Making things “by hand” is . . . immersive, contemplative, challenging, adventuresome, exalting, even, at times, and can make one feel connected to a great stream here and beyond. The impulse to draw or paint (to me) is a reaching for what is illusory, but no less consoling in some way. What? Beauty, Truth? A Dream? Some “mastery”? One tries. And the various materials . . . charcoal, graphite, pigments, inks, oils, watercolors, acrylics, and the panoply of surfaces and tools used in application offers never-ending interest and sensuous pleasure. Something divine there.