Robert E. Lee and Him

And who? Ty Seidule, that’s who! His book: ROBERT E. LEE AND ME: A Southerner’s Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause.

This book has helped me snap out of the stupefying effects of one of America’s biggest lies, the lost cause, which I’ll let you look up on your own so that you can examine the toxic linkage to another more recent but just as stupefying big lie.

I’ve indirectly illustroblogged about Robert E. Lee elsewhere, check it out here. In that 2014 post, I’m ashamed to admit that I knew nothing per se about the “lost cause,” which again I’ll let you look up on your own. My fascination with Lee had always centered on what I saw as an association with Don Quijote.

Ty Seidule’s courageous book is a lot to process; however, it’s worth every perturbing wave of irreversible discomfort because of the permanent illumination it offers. Here’s how I’ve begun to process it in my own cartoonish way:

Some 3-Minute iPad Drawings

Elsewhere on this illustroblog, HERE IN PARTICULAR, I’ve referred to my work at the Enrichment Center (EC), where I’ve taught iPad art to adult artists with developmental disabilities since 2015. The pandemic put an end to our in-person classes and studios, but we’ve continued to meet online a few times a week. On Fridays we meet for timed drawing exercises. Some use traditional tools, e.g., pens, pencils, markers, paper, etc., and others use iPads. We’re shown an object or a photo, we’re given 3 minutes to draw it, and then we take turns showing what we managed to crank out. I have over 60 digital images, and here are a few of them (all done in the Sketch Club app):