the perfect life model

This almost qualifies as a mystical experience. Chaucer was asleep on the bed with his paws in such interesting positions that I had to draw him, but quickly, before the inevitable movement.

I grabbed a sketchbook and stood over him, hoping to catch as much of the multiple limbs as possible. I drew more and more detail, even shading, and he never even twitched.

Finally I had to stop; it was a *heavy* 9x12 spiral sketchbook and hard to hold. As soon as I lowered the book, Chaucer opened his eyes a teeny bit and made a mumph sound like--can I move now?

I said, "Thank you, Chaucer! and he stretched, just like a life model, glad to be out of the posture.

Mechanical pencil in the Mead Academie sketchbook.

aaahhhh, color!

I had no time for color on an intensely busy family trip. It's such an oasis to come back to drying time for paint!

In the journal, grapevine piece drawn on prepainted acrylic blotches.

pots in the atrium

The in-laws house has a roofed atrium overlooked by windows from 3 rooms. They don't use it except as a rare passway, but it's got lots of potential.

These pots are there.

Pencil, which frustrates my scanning clarity, especially when there's writing on the back of the page. In the journal.

making memory sketches

My in-laws have been in the house 20 years, may not be there much longer.

I had little time to do more than bare outlines, but just a bit of drawing seals in the sight and experience better than a photo.

Pen in the journal. (Brush pen for the chairs.)

more traveling people

In the airport I started drawing a man, then in the course of the next 20 min. our flight was moved to 4 separate gates. Chaos!

I filled the rest of the page on the plane. The bag is mine, tucked into the seatback.

I had limited views on tiny planes. Nothing to draw but my own seatbelt.

Prismacolor water-soluble pencil in the journal. Color added later for my own sanity.

clearing out 2009

These guys were traveling in December.

The bottom one almost has no head in view because that's the way he was sleeping. Simplifies the artist's work!

We had bumpy flights and all drawing was very fast.

Sharpie pen in the journal.

Voluminous journaling

These are my 2009 journal volumes. Colorful inside and out!

I've been journaling for over 35 years. In about 1974 I started with writing only, solidly filled pages, in identical spiral notebooks.

Starting about 2000 I've added more and more imagery, with painting, collage and drawing, plus writing, in a huge variety of book styles and papers.

Now that I'm working across the spine with images, I've stopped using spiral books almost completely. Only one out of these last ten was a spiral.

Last year was unique in that I started a volume on January 1 and ended one on December 31. I filled ten volumes in 12 months, which is becoming my normal output now.

I don't worry about not liking a paper or binding too much, because I can fill it in less than a month. Usually by the end of the volume, I've made friends with the paper. Multiple mediums make anything usable.

Onward to 2010 with more! Happy New Journaling Year!

Sage Stossel

A great cartoon for a glimpse of how we've changed in the last 10 years.

Sage Stossel in the Boston Globe

If the link takes you where you don't want to go, these two items are sufficient to see her point.

Isaac Asimov said:

"What militates against creativity most of all is peer pressure. By definition, that is creative which seems new and novel to most people. People distrust the new and novel, and prefer the tried and true.

Therefore, the creative person is a pain in the neck. any person with tendencies toward creativity quickly finds out he is having trouble socially.

Since many people would rather be popular and one of the boys than anything else, they stifle those tendencies. And creative people *are* irritants and pains in the neck. How many of them do we want?"

I found this Asimov quote in some notes I made years ago. I see the truth in it, but I also know creative people who would rather make and create than please any group of commentators around them. And many creative people attract a social circle of admirers.

There are degrees of strangeness, of course, but I wonder if greater tolerance now and internet-audience acceptance makes more people than in Asimov's time dare to be new, novel and fearless of social condemnation.

the underside of a clamp

Filling a sketchbook page. Pencil.

Merry Everything!

Whatever holiday you're celebrating, from Solstice to Christmas to Surviving 2009, enjoy the coming Light and warmth of the season!

w/c and micron pen on Strathmore drawing paper

practicing fabric folds

This is an eyemask that I folded and held with my left hand as I drew the shadows and creases.

Pencil on Mead Academy paper.

layering the cover

Rolling color onto a boring sketchbook cover. I covered the inside with shades of phthalo turquoise.

This book had a 50 pages of 130# paper. I replaced the spiral with a smaller one and have made two books of 25 pages. Much lighter to carry.

the freedom of mixed media

Collage, acrylic, Stayz On stamp pad ink, and lots of gel medium. Oranges and greens are calling me now.