When I was in high school, I decided that I wanted to learn to draw. Since I’m a person who believes that you can learn just about anything from books, I checked out a copy of Betty Edwards’s book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.

During the summer between my freshman and sophomore year, I sat down with that book every single day and worked through the exercises. By the end of the summer, I had learned to draw.

The thing about learning to draw is that it’s really about learning how to see. It’s learning about how to flatten the 3D world in your mind so that you can create the illusion of three dimensions on two dimensions. 

To me, it felt like an explosive burst of sparkles in my brain, learning how to see in this new way. All of a sudden, I was noticing the tiniest details, shapes, colors. I felt like I was seeing the world for the first time.

Learning how to draw woke up my brain to beauty. It woke up my brain to being present, being slow, and truly noticing the world and the beauty of small things.

Even though I learned to draw, I never identified “artist,” even though making art was incredibly gratifying. I was a writer, not an artist, and drawing was this little thing I did on the side for fun. But I always enjoyed hanging out with artists, and I even married an artist. I met my husband in college, where he was studying sculpture and printmaking. His mother, my mother-in-law, was also an artist. She did clay, crafts, and wonderful botanical art. 

When I was in college, I took some classes on art history, and I fell in love with European art and architecture—particularly during the Renaissance, neoclassical, and romantic periods.

When I was lucky enough to study abroad in Prague, I spent the two months before my semester begin backpacking around Europe. In the Louvre in Paris, I remember breaking down into tears at all the wonderful art that I had seen in books.

I loved the aesthetic of the paintings and sculptures in the Musée d’Orsay. My favorite artist of all was Auguste Rodin, because it’s so beautiful how the figures in his sculptures seem to be pulling themselves out of the rock. I fell in love in the Rodin museum. I loved Rodin’s “The Kiss.” It is one of my favorite sculptures. I had drawn “The Kiss” in high school in my art class.

In Italy, I read The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone and I delighted in the art of Michelangelo. He’s my favorite Renaissance artist. “The Pieta” brought me to tears.

I loved the detail and the brightness of colors in the Sistine Chapel. I loved how his sculptures seemed to come alive, and how the colors in his paintings were so vibrant. There’s a lot about his art that seems to elevate the spirit.

Once I got to Prague, I was like, Whoa, this looks just like Paris, but with far fewer tourists! Indeed, some of the same architects designed both cities. I absolutely loved the architecture of the neoclassical and romantic era in cities, particularly in the art nouveau style. As people moved toward cities, they brought with them the beauty of the natural world. Their plazas celebrated nature spirits, like mermaids, gargoyles, and fairies. Their wallpaper had floral designs. The stone and iron work was carved to look like flowers and leaves. Everywhere I turned, there was beauty. I drank it in. I fell in love with Prague. If given the chance, I would absolutely love to live there again.

Once I graduated from college, I rarely drew. There is this weird thing about the arts in America where if it isn’t monetized, it’s not seen as worth doing. I graduated just in time for the Great Recession, and my anxiety over not being able to pay my bills was so huge that it left little space for doing things just for fun. 

In any case, my latent drawing ability was forgotten and unused for about 15 years. Until this year.

Earlier this year, when I had finished the manuscript for What We Talk About When We Talk About the Apocalypse, I gave it to my family and editors to read. My mom said, “What if you did some drawings before each of the stories?” My mind lit up with the possibilities.

So in February, I opened up my sketchbook once again, and began drawing illustrations. I thought about each of my stories and tried to come up with an image that would most represent the mood and content. How delightful it was to draw again! These illustrations will be included in the print and ebook versions of my book. Here is a preview.

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