My Day in Boston

My husband is gone 25% of the time from February through mid-May. Shortly after he returned home from February's trip, I learned the Embroidery + Embellishment class I'd registered for at the RI School of Design was cancelled. I was feeling sort of...desperate is a good word, desperate for something of my own in the midst of all this hard work of keeping everything running smoothly with no help during all this travel of his, and I asked for a day before the next trip arrived. I wanted a day during which I was responsible for nobody's needs or wants save my own--no school work, no home work, no lunches or dinner. He checked his calendar and came up with some options and yesterday, I took the commuter train to Boston to visit the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum, my objective being to sit somewhere beautiful for a while with no responsibilities.

Absolutely no photography is allowed within the confines of the museum, not even without flash, not even in the gift shop, so I have no pictures of the museum itself to share with you. It's an interesting place, though, because its items are from the collection of Mrs. Gardner; she also had the museum built and arranged her collections the way she saw fit, and then stipulated that nothing could ever be changed. It is a collection frozen in time--and this is why, after the shocking (still unsolved) theft in 1990 of several works, the empty frames remain hanging on the wall. The rooms can seem overwhelming; on the other hand, small delights are found everywhere. And in the center of it all is a courtyard, the place I remember most from my last visit to the Gardner, in my early 20s. It's warm, even in winter. Fountains trickle, green things grow, there are places to sit upon and just be somewhere beautiful, with no responsibilities at all.

I sat on a ledge and sketched. (I increased contrast on this photo since my pencil lines were so light; only pencils are allowed in the museum.)

I took my time wandering the rooms, looking at what I wanted to, not having to deal with anybody else's hunger or need for a bathroom or boredom. In the tapestry room I was drawn to this small silk scarf. The room is enormous, with huge tapestries everywhere, but I ended up kneeling before this small bit of silk, trying to sketch the tree motif.

(Even with increasing the contrast, that sketch is still hard to see.)

I was able to take my time in the gift store, too. I was hoping to find some postcards with images of lace from the lace cases--yes, cases of lace collected by Mrs. Gardner. How I wish I could have taken some pictures. The lace was gorgeous. You can get just a glimpse of the cases at this link. But the store is only about a year old and they haven't added any lace images yet--although I hope they do. However, the store is one of those gift shops that feels curated itself, a collection of carefully chosen items. It was lovely to browse for as long as I wanted. I bought a few things, too.

The card shows one of the stolen paintings, Chez Tortoni by Manet. The book, oh my, the book. It's just filled with images like this:

And this:

I want to embroider them. To my eyes--my biology-loving, ocean-loving, art-loving eyes--this is a book of embroidery patterns. This book had to come home with me. Of course!

I had some time before the train home, so I sat in the museum cafe and ordered the only appetizing-sounding gluten-free item I could find, a shockingly expensive bowl of mixed baby greens. But they made up for that by having really good coffee and a flourless gluten-free chocolate cake, and I ate it all, every last bit, except for the raspberries, because I do not like raspberries, but I do like flourless chocolate cake with chocolate sauce and a bit of whipped cream, and I don't mind sitting by myself in a cafe, reading a book and drinking coffee.

When most of your time and head space is given over to thinking and doing for everybody but yourself, a day alone is so, so necessary. I have requested, if possible, a day to myself in between all his business trips. I'll start dreaming about where I'd like to go after he's back from Thailand and before he leaves for Belgium...

AEDM2012: Days 19-21

Happy Thanksgiving! Today I am thankful that we are not tied to hard-and-fast traditions and can make the holiday work for us instead of the other way around. To that end, we had a lazy morning, the kids are watching the parade, I'll be serving dinner at regular dinner time (because my kids really don't like having their large meal in the middle of the day, holiday or no), and I didn't have to do any extra cooking or cleaning. It's just the five of us, having a relaxing low-key day together at home. Thankfully! (Some years I'm game for a busier holiday. This is not one of those years.)

So I'm catching up here with the pieces created Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. This simple Life Map uses watercolored circles glued onto a watercolor background. The radiating spokes (written thoughts about each life stage) were just off the top of my head, and the path ends where I am now: parenting children (not babies any longer).

On Tuesday, I created a map of Monday.

