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.