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!
Read MoreMy bags are packed and by the time this post reaches you I’ll be in Sydney, Australia! While I’m away I plan to continue weekly cards for my 52 Cards Project. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I’m determined to create a theme card for every week of 2022 and I don’t plan to miss these weeks I’m traveling!
I won’t have a scanner and I’m not bringing Copic markers—but I’ll have other art supplies with me (see below). I’ll also throw in a few photos of our trip too, so stay tuned!
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Besides art supplies? Well, I’ll go into that in a moment. First, I replaced both my suitcase and carry-on this year, and now my 22” suitcase is a bit smaller than I had (the fewer things I bring the less I can misplace or lose), and the tote bag is replaces a backpack.
I’m also bringing a sling bag for during the days (art supplies, cell phone, etc.)—which I’ll pack for air travel.
I am someone who can’t function in a disorganized environment, on the road or off. If you’ve ever been to my art studio, for a good example, you know that
Read MoreThis is a spread of thumbnail studies in my art journal that I made from photos during my recent trip to Loreto. They really surprised me!
I’m not a landscape artist. I love vistas and views, but when I’m out in the world my eye tends to zoom in to the particulars. Like when I entered the Posado Las Flores on this same trip last week. It was immediate. I had to draw the entryway. I had no real desire to draw the town plaza or the foreign desert landscape all around me.
I do take pictures, though. And I enjoy painting abstracts.
So one afternoon
Read MoreThis week for my 52 Cards Project I knew my theme immediately. Having come home from a trip to Mexico Sunday, I was surprised to find that I experienced an uncommonly soft landing as I eased back to home life. This is not normally true when I go away as I’ve mentioned before, and from what I understand most people also have difficulty transitioning home from vacation.
So from that standpoint, it was an unusual week and the theme idea was easy.
But then, I struggled with
Read MoreYesterday I talked about the challenge of keeping up with my art practice while traveling. Today, I want to say a few words about returning.
At home, I commit to creating every day. I try to draw every day in my sketchbook at a minimum, and on good days I also work on art projects in the works—and recently, I’ve added blogging to the mix.
It feels great! It took years to find my way to both the commitment (i.e., this is important to me so I’m going to make it a daily practice in my life) and to the systems (intentions, goals and routines) that keep me creating and moving forward.
And then, I go away on a trip and not only do I struggle to create on the road—which I know requires doubling down on commitment—but I completely lose momentum when I get back home to my art practice.
No, not just momentum. I can’t even remember what I was working on! I look around
Read MoreI do love a vacation—I do—but I can’t quite resolve the pain of breaking away from my art practice. It doesn’t matter for how long I go away, it might be a quick four day weekend like last week to southern California or several weeks to a destination further away, there’s this huge disruption not just to my time, but to my attention.
I lose my focus and momentum stalls. Both on the road—where I struggle to take time for art—and when I get back and forget what I was working on before I left.
Every vacation.
If you have an art practice, do you struggle with this? It’s really frustrating!
Today I will focus on the problem of taking time for art while on the road. I enjoy
Read MoreWhere I spill my heART and share my obsessions: art journaling, mixed media, and my creative life.