I charted the day by the hour. It's hard to see in the scan, but I used grey watercolor to shade the nighttime hours and yellow to shade the daylight hours, although to be accurate I would have used grey for the day (no sun that day) and black for the night (but then you wouldn't be able to see my handwriting). You can see that particular day began at 2 am when my four-year-old showed up at our bedside, upset over a dream. Of course she spent the rest of the night with us, poor girl. The day ended around 11 when I finally went to bed. (No, I don't get enough sleep.)

On Wednesday, I used a grey watercolor pencil to make a sketch of a sea serpent, inspired by the old maps that purported to chart even the sea monsters.

I found this guy on an endpaper map from a library book about the Parthenon (we're moving into Ancient Greece in our homeschool), but that map was clearly inspired by early maps.

I'm hitting a wall, though, when it comes to mapping and map-inspired ideas. What might you like to see me map? Suggestions welcome. And it's funny, I keep coming across maps at home--such as a postcard with a bedrock map of Connecticut that I picked up at a CT state park over the summer purely because I liked the visual effect. Funny brain.

AEDM2012: Days 17-18

I spent the weekend making a map of the Land of Oz. I used my pre-cut pieces of paper and just kept going. If I were to do this again (and I might), I'd arrange the pieces ahead of time so that they cold fold down into a book and open up into a map. So consider this a second draft. My first draft was created along with my two younger kids--you can read about that little project here, if you want. We were mapping the Oz of the book, so this map contains quite a bit that isn't even mentioned in the movie. First I'll show you the pieces all laid out together so that the locations are where they belong, in relation to each other:

 All the action in the story primarily happens North (where the house lands) to South (where Glinda's castle is). The Wicked Witch of the West's castle is, of course, in the West. The East isn't mentioned at all in the book--we have no idea what's over there. Here are the map pieces one at a time, following the path from North to South:

From the house's landing spot to the second ditch

Over the river, through the poppy field, and into the Emerald City

From Emerald City to the forest with the monster

Into the Country of the Quadlings

 And, of course, over to the west for the castle:

Land of the Winkies

I do see a combination handmade book/map of Oz at some point in the future--but after this month is over, I think!

I have one more post until I'm caught up. I'm starting to run out of ideas though...

AEDM2012: Days 13-16

I finally scanned this afternoon, so I'm sharing three map-inspired pieces from last week. It counts as four days' work, though, because I carved another stamp, which took two full episodes of Freaks and Geeks on Netflix.

But I'm getting ahead of myself! The first thing I did was slice some printed-out maps into 1-inch strips. Then I glued them down with gel medium. This first has strips of the topo map that inspired the line maps in this post, arranged with space between the strips. When it was dry, I rolled some gesso on top. It's really light and delicate and hard to scan. The only other thing I did was add a light wash of blue watercolor in between the map strips. It's hard to see in person--it's so delicate--so it's probably impossible to notice here.

"File Copy"

I have to angle my screen just right to see this at all. I really love it in person.

The next piece used strips from a much more colorful 1947 map of Rhode Island and some of the surrounding states. I glued those down without spaces, added the gesso, and decided it needed a big compass rose. So big I had to go buy a carving block because the ones I have are all 4x6". This is the stamp I drew and then carved.

And here it is on the map collage.

"Sound"

I don't know if you're getting how much fun this is. Granted, some days I am just, What on earth am I going to do on this map theme again??? But I'm really enjoying a lot of what I come out with.

Finally, this last piece (for this post) is inspired by a 1997 topo map of the area around Killington, VT, which is also where I was married, two years later.

This was drawn with Zig Millennium pens and colored in with colored pencils.

I will continue to try to catch up with the posting without slacking on the making! Reminder, more Art Every Day Month participants can be found here.

AEDM2012: Playing Catch Up

Today's the 13th and it's not over yet, and by my count I have 11 pieces, so I'm only one day behind. That's because on Friday night I went to a friend's house instead of into the basement to create something, but getting out of the house was a good thing. We were juggling cars last week, so Friday, which is usually a long day because it's our homeschool co-op day, was even longer. Anyway, enough of my excuses. I have three maps to share today.

