Magnolia Season
One Week 100 People 2025
- Having a very simple set of tools in my shoulder bag (see below) ready to go
- Scheduling time (mostly at the end of my lunch hour) throughout the week to do this.
- Having a list of potential places to go ready (so that if there is no energy to make a choice - I have a good default - see below).
On My Table: Beginning of March 2025.
February was full of many things - I did some fun clients projects, interesting experiments and had many sketching opportunities!
Participating in Democracy
Last week was filled with many events that were hard on many levels. Here is what I am doing in response:
1. As I live in the United States I called my representatives and left a message (there were answering machine options and humans who picked up the phone. You can also write an email). My message was super short: Name, zip code of where I live, and these words: I would like to encourage (name of your senator or representative) to support Ukraine and I do not want my country - USA - to be aligned with russia who is an aggressor in this conflict. Thank you.
It took me 5 minutes from clicking on a link (see below) to find a phone numbers to hanging up after the last phone call. This is how democracy works - we tell people who represent our interests what we want and stand up for what we believe in. Nobody can change what is happening alone but every single one of us can make a choice and add to one side of the equation or another. Not making a choice is also a choice.
Find your senator: https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm
Find your representative: https://www.house.gov/representatives
Or use an automated reach-out tool.
2. I joined several local in-person events concentrating on supporting Ukraine and also on protesting against the corruption of truth and democracy in this country. I believe that the United States is shifting toward authoritarianism and we as a nation need to fight for democracy and the rule of law. So I painted a sign, packed my sketching kit, and went to join people who were expressing their opinion about gutting the United States and all it stands for by people whose main qualification is loyalty to one person - but not to the law, constitution, or country.
Here are some images for you:
If you are interested in more ideas for how to move forward - here is an article that I found very useful: How *you* can protect democracy.
Three Years of War
Update on my Parents - Refugees from Ukraine - February, 2024.
A complicated start of my new sketchbook
I was hesitant to start a new sketchbook. Or rather I did not want the previous one to end. It was full of great moments. I started it in mid-October - it was a different era - the world was different - more hopeful, more reliable, with a different outlook - I miss that world. This sketchbook went with me on a couple of great trips - one on the other side of America, another on the other side of the world. It went with me on many drawing outings with friends and on some cool family hikes. It saw me through some hard days when only a tiny moment was spent drawing or only a tiny drawing could come out of me. So I was holding onto it quietly - I kept cutting sketches out of larger pages, taping and gluing them at the end - at the last few pages.
And then last week I went to draw with a friend and brought a single-sheet paper with me instead of a sketchbook, ready to add it (again) to my Sketchbook 158. As we drew, I talked about having a hard time finishing my old sketchbook and while I was listing all the reasons, I let go and decided to move on the very next day. Because there is no way to go back. And because drawing keeps me more hopeful and resilient. And because this different season means different tools and approaches are needed to shift my drawing practice forward. Plus I got super moved by looking at my friend's sketchbooks - they were living breathing stories with lots of color and texture and light and lines - and I knew that the world is better because of these drawings! And every time I look at great art I want to make some too and try a whole bunch of stuff that I kept "for the next sketchbook", "for when this is over", for "when I have a plan".
And so on the very next day, I made a little video weighing a new sketchbook and signing the number, and then I enjoyed drawing my traditional "what am I using now" tools on the opening page. After which I flipped the page and started on my experiment! It involved some monoprinting, a new type of ink and... it spilled all over and soaked my pretty first page - a disaster :) But such a pretty one :)
Thank you, Suhita, for sharing your amazing sketchbooks with me!
Here is my last sketch from sketchbook #158 during and a disaster reportage from the beginning of Sketchbook 159 :)
A messy table on a busy day keeps the news away
On super busy days I keep my sketchbook open and add things when I get a few minutes. This was quite a productive day, but with several long waits for my computer to do its thing - so I had a choice: read the news or sketch. And a very messy art table helped me keep some sanity - and fill my page with little sketches in little breaks.
Drawing People
Virtual Traveling (with Street View World Tour) - Lisbon, Portugal!
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, Castles (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!)
Avocados on Bookshelves
Here are some from the last week's sketchbook :)
My Table Garden: Dark Red Ruffled African Violet and Not Lavender
I am in a hectic season at the moment and have only little snatches of time to work in my sketchbook. So having a table garden (a plant or two sitting on my art table) is my way to ensure that when I sit down and face the page and clock (which often says "5 minutes") - I spend no time debating what to draw. It also presents me with a chance to notice little changes in my plant. Create an interesting pattern made out of drawing the same object - like when you draw with a spirograph - the first line usually looks strange but when you make several they start to look like magic. The same is happening with me and drawing the same object several days in a row: I begin to see magic :)
Presenting my January Table Garden Heros: Dark Red Ruffled African Violet! (it needs a repotting so next time you will see it in a completely new light) and "I picked you from the garden trash can" stems of not lavender.
On My Table: Beginning of February 2025.
January was a long month - so many things are happening in all corners of life! But drawing plants, playing with the art supplies (I am organizing my brushes!), and enjoying textures, are a great constant to have during all sorts of times.
Sketches from my Pockets of Time
I enjoy a proper sketching opportunity and have several sets of materials to bring with me on location or paint in my little studio. But as a strong believer in sketching everywhere, I also sketch in any little pockets of time. Knowing this, I carry some options in all of my bags/jackets: a little watercolor kit here, a few markers there, a folded piece of paper in a jacket pocket with two pencils, a pocket sketchbook in my little shoulder bag with a pen, a spiral-bound sketchbook in my backpack, etc. At the beginning of each day (or sometimes at the end of the day), I sit down to add these little sketches into a story that's unfolding in my main sketchbook. Below are a few glimpses of some of these little moments :)