My Blog

Slow and Steady

“And if we are wise, we will listen. We will move as the current moves and rest when the waves tell us to sit still.

If we are wise, we will grow into this unknowing journey, into a deep trust in that current."

-Kaitlin Curtice, Slow and Steady Surrender

My Tuesdays Reviews stopped one year ago. Life was shifting for us, out of our farmhouse, after 22 years, into a temporary rental, and finally into our Beverly Farms home, from where I am writing today. Throughout the moves, a steady group of ladies arrived, on Tuesdays, at my changing doors, and yet, gathered around the table, our familiar routine was changeless. We listened, and sitting together we offered pieces of ourelves, sharing amd creatively connecting through our stories and art, and as always, when we said our good-byes our hearts felt fuller.

Our last Tuesdays gathering was on March 10th. We are now in the middle of a shifting world, encapsulated by uncertainty. Hopefully, we are growing into this “unknowing journey”. We’ve coordinated a couple of zooms, and we’ve walked up over Sagamore Hill, keeping our distance, but things just aren’t the same. Looking through my old reviews I dicovered Susie’s painting of the ocean waves. “We will move as the curent moves and rest when the waves tell us to sit still.”

We have all been sharing poetry and podcasts, chain letters with recipes and books, television series and movies and online classes. Early on I was inspired by everything. I bought a ball of tweed wool to knit socks, I pondered themes and titles for my children’s book, I pulled out my beads to design new necklaces, and I even bought flour, while it was still available, to bake bread, but I struggled to follow through. I felt so distracted. I was reminded of the women in this British skit, Age-activated attention deficit disorder. Walks have become my daily triumph, as for so many of us. Earlier on Elizabeth West wrote a beautiful reflection:

The pearl earring

Long ago, at the beginning of the pandemic, I donned my rain gear
and eagerly walked down walnut road in what seemed an adventure.
It was a new routine and energizing.
During the walk my rain hat must have knocked off one of my pearl earrings.
It bothered me as I hate to lose things - so I kept an eye out for it on the many walks that ensued, day after day.

Last night, I was feeling a bit beaten up by the severity of the situation
and was drawn out onto our lawn to view the moon in its iridescence-
it was an amazing super moon in silvery shimmers
that blended into a pure white orb.
It reminded me of a pearl.
I had the overwhelming sense - and here I beg your creativity -
that our deceased parents - were up there -
happily pulling us through this hard time.

Today I was definitely in a defeated mood
as I donned my rain outfit and headed out onto walnut.
So down that I didn’t raise my eyes from the ground.

But I realized that lifting my eyes and looking around
was a part of feeling better and seeing nature.
I did and saw the most beautiful white leaved tree-
in the midst of the gray rain -
then I looked down
and there was my pearl earring.

We’re going to get through this my friends!

-Elizabeth West

Suggested prompts:

What is your silver lining during these uncertain times?

How has art factored into your coping strategy? (Remember that art has many forms!)

I rediscovered one of Austin Kleon’s older blogs on blind contour drawings, and decided to give it a try. I wasn’t thrilled with studying the contours of my actual self, but it was meditative, and anything that allows me to feel fluid in a moment of time is high on my priority list..

"Our brains are designed to simplify — to reduce the tumult of the world into order. Blind drawing trains us to stare at the chaos, to honor it. It is an act of meditation, as much as it is an artistic practice — a gateway to pure being. It forces us to study the world as it actually is.”

My wish for everyone is that you have a comfortable space for yourselves, whether in a designated studio, the kitchen, curled up in a favorite chair with a book, in the woods, or on Walnut Road… a place to “lift our eyes and look around.”

Please share your drawing, writing, thoughts, and any links with me and I will post them in my next review.

Below is a poem, by Carl Sandburg, to leave with you on this rainy day:

Monotone

The monotone of the rain is beautiful,
And the sudden rise and slow relapse
Of the long multitudinous rain.