I drew this one on Saturday, using watercolor pencils. It's inspired by game boards, and again, I don't get too personal here, but this is drawn from my own experiences over decades, and is only meant to reflect my own experiences, and obviously in general terms because the map isn't that detailed.

As always, clicking makes it a little bigger.

This next one was drawn Sunday. I only used pencil, so I tried to adjust the scan digitally a bit so it shows up a little better. I tried, anyway. As I mentioned last time, I discovered USGS topographical maps are available as free downloads. Bliss! I love topo maps. Of course they're much smaller than the originals, if you print them out, although I already printed a 1958 map of Rhode Island and portions of the bordering states using the poster setting, so I have 12 sheets of paper to piece together to make the whole map. This pencil sketch used an 1899 map of my town as inspiration--it's not meant to be an exact copy.

And then on Monday, I drew one in color.

I didn't use pencil at all for this. I'm trying to gain confidence in just setting down the lines in a permanent way, and it worked out fine. I stuck to the colors of the map--blue for water and marshland (still pretty marshy around where I live, hurrah for wetlands, I say), brown for contour lines, roads, and railroad tracks. But hmm, I think I feel a multi-colored one of these coming on, just to play. But I like the blue and brown too, for an authentic old-time map feel. And I like the Zig milennium markers and the way they feel drawing line after line onto the paper. Very soothing.

I have no idea what today's map might look like. Thirty map-inspired pieces! Can I ever just take on a challenge at face value without making it more complicated for myself? Yeesh.

AEDM2012: Day 8

Wednesday I felt a Sick coming on, so I crawled into bed around 7 pm with some tea and honey, the heating pad, and a bunch of books and knitting. I mainly ignored the books and knitting; I finished the tea and dozed on and off, crawling out of bed only to dispatch children to bed at their appointed times. I felt better on Thursday, so I suppose my proactive approach worked? But all I managed on Wednesday was a little bit of sketching.

So Thursday night, I headed downstairs to do a little daily art plus some. First, a map. I rarely go to my childhood neighborhood even in my head (never in person, anymore), but I decided to create this quick, childlike map in a sepia watercolor pencil, hoping for an old-time look.

You can click to make it bigger. If you lived in that neighborhood with me (hi, Jill!) you may not recognize what I chose to put here. The BIG HILL is of course not all that big; but it seemed that way. And I don't know if we always sledded down it--how could that be? didn't they plow streets in the 70s/early 80s?--but I remember doing it at least once. The "deep dark woods" was really just a patch of trees on a hill between streets, but I loved going there and pretending I was Far Away. The "pond" was probably just an exaggerated puddle in a swampy area, but I did fall into it once, when Michelle (whose house is at the top of the BIG HILL) dared me to walk out onto the ice, and I did. As I said, it was a puddle; I only got wet up to my knees or so when the ice broke, but the rocks--which were there as fill, because they built houses on that swamp the next year--all froze to my corduroys, and it was funny. And I marked the way to Stop & Shop because at five years old, I figured I'd have to live in my parents' neighborhood forever because at least I knew how to get to the supermarket from there.

Well. That's more childhood reminiscing than I am likely to do for the next year. And how about this --I realized a couple hours after I drew this that I signed it with my maiden initials, abc, rather than my current ones. I signed it with the initials of the person who lived there. Funny Brains.

Also last night, I made some postcards for iHanna's latest swap, which has a theme of "empowerment," which can be interpreted any number of ways. I chose simply. Here's my group of cards to choose from (we only need five):

I already had all these backgrounds ready, so it was just a matter of deciding what to do with them. I am partial to the "Grow" cards; I think I will have to keep one for myself.

 Also using the theme of trees and growth:
 

And finally, more of the compass rose from earlier in the month. It's not the best choice with these backgrounds, but I think these two hold up okay.

There's still plenty of time to sign up for the postcard swap, if you're interested--right here!

AEDM2012: Days 5 + 6

As anticipated, I didn't manage any art on Sunday, but I completed these three pieces between Monday and Tuesday. The first uses contact paper image transfers of a black and white photocopy of a Berlin street  map. It's an insert on a AAA road map of Central Europe from 1968. It happened to photocopy in pieces so that's how I used it, deciding to fill in the center with my own map-inspired lines.

Before applying the transfers I used red watercolor and plastic wrap on the paper for the background.

