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...

...But I am quilting... (2nd in a series)

I am not a quilter, but I am quilting!

Yesterday.

Two days ago.

 

Today:

Blocks are increasing, loose fabric decreasing...

The design is being laid out, forming itself.

In between sewing, I am learning to quilt

with some great YouTube teachers.

Thank you, teachers.

I still don't know what it will look like in the end

but it does look somewhat how I imagined it!

Don't know many blocks I will make.

Or how big it will be.

Maybe a tablecloth...

I am making fewer mistakes now. 

Developing a rhythm. 

I am glad I didn't quit. 

At one point I thought

I'd just make a bunch of separate hot pads.

But I think I've gone too far to not make a quilt

of some sort.

A box holds scraps from quiltfor a next project...

Can't wait to see what it will be!

It was the masks that got the whole thing going.

If I have to wear them, they might as well be colorful

and match my outfit!

"I Am Not a Quilter"...

I took out my old fabric scraps & sewing machine!

They'd been in a closet for 8 years.

A well meaning friend, who saw my frustration with

stitching, taking out stitches,

stitching, taking out stitches,

stitching, taking out stitches,

swear, swear, swear,

suggested, "Maybe you are just not a quilter."

I am also not a dancer.

 I am slower at learning moves

than other people. 

Quilting & Zumba dance have cognitive steps

that are hard for my type of brain.

But they also offer me a flow of movement

and joyful expression. I love them!

(I am also not a writer, 

it takes me a long time...

And yet, I love it too.)

A saying on my bulletin board:

"The harder you work for something,

The greater you'll feel when you achieve it."

So why am I sewing?

• I love going from chaos to order.

• I love spending hours with the fabrics, 

touching them, 

arranging & re-arranging them.

• Soaking in 

the colors, the colors, the colors!

• By experiencing the process,

I see & understand 

others' quilts with more depth.

I love the tools. 

Recently I even bought a few new ones 

at our local sewing/art shop, 

Fiddleheads, curbside.

I love the way sewing connects me with my dear mother,

who helped me to learn to sew.

And who loved sewing clothes for me.

And with my peer group women friends.

And with the memories of my jr. high girl friends 

when we were first learning to sew. 

It was a happy time of camaraderie in Home Arts classes.

Do schools still teach Home Arts?

I love that I can sew gifts for friends. 

The above "hot pad", 

with my first time using interfacing,

was a gift to a friend using colors I know she loves.

I have even made some masks for friends,

in "their colors".

This staying home time has given me

the gift of Home Arts.

And the gift of time to be as slow 

as I need to be.

What I Took For Granted...

Funny, I took spiritual gifts less for granted

than material objects, before the virus & shut down.

I don't shop online,

but art tools & materials 

were available at local shops 

within a 100 miles.

Now those shops are closed.

So a friend kindly helped me to order new #11 blades,

and a great, new ergonomic Excel knife. 

They are luxuries to me!!

I did a few test cuts, magnificent feeling

of cutting with a precision blade! 

My edges could be smoother,

but that's me needing to practice...

 I realized I could arrange these simple snippets

in an infinite number of ways,

with lovely negative shapes inbetween...

Like letters in a word, words in a sentence...

An infinite number of ways.

Boggling...

But then, a lot is boggling these days...

Finding my Sunflower Voice

I have been continuing to sketch my sunflowers.

One artist suggests to draw something100 times in order 

to really get to know it. 

I've been re-finding my ease with sketching

after not doing it for awhile.

I probably won't make 100 versions of my sunflowers,

but I did make 3 more renderings this morning.

And I did notice new things each time.

I didn't enjoy the above rendering 

(2 posts ago) which was made

after a long period of not drawing.

Not because I thought of it as good or bad, 

but because the process & end result

didn't reflect my spirit. 

It was a labored study 

rather than a more dancing,

free-flowing, good-feeling process.

It was important to do, to start somewhere,

but I am happiest when I am sketching lightly. 

Why do I draw? 

It's the feeling I get. 

It's in my whole body,

rather than just in my eyes.

And it's the feeling of my calm mind.

I respond to gesture & movement

in a subject.

When drawing the sunflowers 

on the back patio this morning 

I loved the flickering, changing morning light, 

the delicate fluttering 

of the petals, the cool air.

The vivid yellows & greens 

against our still gray landscape.

And the flow of water on my brush,

 the luscious paint.

The freedom of not thinking about what my 

picture would look like. 

Sometimes I draw to bring pleasure to others,

with more focus on product,

as in a card or sketch for sale. 

But even then, I need to find pleasure 

in the act of drawing itself. 

Why do I draw?, I ask 

as I watch snippets of drawing lessons 

on YouTube.

(I've been writing answers in my journal.)

I'm happy to be drawing again,

& to come back around to my true

Sketchbook Wandering self. 

If you are a draw-er, 

what is it that you enjoy about drawing?

Art Journaling On the Go

A new 8 X 11" page in my art journal,

created at the weekly Library Art Journaling Group.