The sun on the hills is beautiful,
Or a captured sunset sea-flung,
Bannered with fire and gold.

A face I know is beautiful—
With fire and gold of sky and sea,
And the peace of long warm rain.

-Carl Sandburg

Keep Writing and Drawing

in Your Journals

xo Barb

Austin Kleon is known for his black out poems.

Suggested prompts:

A series of blind contour self-portraits

Create a black out poem. In a stream of consciousness, write down your worries onto a piece of paper, and then begin blackening out, most of what you have written, leaving only a select group of words, ones with a message of hope.

Henry Matisse on How to be an Artist

Master the basics and then be expressive
Make up your own rules
Surround yourself with things you love-they will inspire you
Don’t let anything keep you from making art

I have been spending alot of time going through some old journals, and desktop notes. Wendell Berry keeps resurfacing.

Wendell Berry asked, “If we can't find peace, what do we do?”

If I can’t find peace I am feeling suspended and vulnerable. Triggered by limiting beliefs, I can feel stuck, like I’m frozen in place with an accelerated energy swirling around me. I may linger there until an unconscious thought triggers a spontaneous reaction from my body, urging me to pay attention. That’s when I close my eyes and focus on my breathing. These voluntary pauses give me an opportunity to slow down and reflect. Transitions of time whisper to me, and in the stillness, I begin to feel calm. When I open my eyes, peace resurfaces with the simplicity of a chickadee that lands on a branch outside my window, and I realize that everything will be alright.

Underneath the Branches

AUGUST 8, 2018, Threads of a Summer Day

Underneath the branches,
On a gently sloping hill,
The Old Black Oak lives,
Without demands.
Its thick limbs,
Under the weight of years,
Have turned and dipped,
And crept,
Along the earth,
Exploring,
Only to have twisted,
And ascended,
Strongly reaching,
Reaching back up
Towards the sky,
Resilient.

Underneath the branches,
Linens,
Draped in long shadows,
Without an agenda,
Are floating,
With hints of wildflower air
Absorbed into their fibers.
Above the soft grass,
Beneath bare feet
Of a human.
Threads of cloth,
Sway, Inspiring
Remainders,
And reminders
Of a summer day,
When walks and swims
Linger like perfume.
Favorite pants,
Worn thin,
Anticipate
A cool summer evening.
A clean,
crisp pajama top,
White and delicate,
Like Baby’s breath,
Waits patiently
For sleep.

Underneath the branches,
Summer sounds
Create symphonies,
As the winds
Play the chimes,
In oneness,
With the vibrating
chorus of cicadas,
And the crows
Call out,
From across the field,
Un-mowed,
Wildly bountiful,
Harmonizing,
As the Red Barron Circles
Towards the sky,
Moving,
Upwards.

Underneath the branches,
Balanced,
In the arms
Of the Old Black Oak,
Wrinkle free
Of demands,
A clothesline
Hangs.
A white butterfly
Circles.

I DON'T WANT TO MISS THIS

So here I sit, thinking of you, a bit distracted by everything going on around me, but never without you in my heart.

There are so many things blooming before my eyes, moments and thoughts and memories, that I don't want to miss. I search for words that I can share, because according to poet, Naomi Shihab Nye, "Words will have a bigger life if you share them." So here I sit, thinking and watching for all the glorious moments that present themselves before me. The beauty of the very simplest things in life distract and fill me...calming of candlelight, the idea of poems stuck inside linen pockets, birds at my feeders, good reads, quotes, daydreams, landscapes, small little objects handsewn into beautiful images of children's dresses, purposeful pauses, hand-sculpted animals that suggest tenderness and sensibility, and words, everywhere, that describe an awareness of seeing and listening . I love "Tuesdays" because of the wonderfully talented and inspiring women who show up.

Pages in my journals fill up, like life on a busy day, sometimes more quickly than I can process. If I am lucky, I can return to them to reflect.

