Back to the Drawing Board

I have a confession. I haven't been drawing or painting very much the last several months. Part of it is because of the arthritis in my hands, but that didn't stop me before... I worked in spite of it. I think I have also been distracted and lazy. Creativity is not the issue. I have ideas every day... I have hundreds of thumbnail sketches and notes in both sketchbooks and computer files.

A drawing from around 2007 I use as a profile pic on some of my sites.

 

My sweet and somewhat patient

Granddaughter Athena modeled as Snow White.

I think of past mentors and feel ashamed of my artistic neglect. In university, I had two drawing professors especially who drove me mercilessly and inspired me heartfully (my word). I learned basics and creativity from Jane Lieber Mays at Chemeketa Community College in Salem, Oregon. I went on to learn to push my skills from Jessica Burke (J.B. I envied those who modelled for you!) at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, Oregon. I thank you both!

My Great Grandfather Franklin W. Stearns

Yesterday I woke up and said to myself: “If you are going to call yourself an artist... you have to behave like one! It is not going to do you any good to sit around with a mound of ideas if you don't do anything about it.” SO... as I was taught in school... I am going to try to draw something everyday. Even if it is just a tiny little doodle or sketch. The way I see it, I will be documenting my battle with Arthritis (probably rheumatoid, will know more in a couple months). We will witness either my decline or my healing. Either way it should be interesting and I hope my drawing will improve as I get back into practice.

I might not post every day. But I will try to draw everyday and post the results about once a week along with images of some of my past work just to show off. Some of them can be seen on my website drawing page and I will post more there soon (working on documenting them all).

Here is today's drawing in honour of the field mice who have been visiting. I can't deal with them dead so I have a “Catch-and-release-to-the-neighbor-cats” program. Everybody happy!