Quick Sketches and More Preserves

An extra early rise has given way to a very productive morning. Kale, eggplant and peppers are dehydrating. The giant pot of tomatoes that were cooked down yesterday are warming on the stove top in preparation for the food mill and the puree will be canned shortly. I have more to harvest, including more calendula to start another batch or two of infused oil.

I banged out three quick sketches, pen on newsprint, numbers 17, 18 and 19 for 29 Faces.

There will be more as the day rolls on, but that's it for now. Figured I'd better post now before the day gets away from me and I crash-n-burn as I've done the past couple of evenings.

So, yeah, that's what I made today. So far.

Peace.

Momentum

Yesterday was all about setting 'em up. Today has been about knockin' 'em down.

Yesterday was all about putting plans of action in place, about filling the cauldron and starting the fire. Today has been all about taking the action that stirs the cauldron to manifest momentum.

One of the patterns that creep into my life and into my artwork, like in today's face for 29 Faces, is that of horizontal lines. I've come to recognize them as (among other things) symbolizing upward or forward motion … like evolution unfolding … like the patterns I see in meditation or in dreams when passing through a gate or stepping over a threshold.

The horizontal lines in this simple drawing were not intentionally placed with this awareness in mind. Rather I noticed them after returning home from … stirring the cauldron … and I recognized them. I acknowledged them. I honored them.

And, hey ~ merry Friday the 13th!

Peace.

An Unequivocal Plan of Action

The return to the doodle has been suiting me well these days. Days busy with all manner of thinking and planning, considering and doing, dreaming and manifesting. I have a task at hand that I could have started last week, but I've put it off. Today I asked, as I placed the task unequivocally in my planner, and this 29Faces image in my journal, if I was hiding from it, or it from me. Today will know.

Peace.

Fourteen of Twenty-nine Faces

The return to the doodle is perfect for days like this one … a day filled up with many planned activities that get skewed by unplanned activities. So when I had the Sharpie out to label preserves I figured I grab a drawing pad. My uni-ball pens are always handy, so I employed one of them as well to create my face #14 for the 29 Faces challenge.

There's more, but time is, as they say, of the essence ~ today. Peace.

Furiously Fast Faces and a Return to the Doodle

Yesterday was a full day, the kind that left me with little time, energy or inclination to blog. My morning-into-afternoon was enjoyed at the Connecticut Pagan Pride event where I mustered mere seconds to scribble four furiously-fast faces. The rest of the day involved various harvesting and preserving, ale on the deck, a grilled dinner, and restful evening.

Today I returned to the doodle. It's like an artful coming home, something I've done for as long as I can remember. Plus it was simple and fast, freeing up time to cook, puree and can tomatoes, harvest more garden love and plant more autumn greens.

That's what I made today. Peace.

Collaged Gesture Drawings

Last night, while sitting around a fire in a beautifully magical space, listening to Wise Fools, I played fast-n-furious with some gesture drawing in the fading light. The setting sun didn't matter, since I barely glanced at my journal pages. I love doing that kind of drawing … challenging the eye, brain and hand to sync up. This kind of exercise, I believe, forces us to draw what we see and not what we believe is there.

In any event, I quickity-quick-quick sketched several faces, faces that were talking and laughing, in constant motion. It was fun and today I looked at what I had produced and collaged two suggestions of faces into my art journal for todays' 29 Faces post. In doing this kind of drawing I realized that I want to revisit this practice as well as some of the other old drawing exercises that I recall from college.

I suggested to my spouse that we go out once in while, someplace public, like a coffee shop or tea house, with out sketch pads, to capture drawings of places, people and environments outside of our own familiar realm. I said it might be like a nice date. I'm still waiting for a definitive response. I have a feeling I'll be dating myself, and I'm cool with that.

Peace.

A Day of Doing and Face Six

Today has been filled with doing. This morning I blocked in this face, I went out to pick up our fresh five pound stash of organic, fair trade coffee at Coffee-Tea-Etc, hit the bank, filled up with gas, picked up some flints and lighter fluid, got home, did a little art, prepped beans and got them canned, did a little more art, prepped tomatoes to cook down for puree, did a little more art, laundry, more art. Somewhere in there I ate, tended to the dog and chickens and whatever else.

Tonight I'll be able to unwind with the finest Fools I know when we get together for our monthly discussion group to tackle the topic of reflections. That will be swell.

That's what I made today. Peace.

Love, Grexing and Trust

Today I made my way north, over the border to Northampton, Massachusetts with my dear friend, Kate. I hadn't had a day like this in I-can't-remember-how-long. I was a day of Good Medicine, complete with loving conversation, lots of laughter and the occasional musical interlude. I wandered around a cool college town, sucking in the youthful verve with someone that I love.

I had a feeling that this might happen today, so this morning I called on my Muse to help me with today's face for 29 Faces. She chose the palette, and I responded with a "what-the-hell?" She said, "quit your grexing." So I did, and the trust produced this interesting genderless face.

That, my friends, is what I made today.

Peace.