The RoundHouse | 12/19/2019 10:50:00 AM

 
Playing college basketball can be a life full of noise and rushing from class to practice to weights to study hall and doing it all again the next day.
 
Getting a break from all those demands is helpful. Finding a soothing place that gives the mind time to rest and breathe is crucial. For Wichita State sophomore center Isaiah Poor Bear-Chandler, that place is his drawing pad.
 
He is an artist, sketching mostly with pencils and he describes his style as bubbly and joyful. His cartoon characters, self-portraits, caricatures and other products of his imagination – whales and bears are among his favorites -  help him relax and re-focus when things get busy. Basketball is rarely a subject.
 
"I use it as a way to get away from a lot of things," he said. "If I'm bored or I need to think, I grab one of my art books and start to draw. It can go from made-up characters that I'm thinking about to self-portraits to sea animals – whatever comes to my mind in the moment."
 
Whales are easy to draw. His affection for bears is a connection to his Native American heritage as a member of the Oglala Lakota. Poor Bear-Chandler was born in South Dakota and is from Omaha, where he attended Central High School before spending a year at Sunrise Christian Academy in Bel Aire.
 
"Sometimes, I draw stuff that is related to my heritage, certain symbols, animals that have a deeper meaning," he said. "I draw bears a lot and in my culture, bears are really sacred."
 
When the Shockers stopped in Denver during their trip back from the Cancun Challenge in November, he thought about returning to his apartment.
 
"I was missing my apartment because we had a seven-hour layover," he said. "I drew my whole living room in one of my notebooks."
 
Poor Bear-Chandler said he started his art work in elementary school when his father (Larry Chandler) gave him paper and pencils to help him focus in the classroom. Poor Bear-Chandler's grandfather drew and he followed that example. 
 
"I would look at all his art books and I was intrigued on the way (my grandfather) was drawing things from like hands and feet and that made me start to draw," Poor Bear-Chandler said. "I started to be more calm during class. I would doodle while I did my work and it started to work itself out."

Gretchen Torline, director of athletic academic services, routinely checks notes from class as part of her work with the basketball team. While going over his notes last year, she noticed the drawings in his spiral notebook.
 
"I was like 'Wow, who did that?'" she said. "He said 'I did.' I encouraged him to do it and keep doing it. Art is a good thing for your brain and he's really good at it."
 
Poor-Bear-Chandler is largely private about his art, although Torline's prompting led him to share his talents occasionally. He said a few of his teammates notice him drawing and ask about the art. Last year, he sketched teammate Samajae Haynes-Jones, although he has yet to show the piece to him.
 
Torline often uses the drawing as a reward. Poor Bear-Chandler will work on his studies for a time and then take a respite with his art. Then it's back to homework.
 
"It is very soothing for him," she said. "We try to use it to give him breaks during studying. It gets him more focused and back on track." 
 
Drawing often fills the need for motion that can get him off track. When he starts to lose focus on homework, he will draw and then return to his school. After a long day of school and basketball, emptying his mind onto a drawing pad helps him relax and regroup. 
 
"Soothing is a good word," he said. "Instead of getting up and having to move a lot, I feel like if I concentrate all my energy on what comes to my mind, it helps me be still."


 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.