Some sketches from Week 1 at www.sketchbookskool.com
Got a new desk for my art attacks. Most of these ideas are Pinterest inspired/copied. Love Joanne Fink's work in Zenspirations.
After my Granny passed away, I started noticing a cardinal in my back yard. It amazed me how often I saw it, usually when I was thinking of her or when I needed reminding of her strength and faith as i went through my own struggles. I mentioned it to my sister and she said she'd been seeing a cardinal at her feeder too all this time. Almost daily.
Maybe the birds were always there. And we just didn't notice. I suppose loss makes us more aware, a brush with death (be it physical, emotional, spiritual, any kind of loss or grief, really) leaves us more alive, if we let it. If we learn from it. Granny would have been 90 tomorrow. And though it's been almost a year since she died, I still feel her with us. Watching over us. Telling us to stop and see. I made these two pieces by scanning some lines of her letters and her handwritten recipes. They're up in my kitchen. And today, my sister posted on FB that she saw the cardinal again. The next novel I'm working on is about an artist in the 9th century -- so getting back in touch with art and patterns and creating just for the fun of it has been both inspiring and really enjoyable. I didn't realize how much I missed this kind of creativity. Focusing on my writing is good, but I think balancing it and feeding it with other art forms will enrich the writing even more. I tell my students to doodle or draw some mornings as a freewrite prompt, now I'm practicing what I teach. :) This one didn't come from the weekly dares. I used a mandala template made from a transparency and developed my own mandala. I found my inspiration from Tangle Harmony She has a video on her site that explains why this template works for creating mandalas. You can also order her templates there as well. My next novel focusses on art and patterns, so I figured playing around with these designs is a great starting point. Plus it's fun. Zentangle"Zentangle is an easy to learn method of creating beautiful images from repetitive patterns. It is a fascinating new art form that is fun and relaxing. It increases focus and creativity. Zentangle provides artistic satisfaction and an increased sense of personal well being. Zentangle is enjoyed by a wide range of skills and ages and is used in many fields of interest." -- Zentangle creators Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas I found this great website, The Bright Owl, that gives weekly challenges and here's my first attempt. The template was this ... and here's what I came up with:
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