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

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

  

Entering the Good Old Summertime

 "Way beyond pretty pictures, cool techniques, gripping stories, or fancy footwork, artists make art that’s worth spending time with because it makes us feel like we are not alone in the universe.....but you do need to be authentic and unafraid. Art is the opportunity to share yourself. Seize it." Danny Gregory

Suddenly it's June and I haven't posted since April.  Cliches about time flying come to mind but I promised myself not to say that.  Instead I'll note that life has been and continues to be full of surprises and most of them are pretty okay.  

Above and below are a few of the 2" Bijou tiles in the latest project pact from Zentangle HQ.  All in all they posted 21 videos of various prompts.  I only missed one.   Black, white, and translucent tiles.  Quite fun and enjoyable.  They are meant to be put into mosaics.  

While I am writing this on June 6 here in Madison we are getting a little rain storm.  I do hope it lasts a bit as the lawns here are going yellow and brown and my daughter's garden is suffering and I am sure the farmers are worried about corn and soybeans and hay too.  

Up north for our recent 10 day stay to open the cabin...we had high danger warnings for fire. No campfires allowed.  The mosquitoes were swarming so much that most of my sketches were done indoors.  

I've been able to do a few sketches here at Oakwood this spring..this one in May near a lovely Fountain Pond on the east side of the Oaks. 

The blossoms were falling fast and floating in the pond like confetti from a celebration.  

We have a busy month planned for June here in Madison with farmer's markets and garage sales and art shows and outdoor music concerts.  We will return to the cabin just before the 4th of July and stay about 3 and half weeks. 

Wishing you all a good, safe, and creative summer.

Closing the Year with Thoughts of Art and the Cosmos

One day last month friends here at Oakwood had  a "Paint Like Klimt" afternoon.  A crazy group decided to look at some of Gustav's work and enjoy it and talk about gold leaf...which he used extensively in his work... and which doesn't photograph very well (by the way). Art therapist, Jennifer, brought in some "fake" but very realistic gold leaf and we talked about using it in a little painting to try it out.  Klimt loved to paint women so I just sketched a make-believe one and looking at his many patterns (which you surely know I loved) I threw them recklessly all over her kimono and did a lot of crazy background patterns.  Then I glued on gold leaf which you cannot even see on this photo.  Many of the small black areas are in fact gold.  The medium otherwise is watercolor and ink.  8 x 10.  

 

This is just a quick little line sketch done in early November that I happened to come across that I'd forgotten to post.  I'm in the process of sketching around my apartment home this winter.  I LOVE looking back at my in-home sketches from Florida.  Just LOVE.  They bring me right back to the spots I enjoyed.  So I am doing the same here.

The window in the sketch looks a bit different from the way it looked then, as it is now in mid-December filled with the lovely snow out on our Sycamore.  The holidays are in full swing here now in Wisconsin.  The snow comes and goes.  So you never really know if it will be a white Christmas.  But if we have a little snow to remember, it'll be fine.  

My friend Lisa recently sent me her collection of all the old Christmas cards that I had hand painted over the years.  I had forgotten that I did that many!!  I wish it were not SO expensive now to do this.  Even the postage is up to 55 cents each!  I did love doing them.  The cabin in winter card painting is framed and hanging the wall here in Madison.  And I wish I could find the original of the birch tree shadows on snow at the bottom left...it was the view out our window at 7 mile house. 

The dining room table scene is from 7 mile house...just before all the children arrived to have one of those memorable big family Christmases that you think will last forever...and come to find out they don't.  Time moves on.   

Looking at it, though, I can bring back that moment...the sun slanting through the dining room window.  All the grandchildren (12 of them) were so young...many still babes in arms.  A real fire in the fireplace crackling, hot rum drinks, games and presents, wet mittens, and so much food.  Looking at all these cards just brings back so many happy memories.  

I wish you all a hopeful, gentle and sweet Christmas.  I know it's just not like that every year.  There are so many losses and so many changes.  The Christmas cards and email greetings this year were fewer because of that. And old friends and family now live on in our memories.  

Our church here in Madison is focusing on the stars this year...somewhat based on photos from the James Webb telescope to inspire us!  Every song the choir sings has a star theme or a night sky theme.  Every sermon refers to our cosmic connection to the universe.

This has inspired me to do my own personal time line interpretation with a kind of "cosmic" background in many kinds of watercolor.  The center being a sort of black hole looking back a those who came before me.  Then the dots (starlike) on the spiral are events in my life...you know them well from your own time line...births and graduations and losses and joys and the memorable events. 

Now as I approach the outward spiral of my life the events are closer and closer together just before I spiral off the time line back into the star dust of the universe.  The events are closer together because now I know that EVERY event and happening in the moments of my life are an "event" worth remembering.  

