Mendo Botanical drawing in my sketchbook
A graphite sketch I did while visiting the Mendocino Botanical Gardens with Yvonne and Mimi this past weekend. Rough but I like the ideas for abstractifying.
Weeknotes '26 - January 23-29
Seven days - seven notes
As I talked about last month, I’m working on an illustrated journaling practice that mashes the concepts others have developed: Weeknotes and Homework for Life. Each day I write a few sentences (only) about one thing the day before in Notion (*text copied end of this post for readability) and then later in the studio I make it visual in my sketchbook.
That’s the idea anyway. One set of sentences, one image each day added to my sketchbook. This last week I tried painting the images on cards rather than directly into my sketchbook, and then this week, as we see here, I pasted those images and words directly from my computer (edited) into my journal as a weekly composition.
So how did it go?
I like the images very much and I do like them on separate cards. I like painting with goauche very much!
I do not like after the fact putting them together into a composition. I considered keeping them on cards…but the idea of boxes of separate cards feels overwhelming. A two page spread is a good container for a week.
I do not like typed journaling on the spread. Looks clunky.
I found writing daily sentences is super easy first thing in the morning on my ipad. It’s a good practice to think about what happened the day before and select just one thing to capture visually.
I don’t always have time to create that image every day - I was away for a long weekend this week, for example - but since I can keep up with the sentences, it’s easy enough to catch up with the visuals.
What’s next?
This week I’ll try adding daily entries to a spread over time from left to right, writing the words instead of collaging in text.
*Text for above spread:
Friday - I hold my mug in both hands, breathe in the Bengel Spice tea, and feel the steady resolve spread through my whole body. I’m ready to step into the art and life practice I’ve been building. It’s ready for me.
Saturday - Woke up ruminating about how anyone who sides with the government right now is saying yes to brutality and violence, racism and misogyny, white supremacy, no to our Constitution and the Rule of Law. If this was the 1930s, they would be backing Hitler and Mussolini.
How, how, how could any American get behind this?
Sunday - Walking through the crowd at the farmers market today, after we left the protest, Sherry holding her NO ICE sign above her head, Chris and I clustered next to her, I looked around at all the people of so many races, which is what we look like in California, and it is beautiful. People. All different and the exact same.
Monday - The shopping trip to Sebastopol was a bust, but we both found the perfect pair of shoes—purple trekking shoes for Karen and black Ugg boots for me—and the sun broke through the chill to warm our faces as we ate lunch on a patio, together.
Tuesday - With a dry leaf, I scooted the centipede-like bug who tried to flee down the last stretch of the purple slide. At the foot of the slide, Archie watched our every move with the deep concentration of a two-year old as the bug made to it to the lip of the slide and fell a foot to the tan bark. Archie then crouched low to find him, but he disappeared. “We saved him, “ I said. “Now the bug can go home.” He thought for a moment and then nodded, “Bug go home.”
Wednesday - I spent a pleasant afternoon making eggplant soup (with white beans, tomatoes, onions, leeks and sausage).
Thursday – Back on cypress trail after too long, Bill I knew was close by. Old friends and some new ones clomped through the forest, all of us ghosts to the redwoods.
February 2026 Art Practice--and what happened in January
And here we are to the second month of the year already! As I explained at the beginning of last month and the new year, I’m beginning each month with art practice intentions which I commit to in a Cover spread in my sketchbook, which I’m sharing here on my website.
I’m using it to set and stay focused on my creative intentions all month and then to reflect on what happened. Hopefully I end each month with some learning and growth and lots of creativity.
So first, what happened in January?
Illustrated Journaling - Became Weeknotes
I worked hard to figure out the best way to approach illustrated journaling in January (which is, by the way, using pictures and words to journal and express something of what I experience, think and feel).
What I lacked was both a container and a process for this visual form of journaling, because up until now, the container has been any page in any sketchbook (little pieces of my life scattered across books and time) and the process has been non-existent. How to start? What to say? What not to say? Basically how to get it done—and then move on to other art I want to make. I just felt really frustrated NOT doing this kind of work more often than not.
I’m happy to report that I made great headway this month. I did quite a bit of illustrated journaling, though still in several sketchbooks and also on individual cards. But where I really excelled was in process. I finally figured out that I could mash a couple of ideas out there in the world into a practice of my own: Weeknotes and Homework for Life .
Basically what I’ve been doing that feels very sustainable is I wake up and create one bulleted entry each day in my Weeknotes page in Notion (on my ipad) about ONE thing that happened to me the day before. I use as few sentences as possible (one is best).
Then later when I have time, I’ve been playing with illustrating each entry each day very simply, which I think I’ve now figured out is the exact way to illustrate the journaling!
However, having used individual card sized papers I’m now grappling with how best to put them all together into a sketchbook. I think I need to ditch the cards and work on layout ideas direct in my sketchbook—so I’d say I’m not yet done creating the container —but I AM doing the work and I believe I’ll have the whole project nailed down this next month.
Abstract and Geometric Shapes Project Started by not Finished
I created three sets of shape experiments in January for this project—all of which I like very much. But I still don’t know WHY I love shape images or what to do with them exactly.
Inner Magic Art Club a Little Stalled
I am sad to say that I did not attend either zoom session this month. Setting aside that two hours just didn’t work—and I didn’t go back and create with the recording either. Also, I admit that I have a really hard time opening up to strangers and I when I did participate the month before, I didn’t talk. Hmmm.
Daily Drawing - Mostly Not as a Practice
The intention was to sit down and draw something as a project for the month—but the reality was that I drew a lot of illustrated journaling instead. AND I ended up creating a nine panel comic—not an intention for the month, but grew out of illustrated journaling. That took a lot of drawing (and many other stages of work to get from idea to final)—and time. I think I pretty much did draw every day in January!
All in all, January was a good creative month. I made some big headway on nailing down a sustainable process for illustrated journaling which I will now call my Weeknotes—as well as created a good amount of entries, and I created a nine-panel comic, and I explored shapes…
February Art Practice Intentions
This month I’ll only focus on three things: Weeknotes, and then two other things which I explain below.
Weeknotes
I intend to keep up with my daily Weeknotes in Notion accompanied by a daily simple drawing of that entry. I am going to try to add one entry a day into my sketchbook instead of on a card, and copy the sentences as well. I’ll first try a unplanned composition where I’ll add one then add another the next day without lines or space allocations—see how a page develops organically. I will also try designing layout first and adding daily entries into allocated space.
Because I do have a process developed now, this should not take much time each day in my sketchbook, leaving plenty of time to focus on other art making. Which will be…
Anything Goes
This offering came up last minute for the month of February and I knew I had to do it: “A Mixed Media Adventure” with Carla Sonheim and Kara Kramer. I know and love both artists and I’m looking forward to a month of prompts and ideas for creating wildly and loosely—one of my main challenges. Perfectionism bends me to its will too often! So I’m really going to take up the challenge of lots of messy creating. This does mean, sadly, that I will have to suspend the Inner Magic Art Club. Boo. But given that I didn’t participate in January, it’s for the best.
A Project
Finally, I’m leaving room for ONE project. I haven’t decided what I will make this month. Last month I created a nine panel comic. I may do something with those shapes…I may find a good ideas to develop for the County Fair this year. We’ll see!
Okay - there you have it. February is now here. It will be interesting to see what I make of it.