In the early days of Bobbledy, we had a duo of devoted contributors, Spencer and his brother Tyler. They are picture-drawing, story-making fiends, and they shared a lot of their work with us. Spencer, in fact, was the first winner of the Bobbledy Make Your Own Book contest, writing and illustrating the now-classic title Gorillas in the Kitchen.
I recently learned from Spencer’s mom that, once a year, Spencer’s school has a “literacy week,” during which students are encouraged to dress up as their favorite storybook character. For three years running, Spencer has dressed up as Spencer from Gorillas in the Kitchen—sporting the tye-die outfit with matching shirt and shorts that his alter-ego in the book wears throughout his adventures.
But back to the matter at hand. Perhaps struck by a pang of nostalgia, Spencer (now a worldly nine year old) wandered back to the Bobbledy Blog the other day to check in on the current topic. Seeing the Rockets theme, he was inspired to create and submit the following, which we couldn’t be happier to share with you today.
It appears to be a space shuttle attached to a rocket that is assisting its attempts to escape from Earth’s gravity into the wild blue, black, empty wonder beyond. My favorite part of the drawing is the heavy green squiggles with which Spencer so ably captures the furious energy of ascent. Isn’t it interesting how drawings include so many lines that we do not actually see when we look at an actual scene with our actual eyes—but which are so essential to capturing all that our eyes can’t take in—the sound and the vibration and even the smell of a heavy object moving through space.
Spencer is an artist because he knows to include these clues. He knows how to capture that energy.
Thanks for checking in, Spencer, and for sharing your great work with us. We are so glad to see you’re still at it.