The second piece was also inspired by a piece of this same late-60s road map, the legend describing the international road signs:

You can read it if you click on it. I decided to take the organization of shapes (triangles for danger, circular for instructions, and rectangular for information) and apply them to babies/toddlers. I brainstormed quite a few possibilities and decided to include two of each. Wouldn't it be great if babies came with instructional signs?

You can click on that to make it bigger, too.

The final piece is an abstract road map using tape resist and a secondary color palette. The compass rose is an older stamp I carved quite a while ago. Without it, I think it's just an interesting abstract. Hopefully with it, it starts to make you think "map."

I'm having fun. It's a good challenge to ask myself to create pieces that can be considered complete, although I could see going back into some of these later, too. I've noticed, though, that I spend quite a lot of "art every day time" facilitating the kids' art. When I have time, I'll post their artwork, too.

List-It Tuesday: I Am A Sucker For...

 

When I saw the topic for this week's list, I knew I needed to put it on a lollipop background. I played around with some new watercolor pencils to make this (#2!!). Here's a bit more about the items on my list:

1. It doesn't matter what I'm doing, if one of my kids comes to me to offer a hug, or because they need a hug, well. That becomes my automatic priority, right? I'm still waking my youngest up for a bathroom trip before I go to bed, and those sleepy hugs and kisses she bestows as I carry her to and from bed...my goodness. Sometimes it's the highlight of my day, hands down.

2. Art supplies are like a Happy Drug. And books! Full of ideas! Techniques! Pretty pictures! I'm such a sucker.

3. Many a night I've agreed to this request against my better judgment, knowing that 6:45 is a better bedtime than 7, that everything will go just that much more smoothly if I don't read that one more story. And our marathon read-aloud sessions once the school bus is gone and my coffee is poured...one more story, Mama? Of course.

4. Bird seed costs a lot! But I love seeing the birds visiting the feeder. I will stop what I'm doing for a bird almost every time. Not too long ago the two youngest kids and I saw three--three!!--flickers grazing for insects on the grass. Joy! Over the weekend I spotted a juvenile sharp-shinned hawk in a beach parking lot in the pouring rain. Of course I stopped the car to watch and try and get a decent photo through my windshield. Whenever we run low on birdseed I go to the store and put another ginormous bag of it on the credit card because apparently, bird seed has become a line item here. I signed up for Cornell's Project FeederWatch this year. I can't wait to get my packet of information.

5. We get lots of requests for donations in the mail (because we donate). And when we are on a tighter budget, I can recycle most of them, but I can't pass by the appeals from the Food Bank. One day a couple years ago I received their report on the state of hunger in Rhode Island. I was so appalled (I read the whole thing) that I signed us up for a monthly automatic donation. There was no appeal envelope or request in with the report, just the cold, hard facts, but it was the biggest incentive for donating more that I'd ever read. I've recycled a lot of donation requests recently, but the Food Bank is also a line item.

Next week's topic is "what I love about where I live." I can't wait. Those of you who know me well know I love to list what I love about living here. I think next week's list might have to be a photographic one, hmm... maybe you'll play along too? 

Linking up with Aimee at Artsyville!

Snippets of Making

I've already started working on the list for next week's List-it Tuesday--the topic is "creative things I could do in 15 minutes or less," and since most of the creative things I do are slotted into small pockets of time, this is perfect. You don't have to make a colorful, artsy list to participate, either. You can post a hand-written list or type it right into the blog post. I'm guessing lots of people who visit this blog are familiar with the concept of making use of the odd quarter-hour here and there. Perhaps you'll join in next week?

And of course I mention this because it leads right into what I'm posting about--some snippets of making that I've been able to do lately; the fact that I've gotten some creative play recently is helping my mood tremendously. Sunday afternoon I got in some sewing, just two more zippered pouches that were already cut and pinned, but it's amazing how much just the act of sewing them up made me feel so much more like myself. One was for my daughter, the long-promised pencil pouch, and the other hasn't reached its destination yet, but I'll be sure to share some pictures of it when it does.

I also created a handmade card this week. I started by layering some collage and paint on a 9x12" piece of Bristol board. Then I cut it into four pieces and added to one of the pieces to make my card (not shown). Here are the other three pieces, waiting to be worked into at some point and turned into more cards.