Naomi Shihab Nye is a poet who celebrates life in the simple everyday occurrences. On Being host, Krista Tippett, interviews Nye for the podcast, Your Life is a Poem. Nye says, "I have always loved the gaps, the spaces between things as much as the things. I love staring, pondering, mulling, puttering. I love the times when someone or something is late - there's that rich possibility of noticing more, in the meantime...poetry calls us to pause. There is so much we overlook, while the abundance around us continues to shimmer, on its own."

Drawing small panoramic sketches may be a way to capture quick snippets of the tender moments that fill the gaps and the spaces in between.

"The beauty about going back to the same place over and over again is that you keep noticing something new. The place is inexhaustible." - Michael Longley

Krista Tippett interviews Irish poet, Michael Longley, on The Vitality of Ordinary Things. It resonates deeply within me, having only just, for the very first time, stopped to witness how the leaves of the old Black Oak, on this very day, were tiny and pink, like a thousand newborn babies hanging from its branches. In contemplation of letting go I've become so much more aware of soaking in every detail of every wakeful hour. There's a humbling compassion and kindness in paying attention.

Here's one stanza from the poem, Kindness, by Naomi Shihab Nye. Maybe you will decide to carry it inside your pocket.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing. 
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to gaze at bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.

Leslie Lyman's, "returning to the magic of candlelight, from a page in her journal. A new project for her are these exquisite handsewn images of children's dresses filled with delicate and inquiring objects. Leslie is an artist who explores time, memory and imagination by focusing in on the things people have left behind such as clothing, letters, photograhs and books. Her journals are handmade using coptic stiching to bind her individually tea-stained signatures.

Journal entries inspired by our love of books and notes and words

After 22 years, we're moving from our farmhouse. It caught us off guard, with the sale of our home happening much more quickly than we anticipated. I'm not sure how I'm doing. I may not know until we drive away for the last time. I'm pausing more than ever. I feel like a human movie camera desperate to record every possible moment and memory I can. This was our last spring to watch the turning of the dormant fields, right before our eyes, into a lush rolling landscape of vibrant green, and our backyard Elm's new buds into young and malleable leaves, linked to the maturing of our fledgling young children into adults. As I purposefully clean out closets and drawers I have discovered a relief in letting things go. Old letters and words have comforted me by how lovingly we expressed ourselves and communicated with one another. Our love and values are embedded in so much more than our belongings. The comforting wisdom of words, not the material things reassured me. "Home is where our heart is."

Charlie wrote to me from his semester with Kroka expeditions in the fall of 2012, "We rise early, work hard, eat well, and have a lot of fun." I wrote him back wondering, "What more from life could we dream for?"

Katrina Kenison from The Gift of an Ordinary Day wrote, "Watching, listening, learning, I begin to feel at ease where I am, come to know the language of the wind, and the daily path of the summer sun, the proximity of the stars." In this short you tube Katrina reads a chapter from her book about the simpe memories that came and went and what a gift the ordianry days are.

The ordinary days and our families and love and values will always go with us.

An Edward Hoagland quote made it onto the outside of an envelope

"Silence is exhilarating at first - as noise is - but there is a sweetness to silence outlasting exhilaration, akin to the sweetness of listening and the velvet of sleep" - Edward Hoagland

A very talented and inspiring friend, Kim Allsopp, has been passionately creating beautiful work in a local ceramic studio. These enchanting animals perched atop grassy bases are some of her more recent pieces. My winged dog, that Kim made for me, sits on my desk, and reminds me of our beloved dog George, who was taken from us far too prematurely in his life.

We met at Castle Hill on Tuesday, May 8th, which also happened to be National Coconut Cream Pie Day! I was hoping to discover that it was National Tulip day because we specifically went there to paint tulips. The round rose garden was filled with every color imaginable. Huge thanks to Camilla and Nonie for encouraging us to gather up our journals and paints and head over to the castle Hill gardens.

