Page 2 Early Years
skyangel on Jan. 20, 2024
Every story has to start somehow and when I think back to my earliest years I have very few memories of pre-school and junior school but this is one of them. The teacher asking about my art and the pleasure I felt in playing in the Wendy House.
On a technical note I didn't realise how hard it is to draw children! The anatomy proportions are different to adults and the head much larger but drawing a girly face with large eyes seems to look okay but I'll be glad to move onto my teen years!
Another page next Saturday
tommym at 12:21PM, Feb. 15, 2024
Dear Sky My mom and dad did not want me to go to public school, in NYC they were not as good as a Catholic Grammar school,so thought mom and dad. tommym
skyangel at 10:59AM, Feb. 16, 2024
My school was a public one but I don't think I would have liked school no matter where I went, I just hated the idea of being made to sit at a desk and do what other people wanted me to do for a whole day, every day.
Genejoke at 2:56PM, Jan. 27, 2024
he, funny representation of how kids mimic adults.
Ironscarf at 9:11AM, Jan. 22, 2024
So good, the visuals remind me of my own early classroom days. The interior of the Wendy house being so large seems really symbolic of childhood hopes and expectations. It's always a challenge to draw kids well!
skyangel at 3:02PM, Jan. 22, 2024
My memories are so vague but what always strikes me now is that being that for small children everything in the adult world must seem twice as large!
edniz at 12:22PM, Jan. 21, 2024
Seeing Sarah's image in many places is such a fine touch! I'm also really enjoying seeing the children play. It's really interesting to imagine how Nick may have felt! Being a child, she is told that she is a boy and so she accepts it as such, but at the same time she actually feels the way girls do. But it actually feels subtle. Because when you are child you just feel your feelings, you don't really think about them since you haven't yet learned what they mean. It's an undifferentiated kind of being. So I can imagine how someone can have a boy's body and be just like a girl inside, without even really knowing it. Ah, it gives me a sense of comfort to remember that there was a time that things could be left undefined... It's when you start growing up that things get all confusing and difficult, because societal norms kick in. I myself haven't had gender dysphoria, but I've always felt things that seem to have no correlation to the way society defines us, so I can very much emphasize.
skyangel at 3:08PM, Jan. 22, 2024
That's exactly what I'm trying to get across here in these early pages. The very first word I ever came across that felt pertinent was 'Transvestite' at around 15 and even that did not feel right as I knew it was more than just a dressing up thing. So these memories that remain etched in my mind felt important to share as they all feel like small pieces that helped to define or shape who I was growing up to be and it did feel gender free at the time.
UnderTheBlackHat at 11:26AM, Jan. 20, 2024
That is so cute! Oddly enough, the teacher (to some of us) almost looks like Sara... Hmmm... Will she appear as various figures throughout the story? Meaning not just as Sara, but other peripheral figures? Talk about playing house, that's pretty serious for in school. But I just love the mimicry of the adults in their lives... Thanks again for this!
skyangel at 3:35PM, Jan. 20, 2024
You're quite right! I had an image of Sarah in my head for as long as I can remember and I honestly do not know where that came from but it's possibly a number of various women who influenced my life in some way so she will keep re-appearing! As for the Wendy house, my memory is of it being large and wooden and bright inside, and it was in the corner of the classroom but I doubt it was as exciting as my version here! XD