My Tea Garden

I am a tea drinker. Yes, coffee in the morning...but tea the rest of the day. Hot tea, even in summer. But I do love brewing tea and then pouring it over ice on especially hot days. All kinds of teas...dark and caffeinated to light herbal teas, green teas with a touch of lemon or … Continue reading My Tea Garden

Taking Hold of A Line

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

Tomorrow

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

Change

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

If I Could Be A Tree

If I could be a tree I would a willow be To wave at all I see And shelter those with me. *** Or perhaps I’d be an oak To dangle tire and rope. In kid-laughter I’d soak And wear an autumn cloak. *** But oh a birch to be In ruffled finery Graceful limbs … Continue reading If I Could Be A Tree

Noticing

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

Be A Tree

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

Rooted

“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

Poems

“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

Gamut

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