Sharing & working together, they call it "synergy."

I call it magic.

This was my first "To Go" page in my Daily Journal. 

After watching a ton of videos

about the Midori Travel Journal system,

& about approaches to Bullet Journaling,

I modified my Rhodia A5 size dot grid book

(the best for fountain pens!)

by adding colored elastic cords under which I slid 

loose, folded sheets of blank paper. 

On the go, I can pull a sheet out, draw, write,

& then stick it back in! It worked!!

Below, I'm loving seeing the accumulation of Jan. days 

on my Mini Memory Calendar!

The squares measure 1 1/4 square inch.

The calendars are on premium color copy paper.

Nine days ago...

Today! 
One day at a time a month happens!

Happy End of January!

The Practice of Calligraphy

Sample sheets given to me by a master calligrapher/teacher.

The coloring and notes are mine.

Calligraphy.  

The practice can be calming & satisfying.

But it can be frustrating, for one who is not

naturally gifted at it.

Gaye Godfrey Nicholls writes in Mastering Calligraphy:

"Calligraphers revel in the sensual, sinuous 

& arch elegance of italic..."

"Calligraphy 

is about discovering the pleasure 

of watching pigments in water meet, 

fall in love, 

& create new colors on paper..."

"You watch your own hand take over & create the forms

for which you have striven for so long. "

It takes practice, she writes. Maybe 3 years, maybe 7...

It takes persistence & patience. (I say.) 

Here, perfection is sought, not just progress.

 They say to set up a center where you can leave 

your practice work out & practice everyday.

I do.

Still, I am not perfect.

I may never be. It takes acceptance.

Inbetween writing the letter "a" over & over

on lined paper,

trying to get it to be consistent,

one can play with some letter designs.

Even if the letters haven't been mastered.

It gives one something to look forward to.

Meanwhile, one can take a little break from the concentration

& precision, & play at making seasonal decorations. 

The Chaos of Unfinished Projects

I  attended a weeklong Book Arts Course at the University.

So many super workshops with accomplished artists: 

"Letters to the Page", a workshop on calligraphy as related

to the art book, began with mark making, 

loosening up on giant paper.

My cup of tea, spontaneous, direct.

 "Comics-Based Narrative Workshop":

Triggered lots of spontaneous story ideas 

& an awareness of the art of the graphic novel.

"Cross Structure Bindings" taught hand sewing!

Not spontaneous & direct, but: 

I loved the calm & orderly process. Not chaotic!

"Printed Patterns & Accordion Books"!! 

Making large sheets using childhood crayon resist, 

but this time it was

a white China Marker under Daniel Smith watercolors!

Above, I created small panels outside of class.

(But that accordion is unfinished.)

I had a makeshift studio in my home away from home

during the week on one simple card table.

It was easier to focus, no bills, paperwork, dishes or laundry.

 In my own home my dining area has become my workspace. (It's my favorite space in the house.) 

And now the work is spreading to the living area!  Arghhh!

 It may not look that chaotic (I spiffied it up for the photos

the way you clean for guests), 

but my unfinished final project for the class exhibition, 

& other projects, are everywhere! 

My unfinished wildflower book...so little left to do,

and yet I am stuck...

And there are so many other ideas

that haven't even begun to materialize on paper

but are swimming around in my brain.

Wouldn't the solution be to move the work
to a separate studio space?

Not sure, because a lot of the unfinished chaos 

seems to be in my head.

Sketching: One reason I love it: 

It's my direct, spontaneous response.

I don't deliberate & agonize over too many ideas & choices.  

Oh, Dear Readers, please give me some tips for

escaping this stuckness,

because I just want to finish my 3 handmade books!

Café With a Fellow Sketcher

I met one of The Sketchers at a café downtown...

She is our steadiest & most persistent member

& a total inspiration.

It's so nice to sketch with someone else...

We draw, we chat a little...it frees my process...

Takes the pressure off that my brain wants to impose.

That's my Kakuno fountain pen 

filled with Platinum Carbon waterproof ink. 

The pen is very inexpensive,

but draws super well on Moleskine sketch journal paper. 

It felt like the pen was drawing rather than me!

Exploring Rather Than Wandering

 

Sketchbook Wandering. 

I've done it here for almost 7 years!!!!!

Sketching & writing still bring me joy & comfort, 

as when I took a pause from last Saturday's winter festivities

at a café on Main St. I sat by a wall.

My sketchbook transformed the scene to interesting theater.

There are people who appreciate my sketches, 

& some have learned from my process.

But:

Change might be starting...

Expression, discovery, exploration, reflection, 

& who knows what else! 

I've been experimenting with making marks 

with a brush & "high flow" acrylic paints.

(Thanks, for introducing me, Beth. Go to Sew Sew Art.)

My marks turned to shapes & my shapes 

arranged themselves.

Aaaah, order...but maybe not too much...

More will be revealed...