Also this week I borrowed the Artist's Journal Workshop from the library. I saw Jodi's review and immediately requested it through inter-library loan. It's a fantastic, inspiring book. I would love to create spreads like the ones shown in the book. The thing with drawing, though, is you only get better at drawing by...drawing. So I've been trying to sit down and draw.

That's the spray bottle that I use for artsy/crafty things. It's usually on the ironing board or the art table, and last night it was on the art table, so I drew it. The bottom is off--that curve on the left? all wrong. But how do you get better at drawing? By drawing. And oooh, do you see the date stamp at the top right? I can't explain why I wanted one so badly, but I did, and it turns out they cost less than $5 at Staples. Satisfying a want for less than $5 is pretty sweet.

Feeling prickly is a fairly good indicator that something is out of whack, and what's been out of whack is filling my well with some creative time. So, into the tiny slots of time it goes--a quick sketch, a layer of paint, whatever I can manage. It's that important.

Drawing + Painting

A little of what I've been up to this weekend, not counting the knitting, which will get its own post soon, I'm sure. Part of what is making Pages and Paint pretty cool for an online course is that it's the first one I've taken that includes snail mail. Before the course began, we each received a little packet in the mail with some odds and ends, plus an envelope to open each week. (That's 200 packets that had to be compiled and mailed out--whew!) One of the odds and ends was a snippet of fabric, and this week's bonus assignment was to get out the paints and try to re-create the pattern on the fabric. What a great idea! What fun!

So this was my attempt. First off, I'd have liked some black to mix with the blue and white, because that background is really more of a blue grey, but the supply list had the primaries and white, so I'm sticking to those for now. (But yeah, I'm going to have to use some black. I like shades as well as tints.) Second, I didn't reproduce the fabric exactly. Once I had the white circles (made with my fingertip), I mixed colors and added them as I pleased, more trying to get the spirit of the thing rather than the thing itself. (With a nod to Wallace Stevens.)

I had fun. Also, I really like mixing paints. I've said before, yes? I'm realizing that this is one of those things that I think is easy because I can do it (a common way in which I don't appreciate my own skills or talents: I think if I can do it, it must be easy). Many people are relating how they are struggling with mixing paint colors, so that is another benefit of this workshop--I do not recognize my strengths, mostly. And while I still think if I can do something, certainly anyone can learn to do it too (and I do think this is a skill, not a talent; it is entirely learn-able, and my kids can all mix colors with varying degrees of success because they have been given the paint and the opportunity to do so), I'm going to take a moment and appreciate my love of color and willingness to experiment with it.

Okay then. So after doing that assignment, I decided to vary the theme, and came up with this.

Earlier in the week we were told to play with text and different ways of writing it. I used some letter stencils and some letter stamps (which is what you see here). In this instance, I stamped on tissue paper and then glued it over the painted background--squares instead of circles, different color palette, but still a direct descendant of the fabric assignment. This is the text, which might be hard to read:I have spread my dreams under your feet/tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

They are the final lines of a poem by W. B. Yeats, "Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven." Would you like to take a minute to read it all? I'll wait.

Isn't it lovely? I'd written this fragment in one of my many notebooks a year or so ago, thinking I'd like to do something with it, something illustrative, with embroidery, clearly. And I moved on to other things, and forgot about it, and found the notebook while straightening up the studio the other day, and wanted to remember it again. (I need to get better at keeping all the ideas in one place.) I love poetry. You probably knew that already though.

One more picture for you. A couple of weeks ago, iHanna posted about mandalas, and she included a video. I watched the video, and not too long after began drawing one every night before bed in a small notebook. It's very soothing. I think it's perfect to do before bed. Here are some samples.

The one in the larger notebook was done one rainy afternoon when I thought I might interest my older kids in trying it if I sat and did one myself. They were only sort of interested, but that's okay. They may decide to try at some point. All it takes is paper, a fine-point marker, and patience.

And you? Did you find some time to be creative--or contemplative--this weekend?

