A Little Bit of Summer Remembered

 In this post I am going to just pull up some images of art work I've been doing "here and there" at different times over the past months.  Art I intend to post but never got around.  Friends have been gathering in the art studio here on 4th floor at Oakwood to play.  This was a gelli print with embellishments.  

This was a sketch done on a VERY very hot picnic day at step-daughter Chris's home in Durand, Il in mid June. OH my gosh it was hot and SO windy.  We thought we all blow off the planet.  I always love sketching old trucks.

This is Wine and Paint class held in June in Julie's garden.  Watercolors for everyone and lots of fun.  

Fun little sketch back in July here at Oakwood...concert on the green when we got there too late for a good seat.  BUT the music was lovely.

Prepping for the October Zentangle tree class at Olbrich Gardens.  

Sketch from walk in the Oakwood Prairie in July...it was absolutely amazing at that time of year!!!!  Wow.  

Preparation for the bookmark class in Sandy Allnock's fun online tutorial.

The inspiration for the first two was geodes. 

Preparation for a grandchild's wedding on Sept 20.  Acrylic.

These 4 collage pieces were cut from one original.  Now have been made into cards and book marks.  All papers are either hand printed on the gelli plate or found pieces.  

This is just a smattering of some of the ways that I felt creative this summer and early autumn.  Have a wonderful autumn and keep in touch.  

 

Cabin Aug/Sept 2025

So here's on contemplative look at the last 2.5 weeks at the summer cabin in up north Wisconsin.  It was a compiled array of thoughts and happenings that added up to a mixed sort of event this time.  The 3 weeks in July went fairly well with warmer weather and mostly sunny skies.  Some visitors.

 

But the 2nd stay in late August/September was hard to explain. You have a combination of some too-large groups of people, less than delightful weather, my achy back, and a refrigerator that decided to die on us.  (Thus the larger than normal sketch of the fridge). The drawings are a mixed bag of okay things and not so okay.  The homemade slumgullion was a surprise that I enjoyed cooking (normally not my thing). The cozy fireplace, the puzzles, the s'mores, the card games--all very nice memories.  The coffee pot kept me comfy in the mornings over books and computers.  The sound of acorns falling made you almost jump with the noise...tall trees!  The zoom gatherings on my computer, the start of the football season were fun.  The tree cutting was successful but stressful for everyone.  The electric heater reminded me of many times when I was cold.  We had frost warnings the last week up.  I left some space at the bottom for jotting notes...you can see that I've avoid putting anything in so far.  Suffice to say, we came home a bit early and I am thinking next year one visit up next summer in July will be enough.  The kids will continue to use the cabin until mid October and then close.  

 

 

 

Happy Zentangle Fish

 I am posting the photos of the two samples of the Zentangle fish being made at Oakwood in July.

And a photo of everyone working on them.

The reason for sketch journals

 Sketching or "journaling" has been for me a way to continue creating and remarking on my life's journey visually AND with notation now for a number of years.  So much so that my shelves now have collected a dozen or more of these visual/editorials on this journey I am completing... labeled by year.  

As they collect on the shelves...I enjoy now and then taking them down and re-living moments that captured my fancy as life went along.  It's amazing how vivid these memories are once you spent time drawing them.  Nothing at all like a photo.  The effort to "pay attention" as Mary Oliver as instructed, means that you capture the essence of an experience.  And that is all the difference.  Capturing mood and details that mean something to you personally.  Photographs are very non-committal.  A sketch, in contrast, gives over to your personal experience.

But as life rolls on I sometimes see that these journals will still be here when I am gone on alone to the next chapters of surprise. I'll leave these objects behind and I wonder about them.  I was reading Danny Gregory's thoughts on this same subject today...he decided he should leave a note...

“Dear whoever has to clean out my studio,

These sketchbooks have no value, but while I was alive, they brought me much richness. They taught me to learn something new every day, to take risks, to see the world, to understand myself better, and to play.

But all these pages are just the byproducts of that experience, and like me, they will one day be ashes.

Perhaps some of the pages will inspire you to make some art of your own, but if not, don’t give it a second thought.”

I think this is a lovely idea and I plan to replicate the note for the inside cover of my notebooks.  

Here are a few recent pages added to my sketchbook.. My daughter and I stayed in Little Elm, TX while we attended my granddaughter's wedding near Dallas.  View from 4th floor of the hotel.  

