Hi, my name is Andrea Butler and for those of you who don't know and I'm an artist. I draw some pretty amazing designs out of that pen and ink. As I mentioned a couple of days ago, it wasn't always like that. I had a lot of that looking at blank punches, sort of thing, drawing pop blunts.
And I really wanted to get some money out of my art. I wanted to be self-supporting on stuff I loved. Not all this boring stuff that you have to do, I'm going to work it. Just wasn't fulfilling, I really wanted to get my art going.
You had the talent, but I just had no idea on what to draw, just heaps and heaps of blank pages. And as I mentioned a couple of days ago, I sort of threw it out there. If I meant to be drawing this drawing, I have a message to share in my art show, make sure me what it is. Because at the end of the day I need some cash photo.
So I was going back home for the first time in quite a few years. And I decided this time when I went back home, I was going to do something a little bit different. Now, my normal way of being in the family household is to read a book or disappear to my room and preferably to do both of those things at the same time. So I decided this time I was not going to go and run into my room and I wasn't going to hide in a book.
I'm an adult now, we can cope with this. So instead, what I chose to do is I took a sketchbook with me. And I thought every time I had that urge to read a book or run away, I like in the sketchbook and I'll just start drawing. So this is what I did.
Now, while I was at home, I came to visit my auntie Joan and she sat down and I was drawing in my sketchbook. And I drew in that book the whole time she was there. But I was in the same room. It's probably the first time she'd seen me for more than two minutes since I was like five years old, something like that.
So anyway, I showed her what I was drawing and it was nothing. It was kind of embarrassing, but at the same time if you're doing something right in front of someone and you don't have your attention on them, it's kind of polite to show them what you're doing. So I got to go and went, oh, okay. And at that time, my daughter was there with me and it was quite a long holiday we were going on.
We were going for six weeks and it was coming towards the end of the third week. And the honeymoon period between my daughter and my mum was coming to a slight end. They're both quite vocal and they both wanted to vocalise at the same time. So at the time, I was sort of having a conversation with my aunt and I was drawing in my sketchbook and I was sort of watching my mum and my daughter toe, which I know is kind of multitasking and I really didn't have all my attention on my aunt.
But like I said, I was in the same room. Anyway, we were both at one point watching my mum and my daughter and my aunt said something to me. Now, I won't repate what she said because it was personal, but it was one of those nuggets of gold that made everything and not everything, but a lot of things made sense in why I was as I was and why I reacted as I did it in certain ways. So it was quite amazing because after she'd said that and I went, oh, okay.
And I looked down at my sketchbook, I went to my aunt. I don't believe it. I've drawn a fish. And she said, huh?
And she looked at it too. And she went, oh my God, you've drawn a fish. It's the first recognizable thing of anything that I'd drawn in that sketchbook up until that time. Hi there, Bill.
And so what was quite extraordinary though was not only the sense of achievement that I'd actually drawn something without realizing I'd drawn it and actually looked like something, but was the transformation in the sitting around me. As the art started flowing, the conversation started flowing in the family, which is quite unusual in my family. And I've noticed that sense where my art is flowing. If I'm drawing in a situation, people start communicating around me.
So it's quite interesting, the transformation that you can get by getting your art flowing to see other things flowing in your life. Now, as I mentioned earlier, the way you get your art flowing, it's a really, really simple process. It's like step by step, page by page almost. And I can take anyone through that process and I'm quite excited.
I'm writing a book at the moment and I've got some covers designed. And what I'm going to do is drop some covers into my Facebook page. So and I would love, really love if you guys could just have a look at the colors and covers and all I would like you to do is like markets at research. Could you please just let me know which book would make you buy it?
Because there's no point in me producing a book with a cover that everybody looks like, ooh, I don't want that. I want people to look at the cover and go, hey, yeah, I'm interested in that one. So I'll be dropping that into my Facebook page very soon. And I'll speak to you again in a couple of days.