Mr. Drenchard

Flash Fiction

Mr. Drenchard

Art class, grade three. I considered it wonderful because we didn’t have to memorize anything and there were no tests!

Granted I personally thought some of the outcomes from my classmates were terrible! I would have thought any “art” would be art-y but as I watched some projects get worse, I realized there was a challenge for “good” art. Even though I just wanted to pass, without studying…

One day we had to draw a scene. A house, a car, and trees. There was no information about who’s house, or where it was in the world; just house, car, trees. One of the kids asked a question about that, Mr. Drenchard told us to use our “imagination.” That excited me.

I immediately decided to have my house on the moon! I decided to have it on a crescent moon (at the time not even knowing it was called crescent.) I had my car parked next to one end of the crescent and the trees growing out the other, where they had to flip sideways to be seen. I had so much fun that when the recess bell rang, I asked Mr. Drenchard if I could have a few more minutes to finish, and he let me.

I never stopped after that day. I was so excited about the idea of drawing what you were thinking, it hatched more ideas! My parents had to buy me art supplies over and over as I grew up. I spent a lot of time with Mr. Drenchard. He introduced me to other kinds of art, and I turned all of it into my strange imaginative pieces.

Mr. Drenchard, Ted, always said art is a piece of life, plus an artist’s imagination. Add, a teacher who has faith in you. I miss him every day.