A season for pumpkins and getting together with friends - grateful!

It's a season to draw, eat, and decorate pumpkins :) It is also a season to be with people and tell them how much they mean to you! I am very fortunate to have some amazing friends who feed me (both literally and figuratively) with inspiring and enlarging ideas and foods on a regular basis. My  friend invited me for a "turn your pumpkin into a mini garden" party and I enjoyed it so much that I got myself some pumpkins and started bringing this idea to other people too ;) And then a bunch of friends got together to chat and draw and I got to make and then draw another pumpkin garden.  

There are pumpkins sitting at my parents and on our Nonagenarian's table. I am yet to draw all the pumpkins but this is a start.

Nonagenarian Update: fall of 2024.

We are approaching winter which is probably the hardest time of the year for our Nonagenarian - shorter daytime, colder weather. But she enjoys the rainy season. The bird feeder is attracting lots of visitors. The eye doctor says she is doing as well as they hoped for though this is a new doctor and "too young" again. She is vaccinated for the season. Her rose stopped blooming but there are some new shoots. Green onion, nasturtium, marigolds, and cucumber still prosper on her balcony. She is reading, cooking and even working on some new outfits - we are helping with sewing a little but the art direction muscle is still strong!

 

People sketching - online communities keep me going through another season!

Overall craziness of the pre-holiday and holiday season overlapped with the election season and with many folds of caregiving and projects left few holes in my schedule for some people drawing - which I continue to do in person and online - mostly via @pencils4tea - an online group of people who draw each other and time with songs. Here are some faces and experiments:

Virtual Traveling (with Street View World Tour) - Castles!

I was looking forward to the next virtual traveling and sketching event with the A Street View World Tour and wanted to see a demo by @ohn_mar_win whose color and spontaneity of sketching I admire. 

But plans changed and it became a day when I had to be in a hospital with my Mom (she is fine and I am writing an update on how my parents are doing for the next week's anniversary of my parents arrival to the USA). So a big part of the the four hours of surgery preparation we spent online - I explained the whole concept to Mom (and nurses), got my pocket printmaking kit out, and positioned it on Mom's bed. We looked for good angles, Mom was watching me draw, use found objects as stamps and I even cut some stamps out of an eraser for the craziest building ever (see first sketch). She enjoyed the demo by @ohn_mar_win a lot and gave me some advice based on it too. A memorable Thursday! :)

If you are not familiar - A Street View World Tour is a fun, no-pressure gathering hosted by Jenny Adam and Eleanor Doughty via Gage Academy. You can learn more about these monthly free events and about these locations at the links above. 

My previous participations include a trip to Kharkiv, Ukraine where I was the guest artist, Drawing Sky Holes, Kenya, Boats, Night Life, Hawaiian Foliage, Light and Shadow, and Japan, Ohio, Arizona and Taipei, Convenience Stores Around the World (I am quite sure that I participated in a few more but I am not sure I ever posted about them - will try to find and add to this collection!)

A day of rest in an otherwise crazy week.

Last week was very complicated on many levels. Yet there was a scheduled day of rest (the concept of Shabbat (which I take on unspecified days) was really helpful. 

On Election Day I went to the magical forest and garden in Santa Cruz Mountains to be with my friends. The fall is not here yet and we had gorgeously clear weather with golden light. This day was a part of my work to get a hold of the election anxiety. We were disconnected from all the news for a whole day. It was a gift of being among like-minded people, in nature, using our hands, doing things we love, trying some new stuff, failing and succeeding in our experiments, laughing, thinking, trying again, sharing a meal, conversation, and silence. 

That day and knowing that I am not alone and many people share my values and are ready to work together and make choices for a world of more kindness and justice and less greed and aggression are some of the things that helped me put one foot in front of another during this week.  Thank you, Gay and Suhita and the wonderful neighborhood of people who care!