7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #686: Featuring The Drawing Brigade
April 12th, 2020 by jules
Today I’m highlighting The Drawing Brigade, a healthcare outreach project started by author-illustrator Bethany Barton and author-illustrator Katherine Roy. The two began this as a response to the growing COVID-19 crisis, and their mission is, as they put it, to “deliver joy through drawing to our nation’s healthcare workers during this time of need.”
They are asking anyone who wants to contribute, young and old, to make drawings to thank healthcare workers; take a photo of their drawing; and send it to them. From there, they will take the artwork and digitally send it to hospitals so that staff there can display the artwork on their screens and/or print it out for their staff rooms, as well as share them on the Drawing Brigade’s social media platforms. Pictured above is a recent contribution from Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell.
Here is a short video about the Drawing Brigade’s mission, as explained by both Katherine and Bethany:
So, again, the steps are simple. For anyone interested, Bethany and Katherine say to:
- Make a drawing! Create artwork or a project that thanks doctors, nurses, scientists, and healthcare workers for all their hard work.
- Take a photo of your artwork — preferably, well-lit, cropped, and oriented correctly so that it is easy to digitally post.
- Send it to them at drawingbrigade [at] gmail [dot] com. They will post the work they receive on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook (@drawingbrigade for each platform) for creators and healthcare workers everywhere to see the thank-yous that other people are sharing.
Katherine adds:
We’re thrilled and humbled to be bringing joy and gratitude to healthcare workers everywhere through the act of making art. I know it’s a small thing — just some lines on paper — but making art feels like a tangible way to fight all of this darkness.
Bethany and I have also teamed up with librarians Steph McHugh and Mary Hamer out of Illinois to create some resources for districts that might want to use Drawing Brigade as part of their eLearning prompts. [Here is a link.]
Meanwhile, we’re all reaching out to more hospitals, and working with another friend of mine to get a website up so that kids can submit their art through the website and point it at a specific community (a hospital, their state, etc). We hope to have that up and running next week.
Illustration above used by permission of Matthew Cordell.
Note for any new readers: 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks is a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you. New kickers are always welcome.
1) Things like The Drawing Brigade make me want to cry a little less about the state of the world.
2) We 2020 Boston Globe-Horn Book judges are getting closer to book discussions. It’s exciting.
3) One of my VERY favorite musicians, Laura Marling, released her new album this week. It was originally slotted for August, but she figured people might want something to listen to while we’re all stuck inside. It is a superb album, and there are two songs in particular that blow me away. This is one below, an impossibly beautiful folk song with what I find to be an impossibly gorgeous melody. (I had planned to hear her live in Nashville, but I’ll have to settle for this recording from elsewhere at a show before the world shut down.)
4) “Morning, or Evening?” by Vincent Katz, a poem a friend shared with me. You can read it here. (At least on a desktop you can. Not sure if it’ll work on a tiny phone.)
5) Finally watching Star Trek Discovery with the fam. Not surprisingly, Sonequa Martin-Green is so good in the main role.
6) The long phone chat I got to have with Lois Lowry.
7) This tweet about Amy Poehler owning a book on children’s lit that I co-authored made my week, because I’m a Poehler fan and a big SNL Geek:
Am I the only one who enjoys looking way too closely at people's bookshelves in their videos from home? Hey @FuseEight & @SevenImp, Amy Poehler (shown here on @LateNightSeth) is a proud owner of Wild Things! pic.twitter.com/Lv1xl6xq7C
— Elizabeth Metz (@finestmuffins) April 6, 2020
7½) Speaking of SNL, Kyle Mooney has a video on Instagram called “The Influencer” that made me laugh. It is very Kyle-Mooney.
What are YOUR kicks this week?
Kicks!
1. David Elliott and I had a book birthday this week: “In the Woods” (Candlewick Press) and it was profiled here at 7 Imps a little while back.
2. Creative zooming yesterday with Our Space, Our Place, a group of blind teens from Boston as they participated in a virtual tour of the Museum of Fine Arts.
