A Painting a Day - It's all I ask...

Well, some days I'm fairly prolific, and some days I'm not.

I watch my dog, my big beautiful German Shepherd, as she turns in circles, figuring out just how to settle in. It's a puzzle to her, though it looks very much the same to me, but she's looking for just the right spot, just the right "merge" place where she can ease into her relaxation mode.

Granted - she's a dog, but many times in my effort to get started I feel the same way. There's a process. I get up in the morning, get coffee, then I head to the computer to check email and look at things - could be other blogs, it could be flipping through magazines for a minute or 15 - but most of the time I spend time laying out what I've been working on.

I've finally gotten my watercolors in a binder, in protective sleeves so that they're . . . well - protected, from water drips, my fingers, accidental pencil marks - whatever. I'll line up the other half dozen drawings that are in progress and try to decide which one I feel led to work on. They're all in various stages of unfinished - just ink, ink with some color, drawings that need something but I haven't figure out just what ... I spread them out and just look at them. Though it may appear (to people close to me) that organization is the bane of my existence, I am finally accepting that it's much easier to work in a semi-organized fashion - completed stuff put away, only the others cluttering about. Semi-organized.

My "circling" requires me to check the binder, line up my pencils, return pastels to their boxes. I like the process of setting the paper pads in front of me stacked in order of height and right next to them the pots of brushes. I probably only use three different brushes most of the time but still I like the pot of them nearby. It makes me feel official - like if I needed them, they'd be standing at-the-ready. Good little soldiers. Worn but loyal.

I think I'm ready now. One more trip to the restroom, one more glass of water. And now - to address what's at hand - do I start on a big page of blankness or work on what I've started?

Here's work from today - Saturday, March 6, Happy Birthday Mom!

My Daily Drawing

Today's beginning work......and on to my morning thoughts... BIG NEWS!


I've FINALLY come to recognize something that I should have learned long ago... but didn't... the benefits of practice. Practice makes you better at something, or some things. I'm not sure what it was that I didn't get but it makes me understand why I have struggled with many things in my life. I don't know if it's just an 'acceptance' thing that now I'm finally getting to. Or, if I'm like many other people I see who struggle with not understanding some simple principles.



When I was taking classes, there were a lot of them that were easy or fairly easy to me. Writing papers, pffst......piece of cake. Talking in front of people .... oh please. Analyzing something or figuring out why people do what they do.... c'mon, bring on the hard stuff. But... and here is where it all starts to unravel for me... if I'm given a task where I have to go at something again and again, and again, to get it right - *gasp* where I'd have to "LEARN" ..... I struggle.



Algebra - STRUGGLE. Ceramics and getting the glazes dead on - struggle. Willing to practice at that, but still, it's a struggle.

And then there's art - WHEN did this decide to be a struggle? When I realized that to be at all decent, I have to do it again, and again. And do it over and go over that again. And to practice and practice and maybe then I will be able to exhibit some control and duplicate what I've done.



God, I exhaust myself. Why can't I just be accepting of the fact that learning is necessary in almost all things. To be any good at anything, I think I have to just accept that maybe I know nothing .......and then we can start from the beginning. LEARNING . . . . listening, getting knowledge of, practicing what you don't know until you understand it and have a command of such knowledge. Get it? Got it!
*sigh*

"Okay, let's go. Let's do it again."

K

ADDING NOSTALGIA TO MY WORK

I didn't make it to the sewing machine last night, but I did however, unearth a small book that I ordered some months back, with beautiful pictures and embroidery techniques.

The book has instruction in both thread and ribbon embellishing, and I thought I'd share.

The pictures are beautiful and it's a smaller book that's easy to slip into my purse/knap sack/magicMaryPoppinsBag. I believe I got this from Amazon.com so while it was a used book it was in near perfect condition. And I like the idea that somebody before me owned it and has now passed it on.

Anyway - here is the book and a couple of pages that I thought were good to share. I just think that adding little bits of interest adds so much to the value of your work and the history of your life - sort of like "can I produce something that will touch someone for years?" ... or last a lifetime?

K