B5
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, MAY 15, 2021
88-year-old creates doodles amid pandemic
By HOLLY RAMER
Associated Press
WESTMORELAND,
N.H. — Much like the round
clock faces, gears and plan-
ets that often populate his art-
work, Robert Seaman has
come full circle.
Seaman, 88, has been
drawing since he was a boy,
and at age 60, left a real estate
career to pursue his hobby
professionally. But it took the
coronavirus pandemic to fully
return him to his passion.
“As a kid, I kept lurch-
ing between being a loner and
being an extrovert,” he said.
“But in my introvert phase,
I would love to go up to my
room where I had a draw-
ing table kind of desk and I’d
spend hours up there draw-
ing pictures. That’s what I’m
doing now.”
Tuesday marked one year
since Seaman started churning
out “daily doodles” from his
small, one-room apartment at
the Maplewood Assisted Liv-
ing facility in Westmoreland,
New Hampshire. He spends
about six hours a day work-
ing on his intricate, fanci-
ful illustrations, starting with
pencil sketches and fi nishing
with ink, colored pencil and
watercolor.
“After a long life, I’m back
doing what I did when I was
11 years old,” he said. “And
it’s great, I love it. I’m so lucky
that I can do this.”
Seaman moved in to
Maplewood just two weeks
before the pandemic restric-
tions cut residents off from
the outside world. For many
months, they couldn’t leave
their rooms. It was only last
week that they were allowed to
interact in hallways and other
common areas without masks.
“The fi rst thought I had was
to just do some kind of dark
stuff that refl ected the nature
of the confi nement that we
were experiencing and the dif-
fi culties that were created by
this pandemic,” he said. “Then
it just started to grow, and I
thought it would be interesting
to do one a day.”
He started sending the doo-
dles to his daughter, Robin
Hayes, and other friends and
family. Hayes then shared
Charles Krupa/AP Photo
Artist Robert Seaman holds up the 365th daily doodle sketch
in his room at an assisted living facility in New Hampshire.
them on Facebook, and as
interest grew, began off er-
ing the originals and prints for
sale on Etsy.com, with half
the proceeds going to chari-
ties, including a COVID-19
relief fund, a homeless shelter
and an organization that helps
refugees.
As the days passed, Sea-
man’s art got a bit brighter in
both theme and appearance.
Some pieces showcase
his fascination with science
fi ction, while others por-
tray whimsical animals or sly
humor — #131, “Portraits of
a Shy Family,” depicts framed
paintings of the backs of heads.
Robots carrying purple fl ags
march across the page. Black-
birds burst from a pie. A squig-
gly-lined brain is sandwiched
between two burger buns. A
much-loved cat, Piper, shows
up in all kinds of scenes.
Seaman, who has been
fully vaccinated since Janu-
ary, says he’ll “probably kick
the bucket” before he runs out
of ideas.
“I might be watching
something on television, and
someone will have a picture
on the wall that will give me
an idea. Or things just pop into
my head. When I go to sleep at
night, for a few minutes I try
to think of some new ideas,”
he said. “When I get stuck,
I’ll just start drawing an object
and it’s like word association.
I’ll draw a hand, and all of a
sudden that suggests some-
thing else, so it just grows
from there.”
Craig and Sandra Fox, of
Deerfi eld, bought doodles
#13, 271 and 274 after hear-
ing about Seaman on the radio
and getting added to his daily
email list.
“During the pandemic, a lot
of our normal ability to get out
and have contact with people
was diminished, so to be able
to get some output or some-
thing that isn’t an advertising
fl ier or newsletter on a daily
basis was cool,” Craig Fox
said. “I collect books by peo-
ple I know. If someone I know
writes a book, I buy it and ask
for an autograph ... and by
watching the doodles come
by, I started to feel like I know
him.”
Sandra Fox, who once
stared at a painting in a
museum so long that a guard
teased her about “casing the
joint,” said she loves how
much there is to see in Sea-
man’s drawings.
“They are what they are to
me, I have the same feelings,
but I see more every time,”
she said. “I could look at them
for half an hour and see many,
many things. I’ll catch another
color or something in a corner
I never even noticed before.”
Doodle #365, titled “Pot-
pourri” includes the Earth
looming behind a jumble of
objects that include the afore-
mentioned cat, a wind-up bird
Seaman keeps on his desk, a
horse and a man wearing an
aviator cap and googles. It’s
framed by a series of shapes
that evoke calligraphy but
aren’t actual letters. Though
he accomplished his goal of a
year of daily doodles, Seaman
said he has no plans to stop.
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