Morning Page 9/22
Monday, September 22, 2025
FINALLY indulged my desire to play with shapes in a wonky grid structure. My eye loves this kind of work in color, in black and white, using fabric, or paint or collage—but for whatever reason I don’t do this enough. I did hear a critical voice in my head at the beginning (‘what’s the point?’) but I know that is a lousy thought. Something someone might say who was conditioned by a culture to devalue visual play.
Am I someone like that? Absolutely not! But that doesn’t mean that voice—the Culture--doesn’t exist in my head.
Pressing on anyway, I quickly discovered (and rediscovered) what makes this kind of work valuable to me. Simply the pleasure of drawing with ink would be enough. But it’s also great practice in composition and shape language. Beginning with single line to draw the grid and shapes, top to bottom, I had to then keep going back and around to layer in different line weights and values, responding to the whole page for a final composition. And also, I started getting excited about how I could develop some of the shapes and patterns I created into other work. My mind was spinning by the end.
I am pleased with the final result. I love the wonky, hand-made quality and it just makes me happy to look at!
I also want to incorporate quotes I might stumble on that day in these Morning Pages, and this morning I included what Adam Ming said in his newsletter, The Ten Minute Artist: “Claire Powell says when you find your tool you find your style and I think there is a lot of truth to that.”
As a mixed media artist who couldn’t choose between ALL the art mediums, I have definitely honed down to my favorites, which are collage, gouache and yes, ink.
Tools I used today: Uniball Signo gel pens, fine tip and extra fine tip, .01 Micron fineliner and Zig Clean Color Real Brush Brush color ink pens.
Morning Page 9/21
SUNDAY September 21, 2025
It is the Fall equinox, and also the day of a partial solar eclipse though we cannot see it in the West. A very good day, say astrologers, to start something new. I hadn’t been aware I’d chosen this particular date to begin. How interesting.
I’m excited to begin this project. I know I keep starting something new, keep developing new routines and processes…but instead of beating myself up for all these start-stop-stops, maybe I can see that I’m honing in on a Morning Practice that works for me and is sustainable long-term.
Today I copied some of the botanical shapes that Tasha Goddard made in her sketchbook (9/20) where she copied those shapes from a piece she’d photographed at a museum. Like she says, studying other artist’s work is an excellent exercise for learning techniques and developing our own ideas from those ideas.
I decided to devote today’s morning page to studying these shapes because lately I’ve been obsessed with shapes! I find that I just swoon over shapes. I love purely non-objective (abstract) works built on shapes, and in my own art practice I am leaning into drawing and painting with abstract shapes. I recognize the value of drawing realistically to learn to to see and draw so I continue to draw what I see for practice, but I mean no shade to artists who love realism, it’s not how I want to draw. I’d take a photograph instead.
I’ve found that' it’s harder to simplify and abstractify real life rather than draw it as it is and it does come down to shapes, so I’m always trying to find new approaches and new ways to create and combine shapes. And here was such a lovely opportunity to practice. I do love these abstractified botanicals very much and I’m thinking how I can push those ideas further.
Oh, and also, I think it would be fun to play with color in daily headers so I think I’ll continue this practice.
Meanwhile, can I just say that it is just so pleasant to sink into drawing. Between shape obsession and deep satisfaction in the drawing moment, today’s page is filled with bliss.
[that took 20 minutes to write).
Digital Journal The Beginning
Visual Journal 9-21-25
This is the first day of what experimenting with an approach to visual journaling that will fold in neatly with my life. Part of a regular Morning Practice (MP) that I want to establish in my life. The idea is that mornings are my most precious creative time so I want to devote that time to myself.
I have always started my days with coffee and reading. I used to read the newspaper, but for at least 15 years I read articles and essays mostly the form of blogs and now newsletter posts. My sleepy brain needs this time to wake up and my creative mind responds to this wellspring of human creativity and often wisdo with my heart and mind wide open. It’s like I’m a fish at feeding time. I gobble it all up.
Truly, what I gain in insight, ideas, expertise, experiences outside my own holds so much value for me. I love this part of my day and would never give it up--so that’s where the Morning Practice begins.
Lately, if I have time I follow up with some journaling.The day takes me away. But what I long for, actually, is to take that morning time and extend it. To not only journal regularly after reading, but also to create in response regularly, to capture what comes through me in a visual journal, and finally to take the extra time to share what I make by uploading it to the web. A digital journal.
