EDM Glass challenge

This required lots of really CAREFUL looking. I could not slide by with some illustrative stuff.....I loved this challenge so much I wanted to do some more glass stuff.

I'm having a lot of fun messing around with texture in pen and ink. Claudia Nice has some really great books on the subject. I love her style.

Gate

I have been admiring this woman's handmade fence and garden for months. On Sunday I saw her weeding and she invited me into her magical, small garden. What an amazing eye she has for color, texture, size, placement. I really admire people who are this into gardening. My own garden is really in it's infancy. I learned a lot from looking into hers. She's offered to share plants when she needs to divide. Lucky me! Another one of the benefits of drawing!!

This drawing was done in sepia ink, watercolor and watercolor pencils. I found a really great book (library, natch!) on watercolor pencils: "Watercolor Pencil Magic" by Cathy Johnson.

EDM Challange #24 Fruit

Illustration Friday Tranquility

I don't know why this drawing tickles me...maybe its the goofy perspective....but I had alot of fun doing this one.
Except for the heat, this was a perfect summer day by the lake. I'm really thankful people like Montgomery Ward and others decided to preserve the lake front as public space. It is one of Chicago's richest treasures. Dh and I decided to bike today and we were not disappointed with the view.

Sketchcrawl

Yesterday I decided to take another sketchcrawl! No particular destination this time, just meandered. I was going to scrap this drawing because I started the perspective off....I'm not really 10 feet above the ground. But I decided to finish it anyway. I was more pleased as I completed it

This is the restaurant I first worked at when I was in my salad days. It used to be called Vanny's and Vanny told me I had a promising career in restaurant hostessing. Huh!

One last drawing for the day.

Millinium Park Concert

Drawn at the concert downtown last night

These two guys were sitting in front of us. Hair is a really interesting thing to draw. So much detail

EDM foot challange

Memories

I've been reading Hanna Hinchman's book "A Life In Hand: Creating the Illuminated Journal". One of the things she suggests is to create a memory map. This exercise yielded pay dirt. Memories of my grandfathers potting shed came first...the path leading up to it, its funny chemical smell, the way the sunlight slanted through the cracks in the wall. My grandparents house was a spacious 3 story house on a large plot of land. I remembered so many early childhood memories from that house...its sounds, smells, its flavor. My paternal grandmother was a great baker and I can still taste her gingerbread cake, warm upon our weary arrival from New Jersey. I even had a very strong auditory memory of walking past the dining room and hearing a chorus of soft metal taps as the draw pulls rattled against the metal plates.

Fashionistas: my students work

Wild Alley

One of my alley neighbors has a weedy patch that has become really overgrown. I have fallen in love with this patch. It must have flowers and plants that were originally in this area. Beautiful weeds!

Shop Till She Dropped!

My daughter has the misfortune of being born to a mother who hates to shop. It was with great joy that I announced to her that if I bring my drawing kit alonig, I'll shop as long as she likes. Today, I was ready for more and she was pooped out first!! These looked much better as line drawings....the watercolor did not turn out the way I wanted. Oh well...

Letting Go

I've been spending this last year sifting and sorting through all the emotional issues of sending my kid off to college. Sifting and sorting because I have a field full of emotional land mines to navigate. My nephew died of a heart attack at 16. Two years later his 19 year old sister died in a car accident. My own brother committed suicide in his first semester at school. My kids learned very early that they were not immortal. This has been a valuable life lesson but nearly broke my heart watching them learn it. There are ways I can not protect my children.

This last year I have been forced to examine my assumptions about growing up, how healthy kids navigate adolescence, how healthy parents help their children separate. I managed to reclaim, in this process,some gems from my own teenage years. I can appreciate, both in myself and my kids, the exhilaration of mastering a new skill, the value of friends, the power of connection to a neighborhood/place. My kids are not worrying about their safety, they are rushing out to greet their new ideas, people and experiences. I am letting them. I am letting go of a fear that I felt grip me the moment they were born. I am no longer afraid that my own children will crash and burn like my brother did and I almost did.

When I allow myself to feel fully, I can connect cleanly with people in my life. I free up my energy to fully engage in the here and now....see my kids for exactly who they are and not confuse them with ghosts that have haunted me. I feel so sad my son in leaving but I also feel a bit of vicarious joy and excitement for him. I feel proud that I have examined my own past and let go of what is no longer of use.

A Summer Job

This last Spring, Kelsey wanted to find a summer job. Her goal was to save money for college (music to parental ears!). We talked about what she wanted to do and we proceeded with phone calls, networking ect....Well, it seems no one really wants to hire people who are 15, no matter how sincere or hardworking. After a frustrating period she and I decided to give it a rest...re-group. Well, one morning Kelsey awoke thinking that she wanted to start her own business...dog walking, pet sitting and vacation garden maintenance. She's launched her own business with 3 clients, one of whom is a prominent landscape architect. I am so proud of her. She's really an amazing child/woman. In many ways, she is blossoming this summer and I can suddenly imagine the woman she will become.

Drawing makes my ears work better

Today at the grocery store, my checker Sylvia talked to me about her life. I was early and we had no one behind me pushing to get their order checked out. Sylvia is from Guatemala. The school her children attended there was unsafe for her children. She told me gunman routinely walked the halls and violence kept her from sending the kids to school. Leaving a really high power job, she packed her family up to come to the US. She accepted work cleaning people's houses (her heart breaking and her pride injured) so she could support her kids. Because of her sacrifice, her kids attended good schools and are now professionals. Her son is a bank manager; her daughter is an opthomologist. These accomplishments by her children are what she is most proud of. Her sacrifices enriched her children's lives.

Sylvia, told me that yesterday she ordered a meal from a menu and got exactly what she wanted. She was glowing with pride because before learning English as a second language, she had to guess about what to get. She is learning how to read and speak English so that she can go to college now. With her kids happily settled, she wants to study business. She thinks everyone should go to college too.

Drawing at the grocery store was one reason I believe I was open to listening to Sylvia's story. Drawing has brought me many gifts and maybe the biggest is the ability to slow myself down. To really see, listen, experience life. I talk to more of my neighbors when I'm standing around sketching their flowers. I am very happy to be walking around on the earth at the same time as Danny Gregory. His post today (July 7,2005) has helped me to realize that the power of blogging is to witness small moments of humanity. Everyone wants to tell their story. I want to listen more and drawing helps me to do this.

Self Portrait

Faces are the most engaging thing I can draw. The unique contours in everyone's face is a really satisfying thing to capture. I have been drawing my own face for years now. It somehow seems important to me. So, I'll keep workig on this.


I am feelling a little flat lately. I really could use an emotionall release. Allow myself to really really feel what's inside. Wish I had a solid goal, like D...attending a great school this fall. I feel like I'm heading into rudderless territory...uncharted land of mothering older children. Don't really know what my life will look like.

Very quiet morning

Summertime

Walking round in the morning.

Organic Farm

This year we decided to purchase shares in an organic farm. What this means is that all the families joining share the risks of farming. We pay up front for 1 box of produce a week for 17 weeks. If its a great growing season, we get a lot of stuff. If not, we don't. So far, we have been trying lots of new-to-us vegetables. My favorite is fennel. I've also had greens that actually taste great! (Of course, that really rich peanut sauce had something to with it.) Eating what's in season feel really great! But I have to admit that lettuce in winter is really important to me.

Room With a View

This is a view I see many times a day. It suddenly struck me that all these towels had something to say about it's user. It also occured to me we will have one less towel on the bar next month......Derek is going away to school. Sigh.