Emerge - 52 Cards Project #30

/
Emerge - 52 Cards Project #30

Emerge is last week’s theme for my 52 Cards Project. I travelled to Asheville, North Carolina to meet up with my friend Diane for a three-day art retreat with Alena Hennessey. As a way in to the art one day, Alena guided us through a guided visualization through the seven chakras.

We began with the root chakra, where she asked us to “see” a particular image or color, and then in our minds’ eyes we made our way up the 7 chakras to the last one, the crown chakra. At that point, I saw myself emerging from under water, into the air.

“For anyone trying to discern what to do w/ their life,” says Amy Krause Rosenthal as quoted by Austin Kleon, “PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU PAY ATTENTION TO. that’s pretty much all the info u need.”

Like Kleon, I take those words to the heart of

Read More

Did you read with me? Utopia Avenue and The Candy House

/
Did you read with me? Utopia Avenue and The Candy House

Today I want to report back on the last two books I haven’t had a chance to talk about yet, Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell and The Candy House by Jennifer Egan. You can find my thoughts for each of the other books so far for my Read with Me Project here. And if you want to join me, here are links to places you can find digital and physical books.

May and June ended up being two BIG BOOKS for this little reading project, especially considering the fact that I felt like I had to re-read Egan’s first novel, A Visit From the Goon Squad because The Candy House is essentially a sequel to it, and it’s true, they do fit together as one story—one VERY long story.

They reading wasn’t actually difficult. Both writers use language that flows easily and beautifully. But both books require attention and thought as all good art makes us do—and this is all to say that I didn’t write about them here on the blog as I intend each month because I simply didn’t have any more bandwidth.

But now, here I am, ready to say just a little something about each novel—and even better, give you a few links to real reviews which fill in the details.

Utopia Avenue

Read More

Horizon - 52 Card Project #29

/
Horizon - 52 Card Project #29

Ir’s hard to believe I’ve been making a theme card a week all year for my 52 Cards Project—and here we’re almost the end of July. It’s become a routine. Every Sunday I start thinking about the past week, I come up with a theme and then I start thinking about how to create that visually—and then somehow the card gets made on Monday.

This past week husband and I were recovering

Read More

It's Not Too Late - 52 Cards Project #28

/
It's Not Too Late - 52 Cards Project #28

My weekly theme card for my 52 Cards Project will make more sense when you understand what happened this week. I received a book in the mail that I had pre-ordered months ago. All it took was a quick flip- through and I knew that first, as a project launched by preeminent change agent Seth Godin and created by hundreds, this book is an amazing resource and tool, and second, this is a call I must answer.

Read More

Stop — 52 Card Project #27

/
Stop — 52 Card Project #27

I came down with Covid this last week so my weekly theme card for my 52 Cards Project is a little late—and a little obscure. For this personal project of mine I try to finish the card and post it to my blog by the Monday right after the week ends. However, while not life threatening because I am vaccinated and boostered, I had it pretty bad this weekend. I could not draw much. I’m still really tired—but over the last few days I could work slowly on my card and here it is.

So I chose the ancient Hamsa hand symbol for its universal message of

Read More

A peak into my sketchbook

/
A peak into my sketchbook

I haven’t shared much of my sketchbook lately, partly because I’m focused on making cards and more cards! So today I thought I’d open it up and talk a bit about the what I’m learning and working on.

Now you should know there many kinds of sketchbooks and I’ve tried them all—art journals, visual journals, illustrated journals and diaries, bullet journals, composed sketchbooks and messy practice sketchbooks.

These days I’ve streamlined my art practice into projects (like the cards right now) and three books: 1) an “everything” journal, which is a daily tool I use to journal, plan, track my practice and keep notes, 2) an art journal that I slowly fill with more composed pages, and 3) a messy anything-goes kind of sketchbook for daily practice and exploration.

When one fills up, I start filling another in chronological order. In any year I find myself filling three or more everything journals, 1-2 art journals and maybe 4-6 sketchbooks.

The art journal I leave at home for the most part to work on in the studio, but the journal and sketchbook

Read More

Hoo? 52 Cards Project #26

/
Hoo? 52 Cards Project #26

This week the theme is Mother for my 52 Cards Project—for a lot of reasons. My own mother’ birthday was July 1st, and while she’s been gone now for nine years, it’s a good day to appreciate her life.

My youngest daughter came home for the week—and I got to enjoy all the benefits of being a Mom—lots of hugs, good talks and, yes, the opportunity to take her shopping!

And on a much darker note, this is the first week in 49 years that women in many parts of this country are commanded to give birth when becoming pregnant, in some states no matter the circumstances including rape, incest, ectopic pregnancy, threat to their own lives…because five Supreme Court justices reversed the law of the land and handed over power of women’s lives to the states.

I sit in grief as mother, woman, and human. I wait for justice to prevail.

An owl hoots outside my bedroom at night. Mother Earth keeps spinning.

Read More