The End of January

A page from my sketchbook.

A doodle.

I am not a doodler by nature. But I am trying to doodle more. And play more. And “lighten up” more. Funny – she doesn’t look very “light” does she? Not intended to be sad – I think she looks sad – intended to be more “wishful.” Or is that “wistful?” I was thinking about how much I don’t remember from high school and how much I would like to still learn and understand. I wish I could have known when I was younger how interesting I would find math and science when I was older. And history. School was so easy for me – I didn’t have to study, didn’t have to try very hard, and I didn’t comprehend the importance of hardly anything – let alone academic stuff. I would have paid more attention then if I had only known.

Here’s another page from my sketchbook.

Warning: Rant to follow

I heard about Zentangling and was curious about it. The doodle above the bird is a Zentangle pattern. I have been playing around with it a little bit and while it is fun, sort of mindless, kind of relaxing and a bit of a mental vacation – I also find myself having mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I applaud the “founders” of Zentangling who have taken age old patterns and designs, registered and trademarked the name, systemized it and made a business out of it. Good for them. I love an entrepreneur!

On the other hand it irritates the heck out of me that just like Al Gore and his cohorts found a way to make money out of thin air with carbon credits – these people have found a way to make money from free and ancient patterns and designs.

I lean more toward rooting and cheering the Zentangling people on than not. It brings a lot of people joy and healing and fun, and unlike the Global Warming people, no one is trying to force anyone to buy into their program. Totally the opposite of the nonsense that the Al Gore crowd tries to pressure, guilt and foist on us.

Yay for the Zentanglers.

End of Rant – for now…

It’s Been a While…

…but I am back. There is so much on my mind and so much has transpired I don’t even know where to begin. So in no particular order I think I will just start and do a stream of consciousness sort of thing – just what ever comes up.

 

Rick and I just celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary, He gave me the new Zelda, Skyward Sword game for our Wii. I know that sounds like a goofy gift but I couldn’t think of anything I would enjoy more! I am a big fan of the Zelda games and while I am horrible at playing the game I sure do enjoy it. Seriously, I am the worlds worst player – it takes me months and months to complete a game, but I love every maddening and frustrating second of it.

I have a very busy brain, which is very hard to focus and hardly ever rests or shuts down, so it is hard to find a break, distraction or any mental vacation time. However, when I play Zelda – I am hyper-focused and playing it fully, completely, totally, it’s Zelda and only Zelda – everything else disappears. It is a brain vacation – or the closest I can get to one. I come away feeling refreshed and feel like I can look at the world with fresh eyes.

And boy do I need fresh eyes these days.

I dropped out of the artist mentor program I was in. There I said it. It’s out there, but I still don’t really want to talk about it yet. It was definitely the correct thing to do – but a very emotional decision. Like I said – not ready to talk about it…

I haven’t been painting.  I don’t want to talk about that yet either.

I wanted to do something artistically fun, something light. Something different. So I found Carla Sonheim’s SIlly U online and enrolled in a couple of classes. It was fun, a nice light review, with exercises that I haven’t visited for decades. I liked the imaginary creatures best – and I discovered that while I consider myself an animal lover – I don’t really have a lot of familiarity with them. I did a few one-liner drawings from my imagination/memory. That means once your pen hits the paper you don’t lift it until you are finished – and no reference material was used, using a flowing lyrical movement. Exactly what I was looking for. Not great art – but fun.

Here is one of my favorite drawings – and you’ll see some more popping up now and then I am sure.