There is something magical about the feeling of a new pencil sitting within your hand.  To me, they are symbolic of the creative process.

The image above was inspired by the text from a scene from Terrence McNally’s play Master Class, which follows opera singer Maria Callas as she gives a master class at Julliard.  The text from that scene can be found below.

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Maria: At the conservatory Madame de Hidalgo never once had to ask me if I had a pencil. And this was during the war, when a pencil wasn’t something you just picked up at the five and ten. Oh no, no, no, no. A pencil meant something. It was a choice over something else. You either had a pencil or an orange. I always had a pencil. I never had an orange. And I love oranges. I knew one day I would have all the oranges I could want, but that didn’t make the wanting them any less.

Have you ever been hungry?

Soprano: Not like that.

Maria: It’s. It’s something you remember. Always. In some part of you.