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  

Sketches as "Shorthand" in my sketchbooks!

 “The sketch hunter moves through life as he finds it, not passing negligently the things he loves, but stopping to know them, and to note them down in the shorthand of his sketchbook.”  Robert Henri

Never throw art away...well, let me rephrase, at least not without looking at it with a practiced eye.  Old paintings that did not work out?...I've tossed a number in my day, of course.  But it is a good idea to use a viewfinder or you old mats to see if maybe there might be a little hidden gem somewhere amidst the larger painting.  This is what happened here.  It's been so long I don't even remember what I was attempting with the larger format...but with a paper cutter or scissors I snipped some little sweet spots out of the painting and tucked them into an envelope to save.  This one was cut down to card size (5 x 7) and it was only after I discovered it that I added the ink, the shading, and line work.  I added the pine trees, some stones along the shore, highlighted the birch trees (which were there but not highlighted), darkened the shadows under the trees.  July...high summer now...is green, green, green and this little painting says that.  

Voila..a lovely little vignette card to send to my grandson for his 21st birthday!  I think it's frame-able myself.  

Outside Oakwood Apartments in the conservancy is a little home made cage for moth and butterfly cocoons (in season).  And dear Gretchen makes it part of her spring and early summer hobby to curate the cocoons and chrysalis and then share them with residents for release. This screened.  

The Madison Urban Sketchers have been at it again...this time introducing me to the Biergarten on Lake Monona last Saturday.  (Note the Madison capital building in the bottom far right corner.). Pretty amazing view across the lake!

Gorgeous Saturday afternoon about 82 degrees and a light breeze...many folks out enjoying the cold beer (Greg and I had root beer floats.).  There were large home made soft pretzels for some folks and also brats.  But the sketchers were too busy to eat or drink much...lots of sketching going on.  People were paddle boating, canoeing, swimming, and having parties under tents.   (No life guard on duty but looks like once upon time there was!). On the beach was this dark old wood box that look for all the world like a coffin!  So I sketched it in.  Maybe Mr. Olbrich decided to stay in his park?  

You can tell we had a good turn out.  I'm standing WAY in the back row. And at that point I hadn't finished painting some things in.  

We are in Madison, obviously, for a few weeks.  Summer is lovely here and I don't want to miss the whole season...it's been so windy, wet and cold up north.  But we'll leave August 9 (after we vote in the primary) for another two week try and hope weather will improve this time!!!  

 

We are Here to Keep Watch, Not to Keep

 The astonishment is all in the being here. It is the turtle in the pond, the thought in the mind, the falling star, the stranger on Main Street… To all of this, loss, which seems only to take away, adds its own kind of necessary contribution. No matter what goes missing, the object you need or the person you love, the lessons are always the same. Disappearance reminds us to notice, transience to cherish, fragility to defend. Loss is a kind of external conscience, urging us to make better use of our finite days. Our crossing is a brief one, best spent bearing witness to all that we see: honoring what we find noble, tending what we know needs our care, recognizing that we are inseparably connected to all of it, including what is not yet upon us, including what is already gone. We are here to keep watch, not to keep. 

Kathryn Schulz (from her book Lost & Found)

I am not sure why the above struck me as appropriate for today's blog except that it "vibrated" with me somewhat as a tuning fork makes a hum with you wrap your fingers around it...vibrating your whole hand for a short time.   

Our first long summer stay at the cabin is wrapping up now...Four weeks...28 days.  Not so long in the scheme of things. We are here to keep watch, not to keep.  The cabin reminds me of things we are blessed with and so much also of what "cannot keep".  Our physical and mental selves savor the familiar lake and the Northwood smells and sounds differently now.  A real quiet descends upon us.  Deep quiet.  Wind, waves, pines, eagles, loons, wild storms, campfires, a canoe ride, wild flowers, etc etc. Things my husband has known and loved for well over 50 years.  Me, over 30.  

This time we spent time assessing things that we won't use again here and dismantling some to make room for the kids who we hope will want to keep the cabin someday and make it their own.  We still hope for some years here...but not the same way they "used to be". "Transience  to cherish...fragility to defend".  My art studio is being dismantled now (a small desk and shelf left by the window facing the lake.  We need the storage for other things and I don't need to duplicate a studio here anymore.  Greg's train tables came down.  He has his one train layout now in Madison.  He needs a work table and some storage instead.  

It is interesting that in the two summers starting with the pandemic summer in which we did not come here at all for the first time so much has changed.  Now it is as if everything has moved slightly so that we are looking at things from a different point of view.  It would have happened anyway, of course, but it's just that it's more than obvious now.  The change continues as the pandemic goes on.

