10 Things I'm Doing Lately

/
10 Things I'm Doing Lately

Greetings! I’ve wandered away from the blog a bit, but now I’ve come back. Blogging is one of those items on my “all the things” list from #4 below that I am prioritizing. It’s something I want to do consistently, reliably and meaningfully.

Why? Well, because writing helps me think clearly and I like to read blogs. But I think what keeps the flame burning is that it simply feels important to share what moves through me. There’s something to share.

Yep, that is why. So this blog continues and I hope you will find it interesting and useful and that you will subscribe. It’s free and you can get new posts by Email or RSS Reader.

So - to bring you up to date, here’s a list of 10 things I’m doing lately:

Read More

Just exploring

/
Just exploring

In the last few weeks I’ve been in this weird exploration phase; trying out abstracts in watercolor, sketching randomly, trying out some zentangles. I haven’t shared what I’ve been making because honestly, everything feels a bit off and my enthusiasm is waning. But you know what? This is part of the creative process too. Getting lost. Losing your way for a while. Ebb and Flow. It’s natural.

So thought I’d share a tiny gallery of some of my latest experiments to remind myself—and maybe you need a reminder too: experiments—and failed experiments—are all part of the process.

Read More

Spelunking — 52 Cards Project #18

/
Spelunking — 52 Cards Project #18

There’s a story behind this week’s theme for my 52 Cards Project, of course.

It began with a book landing on my front step. I had preordered it months ago to both support an author I’ve long admired, Teresa Reed, and because the idea of making tarot cards sounded kind of fun. And I don’t know, sometimes the universe works in mysterious ways, but I was feeling kind of lost creatively last week—maybe you could tell—and that day particularly, the day the book arrived, I felt especially uninspired.

So I began thumbing

Read More

Collage sketching

/
Collage sketching

Looking through my work lately, it seems my subject matter is all over the place—from landscapes to buildings to figures, from urban sketching to concept art to portraits and abstracts. A not so kind inner voice might go on about how I have no focus (and what the hell are you doing?) but the deeper, much kinder voice tells me to just keep going.

I really can’t claim to know which voice will win, but in the meantime I decided to take yet another turn and play with collage cut outs—if for no other reason

Read More

Captivated by watercolor studies in a whole new way

/
Captivated by watercolor studies in a whole new way

This 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 More

Posada De Las Flores — Urban Sketch

/
Posada De Las Flores — Urban Sketch

I did it! I actually took one hour of my vacation in Loreto, sat myself down and in my art journal drew the lobby of this lovely hotel where we stayed that night. Then, still on vacation, I took another block of time a few days later, sat myself down and finished it with watercolor and linework. As I said last week, I have such a hard time carving out time for art while traveling so this is a huge accomplishment.

And the drawing isn’t half bad either. Ha ha.

All kidding aside, as soon as I stepped into the lobby of the Posada de Las Flores — Inn of Flowers — I knew I had to draw it! All those angles! That circular staircase to floors two and three! The water fountain! the colors! It was a great drawing challenge. I certainly didn’t get it all right — at all — but I’m pleased. My urban sketching is making progress, I think.

Read More

Art making teaches us how to leap into the unknown

/
Art making teaches us how to leap into the unknown

There was a time when first starting out on my art journey that I “had no ideas.” I didn’t know what to create next. These days, I have the opposite problem. Too many ideas crowd by head space. But you know what? Both lead to the same problem. Whether I approach the blank page with “no ideas” or “too many ideas”, I don’t know what to create next.

Intellectually I understand that it all comes from the same place—fear.

Fear of the blank page. What will I fill it with? What choices will I make? Will they be the “right” ones?

Bah! I have to catch myself in my own game. I find myself forgetting what I know to be true: “too many ideas” is a tricky cover for the same fear of not being good enough to pull off any any idea.

And the longer I’m paralyzed by fear of choosing, the longer

Read More