Throughout The Bird That Sang in Color, Donna encourages her brother Vincent to live according to society’s conventions. She assumes that because he is single, childless, and works mostly menial jobs, he cannot possibly be happy. What she fails to recognize is the deep, internal joy Vincent derives from creating and from living life on a visceral, intuitive level. It isn’t until Donna discovers a sketchbook he has made—an illustrated autobiography of sorts—that her understanding of him begins to change.
The final image in Vincent’s sketchbook is a drawing of himself as a young boy, holding his mother’s hand. Donna remembers Vincent once telling her that their mother was his best friend. In the drawing, she notices how boldly he is smiling. As she flips back through the pages, she realizes that he is smiling in many of the sketches. The memory of his real-life smile comes rushing back—so wide and luminous it seemed to take over his entire face.
Through this recognition, Donna arrives at a powerful realization: Vincent was happy all along. His happiness was never dependent on external markers of success. Over time, she comes to understand that happiness can only come from within, and that many people who appear to “have it all” may, in fact, feel deeply empty inside.
At first, Donna is confused by the placement of this final image. The earlier drawings in the sketchbook follow a loose chronological order, so it seems strange that the last picture depicts Vincent as a child. Then she remembers him explaining that linear time is merely a construct—that there is no true beginning or end to life. She thinks of the kaleidoscope painting he created as a teenager and suddenly understands.
The arrangement of the sketches reflects the way Vincent lived his life: not as a straight line from start to finish, but as a continuous, ever-turning circle.
Although this is the final image in Vincent’s sketchbook, I’ll be sharing more artwork that inspired The Bird That Sang in Color in upcoming posts.
This post is part of my latest blog series on the artwork that inspired the family saga, The Bird that Sang in Color. The art featured in these posts comes from a sketchbook that belonged to my brother, Vincent, which I discovered shortly after his death. It had pictures he’d drawn of himself throughout various phases of his life. This pictorial autobiography caused me to wonder what pictures I’d have of myself by the end of my life, which motivated me to live more fully. In writing this novel, I was able to share this powerful realization with the world. This novel is the third book in the Greco Family books. Each one of these novels is told from a different family member’s point of view. This one is told from the perspective of the Greco family matriarch, Donna.