We'll be back on August 9 or 10 for another shorter stay with more family headed up with us for awhile.  Then there will be more berries, more acorns, more pine cones, and the sumac will begin to turn just slightly as the ferns get dusty and turn yellow on the tips. We've seen it so many times.  

Spreading dogbane?  I've never noticed it before. What a lovely find and with a silken moth nest tucked in one leaf too!

The Boathouse is an older landmark in nearby Minocqua...a somewhat dusty and aging lakeside restaurant it turns out.  A bit of a disappointment on a sunny Thursday morning last week.  I was immediately taken in by the signage, however, which I found so interesting AND a real challenge as well.  Who knew there was a beer called "Bell's Oberon"?  Or "Landshark Lager"?  I was inspired after reading about a delightful artist named Doris Rifkin who loves to incorporate signs into her paintings.  If you google her you'll find dozens of wonderful paintings full of print. 

I hope I didn't already post this sketch.  I may have.  It's my bags full of art supplies coming up to the cabin which are now filling up again for the return trip.  Done in water-soluble tinted graphite.  

The cabin nestled into the forest from the road side.

(Lake on the other side.). Our car is covered in a gray car cover off the left side behind the trees.  A blue bag of recycle waiting for us to take to the recycle.  There's a group of large trees just to the left of the door.  One of those fell this spring in a wind storm.  Toward the cabin!!!!

BUT just missed major damage by falling where those trash cans are sitting and then getting hung up in the upper branches!  HOW lucky was that.  

  

Summer Thoughts

You're braver than you believe, 

stronger than you seem, 

and smarter than you think.

 (AA Milne)

The cabin, as the summer moves along, simmers into the routines that becomes a kind of mesmerizing center of our world.  The climate, the smells, the sounds are so different from our other life.  A life of wood smoke, piney smells, marshmallows and tiny flowers.  A life of quiet or wild storms, lapping lakeside water at the pier.  Reading on the summer porch, drawing in the studio, examining a weevil, watching caterpillars eat.  The gorgeous berry colors, the pesky mosquitoes, baking cookies in the old oven, streaming church on the computer, wearing flannel shirts and jeans, seeing so many stars.  SO quiet here. 

Sitting on the pier and looking down into the water.  Smiling over the plethora of rocks...where have they been for all those years?  Rolling around in this lake or along the shores...boulders now broken into stones.  Old, old, old.  Thinking about that new telescope now showing us photos of our universe beyond our dreaming...surely where those rocks came from originally?  My grandsons skip them across the dark waves.  Sending them back to roll in again some day.  

Family comes and goes.  Good times.  Memories.  

 

Cabin Time

 And yet I know that hope is not a default, it is a choice, it is daily intention and action. Writing a better story is not a given, it is an intention, it is how we lean into the next great turning.

Carrie Newcomer

There is an amazing "aura" about time at the cabin...it takes about a week for me to "fall" into the ambiance of a the new-old ways of cabin life.  Ever so slowly my metabolism slows down and I begin rise and wake with the sun again.  To hear the frogs and birds more closely to smell the lake and breathe more deeply.  To smile over the smell of cinnamon French toast in the morning, to sit with my book in late evenings and watch the wild storms sweep over the water.  To really "see" the verge flowers along the road again.  

Time on the deck with my sketchbook letting my breathing go slow again...following the flow of the ink and waving at friends at boats going by.  Smelling the woodsmoke, sharing stories over wine and feeling the sun on your back.  Intent on writing a better story* (based on the old memories).  Welcome to summer at the cabin. 

*Having my two daughters with us this week has been SO delightful. 

I can't thank them enough for a wonderful week together.  Great food, great stories, great memories, wonderful help, laughter. As we "lean into the next great turning." 

Reminding you to Pay Attention

My Mother's Day gift is a surprise!

Julie took this photo right after I opened the amazing gift card to a local art store here in Madison.  I may have been a bit extravagant in my reaction but seriously...art stuff is just a lot of fun and it was a lovely gift.  And thinking about how to spend it will be VERY fun.  My kids are really quite something and I am crazy about all 3 of them.  (Beth is in CA, Rick is in Lemont, IL and Julie lives 3 miles away here in Madison.)

When friend, Bill, recently asked me "what's your blog about". I think I said "mostly art stuff" which is true.  But when I look back over the blog posts over the many years I've been doing this...it's surely more than that.  It may "revolve" around art as a theme but it's about my attention to life in general.  Flipping back through posts is a little like a journal of what was up with me at the time.  