It was a lovely wedding...and so much fun to be with family sharing this happy event.  

I even did a little sketch on the flight from Madison to Dallas...this young man had an interesting tattoo on the back of his left arm!  

Then a few sketches in our 9 acre mini-forest here in Madison...the last of the early spring flowers as now we move into June and July...the leafy green paths are full of berries and mid-summer flowers and the prairie is beginning to grow on the edge of the forest.

The early berries of summer appear.  And I surrounded it with a frame of my home-made washi tape.  

Some sketches are indoor ones...a concert in the lovely chapel here at Oakwood University Woods.  

Perhaps some of the pages will inspire you to make some art of your own, but if not, don’t give it a second thought.”

 

Madison Wisconsin has it's party Dress On

 

Madison has its "party dress on".  So the saying goes in May and June.  All the trees are blooming and although the daffodils are almost gone, the tulip and peony are gearing up.  Lilac are wafting elegant perfume and birds are busy nesting. Happy bird songs float in the window.  

In the lovely 9 acre forest adjacent to Oakwood...the wild flowers are a sight to behold, a baby owlet is sitting on a branch, the baby goslings have jumped to their mom and a pair of sand hills cranes are nesting!

And frogs are crocking up a storm each evening.   

It's a wonderful diversion from what we read each morning in the NYTimes.   

This was painted in daughter Julie's garden on Mother's Day afternoon.

Our thoughts and plans drift toward grandson Mike's high school graduation this Friday evening and my upcoming flight to Dallas for granddaughter Abby's wedding May 30th.  Grandson Dylan was hooded with his masters last weekend.  And this coming weekend we'll celebrate grandson Ben's 27th birthday.  When you have 12 grandchildren there is something every week!!!  

And two more weddings this fall!

Also our thoughts begin to drift toward summer plans.  The kids will open the cabin on Memorial Day weekend.  And will begin using it in June.  We won't go up until July 1. But our thoughts drift that way now and then wondering if the loons are back.  

I am finished with my Physical Therapy for the new knee and am trying to collect lots of "steps" on my daily counter on my iPhone.  One day last week I got to over 4,000 steps!  

On the other hand our hearts ache for all the many many people suffering through endless wars, starvation, and uncertainty.  And we worry for our own country going through a morality crisis on top of so much uncertainty and anguish as well.  

I wish for you all a good spring and early summer. 

Keep in touch.

Ginny

On the Cusp of Spring in Wisconsin

 

A walk on the cusp of spring brings a slight sense of euphoria…The birds were so ecstatic that you couldn’t help but catch their happiness.  Late afternoon…my first visit out to the woods since my knee replacement 7 weeks ago.  That made me a little dizzy with happiness too.  The unusual 70+ temps had melted half the pond where a lone duck was swimming (surely with VERY cold feet!). But all the snow was gone.  My Merlin Bird ID app began recording bird songs while I sketched…doesn’t everyone have that?  If not, you must download it!  Nine bird songs popped up in the first 15 minutes!  But it was the Red winged Blackbirds that took over the show. 
 I looked for green but it’s too early for green yet EXCEPT for the lovely moss on the old boulders gathered at the north end of the pond.  I was drawn to that green and the long shadows in the late afternoon sun.  These old boulders look like they had gathered for a meeting to whisper ancient stories. I listened hard but the birds drowned them out.  For the now mats of thick leaves warm and protect the lovely spring flowers to come in a month or two  as the wild rains and bitter winds continue to howl their last under a blood moon.  

Thoughts for the New Year

 As the New Year is unfolding we are always inspired to think of the future and the past.  A perfect time to blog some personal thoughts, take a deep breath and think back on a worrisome and dramatic year in the life of our country and a war-torn world. Wondering how to survive what's ahead and how to be pro-active keeping courage. How to "cushion" our soul from being crushed by it.  How to take deep breaths and then push forward from sad to hopeful.  Giving up is not an option.  

My first thought turns to Wendell Berry's amazing poem:

THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS

by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

And each of us has a personal life to balance while we keep larger thoughts of the community, the country and our world in mind at the same time.  Each of us has our own personal ups and downs.  It's amazing, isn't it, that we manage it.  At least much of the time.  