Drawings in the round rose garden of Castle Hill, Ipswich

Below is a sample of the variety of TUESDAYS creative work. My new hibiscus plants will travel with me when we move. Robin Sears paints beautiful flowers and gardens, and sweet animals that are detailed with layers of paints to create the realistic textures. Elizabeth West comments on her ocean painting as being a work in progress, but the colors of the water, with the clouds overhead, the softness of the dunes, and the shadows cast by the white umbrellas has a simplicity and calmness as is. Katrina Hart repurposes old items into jewelry. Below is a necklace she made using old credit cards. Susie Wilson paints on the go, sharing recent creations from Charleston. Sharing builds and maintains connections. Those will go with us.

Danny Gregory's Sketchbook Skool blog has good information. The most recent post, titled "You Are Not Alone" wonders whether solitude is really the key to creativity.

Check out the website for www.Susanahhowland.com. She is an artist and friend of Nonie’s, and her work is beautiful. When discussing learning about perspective in drawing, Susanah suggested the online learning forum called Skill Share.

“What we mistake as sentimental is in fact a generosity, a willingness to stay open and acknowledge the miraculous.” -Terry Tempest Williams

keep writing and drawing

in your journals

xo Barb

A NEW DAY

I came down the stairs this morning to my son, Amory, painting with watercolors at our kitchen table, so I poured myself a cup of coffee and joined him. The birds were out in full force, defying the bitter cold, darting betwixt the Elm branches and the fully-filled feeders. Resilience is critical. This Blue Jay transitioned through several layers, and cups of coffee, from watercolor to collage to acrylic. I just kept going. The birds and Amory were long gone before I put my art supplies away, but a journal entry remains to remind me of a sweet start to a new day.

Happy 2018!

The Pauses

It's 4:45am. This is the first time, ever in my life, that I've voluntarily gotten out of bed this early without a plane to catch or a sunrise photo to shoot. I'm stuck somewhere between the time zones of Micronesia and New England, nevermind it's Christmas and I'm thinking about the cheeseballs I want to make, the gifts I want to send, the lighted Hope sign I want to hang on our barn. I wish I had time to write a letter to all the people I love in my life, or to paint something for each one of them. I painted this same scene of Sengekontacket Pond for my daughter, Anna, while visiting her in Palau, the one my daughter, Sarah, had encouraged me to do. It was not only to brighten up her small apartment in Palau, but to leave her with a piece of home. This time I painted it on cardboard from the local hardware store, and we hung it with yellow ducktape over her bed. It comforts me to know that the same image is hanging over both of my daughters' beds. It connects us. Anna's day is winding down. In Palau the sun has set, and here in new England it hasn't yet risen. I won't be able to reach out to everyone I love this season in the meaningful way I'd like, but I will make time to be grateful and to remember that Christmas is a difficult time for many people, so I'll smile at strangers and look for the way that a stranger smiles back", as author Laura Munson so beautifully wrote. The wonder is in the "little things, the in-between moments, the pauses."

The Traveling Nightgown

So Much More To This Door

If only the closet door of a daughter, who is no longer living at home, could tell stories, I would love to sit and listen , and allow the sentimental journey to make me laugh and cry. It's so great how such an ordinary object can summon such tender thinking and fill a day with love.

Clarity is Hard

Clarity is hard

I’m so predictable, that after a weekend of excessive socializing, steady eating and drinking, listening and laughing, planning and moving, I crave a quiet moment to draw. I take my journal, a micron pen and my watercolors, and go for a walk along the neighborhood streets. I stop to take off my socks, in the warm morning sun, smiling at the worker on a coffee break. Continuing straight, I look down the narrow alleyways which arouse a feeling of a secrecy, hidden passageways calling to be explored, but I pass them by, knowing that I will find the window boxes in the direct sunlight of the wider streets. I think I want to draw them and capture their alluring charm, but I don’t stop. It’s not the window boxes. It’s more than that. Clarity is hard. So many small thoughts become impossible to piece together. Why try? Isn’t it enough to revel in a quiet mind without translation? We’re heading back north this afternoon. Good-bye Water Street doorways and Charleston sunshine. We’ll be back.