3. Reading “Gathering Moss” by Robin Wall Kimmerer. I see moss everywhere I go –and that’s a good thing!
4. The cherry blossoms outside my studio window.
5. Matthew Cordell’s instagram stories (always a lot of birds and humorous, pithy and appreciative commentary).
6 The deserted New Jersey Turnpike and a stealth trip to Washington, D.C. last weekend to move my daughter into a new apartment. Glad to be back home for another 14+ days of quietude and creativity (and occasional bouts of anger, ennui and sadness).
7. Drawing every day, socially distanced, in nearby Nature. One day at a time!
We need the goodness of The Drawing Brigade right now. That’s wonderful. Will promote it.
Jules, you talked to Lois Lowry! I remember meeting her over thirty years ago at a library conference. Can’t wait to read her novel in verse. Rabble Starkey and Autumn Street are among my favorites.
Rob, oh to make a stealth trip to DC right now. And cheery blossoms., bonus.
My kicks:
1. Mailing surprise goodies to people.
2. Playing with sourdough.’
3. Walks.
4. Cabbage chicken made by Chuck.
5. HH with my college friends. Via Zoom.
6. Social distancing lunch and tailgate fun with a friend.
7. The moon.
HJave a great week
Hooray for The Drawing Brigade! What a wonderful project and way to spread love.
Jules – I saw that Tweet! That is so exciting that Amy Poehler has your book! Thank you for sharing that Laura Marling song, beautiful voice, beautiful song.
Rob – that creative zooming sounds like such an awesome project, congrats on getting your daughter moved, and how lucky to have cherry blossoms right outside your window.
Jone – how fun to mail surprise goodies to people, that moon has been gorgeous, hasn’t it? And yay for the zoom HH and socially distant lunch.
My kicks this week:
1) Taking a weekend break from Twitter. Phew! Didn’t realize how much the constant stream of news was making me so sad. Going to limit my Twitter-time a lot more now.
2) All the checking in texts to and from friends and family.
3) Cozy, easy yoga practice this morning via Tara Stiles Instagram.
4) Working in the yard and garden while Daisy basks in the sun.
5) New seasons of The Good Fight and Insecure.
6) The Fug Girls recent retrospective posts of movie premieres – the old styles and baby faces, plus the chats in the comments always turn out to be fun.
7) Reading Short by Holly Goldberg Sloan and loving it, especially her sense of humor:
“She’s two years older than me and I have no idea what she was talking about. I would have asked her but since her name is Echo, I know she doesn’t like to repeat herself.”
7.5) The creative ways people are trying to help during this odd time is both awesome and a much needed (for me) reminder there is still good in the world, despite the bleak news coming at us every day. Feeling very thankful I’ve been in a position to help out and contribute to some of the different fundraisers for those in need.
Stay safe and have a great week Imps.
Good morning, Imps! This is a fly by post!
Jules: Amy Poehler! Lois Lowry! !!!
Jone: The moon is beautiful.
Rob: Say hello to nature for me!
Rachel: Breaks are important.
My kicks from the past week:
1 Opportunities
2 Catching up with folks
3 Fruits
4 Timing
5 Pacing
6 Finished
7 It wouldn’t let me post this, I tried many times, and then finally, it would!
Hi, Rob! Oh my, to move your daughter away. I’m sure that’s a whole array of feelings. And one day at a time is right. One foot in front of the other, right?
Jone, that’s a lovely week. Hi to Chuck!
Rachel: I saw Amy singing last night on SNL (during their tribute to Hall Willner) in front of the same bookshelf — and saw my book again. … Love those Fug Girls. Love Insecure and can’t wait to see it tonight. Love your bonus kick. Hear, hear!
LW: I don’t know why my blog was doing that to you. Weird. I will give it a talking-to, since you must always be allowed in. My favorite fruit is raspberry, but I’m the only one in my family who likes it. How about you?
Have a good week, you all!
Jules: My connection was being slow and fussy the better part of the day. I was having problems at other sites, too! I think it’s better now. I like a lot of fruits – peaches, plums, bananas, apples, many berries, etc!