My Grocery Store Map

Life has changed quickly. 

I am staying home with 2 exceptions:

Outdoor exercise and food shopping

For me, the grocery store poses a double hazard:

I am allergic to chemical sanitizers.  

I need to be out of there FAST.

Enter my aid: A Shopping MAP. It works well.

Do you have any new adaptations/aids during this time?

Be healthy and safe, friends...

Home-Time in My Small Town

Since retirement, my home-time is very pleasurable. 

I have "stations" around the house for:

Painting • Drawing • Zumba & Exercise

Special Projects • Writing • Reading.

I am grateful for a working kitchen.

This is one time where being an Introvert comes in handy.

My life is less disrupted than are many others' lives.

In my small town the changes don't seem drastic to me,

 even though we do run out of toilet paper. 

We are lucky that we can afford to be calm & accepting.

We walk outdoors, & passersby are pleasant.

We are still a town of Hello's & waving to strangers. 

Yesterday as I was walking the Harbor Walk,

 a woman on a bench called out to me:

"We can still do this!" & she did a thumbs up,

& I replied "Yes, we are lucky!" 

and raised my thumbs to her.

 Kathy at the blog Catching Happiness 

(click Here) 

has a post about "Staying Positive..."

She mentions "Stress Cleaning."

I've been enjoying "Stress Organizing," like

taking inventory of my colored pencils. 

At some point I will do a phone order/roadside pick up 

at Fiddleheads,

my local art shop, which is closed...

Temporarily.

 Oooh, order & labels for my fountain pen inks!

(the small ones are samples I get from Goulet Pens.)

 Writing in my journal remains a daily pleasure.

On this day I was listening to France Bleu radio

& decided to create a sort of dictation & to search words
in the dictionary (Reverso online).

I just started a new Rhodia daily journal.

A new Lamy "Turmaline" fountain pen arrived from Goulet 

just before things shut down. 

Goulet is a small business with heart, 

that is paying its employees during this time. 

Voilà. 

Nice to reinforce good feelings via online networks 

in a time of physical isolation. 

How are you occupying your time 

in your "confinement" and "sheltering."?

Sketching Small & Fast: Boston

Train trip to Boston. View from the window.

I've been longing to go for many months,

with my Midori Traveler's Notebook, 4 X 51/4 "

The Italian North End. 

Dense with cafe's, restaurants,

& pastry shops.

Bricco • Cafe Bella • Ristorante Fiore

Cafe Paradiso • Ristorante Quattro

Trattoria il Panino • Ristorante Saraceno

Lucca • Dolce Vita Ristorante

And 19th century churches. And Sunday church bells.

 A distant view as we walked 

from the North End to North Station.

 Museum of Science. The Butterfly Garden with 

a hall of terrariums outside their giant room

is alone worth the admisson.

I mean, have you ever seen insect eating plants,

or a Stick Insect (that looks just like a twig/branch!!)?

Science, nature, art, enchantment, magic

as colors sparkle and flutter through the air. 

Knowledgeable & eager student assistants

are like butterfly encyclopedias.

Better than Google~ the real thing!!

It's like we were in a giant tropical terrarium.

And you had to check yourself before exiting

to make sure a butterfly hadn't landed on you! 

Butterflies on a city view window

with the Charles River right out back. 

Exhilarating day, indoors & out!

Sketching made it more so!

Drawing Lesson: The Graphic Mark & Roses

 

I'm giving drawing lessons to a friend. 

In exchange, she is coaching me 

on my organizational issues & unfinished art projects.

We began by looking at drawings of Felix Topolski

in his book Paris Lost: A Sketchbook of the 30's.

We used viewfinders to isolate small sections

to observe the variety & sensitivity of his graphic marks.

 

I'm in awe of so-called scribbles that

are an integral part of many drawings.

We then made a sheet of our own marks using

a chopstick with simple fountain pen ink.

  My friend was interested in creating a card with a rose theme

for her friend Rosie's family. 