Pages + Paint: Sketchbook

I've only taken a few online courses, but Pages and Paint is my favorite so far of the ones I've tried, mainly because it is getting me inspired to do. Last week, Week One, was mainly about setting up our studios and inspiration board/wall. The kids and I already have a great place for art-making--it's not perfect (I'd love some natural light), but it's by far the best set-up we've had in this house and I'm so grateful for it. The walls are filled with works by the kids and me, studies we've done together using different materials, to inspire us as we work. But lately I'd been thinking I needed a section of the wall to hang up the odds and ends I've collected that I want to have out so I can see them. So that's done now.

But I just couldn't wait to get into that sketchbook! So last week, after spending a day at the local salt pond with the kids, when I wanted to remember some of what we'd seen, I combined words and sketch.

I think if you click on that to make it bigger, you might be able to read what I wrote, too. And yes! We saw a BIG horseshoe crab, and it was so so cool! There is nothing like seeing creatures in their natural habitat--while sharing their natural habitat. I can't even explain how it fills me up to be able to give these experiences to my kids.

Combining words and sketches in one journal/sketchbook was a revelation for me. I don't have to have a journal OR a sketchbook OR an art journal (the last, quite frankly, I find intimidating). I can put it all in one place. Obvious, I know, but it was something that needed to click for me. And all those photos I take (because I always have my camera with me) of random things that catch my eye? I can print them out--regular computer paper is fine--and stick them in the book.

Now, in Week Two, we are working in our sketchbooks as a class. One assignment was to make a double-page spread that felt "finished." Since I'm using an 8.5x11" sketchbook, I turned it sideways to do this.

The quote is from an e.e. cummings poem. Again, I think it'll be readable if you click on the photo. I was actually able to do this during the day (usually I get creative time at night). My boys were engrossed in their books, and my daughter was at the art table with me, working on her own composition, with crayons, stamps, and paint. Love working with her like that.

Also this week, we were given prompts. Mine was sunny*yellow*shady tree*try a sketch*happy. Because I'm trying to get more comfortable with materials I don't often use, I sketched this tree with chalk and oil pastels. The leaves were added with paint.

As a reference I used a photo of the enormous "fort tree" in a nearby park. I wanted to try approaching this prompt in a completely different way, too, so later I did this one.

This is more collage and mashing different things together, something that still feels so challenging to me. I think I drew here with conte crayons, which are always more chalky than I think they should be.

I'm excited about the "bonus" assignment for this week too...and that's what I mean about this course. It's got me doing. I'm really enjoying it.

Mighty Girls

You might have noticed the Mighty Girl Art button in my sidebar. I signed myself and my niece up for the e-session. It would be really cool if we could sit and create together, but she's ninety minutes away by car, so we'll have to settle for some distance sharing, which is also okay. Hopefully she doesn't mind if I share this little story about her and me. She's my older sister's first child, born a few months before I began dating my now-husband, in 1996. She was the first grandchild on either side of her family, and the next (on each side) was her brother, four years later. In 2001, when we let her know I was growing a baby, she got, well, upset. It turns out, she thought if I had my own baby, if I were a mama, I wouldn't be an auntie anymore--I wouldn't be her auntie anymore.

{Silly. I was her auntie first.}

I'm really glad she wanted to join along in this e-course, but I'll be honest--I'm doing it as much for me as for her! I think my girl-child self would have really enjoyed something like this, and probably needed it badly, although I can't think of any female adult in my life who might have wanted to do it with me at that time, with the exception of my older sister. And so, here is one of the many cool things about this course...Wendy has set it up so that one registration equals lots of girls doing it together. I'd checked with her about the distance: Would it be okay if my niece and I did it together but separately, or should I register us both? But no, one registration was still enough. And my niece is planning to do some of the activities with her younger sister, and I'm doing some with my daughter, and it's a Mighty Girl web just in our family, thanks to Wendy and her vision. Cool, right?

Wendy gives us art journal prompts each week. This is my response to the first one.

We were given the subject of a tree, I didn't choose it. Trees are just following me around lately.

This was created using conte crayon, ink and brush, and bleeding tissue paper. I will admit to struggling with the whole idea of art journaling in the past. Part of me just doesn't get it, probably because there are no rules at all. I tend to think of a journal as one thing, with words, and a sketchbook as something else, but slowly, I'm getting the hang of it. I want to get into an art journal habit, and I think with the help of this course, I just might. Here's my response to the second prompt.

