Hey guys! It’s been a while, but I’m finally back to drawing! I found a way to make it low pressure and easy to motivate towards, and that’s super tiny portraits. Enjoy the series!
There’s a lot of waiting in life.
Waiting in lobbies.
Waiting on answers.
Waiting for braces to tighten, kids to grow, hearts to heal, or prayers to be answered.
I sat at the orthodontist, watching dollars tighten on tiny wires, and made this sketch. A tree. A house. A street. Color helped the moment breathe.
I remember once hearing a chess master say, “There is no waiting in chess.”
It confused me—wasn’t there always a turn to wait for?
But he explained: “There’s no waiting. Only planning. Plotting. Analyzing. You’re always thinking.”
I once repeated that to a FIDE master. He got mad.
Maybe because waiting and patience aren’t the same thing.
We can be still and deeply active inside.
We can pause without being passive.
And then there’s Lindsey’s voice in the back of my head:
“That sounds like a first-world problem.”
“Speak life.”
“Be thankful. Rejoice always.”
And she’s right.
So here’s to filling waiting time with something creative.
Something kind.
Something that turns a delay into a doorway.
I am an art teacher with a master’s degree—trained by brilliant professors who believed that art could do more than decorate walls. I offer safe spaces for teenagers to grow—nourishing soil where their imaginations can take root.
And yet… I am assigned to hallway duty.
This is compulsory education, after all.
So I sit—posted like a sentinel—watching young lives stream past.
“Get to class,” I say with a smile and a nudge.
The system wants attendance; I’m hungry for presence.
Armed not with a whistle or clipboard, but with a pen—
my scribble’s soft insurgency.
The hallway stretches out like a geometric hymn.
Columns and corners chant structure.
Teenagers swirl past—half-formed galaxies of limbs and laughter—
their orbits chaotic, their gravity pulling time forward.
I begin to draw.
Not their tardiness, but their motion.
A shoulder. A blur of sneakers.
A tilted head chasing freedom.
Feet flickering like seconds.
Each mark a pulse.
Each smudge a breath.
My paper becomes a seismograph of seeing—
trembling gently through the mundane.
This isn’t about making art for a frame or a feed.
It’s about refusing to leak away in the fluorescent hum of obligation.
It’s a quiet mutiny against the clock.
I do this on long car rides, too (passenger side, mind you).
Letting the lines grow wild, jagged, and unapologetic.
Not for polish—
but for presence.
This is how I remember I’m still alive.
Still growing.
Still watching.
Still choosing to see.
Because sometimes mental health looks like
a piece of scrap paper,
a moving pen,
and the simple, sacred act of
marking time with wonder.
They rode in silence as the sandy dunes passed them by. There was a storm brewing at the horizon. They did not know what destiny had in store for them next. All they had was themselves to rely on. They needed no one, they were independent.
This year I had a dream where they, at that age and being Lego, were in The World That Never Was... ???
Printable version on my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/destiny-trio-137915720
Dialogues in Paradise (one)by Can Xue.
The tree was full of tiny bells. When the bells sparkled, they jingled in splendor. I moved my left toe and heard the wind outside the door blowing away somebody's garbage can. It is always the god-damned south wind.
a little bit o art i did for my ACE! band Tiny Rockets...if you wanna listen to em take a search on Spotify...or itunes or somewhere like that...tis a wild rockety ride! ;-)
"Unthought-of Frailties cheat us in the Wise."
~ Alexander Pope, Moral Essays (1731-35), Epistle To Temple, line 69.
I really had to ponder this quote and figure out how to illustrate it. A spider came to mind...so tiny and fragile in comparison yet invokes so much fear. Then considered a daddy long leg.
Not a terribly good piece, but I had fun drawing it. It is a take on the Spirit of '76, originally painted by Archibald Willard. I did it upon request, but I did not charge anything. I think it would have been better in color.