Prompts

Tomorrow there could very well be a blue sky and songbirds singing

March 27 Writing Prompt: "location, location, location"

I walked up Sagamore Hill with Sammy the other misty evening, and demanded him to sit on the mound of rocks at the very top so I could photograph him. He was king of the hill for that moment. I had almost allowed the grey-veiled day to keep us concealed within the walls of our dry and warm house, but looking over at Sammy, in his crate, I saw my own apathy mirrored in his passive body language. I knew it was time to redirect our early evening. Across the field and up through the woods we went, Sammy with his nose to the ground. Together we climbed. As we reached the top, the silhouette of the trees through the mist calmed me. I breathed in the quiet stillness of the air and felt at peace. The last time we had been here was in a blizzard. Tomorrow there could very well be a blue sky and songbirds singing, and we may even be able to see all the way to the ocean. Location, location, location.

pussywillow branches by Kim

We had an awesome group of ladies around the table Tuesday, even a couple of new faces, and everyone was able to emotionally stir us, with one form or another of creative inspiration; poetry, travel journals, drawings of dreams, movies, books and a story about the discovery of stacks of hat boxes and clothing in an historical building. We made a more organized effort to share. Thank-you to everyone!

Katrina arrived with some of her stunning travel journals and beautiful poetry. It was captivating listening to her read her poetry, and taking the time to slowly absorb the pages of her journals.

Many of us have different journals for different tasks; morning pages, travel logs, sketches, poetry, bullet journaling, writing. How do we condense our work and pages, and what do we do with the personal writing that we wouldn't want anyone to read?

I put everything into my one current journal; drawings, thoughts, grocery lists, photographs, business cards, and occasionally words I wouldn’t want anyone else to read. Here is a technique for how I create black out poetry from my stream of consciousness "get it off my chest” writing. There were two separate internal conflicts I wrote about following the loss of my beloved mom. They were written to liberate my emotions, not meant for anyone else to read, so I blackened out most of the words leaving only certain selected ones I chose to expose. This is what I came up with: "Sitting, I remember mom. I hear her breath. Mom's childhood voiced deep experiences. I needed to collapse into them. Time alone is our friend. I sat quietly with mom."

I first tried this technique after learning about Austin Kleon from a friend. Austin Kleon writes poetry by blackening out all the unnecessary words in newspapers and magazines. If you follow the link above you can watch a wonderful four minute video on how he does this. Below is a sample of just one of his hundreds of completed poetic lines:

A feeling of flow after settling into the ritual of evening play.”

The found words in black-out poetry are such a simple way of preventing ourselves from adding in all the extra fluff. Kim created the following black-out piece from a paragraph she wrote responding to the prompt…"but something interrupted me” .

Tyler Knott Gregson has a new book of poetry, Wildly into the Dark, Typewriter Poems and the Rattlings of a Curious Mind. The poem below is from his new book and reminded me of a conversation we had about writing.

Elizabeth, showed us these lovely watercolors of hers that she had printed up onto cards. They make such wonderful gifts.

She also gave me the book, Daily Rituals, a compilation, by Mason Currey, of writers, composers, painters, choreographers, playwrights, poets, philosophers, sculptors, filmmakers, and scientists on how they create. This book has been on my wish list! Thank-you Mason, and thank-you Elizabeth! Kim suggested revisiting Maira Kalman, whose daily ritual is perhaps one we can all relate to.

Robin showed us her art journal and her wonderful example of how a bullet journal can be creative and practical. She also spoke to us about her daily creative rituals. I can’t wait to gather in her studio next week. The drawings below were inspired from a dream she had:

Leslie is preparing for another art exhibition, in June, at the North Hampton Historical Society. Leslie is an historical anthropologist who is passionate about old photos and clothing and letters. All her creations have an ethereal quality to them, bringing bits of the past into our present day. The image below is from a page of her tea-stained journal. She has taken an old photograph and been experimenting with a variety of ways to make changes to it. Her papers and boxes and small journals and drawings are a delight to the eye.