The prompt was something along the lines of, What would your heart look like as it opens? I knew right away I wanted to start with a literal heart (found at The Graphics Fairy site, here). Oh, this was so much fun to doodle.

And here are a couple of the crafts. No forsythia blooms in our yard, sadly (I want some forsythia bushes!), but my daughter and I decorated a fallen maple branch with orange tissue paper--orange because it's currently her favorite color--and placed that in the center of our table. Below it is a wish bowl...along the same lines as the wish jar I put together earlier. I invited the whole family to write down any wish/dream/goal and add it. I'm not sure anyone will take me up on it...

...but it's a pretty little bowl, reminding us to wish. Those items inside right now? The heart-shaped polished stone, the rock that says "Dream," and the silver sand dollar were Christmas gifts to me from my oldest child. I picked up the pine cone one day because I really like its shape.

This post is already a bit long, so I will be back tomorrow with another poem post, sharing a particular favorite of mine. I hope you are doing mighty things, whether they be big or small.

Dogs

Cameron, it turns out, is working her way through Drawing Lab and looking for company. And while I tend to do exercises as they strike me, not in order, and while I'm not sure I'll do one a week like she is, I went ahead and did Lab #6, "Index Card Multiples," over the weekend. You're supposed to start with a simple line drawing of a dog and a stack of twenty index cards and a big fat marker, and then draw that dog twenty times. This forces you to let go of detail--you're working small with a big marker. So I stacked up my cards, used the fat end of a marker, which still wasn't as big as a chisel-point marker, found a reference picture or two of a dog I liked, and got to it.

That's the whole twenty of them, plus my handknit socks (I was standing on the stool to get the picture). Also my coffee mug in the top right corner. I would grind to a miserable halt without coffee. Anyway, sometimes I tried to use the fattest part of the marker to force myself to let go of those details I was getting hung up on--I was working from a photograph, not a simple line drawing. Plus the photo I picked was of a BIG dog, and I was having a hard time fitting him onto an index card. Here's a closer look at the first ten.

And the final ten.

For the first one of this group I switched photos, to a close-up of the dog's face, but then I went back to the full-body photo, changing the orientation of the cards for five drawings to try to get more of the dog's body in--which, when I was drawing it, looked all different from what you think it looks like, just like hands and arms, when we really look at them to try to draw them, look sort of awkward and wrong. Anyway. These are my twenty big-dog sketches using big marker on small index cards.

I have lots of things to share this week--I've gotten four postcards in the mail so far, each one is lovely and happy-making, and I'm thinking at the end of the week I'll post what I've received by that point. I have some knitted stuff to show, and some embroidered stuff too...I'm having fun.

Oh, almost forgot! The dog is Elizabeth's dog Henry. I love his expressions. The two photos are this one and this one. And I'm linking up with Cameron's Lab #6 post here.

Creative Space: 4x6 Exchange

So I signed up for the Arthouse Co-op's 4x6 art exchange, but it's making me sort of stressy, I think because when I signed up instead of "name" in the name box, it said "artist." I nearly closed the browser tab right then. But I didn't. So I need to come up with "art," versus those fun loose postcards that might be called mail art by some but Hanna gave it the way less stressy name of "DIY Postcard Swap" (and by the way, that link goes to the post with the links to everyone's postcards and they are amazing).

I think I should put my head away, really, and just have fun with this, but in the meantime, I tried to make a small watercolor painting instead. Remember the skunk cabbage from yesterday?  I sketched it a bit while we were walking, and then tried to paint it, using the sketches and the photo as guides.

After I took that photo, I added in some highlights that are probably completely unnoticeable, using white conte crayon.

I don't know, technically, this has problems, although it does look like skunk cabbage, if you know what skunk cabbage looks like. (My daughter, when shown this, id'd it right away. That's my girl!!) I haven't decided if this is worthy of an "art" swap. Maybe I should take another approach--printmaking, maybe, or collage, or even sewing. (A local gallery is holding a postcard fundraiser, with submissions due later in April...I've got something sewn in mind for that.)

The more I look at it, the more I'm thinking no. What do you think?

Linking up with our creative spaces...