Illustration Friday - HEROES

This week’s topic made me think a lot. Initially I thought of my artistic and design heroes and I was going to do a portrait of Milton Glaser in the style of either his Bob Dylan poster or his Mahalia Jackson poster. But then I thought ‘Nah, very obvious and almost definitely been done before’. I then thought ‘Anyway what’s so heroic about doing what you love, getting paid for it and getting fame and praise for doing it well? What sort of person is truly heroic?’ and I thought of Katherine. We met through our children going to the same playgroups, nurseries and primary schools. I always looked forward to a gossip and chat with her at the school gates. She had the most wicked sense of humour and the school caretaker frequently had to chase us away hours after we’d dropped our children off at school, because we couldn’t resist yet another funny anecdote. She was incredibly kind and was always putting herself out to help people. I thought I had all the time in the world to let our friendship flourish, but I was wrong. Katherine was heroic because despite the challenges that life had given her she showed us how to live. She embraced life, she never moaned and she gave so much to everyone who knew her. So I nominate Katherine as my hero and as a representative of all the true heroes that live amongst us all. I failed miserably at trying to capture Katherine’s essence in a picture, so a drawing of a smile because that is what I remember when I think about Katherine.