Grateful: libraries

There are many things that are making life more complex these days and many things that are genuinely helping with that. It means a lot for me to look at things that are helping, so I wanted to pay them more attention and tell you about what helps me.

Here is one - my city library is working! (There will be a separate post about it as I want to draw some things for it - so not today). But in addition to my library, the system of the union of libraries works too! It means that I can order books from over 70 libraries around California and Nevada. For free. They will be shipped to my local library. And I can keep these books for 21 days with the possibility of renewing for another 21 days. Did I mention that it is free? I've been on a binge - hoarding bags and bags of books to look at pictures, learn new things, try new authors, read new poetry. 

Here are some of the libraries that loaned me books this week:

6 months in

About six months ago - when Covid quarantine started I made a document for a “list of things to remember to do when this is over”. I stopped adding things to it by mid-June I think and completely forgot about it by July. Today I opened the document, crossed things that were done, moved the rest to other plans, and closed the document. 

Milestones of quarantine

I measure these times in many different ways, most of which are not that different from how I measure time in non-quarantine times. One of them is by drawing myself.
As we come up to the day 80 of quarantine (in our household) I decided to look back at some of the milestone self-portraits I drew (actually I drew many more - especially blind contours - but these are are the most telling I think). I will start with the most recent one and then move back to March:

Day 80:
 

Day 70:

Day 60:

Day 50:

Day 46:

Day 25:

Ink outside, color at home

Weekend or not?

One of the interesting things for me to figure out is how to differentiate weekdays from the weekends while we all are cooped up in the house all the time.
To make a weekend different I decided to not follow the schedule at all and instead of a walk around the block we went to a special place on both days - a bit further. Also - cooking something a little more special was helpful.

I sketched with just ink during the walk. Park was filled with people and everyone standing / looking at birds or just hanging there took too much space on the path for others to pass safely so added color at home.
Drawing mess on my table is one of my long-standing traditions and taking a few minutes to do this helps me to start doing things - whatever needs to be done. Motivation comes from the action - and just putting pen on paper and recording whatever is the first thing I see is the way I go.

All in all, it worked and the weekend was different. But on Monday I found out that switching back is not that easy :)

Today's spread from my sketchbook: lists, schedules and drawing the same thing over and over.

I always treated my sketchbook as a diary, a place where I pay attention to my life. These days are not different but with more observations about myself.

I also noticed that I return to the same sketch more or sketch the same subjects many times (I often do this - but today I scheduled breaks in my workday around drawing this cyclamen).

And I make lists - things that I need to have in my day to feel that is was a good one. Things that I have to remember to do when this is over. etc.

Spot the differences?

My Life Under Coronavirus Quarantine.

These are unusual times. I thought that as someone who worked from home for many years now I will just continue doing what I usually do and will have an advantage of everything being "as usual" for me.
But as I found out it is not so.

• Kids are home all the time; 
• Parents are home all the time;
• Whole Bay Area is under a "shelter in place" order (meaning you leave home for essential business only and to get some fresh air. But should stay 6 feet (2 m) away from other people);
• The discipline of not checking the news, email and social media is down;
• Worry about relatives, friends, and the world, in general, is up;
• Ability to concentrate or tolerate weather is down;
• Hypochondria (as well as suspicion about every cough anyone produces) is up;

I am trying to sketch through all of this but accepting whatever happens on the page, setting a timer and just making my hand move for some uninterrupted number of minutes. Also - by sketching every time I go out - even for a minute :)