An entry in the ‘books’ supplement of our daily newspaper shows an amazing sketch of a person drawing in bed in what must be a most uncomfortable position. The lines are simple, the scene is gripping, it could be a child or an adult, but there is also a quality which reveals, perhaps, an artist. To draw like this shows not only determination but practice, however naïve the hand may seem.
That first image has travelled with me for days. There is a freshness and authenticity that cannot be faked, when the eye guides the hand and the hand guides the line in full concentration.
More drawings were reproduced earlier in The Guardian of what appears to be the journal of the artist Nick Wadley, a patient in a hospital.
It could be any hospital. The courage and sense of humor in the patient’s observation, however, are exceptional. This journal, published by Dalkey Archive Press under the title ‘Man + Doctor’, should give comfort to anyone having to undergo a similar ordeal, and a smile to all of us.