Thirty Seconds And

 

8/13/25 Roof cleaners, Maple Leaf neighborhood

Perhaps you’ve heard this story (or maybe it’s just a parable): 

A sumi-e master stands beside a painting he has made – a few deftly placed ink strokes. A viewer seems skeptical of its value. “How long did it take you to make that?” he asks.

The master answers, “One minute and 50 years.”

When I shared these gestures of a couple of men cleaning a rooftop across the street, a follower commented that they were “powerful.” I was taken aback a bit by her term powerful – it’s not how I think of my own sketches. To me, these were just scribbles that took maybe 30 seconds each.

I had to remind myself, though, that 14 years ago when I first started sketching, I would have marveled at these gestures and said to myself, “They look so simple, but I could never do that, not in a million years!”

A million years are not necessary. Just 30 seconds and 14 years.