Here it is...that ache so familiar...a longing for something other, right here at the beginning of December. It comes to me in the early hours just as the sky outside my studio window begins to glow. It comes as I pull out decorations, some as old as my husband and I have been married, 34 … Continue reading The Ache of Advent
All's quiet here in my studio. It's early morning and I'm swishing gouache around on a page in my sketchbook before anyone, including myself, is fully awake and going. This is all part of an experiment I started about a month ago. And one I hope continues for a very long time. The Experiment, as … Continue reading The Experiment
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
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
There is a delicious space between one’s head and the page. Sometimes I am not so aware of it as I begin to draw. But several drawings of late have me pondering this place where connections are made, lines speak like words, life informs lines, and vice versa. Certainly no one would see this expansive … Continue reading The Space Between
It is likely something I’ve known all along, but there are times when I am hit with a realization that feels new, like a discovery I haven’t ever uncovered before. This week’s daily drawings of trees gave fresh insight into the differences between drawing from life ( or even from a photo I’ve taken) and … Continue reading Discoveries
It is a truth, which I’ve experienced numerous times, that when help is needed, help is offered. This happens in a variety of ways, on so many levels in both my personal life and my creative life, which I see more and more are intricately entwined and cannot be separated from one another. For months … Continue reading Focus