Heidi and I went to the Cabot Cinema yesterday and saw a beautiful Turkish movie called Kedi,Cats in Istanbul. I fully understand that not everyone likes cats, but the cinema photography is stunning, and the relationship between Istanbul and its cats is lovely. Watch the trailer, either way, and make your own decision. Perhaps I was feeling especially sentimental having just put our old cat, Romeo down.

We talked about so much more. Katrina mentioned Mary Ann Moss and her online drawing course, The Art of Making and Keeping a Sketchbook, and another online class by Pam Garrison, Painting Petals. We talked about blogs and books and movies and the Morgan Museum where there is an upcoming exhibit in June on Thoreau and his journals. We briefly talked about Danielle Smith watercolor paints and the Moth Stories. Lots of good stuff!

I went to visit a friend, Meredith, in her Beverly, Porter Mills studio this afternoon. It was so much fun to see Meredith in her creative space, with her adorable Jack Russell, Ivy.

Now I need to get outside with Sammy for a walk to see that blue sky from the top of Sagamore Hill before the next snowstorm arrives!

There was a blue sky and we were even able to see all the way to the ocean!

Keep writing and drawing

in your journals

"LET US GO FORTH TOGETHER"

"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer." - Rainer Maria Rilke

GOOD DAY!

Another snowy morning and it was a challenge to get out of bed, especially with Henry cozied up at my feet.

Last week we had another successful gathering, devoted to making journals and accordion books. Sandy arrived at noon with a big pot of Mulligatawny Soup that was so so good. Thank-you Sandy! Such a thoughtful and generous gesture. I made a big batch on Saturday that received unusually high praises from Ollie. Perfect meal for this weather with a side salad and bread.

Sandy worked on an accordion book and journal for her husband, who’s 60th birthday is approaching soon. We had lots of papers spread out all over the kitchen table. Susie and I were both making accordion books for our daughters, and Shelagh worked on making a new journal. I’m looking forward to everyone coming back tomorrow and hopefully we can finish our projects, and get our new journals bound. The binding we have used in the past is the Coptic Binding. It not only looks nice, but it allows the book to open up and lay flat. The link I provided has wonderful step-by-step instructions and photos.

I finished the accordion book for our daughter, Anna, in the backseat of Ollie’s car, on the way to the airport Saturday afternoon. She was about to take off on the first leg of her trip for Palau. I had already finished the front and back cover with my note, but I still needed to glue in some photos. That project, right up to the end, before saying our good-byes, steadied my anxiously suppressed emotions, but as we helped Anna out of the car with her oversized yellow duffle and big dive bag, the time had come for the reality of letting go. This is where our books and journals and drawings and words can offer such comfort. They allow us to let go and hold on at the same time. Pieces of memory. My accordion books are an authentic statement of my love, a gift from my heart. One of my favorite quotes from the book Modoc, by Ralph Helfer is, “Distance does not separate, only the heart.”

Please let me know if you’d like to come early again tomorrow to work on your books! I will be here from noon on.

We were talking about letters and I know some of you were interested in the custom stamps I have ordered from Zazzle. You can take any photo or drawing and have it made into a stamp. I just ordered some with a painting of a cow i had done years back. It is such fun to embellish your envelopes with art. And don’t forget about the stationary company, Felix Doolittle. Read about Felix Fu founder of this exquisite stationary company. His studio, as well as a separate retail store called "The Paper Mouse”, is located in West Newton, MA. I spoke with someone from the studio this morning, inquiring if we might schedule a visit and tour of the studio. We can watch the weather and discuss some dates.