You all know by now, that creating art is a mainstay in my mental health..whether it's painting, sketching, or Zentangle™.  It's my personal way of "lying down where the wood drake rests".  Although nothing beats actually being out there in the woods and I go there as often as I can.  

Maria Popova writes: "What if we awoke each morning with the bright awareness that every atom in our bodies can be traced to one of the stars— a particular star in the infant universe that made this particular body to sinew this particular soul across billions and billions of blind steps each one of which could have gone otherwise — we would be too wonder-struck by the miraculousness of it all to deal with the mundane. But the dishes have to be washed and the emails have to be written, so we avert our eyes from the majesty and mystery of a universe that made them in order to look at itself, from the majesty and mystery of what we are."

Actually, you might have an inkling of this once in awhile if you are allowing yourself to make art or spend time in a woods.  

And in conclusion I have to say that this winter ahead will be one of a variety of challenges for Greg and me.  For one thing I have finally decided to have my 2nd knee replacement surgery done (January 21). It's a decision not without angst for someone my age.  Weighing all the options and thinking about quality of living in my last years.  Obviously I have done this before and so I pretty much know what's ahead...making the decision even harder!  My husband and family have stepped up to support me and Oakwood is a good place to recover in.  On top of this Greg will have some out-patient surgery on January 9 to replace his DBS chest battery.  So we BOTH have some recovery ahead.  Prayers welcome.

A few of my recent Zenangles follow.  But before I leave I want to send you my hope for a positive New Year.  I wish you courage and joy.  I wish you safety and strength.  I wish you good health and new insights.  I wish you rest in the grace of the world.  Ginny

  

Trees Are Poems the Earth Writes Upon the Sky

Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky

Khalil Gibran

A Refection by Ginny Stiles.

I recently read a wonderful story about the old cherry tree in Washington DC that had been cut back so many times it was nothing but a stump..but it still bloomed.  It soon gained the name “Stumpy”.  When it was scheduled to be cut down, folks had their photo taken by it, drew pictures of it,  left prayers on it and wrote stories about it.  

It got me to thinking about the good bye we just said to our old birch tree at the summer cabin in July.   You can say hello and good bye to a lot of things in this  life and more so as you grow old.   But even a tree can be a cause for a tearful memories and sweet good byes.  

Because of the location of the tree-- smack dab in the middle of our cabin lakefront shore line— it has been in every family summer lakefront photo for probably 50 years.  A very long time for a birch to survive.  I’ve probably sketched it 20 times at various summers in my life.  

It stood through wild storms and winter winds and heavy snow. Still that birch faithfully greeted us each spring with dappled shade and beautiful black and white patterned bark.  Under that tree our grandchildren grew up, we picnicked under it, we napped under it, read under it, sketched under it, wept under it, dreamed under it.  

Gradually however over the last 3-4 years the bark had begun to fall from it, branches began to slowly fall off into the lake and float away.  Shelf fungus began to appear on the trunk and it became clear that it was nearing the end.  We let it stand forlorn for a few summers not bearing to say goodbye.  A shadow of it’s former self now.  

Finally it was time to take it all down to make room for new trees…  for new memories to be made.  When I sit on the deck now…I remember its silhouette and the dappled shade it provided.  Just as I remember all my friends and family that have gone home before me.  

PS The day the tree came down was just an ordinary day.  People were doing what people do…they were getting born, and falling in love, and making soup, and fighting breast cancer.  They were climbing mountains and reading poetry, picking cherries and whitewater rafting.  Only a few people in this world were aware that an old beloved birch tree was finished giving joy on a small lake in Wisconsin.  But then nothing is ever really ordinary is it?  It’s just hard to hold that thought. 

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Here are a few images to share....

 

This sketch from mid August shows the stump 

where the old birch was located

 

Last summer in July, the summer just before the tree came down I sketched some of the bark that had begun to peel off and drop down on the pier and deck.  Another sign that the tree was saying good bye.

 

 

Summer Begins

Musings on a Friday morning in June…

one day into summer in Madison. 

June 21, 2024

Yesterday was the longest day of the calendar year.  Summer is officially here ―meteorologically at least.  We all know that there are a lot of ways that a day can feel VERY long without actual clock time being involved.  I’ve experienced quite a few of them over my 84 years.  And, to be fair, a day can be very short for the opposite reason.  I try hard to think on the delightful too-short days mostly now.  Einstein has tried (unsuccessfully for me) to explain how time is relative and actual physical time varies depending a lot of science.  How fast you are moving for instance.  But for most of us in the real world, it’s mental mood, physical well-being, and the surroundings that determine sense of time. 

