Bird Situation (Sounds, Identification and Sketches)

There is a certain change in bird activity in the area as migration season is in full swing. Some birds are just passing by, others are arriving to spend winter here. With the changes in weather throughout the world many birds are migrating less or skipping the whole ordeal altogether (for example some turkey vultures are no longer leaving during summer - our neighboring family still does though, and they are back). 

I noticed how much more bird sounds we have by the end of September and since then it just continues to multiply and change. I am using an app to identify birds by call (Merlin Bird ID is my current choice - though there are many) - simply make my phone listen and then I get a list of birds with some additional information. Then I can look them up, find them in my photos of the trees, draw them, and wonder about their names too :)

But for some of the birds I do not need an app to identify them by sound or otherwise. And the other day there was a huge argument between two groups of them which lasted for several hours. I wish I knew what it was about! 

Halloween Leftovers

For this year's Halloween festivities and decorations, I had a solid plan of checking out a whole bunch of famous places around the Bay Area. But little by little my plans had to be adjusted and my circle for sketching got to be very narrow - just in my neighborhood. It was less grandiose compared to my plans - but very personal and quite fun as all of these places are my neighbors! 

Drawn reports in the form of the portraits - war in Ukraine. October 31-November 5, 2023.

October 31 - November 5, 2023. Days 613 - 618 of war.
This week after we went over status of all the friends and family spread through Ukraine and around the world my parents gave me a round-up of their opinion on some of the grandkids' and great-grandkids' educational progress. And then told me about some new movies that they decided to watch. They made their choices based on where the movie was made as they wanted "something not necessarily with the happy end - more like in real life - so no American movies". I told them that I need some happy end movies these days very much.

On My Table: Beginning of November 2023.

I am experimenting with kids' aerograph (aka blow pen) and some diatypia and oil pastels. My recycling bin is very well fed :) But some little wins find their way into my daily sketchbook. The world is crazy on so many levels - but looking at light and drinking tea helps me keep going.

Reading Notes: The Shabbat and The Whole Picture

Some time in late summer I checked out these two books from the library. I read one of them twice and did not finish the other but they both sent me in a spiral to seek all sorts of information and both resulted in some serious work in my life.

The first book is: "The Shabbat" by Abraham Joshua Heschel with an unexpected number of amazing and very appropriate illustrations by Ilya Schor. TThe art of Illya Schor was the very first thing that surprised me and that I went after. After an initial google search of his other works, I found his daughter - a contemporary artist Mira Schor - who has a tag with his works on her blog (https://ayearofpositivethinking.com/tag/ilya-schor/). The idea of having a space in time, a pause, a cathedral that is built throughout one's life - every week is an image I left with after reading this book. And every week one begins building a new cathedral and treats this cycle as a holy practice. That is what I am thinking about and working on. 

The second book is "The Whole Picture: The colonial story of the art in our museums and why we need to talk about it" byAlice Procter. I was surprised because this book had no images of art inside it. It was very interesting to see how I went from complete surprise to confusion to researching if I got a defective book (I really thought so!) Then I went to find podcasts by the author (The Exhibitionist and Historical Friction). And then I got to collecting artworks mentioned in the book and I got eventually tired and overwhelmed and had to take a break from the book. The book talks about important subjects by looking at the art spaces as four concepts: The Palace, The Classroom, The Memorial, and The Playground. Each of these is illustrated by the history of particular artworks. 

These are both books I will go back to.