PORT ANGELES — Jesse Joshua Watson, author and illustrator of books including Hope for Haiti and the Bob Marley biography I and I, is one who explores the art of seeing.
The Port Townsend artist will do just that Saturday as he teaches a free drawing class for the first time in Port Angeles.
The 2 p.m. program at the Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St., is for all ages, while youth services librarian Jennifer Knight encourages advance sign-ups at www.NOLS.org and 360-417-8500, ext. 7705.
Watson wants, first of all, to demystify the drawing process and help participants shed some old limits.
We tend to believe “you’re born with talent or you’re not,” he observes, but “that’s just not the case.”
Those great works of art you see in the big museum? They’re the results of the painter or sculptor sticking with it, Watson said.
A 23-year resident of Port Townsend, Watson teaches art to youngsters at Blue Heron Middle School there — while learning, too, from the grown-up artists he meets.
“I’ve talked to so many older adults who are drawing again now but didn’t their whole lives” because of some misunderstanding about who can or cannot be an artist, he said.
Everybody has art in them, Watson believes.
On Saturday, “I’ll be working with whoever shows up,” he added, “doing different exercises that I’ve discovered in my own process . . . to get us in the zone.
“There is so much filtering going on” when we draw our surroundings.
“I want to get those filters off.”
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