I happened to have a vase of roses nearby!

A simple, gestural interpretation emerged 

on my marks sheet.

I cut it out to separate it. 

And added Prismacolor color.

V.'s was beautifully alive, almost shimmering.

A lovely experience, relaxed & focused,

with Andrea Bocelli in the background,

because V. is an opera afficionado.

Thank You, Friend V.!  

Nothing like Homemade Valentines!

 

At our library art group we, adults,

reverted back to childhood pleasures, & made Valentines.  

 Valentines Pot Luck: Rather than 

food to share, we brought ideas, art papers, & frills.

I brought some leftovers home.

 My three Valentines made at the meeting.

Très simple. Often when in a group,

I work quickly, creating sort of rough draft ideas

for future, more finished products.

This pop up was bought at a bookstore,

so I could bring it to show to the group.

 I bought these little girl cards at a stationery store

that's been in Portland for about 40 years.

The Paper Patch.

We used to have anonymous Valentines 

planted all over downtown on this day, 

on store fronts, on tree limbs,on brick walls, 

all tagged saying,"If you love me...take me...free!"

The anonymous makers, we hear, 

have moved away now, 

but this year one of our group has left Valentines 

in various shops... for people to take....for free!

Happy Valentine's Day, to you my blog friends!

Lists and Collections

 I recently wanted to buy a new handbag. 

There were so many styles that

I made notes. It was helpful, if not obsessive.

(Here, only a snippet of several pages.)

 This wasn't the 1st time. Some years ago, I had drawn a 

bunch of bags, & eventually cut some of them out

to save in one of my "repository", catch-all journals.

In 2011, at a city Farmer's Market, 

I devoted a page in my small sketch journal 

to various shoppers' bags. Fascinating variety!

An interesting book : Blackstock's Collections. 

He draws collections at a very intense & obsessive level.

Also interesting:

Lists, To-Do's: Illustrated Inventories

Collected Thoughts & Other Artists' Enumerations

A page from Lists, To-Do's...

Collecting quantities verses buying one of something 

has an economic tie-in in our consumer culture. 

Folks on YouTube show & tell us that they have not one,

 but a multitude of 

bags, notebooks, pens, shoes, etc. 

& they encourage us to buy more, more more.

(They are often given these things at no charge 

or at a  discount. Or, it is their profession.)

What does the average person do who can't afford 

or doesn't need too many of an item?

Me: I admit, sometimes I buy more than one...

But drawing is more affordable.

For a related post please click HERE to my post called

26 Mugs, 100 Monkeys. 

What would YOU choose to draw (or buy)

 if you had to have a collection of 100?

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!

What I've Been Up To...

A little sketching with the Sketchers...

At a most magical shop in town, Brambles...

The owner always welcomes us! 

(I have previous posts/sketches from Brambles...)

Quick sketches when I'm out. 

Still carrying the book everywhere.

This was lunch at the Coop, a great Sketch-Op.

Enjoying my Prismacolors. Here,

they were basking in winter sunlight that streamed in

through the back door blinds.

 Prismacolors on my new "mini memory" daily calendar, 

inspired by the great sketch blog of Lin, View From the Oak
& her "Smallies". Do visit her blog! 

A great form of journaling!

Card calendars for my bulletin board.

Been playing with collage a bit.

Ongoing Daily Journal ritual. Every morning with coffee.

I'm adding more color, drawings & paste-ins

than before.

 

This was the bottom corner of a page. 

That's Washi tape as the base.

Envelope-pocket-journal-folio books, 

taught by local paper craft artist & teacher, Robinsunne. 

Current one in progress.

Elements taped with temporary cellophane tape.

 I mostly didn't send out holiday cards.
I gave a few of these to folks in my Zumba class. 
I hope you all had a fun holiday season.

 My new cork board on the mantle. 
A reminder that I want to paint more without ink line...
A challenge, & outside my comfort zone!

Above, some are mine, some are inspirations by others.

Great time of year for making art!