Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Rule for 2016, 1

It looks like 2016 is a year of huge changes in my corner of the world, so in order to keep my balance I have a new rule: Finish. This is a tough rule for a polymath like me, but I did start off the year right by finishing my......Ha! if you thought I was going to say the Pomegranate Tree, you would be wrong. True, it's a priority and I'm stitching everyday, but, man, those French knots are killing me. It's a love/hate relationship.







No, the first big finish of 2016 was my small (6"x4"), more-or-less-daily, out-and-about, purse journal with 160 pages (or 320 drawable pages). A gift from my brother, it sat on a shelf for 30 years until Sketchbook Skool came along and changed my drawing habits. 
The paper is too thin to take water media so I started using it for a 75-day ink-sketching challenge (mostly ballpoint pen). As the challenge was
to not use color, I decided to use a different color of pen every day. I think it would've killed me to use black ink everyday. 

I did have a thought about using a bit of fabric on each page as a sort of frame, however, that didn't last long. Inauspicious beginnings.


It developed into a diary entry, a list, a sketch for each page along with a quote. Which led me to the Paul Klee quote:"Drawing is taking a line for a walk".

I could see myself taking a line for a walk like one would take a dog for a walk on a leash.

Then my teaching life crashed into my journal...

And, no, I didn't quit, but, I should have. Things went downhill from there.









Colleagues appeared as well.
The lists disappeared, but the wandering line stayed.





Family and friends appeared.









After the end of the 75-day challenge, I started to add color with my Prismacolor Pencils. It was like coming out of the desert.








And then a theme of suffering students developed, students taking exams in an unheated building in the winter.











Reflecting upon my journal has made me realize what a huge project this was.
To be continued...




5 comments:

grace Forrest~Maestas said...

i just love this, all of it, what you actually put on the page
and what you write in the post about putting it on the page and
how i feel left hanging...love all this and so happy to
find you this morning

Elaine/Muddling Through said...

Nadia, you continually amaze me with your talent and with that compassionate voice you use in your art. Very inspiring - all of it!

Julie Fukuda said...

Cleaning up things from the past, I found one of these I had filled. I only wish I had put in some writing or even dates, though much I can remember. Good job. I'm definitely inspired.

Mo Crow said...

love your pomegranates, you have such a deep affinity with colour, texture and movement & thank you for sharing your sketchbook!

Magpie's Mumblings said...

It was interesting to see how your journal has morphed into something so different from how it began. I think that is true of all our creative endeavors .