Yes, You Can Draw!

Have you ever noticed that whenever a teacher draws on the board to explain something to the class, it always comes with a disclaimer?

“Well, I can’t draw, but…”

This was true of all of my teachers, and it always confused me. “You can’t draw, but you’re drawing right now to explain this thing to the entire class?”

I understand the impulse. Drawing is creating and sharing a drawing makes you vulnerable to judgment. What if they don’t like what I drew? What if they can’t tell what it is? What if it isn’t rendered perfectly?

I think that’s the issue. As we grow out of childhood, we seem to adopt a belief that we have to draw perfectly to be able to say we “can draw.”

I just don’t think it needs to be this way.

The teacher who draws on the board does it to get a message across. And usually it works. Your friend who draws on the bar napkin does it to communicate something. And usually it works. That’s drawing.

I get it, though. Ten years ago, I was also saying, “I can’t draw,” as a defense mechanism. I’ve never been able to render anything perfectly, and 2D Art was my worst grade in college. Even now, I draw quite regularly, but some of that “it’s not perfect” fear has crept back in.

In my sketchbooks lately, I have been scribbling. This is partly because when the toddler does it, it looks extremely fun (it is fun, I endorse the activity), and I’ve noticed the variation available in plain, old, Crayola-crayon scribbles is fascinating.

But I also think the scribble phase is happening because I let myself become intimidated again by drawing from life.

I didn’t realize this until a few weekends ago, when I met up with a friend1 to draw, in all places, a cemetery. When we sat down, I was intimidated by the scene: an infinity pool stretching down to a chapel. I was pretty sure I would not like whatever I attempted to draw.

But the advantage of going drawing with a friend is there’s a bit of peer pressure. I had no choice! I had to come up with something! I remembered the advice I’d picked up from various art books:2

• draw the lines as you see them

• try to connect them

• really look at what you’re drawing

• try not to look away

• ignore any “this is ugly” thoughts

• give into your wonkiness

and committed to the drawing. I had packed my favorite pen, some watercolors, and a travel brush filled with water. The watercolors were the best part.

It was a little wonky, but it got the message across. And I was obsessed with the watercolors. So I kept going.

I even found myself drawing the boring chair in my house that evening, no peer pressure needed.

I share all this because, even though I am the first to say, “Don’t tell me you can’t draw!” I’m actually not far off from that teacher drawing on the board with the disclaimer. The difference is that I’ve practiced suppressing the disclaimer, discovered it’s more fun this way, and want everyone else to feel free to do the same.

So go grab some random materials (the more random, the better), a friend, and give drawing a try!

And thanks for being here!

The U.S. Constitution's 238th Birthday - and Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo

September 17th is Constitution Day in the U.S. It’s also called “Citizenship Day” and it is meant to celebrate the signing of the Constitution on September 17, 1787 and “recognize all who, by coming of age or by naturalization, have become citizens.” Happy Birthday!

(I thought Constitution Day was just picked out of a hat, but there’s actually a law that marks the day and invites the public to commemorate the day.)

The Constitution was created in response to the British government’s treatment of the colonies. Many of its provisions are direct reactions to the way power was being used against the colonies.

For example, the Fourth Amendment says,

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

But what does this mean? What has the Supreme Court said about this?

The Supreme Court has clarified that even when a police officer stops someone for questioning, that is a “seizure” that cannot be unreasonable, according to the 4th Amendment.1

It has also pointed out that it’s “unreasonable” if a stop or seizure is based on a broad set of circumstances that “describe[s] a very large category of presumably innocent” people”.2

For example, the Court has decided in the past that border patrol agents violated the 4th Amendment when they stopped someone driving near the U.S.-Mexico border and asked them about their immigration status solely because they appeared to be of Mexican ancestry.3

Why is this relevant?

Earlier this year, a district court temporarily stopped ICE officials from detaining people in the L.A. area based solely on similarly broad factors:

1. being at particular locations like car washes, bus stops, day laborer pickup spots
2. doing a certain type of work
3. speaking Spanish or accented English
4. their “apparent race or ethnicity”

The District Court decided that this practice of detaining people for these broad reasons most likely violated the 4th Amendment, and that it was appropriate to put a quick stop to it (a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction) while the litigation played out.

