A collaboration with August, a wonderful four and a half year old with an affinity for hair and drawing. I love the feeling in these drawings that things are what they are, not what they should be and they are certainly what they feel like as a working mother( I am certain it is the same for mothers who do not work out of the home). You try to have everything just so, but there is a wildness to life that cannot be tamed. Pretend we may, but it is there.

rainy monday

So here it is Monday morning.

Again.

And it is going to rain here for three days.

The ground is already full.

So are the rivers.

So am I.

And still

The birds are singing.

26

Just a few 26's from a few different sketchbooks.
Honestly, I could just sketch all of the time and that has always been my problem. I love the open-endedness and the documentation of daily life. It feels very authentic to me. It's quick,it's down,it's done, it's true. So I constantly keep sketchbooks. I probably fill one every couple of months but that doesn't leave a lot of time for looking back or zooming in to one of the many conversations that I start. So maybe one day I will figure this all out and I'll have years of ideas to sift through and a zillion paintings to paint, but I'll probably be to busy drawing in my sketchbook.

let it go.

These appeared in my sketchbook this week, You know those drawings that surprise you when you look back because you barely remember creating them. I probably created them while thinking about a couple of projects and what I will show for grad school. I am feeling a bit panicked, drawing madly, nothing good, thinking too much and now I think I'll drop it all and enjoy my way through this rainy day.

Perhaps you can drop some things as well.

Hope it is sunny where you are.

Have you ever seen Kate Russos's beautiful drawings?

monday morning

minor characters

I make people.

Just minor characters.

That make small movements.

In simple spaces.

In a big story.

I've been bad about posting this week. The time change and beautiful weather has allowed for nice evening walks and kept me away from the computer. The winter is slowly coming to an end. I am so excited to dig in the dirt, and start seeds. I am also nervous because I start graduate school in June. I work all of the time, but worry that I will have nothing to show. I wonder is there a time when confidence will come. Is confidence earned, discovered, or just born???

Or is it just fleeting?

feels like spring!

We stopped by the beach on our way home.

Rocks are everywhere from all of the storms.

August and Owen gathered many beautiful things to bring to school and I just enjoyed watching them.

I came home to a package. So nice to hold it in my hands.

If I lived in Australia I would definitely be a regular Frankie reader, what a great magazine!

keeping hold

Aren't we always trying to keep hold of things that fly?

These drawings are the very early stages of a fun project/exhibition that I am working on with nine other artists from all over the world. We are making a book that will be traveling to many special places. The title of the book/exhibit is Of Fishes and Birds. We have a blog where we are documenting the development of this project and where you can meet all of the artists who are participating. This idea came from the very clever head of Kitty Kilian. I am looking forward to getting to know the other artists and to seeing their interpretations. Please follow our blog and see what will happen.

I have no words, only a house to clean.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.

I just showed this painting to August and she said the girl is trying to be a statue so she won't have to clean

Happy Families!

Clever Esti thought of a wonderful children's card game and asked a group of us to create our own family. The card game includes families by the following artists: Sarajo Frieden, Thereza Rowe, Estibaliz Hernandez, Lotte Andkilde, Alexandra Hedberg, Kimberley Di Laurenti and Lady Desidia. All of the proceeds from the sale of the cards will be donated to Doctors Without Borders. It has been so exciting to get peeks at what everyone has created, I can't wait to play the game!

Alexandra, Thereza and Sarajo all have sneak peeks of their cards on their blogs today.

The cards are being printed in Spain and will be available for purchase in the near future.

wednesday

It consumed her, but she could let it go.

winners!

some women like cats, for her it had always been birds

The winner of the giveaway is Kelly and just for fun I drew a second and it was Gina.

Thank you all for taking the time to enter and for your comments. I always look forward to hearing your thoughts. If you didn't win, no worries, I feel another giveaway coming soon to celebrate Spring!

Kelly and Gina please send me your addresses and your prints will be on their way.

Moving things around.

thinking.

reading.

waiting.

watching.

something

is going to happen.

hopefully.

I am reading John Irving's new novel.

It's brilliant and eerie and funny and twisted, but also sensitive as all of his great stories are.

Today is the last day for the giveaway!

I do amuse myself.

So fun to see how it changes with each face.

The first, she's pretty sincere I think, and fun though certainly not the life of the party.

The second looks like she just heard someone say something that she is certain is about her and she might just turn back wildly clucking with amusement. (if she thought it funny) She thinks she's the life of the party.

And then third is too important to even let us a venture a guess. We are just lucky she came. Don't you know how important she is!

And the last ....... what do you think?

gray thursday

Playing.

Also doing a lot of the second picture.

Staring into space.

The further away I look, the more inside of myself I am.