Finding the Lost Wrist Watch

Eureka! 

I found my current wrist watch this morning

that was lost for 2 months.

Tricks for finding lost items: 

1. Check all pockets, in bags,

in jackets & jeans. 2. Relax & sometimes

the item shows up, as if on its own. (Little Bo Peep: 

"Leave them alone & they'll come home...)"

The journal pages above: 

During Covid I did some journaling 

with online communities with "prompts" 

that were great sparks! I enjoyed reflecting

on the concept of "Time."

Watches: 

In my youth I didn't wear one.

I  thought I was a cool rebel. Perhaps I was, 

but what I didn't know was that 

 that my right brained self was 

struggling to conform to left brain structures

that are necessary to survive in our society.

 

Today I love watches even though I seem to lose them

from Time to Time..(haha)

 

Holiday Greeting Cards 2023

I had different Christmas-y sketch ideas for a holiday card. 

But this image was the most "autobiographical", if not 

Christmas-y. It's from a series I had printed from the original.

Before the color prints, I had copied small black & white line drawings 

from my original & handpainted each one, adding colored pencil & pearlescent paints. 

Less vibrant & smooth than the printed version, but to me 

they're sweet in their roughness.  

Happy Holiday Season to all, & Happy Winter Walking. Rita.

Experimental Sketchbook Class: Time & Space to Create

Some of my work during the weeklong class.

It was perhaps the best art class I've ever taken at University. 

We were encouraged to experiment.

Push out of our comfortable ways.

I started getting scribbly & messy (not shown here)

so it was a relief to do some minimalist drawings.

Zoom grids became an integral part of my experience.

I wandered out of my familiar box.

I cut up one of my watercolor "still life" grids

and pasted fragments into a booklet.

And then, relief, back to the familiar~ 

except with a bit of a grid.

A grid containing The Tiny Fears of Rita

Les miniscules craintes de Rita

We tried a wax resist/ink wash/charcoal layering technique

that Maine artist, David Lewis, uses.

(His drawings are very sophisticated & refined...) 

We collected shadows by tracing actual shadows.

Some of the students turned their results into imaginative

imagery, unrelated to the original subjects, and then 

turned them into handmade books.

I loved my Swedish Ivy design & didn't transform it,

except to put it into an accordion format.

Last class exercise: Do 20 versions of the same object, 

using various papers & drawing materials.

I got 3 done in our half hour allotment...

But THIS is the idea which I most want to continue

at the moment...20 objects? 50? 100? 

Maybe they would be painted and drawn, then,

hand sewn together into a paper quilt that folds 

into a book. We shall see...

The beautiful thing is that I have SO many wonderful

inspirations & directions with which to continue.

Thanks to my instructors & to the class, composed of

young undergraduates, graduate students,

& some oldsters like me. 

So much inspiration,

& this is only the tip of the iceberg...

Art Journaling Group: Using a Grid

Art Journaling Group. 

It was my turn to present. 

I showed Lyn Frye's Smallies 

from her blog, A View from the Oak. Do visit!

I've mentioned her Smallies in a previous post.  

 For Lin it is an ongoing daily practice. 

I did it for one month last winter.

 I loved choosing my image or event at the end of each day. 

It was like having a special lens with me,

a way to pay closer attention.

(To see my previous post, click Here.) 

 The idea I presented this time, to our Zoom group,

 was, using a grid, to virtually invite 

one another into our homes 

by writing/drawing things that are close to us: 

literally & figuratively. 

Things we would show if we were having 

guests in our homes.

I loved the personal images & stories that emerged.

My own grid ended up fading into the background, 

but created a nice framework for little drawings. 

It was fun to teach a little something again...

I Finished my Book!!

This is a continuation from my previous post.

 Stopping to face my situation of the too many ideas 

& projects that had started to form,

& asking for help did the trick! 

Beth wrote to Just choose one project & finish it.

Not rocket science, but it helped to hear it from outside 

my own brain which was turning somersaults! 

Organizing my space & hiding the other projects was key. 

And accepting that my finished book would not be perfect...

All along there were decisions to be made.

What to do with the wildflower cutouts that I had drawn & painted 

from photos that I had taken for my project?

I had to abandon my original idea of 

making the flowers pop up from the page, 

(something I love to do in my little handmade cards),

because I had a cover that I'd bound that I'd wanted to use.

A new stiff white paper replaced the green Mi Teintes. 

(Thanks, Fiddlehead Artisan Supply for being right in town!!)

From there on, the book seemed to make itself.

Book Arts prof. Rebecca Goodale says that there's nothing

like the feeling of you & the paper working together "as one."   

(I'm paraphrasing...)

The beginning.

It's an accordion book, but can be view one spread at a time.

The middle.

The end. 

 One of my favorite parts was writing text,

inspired by my original thoughts on my subject. 

Lots & lots of editing to keep it focused & brief.

I had written in the previous post that "there was 

so little left to do" on this book. 

Haha!...Little did I know!!!

 

The cover came last. 
I wanted to decorate it more, but I had a deadline.
The handmade books, the final projects 
from our Book Arts Class will be on view at USM 
during September with a lecture & reception on September 9.

The book was delivered yesterday, & I am exhilarated!

What joy to start with vague thoughts & ideas 
& to work with them 
as they evolve into concrete words & images~
Bound into a book!
I got to experience what my young art students
used to experience!

And, I finished it!!

Thank you to USM & Rebecca Goodale's 
Summer Book Arts Course!

No Spring Chicken

 Eight years ago, when I was selling my art at Art in the Park
a woman asked me to create an illustration
for her daughter, who was raising chickens.
                                                              

I thought of it recently as I was 

writing a letter in French, and I wanted to say, 

 "I'm no Spring Chicken, you know!"

