The season of Lent is not traditionally thought of as a "happy" time. It is meant to be a time of contemplation, of pulling back from areas of dependency to create longing and space for reflection. I decided to pull back from so much Instagram activity but to draw every day in my sketchbook through … Continue reading Fresh Wind in the Garden
As the seasons turn, so do my drawing habits. What was in winter an every other day thing, is now a daily compulsion perhaps akin to all the growing things bursting through the ground these days. Spring has always been a time when I long to be in my sketchbooks more, to be outside painting … Continue reading Turning
A hushed reverie fills my imagination and studio twice a day. Early morning and late afternoon are becoming favorite times to sit here in my sunroom studio and look out the picture windows at the magical light show over the neighborhood. The mornings are filled with Christmas piano playing softly on Pandora. I feed on … Continue reading Morning Magic
"I think it would be well, and proper, and obedient, and pure, to grasp your one necessity and not let it go, to dangle from it limp wherever it takes you." Annie Dillard, from Weasels in her book Teaching a Stone to Talk. It is interesting to me, every time I realize the need for … Continue reading The Experiment – Stove top? or Crockpot?
After the previous post went out, it occurred to me that I didn't exactly get around to writing about how creative play has a subtle power to change, move, ignite and inspire us to more creativity. I became enamored with my new word SWOODLE, and well, that was that. I kept on swoodling in my … Continue reading The Power of Play – Take 2
I have long known that there is a little girl inside me who loves to open up a sketchbook, pull out crayons, pens, paints, and have a go at whatever strikes her fancy. She gets huffy when there's any suggestion to stick with one way of doing things, or to make proper grown-up art, or … Continue reading The Power of Play
In that drifting place between awake and sleep, I wanted so much to draw what I was seeing...to see if I could draw dark upon dark...shapes and shadows lovely in their streetlamp glow. I hovered there taking it all in, relishing the abstractness of night, but willing myself to stay right there and not go … Continue reading A Time to Draw
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
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 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
