
I am writing to you about our drawing exchange/ festival project.
I thought t could be useful to start a drawn/ sketched dialog with one another.
Putting some ideas down on paper and discussing them. Although I have now decided that however
beautiful an idea this is, perhaps it is better to blog it and get my ideas straight out there into
the world. Hope you feel the same.
I thought it would be good to do this in the spirit of that John Berger book on drawing that we have both read and find inspiring.
I thought I would write this letter about tools and materials. I am scribbling this letter quickly at work. It reminds me of how I was drawing and writing ten years ago. On paper, in notebooks in Biro. I would write down my thoughts and feelings and sometimes fictionalise them. I guess I had gotten into the medium of writing because it was at this time that I started reading. A single working girl in London requires something to occupy her mind with. Anyhow at that time I had a very low level administrative role in a business opportunities publishing company and I guess the office and the journey from and to home became my studio. My tools and materials were
notebooks, Biro's, envelopes, stamps ( a little time on newly available internet) PHOTOCOPIER!. The drawings and projects I did at this time set a trend for how I developed my work. I couldn't have developed the confidence I have now using pen/ pencil/ paper without experiencing the the previous tools of my trade ( office worker).
Around the time I got to know you I made a conscious decision to start using more sophisticated materials, or materials that I felt confident using and that produced exciting results.
I started using the Pentel Brush pen. I think I have you to thank you for this. Oh and the now extinct Karisma Colour pencils. My sister first highlighted these to me when she requested 100 of them in a box for her 21st birthday whilst studying graphic design at St Martins.
Anyhow enough of the polemic. I think you get my jist.
In the last few days I have been as usual making drawings in this sketchbook using the aforementioned
Pentel Brush Pen ( the tool you introduced me to). As I draw quite publicly my audience frequently comment on the quality of this tool. " Nice Pen, where did you get that ? " . Let us focus on this pen, that we have both used. What is it regarding this pen that makes it so special? For a start if I was writing this letter in that pen would you be reading this text from a different view point ?
Using that pen for me is like applying Irish Moss Aveda mascara to my lashes, but also whilst slipping into the most comfortable clothes. I remember when I first started using that pen thinking at last I have found a medium I am happy with and it feels so good. I called this pen "My magic pen".
Childish as it may seem, I still don't like to be anywhere without it. With the help of my pen I became
illustrator, poster designer, portrait drawer.
I became to make these drawings and designs at ease.
My desire at this very moment as I enjoy scribbling these thoughts and words down quickly is o re draw it all in that pen.
There is something about that pen that aligns my practice to comic book creators too.
Anyhow these are my feelings about this pen.
I thik I am pretty sure that I indebted to you for introducing me to this pen and end this letter by saying thank you and I look forward to your response.
Lady xx