The Government asked the Supreme Court to intervene so it could continue this activity in its quest to detain undocumented immigrants while the underlying litigation plays out. The Supreme Court stayed (stopped, removed the injunction) the District Court’s decision.

As has been its practice lately for these “emergency” or “shadow docket” rulings, the Supreme Court didn’t provide any reasoning for its decision. Justice Kavanaugh wrote his own opinion (a “concurrence”) in support of the decision, and Justice Sotomayor wrote a dissent, joined by Justices Kagan and Jackson.

What does this mean?

This means that the Supreme Court, with limited reasoning, is allowing
the government to continue detaining people based on these generalized criteria, which could, and has, included U.S. Citizens or others with legal immigration status. (Note that the Constitution applies to anyone in the U.S. regardless of citizenship.)

For example, here is the story of one of the U.S. citizens who brought this lawsuit, as described by Justice Sotomayor4:

Does this change the 4th Amendment?

We don’t know for sure yet. This isn’t the final decision in the case because the Supreme Court’s opinion is meant simply to say “don’t stop the Government from doing this while the litigation is playing out.” But it represents a very different conclusion from what the Supreme Court has said in the past, where stopping someone based on their apparent “Mexican ancestry” violated the 4th Amendment.

As Justice Sotomayor says in her dissent,

If you read both available opinions (neither of which is the official opinion of a majority of the court), you see that one is based in the information already established in the case, and the other seems to be based on an ideal world scenario.

Justice Kavanaugh seems to think people are merely being asked a simple question and then being left alone when they quickly affirm they’re a citizen or in the U.S. legally. But as Justice Sotomayor underlines, that’s not what the plaintiffs in the case have experienced and it puts the responsibility on anyone in these broad categories to be prepared to prove their citizenship at any moment.

I’m glad for our Constitution and definitely celebrate its existence. But that celebration also comes with, for me, a recognition of the way recent Supreme Court decisions —even if they are technically “temporary”—are eroding our rights.

How do you say "blob" in Italian?

Did you know that “blob” in Italian is “macchia”? I didn’t know that either, and I am relying solely on the internet here, so I could be very wrong.

I do hope it’s right because I just translated “The Blob Book” into Italian, and now it’s full of “macchia/e.”

One of my favorite baby gifts is a picture book about a little red fish. It is a Japanese picture book that my friend translated by hand into French. (Karine translates Japanese manga into French for her work, so she knows what she’s doing!) I’m not sure the toddler realizes that when I ask her, “Où est le poisson rouge?” and she points to the red fish, that I am speaking to her in French. Maybe someday she’ll have an aha moment and tell me it’s not a poisson rouge, it’s a red fish!

This week I was in search of something to send along to my “Italian parents” who hosted me almost 20 years ago for six months of high school. When host mom Gabriella first picked me up at the train station, she didn’t speak English and I could only say “pasta,” “pizza,” and “spaghetti.” (This was also all I envisioned eating while I was there.) We spoke in French as she drove me “home” and showed me around the house for the first time.

I didn’t say much at the beginning, as I was trying to absorb as much Italian as I could. I would sit in my tiny room using my Italian-English dictionary conjugating verbs in Italian and then practice speaking with 3 year-old Pietro whose language was only slightly more advanced than mine.

Blobs were never part of my vocabulary back then, but I did absorb enough Italian eventually to be able to translate this little book (ok, ok, I did get a little help from the internet). In retrospect, it would have had some helpful messages for a high schooler who gets plopped into a different culture, where she doesn’t yet speak the language.

This was one of the first handmade books/zines that I made, as I was slowly developing a style and creative confidence as an adult. It’s still one of my favorites, and I would love to turn it into a board book one day.

Oh, I also translated the Book of Mom, which I’ve shared here before. The mom saying “MANGIA” is even more true in Italian than in English. They never really had to force me to mangia my pasta, but “mangia le verdure, Maddy!” (vegetables) was definitely one I heard many times. I do mangia my verdure now, for the record.