I just realized I missed my granddaughter's birthday last month. It is hard to remember when I don't do the simple task of setting up a birthday calendar.
Eddy - graphite, pencil crayon, acrylic ink wash on paper - 9" x 12" Finally I have been able to re-activate my drawing practice. We adopted Eddy at the end of June, just in time for my Mom's Celebration of Life on June 30. The combination of these two events distracted me from my own creative pursuits over the summer. Then, in the fall, I had household projects to take care of, causing further delay for getting to my drawings. Once enough time had gone by, I lost my focus on what I might draw, even if I were to sit down to make a try. Things have settled down now enough that I can conceive of making a drawing and I have started up a practice of putting something on paper everyday. This means that the day a drawing is started, I put the date on the page. Thereafter, as I add layers of graphite, pencil crayons and acrylic ink washes, the drawing evolves with each additional layer. The start date remains constant. The end date is unknown. A key question was a daily obst...
Self portrait - pen and ink, pencil crayon, crayon on paper - 9" x 12" - blind contour - 2014 06 22 Over decades I have practiced self portraiture as a process to make meaning and to practice and explore drawing styles and technique. Blind contour has fascinated me from the beginning. First, it astounds me how accurately the contour lines convey a likeness. Second, the distortions of lines flying off in space add a psychological dimension to the portrait - funny, curious, revealing of something not easily articulated in any other way. During the 2014 series, I was determined to treat the drawing with serious shading and tone, no matter what the drawing from the blind contour exercise looked like. The process of making the blind contour is an exercise of close looking at my own face, looking deeply into my own eyes, an objective study of my hair, my nose, my mouth and my chin. It is a process of diving into the indoctrination of a lifetime of dictates to be 'feminine...
Vase of Flowers - 2021 11 04 - graphite, ink, highlighter felt pen on paper - 8" x 10" I made this drawing four years ago. My Mom had moved home with me and my husband after she aged out of the mental health group housing where she had resided for 40 years. She turned 91 her first day home. She was a frail elder with complex needs and we were immediately in an "all hands on deck" situation. My brother lives across the continent in and around New York City. He was a critical member of our caregiving team and made a point of sending flowers as we navigated one milestone after another. I have always loved the look of fresh cut flowers in a vase. I have never felt comfortable drawing them. I knew I could never replicate the colours, shapes, and natural beauty of the bouquet. It didn't stop me from trying! This drawing caught my attention when I was recently rummaging through one of my piles of drawings. The date tells me that I made this drawing on Day Four afte...
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