It's about what I pay attention to.  You can see if you read the little "bit" by Mary Oliver under the title of my blog that "paying attention" is totally what I'm all about.  And using art as a focus for that is very helpful.  

The Cards

The latest excursion on May 7 that the Madison Urban Sketch group made was out to the Pinney Library on the East Side.  Members of the group suggest places and the leader (Deborah) makes the final decision and usually "hosts" the gatherings unless she can't be there.  Some "urban" groups call themselves "expeditionary" artists.  I think that's kind of a fun term.  Off on an "expedition" sort of says what we hope for.  These are often to places we've never been to before.  Sketching at a library was a first for me.  But sketching anywhere is obviously the name of the game.  

This was a small group...can be up to a dozen or so.  

At the end of a few hours we throw down our sketches and visit a bit about them afterwards. 

I am hosting the group the first Saturday in June to our 9 acre woodland walk here at Oakwood.  Crossing fingers on good weather.

The walks in our Oakwood nature preserve in spring are amazing.  

And right now (after a week of way above average temps) everything is popping out like crazy!!!  I hope to get out there again today to see what's up now!  

One last photo taken this past Tuesday...this is the gravesite of my mom and dad at Oakhill cemetery in Lake Geneva.  On this grave plot are also my grandparents and their infant son who died at 2 days old. AND my great grandparents are nearby.  Lake Geneva holds the roots of my mother's side of the family.  She was born here in an old house on Water Street that still stands.  And I have lived within this southern Wisconsin town most of my adult life...in Fontana, Williams Bay and Elkhorn. And I taught school in Lake Geneva for over 30 years.  It's the "home place"   And this old cemetery is now on the historical register.  

This is where Greg and I will someday settle down like in "Our Town" above the lovely old town that is in my history and not too far from Beloit/Janesville where Greg's growing up memories lie.  His mom is buried in Clinton.  We stopped to put flowers on her grave on Tuesday too.  And we visited his mother's sister's grave in Shopiere..Aunt Corkie who lived to almost 102.  What an amazing woman!  

Now we begin plans for the garden at Julie's...celebrate some family birthdays and graduations coming up. And plan for some time at the family cabin up in Lac du Flambeau later in May.  Wishing you all a great month of May!

Our 12 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren keep us busy.  Here is Greg's lovely grandson Eric who will graduate from Luther college and head off to seminary.  We hope to stream the graduation which is in MN Saturday morning!  

  

 

A Little Visit at the Turning Point of Autumn

Autumn warmth is lingering here in Wisconsin in a long string unexpected sunny days.  Although I've pulled out the sweatshirts and jeans...I am only wearing them now and then.  I feel almost guilty when I know there are so many places that are having fires, floods, volcanoes, and hurricanes.  And yet, idyllic day follows day after day.  What an amazing gift.  I'll try to remember this in January!  

Yesterday's drive from Madison to Monroe through the farmland was idyllic...barn after barn with those "barn quilt" paintings on them and the corn just that brassy yellow as it just about ready to be picked.  Pumpkins and gourds out on the roadside stands and late summer asters and mums by the houses in towns.  Not a lot of color in the trees yet..just a few tinges here and there.  

 The Art Show on the square in Madison this weekend got FANTASTIC weather.  I hope we can go next year.  I hated to miss it.  

The model train show was fun...we hadn't been to one in a long time and Greg was so happy!  I worried that not very many people were masked...they left all the doors open and Greg and I WERE masked the whole time.  Life is still so scary around the pandemic.  I have bad dreams now and then.

Our friend Angie (up north) has tested positive (luckily we haven't been with her in months) but she apparently exposed a LOT of people during the last week.  She is double vaccinated and that is even a bigger worry.

So lots of folks are now on a "watch" and keeping quarantined.  She found out she was positive WHILE traveling from WI to NC.  So they are going to drive straight through from this point on and try not to endanger anyone.  Her husband tested negative.  So he'll do the driving and pick up food.  

Folks here at our campus location will get flu shots and boosters this coming week while we are gone.  THAT is a disappointment to miss it!  But they have a repeat October date.  So we will have to wait for that.

I am packing as we leave for the cabin in a few hours...and I sent out the October Chat this morning as I have better internet here.  I am taking my Inktober Challenge (for October) with me. See below.

You can see I've penciled in 31 small areas for the challenge tangles this year (9 x 12) sheet of Fabriano hot press WC paper.  So it is just a small sample of each one.  The hard part is finding the tangles...many of them are not familiar to me!  BUT you get to learn something new in the process!!!  

Greg and I have signed up for a 12 week class here at Oakwood called "Active Care" and it's all about healthy living, exercise, nutrition, prevention, etc etc.  I decorated the cover of my booklet (of course).