Trying to Make Sense of it All, 1

Every morning, lately, I get up around 6 a.m., stumble into the kitchen to make my large "café au lait", and then begin exercising while watching the U.S. news. I have had to put exercise first if I don't want to end up like the Tin Man, rusting in place. In an hour and a half I go through a number of interesting programs.


It occurred to me from the beginning that we are looking at a bizarre moment in history. I recently decided to try to document some of the circus in D.C., in order to make sense of it and to maybe leave a record for my grandchildren. 









The notebook format allows me to insert better paper for sketching in between the writing paper. This is a scrappy journal that allows me to play.


People say some of the strangest things these days...

A Final Visit

During Mr. M's final visit to the Charles Nicole Hospital, I sketched his hat in my small purse notebook.                 -->



                                     

<--And then there was an empty chair in the waiting area.


         -->
When we went to lunch I did a fast sketch with watercolors and a brush pen of a nearby building.
   




I kept track of time the first half of the month with blobs and cross-hatching in my journal.

Rather fun and entirely bizarre.

And Mr. M. is doing well.

A Crossover

At Sketch Club (my weekly meeting with my sketching buddy), my Derwent Inktense pencils delighted me when I drew a potted plant on fabric. I sketched it out first with a Micron fineliner, which is waterproof.

Inktense colors dazzle me when water is added--it's magical to see the depth and brightness of the color. Now, for the fun part...to cut? to dice? to stitch? to add more fabric? All of the above? Oh, the possibilities!



In the meantime, from my purse notebook: I had the chance to do a bit of sketching while waiting to give a talk in Tunis. Some pretty arches.








Another day we went to a restaurant on the Mediterranean with a beautiful view. I managed a quick sketch. Beautiful colors in the sea...


As we sat in the waiting room at the Charles Nicole Hospital for a visit for Mr. M., I worked on a sketch of one part of the hospital. A doctor passed by, stopped to watch for a moment, and said "Where is that?" He was surprised when I told him it was the hospital. 

Sometimes we just don't see what is in front of us.

Another Week Gone By

I have been stitching on "He Went to Work Everyday...Then He Retired..."

The going is very  s-l-o-w-l-y.
I'm just about ready to add the third shirt--just to make things more complicated on the technical level. Similar to climbing Mt. Everest.

<--We went to the Charles Nicole Hospital in Tunis and I found myself with enough time on my hands to work on a more complex drawing. 









This old hospital, built by the French during the colonial period, is always interesting to sketch--fortunately, because we'll have more visits there.

He drives, I draw...his hand. Needed a change in subject from the beat-up junk heaps on the road. Mind you, I shouldn't be knocking anyone's car, we have a 10-yr.-old and a 20-yr.-old...