The real way I notice these longer days is that when I wake up early it’s light.  Unlike those January and February mornings when it’s pitch dark at that same time and seems to take forever for dawn to break.  And it’s “summer light” which is different as it bounces off warm humid green things and not sharp light that bounces off cold snow and thin air.  

We leave for the Northwoods cabin next week.  Packing has started. That always gets me to thinking about time. It goes much slower up there for no particular scientific reason but instead it’s a combination of huge quiet, big skies, lots of water to look at reflecting that big sky, amazing sunsets, more open windows and the dappling light on the forest floor.  Also the smell of piney woods and wood fires and the sound of loons. Here's a sketch from last July.  

You can go into any gift store in towns up there and find hundreds of hand painted signs trying to capture the up-north feeling enticing you to bring it home to hang it over the fireplace or above the kitchen window.  Usually with a bear or a loon painted with it.  Everyone should get a few…it’s tradition.    

The spring/summer season has been climate changed now and we get a lot more huge weather swings…huge rains and then a lot more drought…wild variations that last too long. And this year a lot more heat…breaking records in southern WI with 90s even in May.  And a tornado to boot.  But we are so thankful to not have forest fires or floods as so many have had to endure!   

The older I get the more I anticipate the Adirondack chairs on the deck, the stacks of book by my favorite chair, the fun jig saw puzzles on the porch, chilled wine, morning coffee, my sketchbook and the quiet.  Family comes to visit there…and that is increasingly joyful as life goes on.  

Below are a few samples of some art work or happenings in Madison since last I sent out the blog.  

Here I am sketching at Madison's Olbrich Gardens in early June.

Our newest great granddaughter, Laikyn arrived on May 7

Here's the sketch I did at Olbrich Gardens in early June here n Madison

A sketch in the Oakwood Forest in early May

A sample of the many "triangle" Zentangles done during the latest project pack.  

I did this sketch fairly shortly before we had a tornado come through Madison.  This old tree made it through but we lost a lot of beautiful old trees during the storm.  

A little gouache painting I did of our anniversary flowers.  

We celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary on June 17.  

This is a new medium for me so it's pretty experimental.  

Here's a note of memoriam to my old friend Margaret Gregg who passed away unexpectedly in May.

Greg and I and Julie will attend her memorial service 

next Tuesday in Williams Bay.

Life will never be the same without this dear dear friend.  

Cinco de Mayo

 

So begins the month of May...here are the many examples of Zentangle frames that I used for the class on May 3rd at the Monroe Street Art Center here in Madison.  Later I'll show you the students work.  They were AMAZING.  

I am anxious to get outside more to get some sketching in...my life has just seemed to be full of obligations and I do NEED to get out there.  I know the spring flowers are up and joyful...at church this morning the lilacs were in full glory!!! Does anything smell more lovely?

Here I am at the art center (using my new computer) and all the new cords I had to buy to get everything hooked up!  No better way to teach though than using a document camera and screen!  

The gals who were students did a really great job...stuck to it.  Julie was with me as my right-hand gal and did coaching, passed out materials and made sure the room was as I wished it.  

These gals were beginners!!!  I was really impressed!  I did supply gold pens for them as well.  Just a little extra special glitter.  

This week we will have some rain showers several days...but also some nice sunshine.  We will celebrate our newest family member on Tuesday as our 4th great grandchild is going to be born that day! 

 Can't wait to meet her.  

We'll celebrate our grandson Ben's 26th birthday on Friday with a family get together.  And Mother's Day with a brunch at Julie's home after church.  The church choir I so love, will finish up the season on the 19th of May.  We then take a summer break.  

We've begun to think a little about the cabin...at least in terms of getting it open and ready for the family.  Although Greg and I don't plan to go up until late June after the swarms of mosquitoes and ticks are finished up (we hope).  A friend walked the property this morning and texted us that no trees are down and everything looks in good order.  When you leave a property for 7 months you worry a little.  

Our lovely sycamore tree here in Madison is finally leafing out.  It's always one of the last ones. I wish you all a blessed May.