Longing is not too strong a word. My heart yearns for this creative morning space, even as I tell myself I just don’t have time for this. So many other life things vye for attention, not to mention all the other art projects I hope to get to…but maybe this project, this Morning Practice, should take precedence.
I should at least try it.
So here I go.
365 Day Moleskine Project 2024
I committed myself to a daily project for the entire year of 2024. Whew! It was a lot. Time to stop and reflect.
What just happened?
365 Days of Art - FAVORITES
I committed myself to a daily project for the entire year of 2024. Whew! It was a lot. Time to stop and reflect.
What just happened?
Well, for this project I set out to fill a small 3”x5” Moleskine diary —365 dated pages made of crappy paper—with some kind of art every day. For a year.
The pages you see above? My favorites.
Why did I take this on?
I tend to get lured by all the new possibilities of a new project, conveniently forgetting that I lose inspiration well before the project is finished. Of course, this is not a bug but a feature of the creative process. How else would we give birth to new creations if we remembered the pain of labor?
It started because I was inspired by a couple of artists who do this kind of thing, especially Pep Carrio, who has filled Moleskines with art for years. His work is amazing.
What was I thinking?
I wasn’t. When it comes down to it I put myself on the hook for a very long project out of irrational emotion, maybe even complete delusion.
Maybe that’s the only way to get anything done.
I tried to keep my expectations small. All I had to do was fill all the pages with something visual. Something being the operative word. Anything counted—even just one dot, and I planned to fill those pages every day, one day at a time.
Did I hope to create certain kinds of artworks or develop in certain ways? I don’t remember but I don’t think so. I just wanted to fill that book.
And the reality?
(Now I’ll turn to trusty bullets and a few close ups to share my thoughts on what happened—actual life experience being nonlinear as it is.
I filled all 365 pages! I feel good about that. It’s quite satisfying now to hold this thick art-filled book in my hands, to flip through the pages. The grid above gathers all my favorite pages into its own digital artwork, and that pleases me too.
I’ve never done anything every day for a whole year before this—and I can report that my record still stands. I still have not done something every day for a whole year!
I could not fill one page each day. I repeatedly fell behind, then I’d catch up by doing sets of pages at a time—and then fall behind again. After a few months I gave myself the grace to make two page spreads every two days. But I still fell behind. And caught up. And fell behind.
I’ve never been able to see my style before, and now when I put them all together, I can! So that’s something. For the most part my art is is bold and graphic, I love shapes and wonky characters! Certain motifs reappeared frequently—cats, birds, wonky animals and characters, for instance. Interesting.
Finally, after many years of trying to choose, I see now that I just don’t have to choose. I can see that love both abstraction and more representational art (though I tend to draw in an abstractified style).
I cannot say that I enjoyed this project. For much of it, I felt the burden of keeping up, coming up with ideas, and it became increasingly difficult to work with this flimsy paper in a tiny book—growing more and more cramped as the book started bulging.
I also often felt like I was taking too long on one (small) page at the expense of other projects. And in fact, I did spend too much art time here and not enough imet on other projects. I made a handful of other works on paper and in other art journals and sketchbooks, yes, but I think I created far less outside of the Moleskine than I ever have in my art practice.
Except that I actually created far more than ever in one year: 365 pages of this small book is filled with art.
And by the way, when I fell into an especially fun drawing or painting or collage piece, I totally loved it! I ended up frequently making work that surprised and delighted me.So there goes my story that I didn’t enjoy the project.
It’s absolutely true that we have to create a lot of bad art to make something good—and maybe being uncomfortable is just part of the process.
I didn’t share most of what I created in this Moleskine—not online and not with people IRL. Why? Because, look closely, most are rough and unfinished. That’s the truth.
Individually, most pages did not meet my standards for sharing, I hate to admit—because I KNOW social media is filled with way too much perfection posturing and I don’t want to give anyone that impression. Butandalso…what artist wants to share poor quality work?
But again. I have to remind myself: what was my intention? It was not create final works of art. It was to create one drafty piece every day.
All in all, this project was not easy. But I met my goal week after week, month after month —and then, over 365 days, I ended up with over one hundred pictures I do like, some I even love.
But. man, it was uncomfortable.
Was the project a success?
Absolutely. I’ve come to know myself as an artist so much more. I’m proud of myself for completing the project. And I I developed my style.
Will I do it again?
Absolutely not!
And whatever I make next? It won’t be in notebooks with crappy paper.