Google translates that as 

"Je ne suis pas un poulet de printemps,"

which is literal, & I knew that that was probably wrong. 

So using websites, I came up with 2 other, 

probably more accurate translations of what I meant to say.

But that's another story...

I'm not as young as I used to be. 

But I am lucky to still be able to: 

Express myself 

To dance Zumba • to wear fun clothes, 

To work/play at my art • to learn new things,

To eat well • to cultivate healthy habits,

To have old friends and to make new ones.

And on occasion, to be able to share my experience

and to help some one who IS a Spring Chicken.

I'm no spring chicken, but I am very grateful.

Quebec City and Sketching People

No matter where I go to sketch, 

if there are people nearby, 

they will most likely enter my sketch.

In Québec Ctiy we had our annual library date 

at Bibliothèque Claire Martin 

housed in the former St. Matthew Church.

I have mentioned this church in previous posts about Québec.

The Franco American Museum includes a restored chapel.

It has lots of ornamentation, but I went right for a figure,

an elevated sculpture against a wall.

Here is the figure of me, at one of the altars.

 It's officially no longer sacred 

so tourists can wander all over the place. 

When we had our other library date 

at the large Bibliothèque Gabrielle-Roy

(see previous post)

I found a book I've always wanted to own:

Un peu de Paris by illustrator Jean-Jacques Sempé. 

He is a master of depicting human nature

through simple line drawings 

as well as nature-nature & architecture. 

He is my number one favorite illustrator

 dans le monde entier! 

I photographed a few pages.

 Oh the humor, the expressions, the brilliance!

 We used to watch a TV show when I was a kid,

"People Are Funny". I didn't really like the show,

but that title was a theme for my mom & me.

And People are Loveable too.
••••••••••••••••••••••

I've signed up for a figure drawing group

to hone my skills. Not a class,

just artists drawing from a model. 

I studied figure drawing in college classes 

a LONG time ago. I am anxious.

What if everyone else is a super talented,

experienced artist?? 

(I'm good about advising others

to not compare themselves,

but mon Dieu! 

I have to apply this attitude to myself!)

For my other Quebec City posts, put it in the search bar, 

or click on the labels, "Québec City" and "Québec" 

that are on the side. 

Mini Zumba Greetings

I failed to send Christmas cards this year. 

But I have promised myself that I will send winter cards.

I did make up some mini-cards to give to a few local folks,

some of them being fellow Zumba enthusiasts.

 

 And a card for my Zumba teacher. 

I have enormous gratitude for her. 

This dance & her exercise classes have enriched

my life & my health tremendously!!!

Farnsworth. Bell Ringers And A Crankie

Festive Holiday doings during the Farnsworth Art Museum's

seasonal Share the Wonder events.

First, a concert by the Penobscot Ringers,a handbell ensemble. 

It was music of the angels & had

a number of us in the audience crying for the beauty of it all!

Such beauty in the midst of some real ugliness in the world.

 After the concert, a lecture by Annie Bailey,

creator of a rotating storytelling mural for the Museum's 

front window. It tells about Maine heroine,

Abbie Burgess, a 16 year old who tended 

The Matinicus Rock Light & took care of her family

during a raging storm in 1856.

Her father, the lighthouse keeper, had gone to the mainland

for supplies, but could not get back for 4 weeks!

Bailey said she chose Abbie as a symbol

of focus of in a time of chaos.  

Something that is needed in these times too.     

(This photo of 1 scene doesn't show the mural's true size

& the window picked up reflections. But...)

The scroll's height is 4 ft. & one full rotation is 60 ft. 

The scroll, called a "Crankie", moves between 2 spools 

by way of a bicycle chain mechanism created by Andrew White. 

Bailey collaborated with a number of people 

to make this project work, & she has studied the Crankies 

of the 19th century.

There was, as with all original projects, 

trial & failure before final successes.

(I'm hoping the mural will stay up beyond its Jan. close date.) 

Good Bye to Autumn Colors

This little sketch isn't really about today.

Pumpkins are now covered in snow, 

& green appears on evergreen trees 

rather than in downtown window displays.

But it's one I reworked recently.

The oranges, warm browns & golds that you see on 

all those Thanksgiving cards have been replaced 

by blues, grays, cool browns: & lots of white! 

Brrr!

Rita Rita Fashion-ita

So a year ago I started seasonal work at the art museum. 

I did an inventory of my clothes closet! 

It was time to come out of fashion hibernation!

Rita Rita Fashion-ita, Hahahaha!

In my Daily Journal I periodically document what I wore 

on the previous day.The Fashion Report, Hahahaha.

 

The quick tiny drawings remind me 

of my 7th grade fashion drawings,

inspired by Simplicity Pattern envelope illustrations.

In 7th grade I decided I was going to be a fashion designer

when I grew up. Hahahaha.

I loved the whole mix & match thing & still do.

I'm having fun gathering 

a few of my "museum costume" sketches. 

Do we see a theme here?? 

Guess how many scarves I have in the

blue-turquoise-teal-aqua range?  

(Answer in next post.)

 

 If no scarf then one must at lease wear a turquoise shirt! 

In high school I decided that my interest in fashion 

was "shallow".  

It is true that my brain had other things to work on.

College days: Work boots & flannel shirts. 

More brain & social stuff to work on.

In this semi-retirement museum employee stage,

It's fun to "curate" my clothes collection. 

Maybe it's still shallow, but, shrug, it is pleasurable.

Our museum visitors, who are in a visually receptive

state of consciousness, appreciate my efforts. 

"Oooooh, your colors!" the women exclaim.