On simplified drawing and personal blogs

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On simplified drawing and personal blogs

Lately I’ve been striving for a more simplified drawing style, so yesterday I decided to practice in my Sketchbook Journal with a photo reference—a picture I liked from Chris Glass.*

If you click on the link, you’ll see that I left out many details from the photo in my drawing—other people, gadgets, furnishings—but I learned again that what you leave out is as important as what you leave in when drawing. It’s difficult to make those choices.

I don’t think I could

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Immediate, Imperfect and Grounding

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Immediate, Imperfect and Grounding

“In the journal I do not express myself more openly than I could do to any person; I create myself.”—Susan Sontag

I am someone who has kept journals for most of my life. And Sontag gets it right. I don’t write and draw (paint and collage) in journals to share secrets with myself.

I mean, ok, sure, some pages are private, but mostly, as I look at my shelf of notebooks filled with words and pictures, I see that these meditations and ruminations are a reflection of myself in the making.

Through this work,

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What to do with created work

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What to do with created work

I’ve been spending a lot of time re-organizing my art studio. It’s a good thing to do when you’re in the time of Ebb, and besides everything had just gotten out of hand. I quickly got the art supplies under control—but there was one category that took a lot of work.

The art.

I am not one who likes to accumulate stuff as it is. It makes me nervous. And when you love to create, artworks accumulate. In corners, on shelves and even in—I shudder to think about it—stacks on the floor.

So it was inevitable that

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March Moon Paintings

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March Moon Paintings

Here’s the next set of moon paintings I’ve created for March.

At the time of the full moon on March 7 (also my birthday), I felt like I had found some balance in my life, and I took a breath there for a short time. But sure enough as the new moon energy came back, I think I toppled a bit. By the new moon on March 21st, I had started to take aim…do you see the new moon in the bow of the arrow?

One target I won’t be hitting

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Ebb

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Ebb

I’ve been in a period of Ebb lately. Some might call it creative block, but I’m really not blocked. I’m keeping with my sketchbook practice, drawing from life daily and exploring other ways I want to draw. I also have several art projects I’m working on—some I keep up with like my moon paintings, some I’ve let go (for now) like my stitch book, and some I’ve added lately—but nothing worth sharing just quite yet.

That’s the beauty of keeping up with a practice of any kind. You do it anyway because that’s what you do.

I actually think the tide is about to turn—I feel it coming—but for the last few weeks

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Drawing and traveling

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Drawing and traveling

I’m doing a little traveling this week—first in northern Washington and.then on to L..A.. These sketches are of an abandoned “insane asylum” left to the elements in a small town outside of Bellingham. We visited it in the rain and I took lots of pictures—and then spent some downtime drawing from the photos. Super absorbing and fun to draw!

Bellow are a few of the photos - plus a few others from the trip so far. Enjoy!

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Follow what inspires

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Follow what inspires

I’ve heard it said that to be inspired is to be “in spirit.” That is, fully present and humming—alive. And part of why I love making art is that I try to follow that alive-ness. That is, follow what inspires me—what makes me come alive.

I keep thinking that I’ll “figure it out”, that if I think hard enough I’ll come to know what it is that lights me up and then I can just keep doing “that.” I think what I’m wrestling with is trying to find a path—a connecting throughline, I guess, from one piece to the next. Some people might call this “style”—but I think it’s more than simply style. I’m looking for what it’s ALL about.

Anyway, these are a few pieces I made in the last month or so and clearly I haven’t found any such connection yet. And yes, this can be frustrating and confusing…but then I have to remind myself that

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