Before Lent began, a dear friend and I decided to walk through Lent with a sketchbook in our hands. This isn't radically different from my normal everyday practice, but I had been sporadic with sketching, especially as a long, rainy & cold winter had all but sapped the color from my eyes. The benefit of … Continue reading Taking Hold of A Line
I say this quite frequently — For now, this will be fine. For now, this is good. I’m ok with it this way, for now. Two little words that carry a ton of meaning. FOR. There is purpose wrapped up in these three letters. Intention, will, focus and offering. This is FOR you. I do … Continue reading For Now
Oh Marisol, Marisol... Your given name says it all- Merry-go-rounds and parisols, Wide-eyed adventures, stories untold. *** Yet hearth and home, heather and loam, They call you back, n’er to roam. Content to spin yarns of shalom And scatter joy here in my home. *** Let us whirl our wool and sparkled light Sipping tea, … Continue reading Marisol & Me
More than ever before, we need to be making things. This is not merely to while-away the time or to keep our minds off of all the sad news and the what-will-happens. There is an inherent belief in creating something that says, if only in a small way, “Tomorrow will come. A new day will … Continue reading Tomorrow
There is something about our current state of affairs that feels like a suspension, hiatus, time-out, or an extended stay-cation. It’s as if the world has been put on hold and we are hovering in place, holding our breath, until we have made it over the bridge, or until we are told we can come … Continue reading Change
It seems to me that one of the chief benefits of drawing is to allow us to really notice what’s right in front of us. I’ve been walking the sidewalks of our neighborhood, almost daily, for the past 17 years and I discover new things all the time. There are certainly days when I’m hunkered … Continue reading Noticing
More than ever before, I find myself wanting to be like the trees I am drawing. They stand tall, firmly rooted no matter the ever-changing weather, bending however needed to the passing winds and storms, yet always growing, even blooming, despite their losses. Yes. I’d like to be a tree. But my inner life belies … Continue reading Be A Tree
“I never saw a discontented tree. They grip the ground as though they liked it, and though fast rooted, they travel about as far as we do.” - John Muir, Scottish-American naturalist. Though I may be hard pressed to say that every tree I see and draw is completely content (as of course, we embue … Continue reading Rooted
“Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.” -Khalil Gibran I am finding this to be true. Each and every tree...no matter how trimmed, blighted, hacked off, or allowed to grow free...speaks in verse or rhyme a tale of life and love, beauty and grace. Evening sky behind treeline... The limbs are like … Continue reading Poems
In a week of drawing trees, one can run the gamut of emotions. From surprise in a Walmart parking lot to needing a hug, to laughing out loud, or standing in silent awe ... trees evoke a plethora of thoughts and feelings. I am not always able to capture the full range of this in … Continue reading Gamut