Kim showed us, and generously gave each of us, a card from the Olivetti Pattern Series of Notecards and Envelopes. This elegant set features four distinct patterns made on the beloved Olivetti Lettera 32 typewriter. "Cormac McCarthy used an Olivetti Lettera 32 to write nearly all of his fiction, screenplays, and correspondence, totaling by his estimate more than 5 million words. The Letter 32 that he purchased in 1963 was auctioned by Christies on 12/04/09 to an unidentified American collector for $254,500, more than 10 times its high estimate of $20,000. McCarthy paid $20 for a replacement typewriter of the same model, but in newer condition.”

Kim also brought back a drawing pencil, sitting below in my basket of ribbons, inscribed with the Picasso quote, “Rien n'est plus difficile u’un trait”.

There will be no journal gathering on Tuesday, February 21st.

In 10 days I am flying out to Whitefish, Montana for a Haven Retreat Writing Workshop with Laura Munson. One of the other 10 participants is a woman named Margi Hoffman, who has started the Murmuration Community. I’m really looking forward to meeting her, and hearing more about what she does. Check out her website. It is very inspiring. She believes that "in order to truly change our world we need to collectively learn to tap into the divine wisdom within ourselves, and use that knowledge as a guide to create a balanced self, balanced community and, ultimately, a balanced world. Previously a political campaign director, lobbyist and policy advisor to two Oregon governors, Margi has helped individuals and a wide variety of health and environmental organizations plan and implement their goals.” Murmuration is offering a workshop, coming up on April 21-23 in Utah. Read more about it here. "Shadowboxing: Exploring Our Shadow to Embrace the Other”. Maybe some of us should go? Her most recent journal entry is titled “We are the Ripple Effect.”

Murmuration refers to the phenomenon that results when hundreds, sometimes thousands, of starlings fly in swooping, intricately coordinated patterns through the sky. They have a remarkable ability to maintain cohesion as a group in highly uncertain environments and with limited, noisy information. Starlings pay attention to a fixed number of their neighbors in the flock, regardless of flock density - seven to be exact. When uncertainty in sensing is present, interacting with six or seven neighbors optimizes the balance between group cohesiveness and individual effort. In following the role of seven, the birds are part of a dynamic system in which the parts combine to make a whole with emergent properties, and a murmuration results. Starlings are essentially an invasive species in this country. They were famously introduced to North America at New York City’s Central Park in the 1890s by Shakespeare enthusiasts who wanted all the bird species ever mentioned by Shakespeare to inhabit this continent. 200 million of these birds now inhabit North America. They are not welcomed by everyone and resented for their abundance and aggressiveness, and even called a menace. This murmuration video by world life photographer Dylan Winter gives me chills, and invites us to view the starlings with fresh eyes.

In Margi Hoffman's words, which are especially poignant during these uncertain times, and as the starlings do so well, “Let us go forth. Together.”

Keep writing and drawing in your journals

xo Barb

Gone to be Lovely to the Fields

Hello to everyone! I hope you’re all well, despite the flux in our world

I was looking through a National Geographic book, “Simply Beautiful Photographs”, and the photograph below caused me to linger: -

"Photographs have given us visual proof that the world is grander than we imagined”

-Annie Griffiths National geographic photographer

A trio of tundra swans grace a cloudy day Jim Brandenburg, photographer

I’m changing the time of our journaling group to Tuesdays 2:30-4:30, beginning this week on Tuesday January 31st. I will be making myself a new journal before class, so if anyone wants to join me a couple of hours early please let me know, and I will have the supplies ready.

I’m including a variety of links in this review, each of which reflects on the universal theme of beauty and resilience. Hope is out there.

“We are part of a movement that is greater and deeper and broader than we ourselves know or can know.” -Hawken.

I listened to a talk that Environmentalist Paul Hawken gave on The other Superpower at the Paris Climate Talks 2016. In his talk Hawken quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson from a lecture he gave in 1836, and the second quote is from Emerson's "Nature" Essays:

“Who looks upon a river in a meditative state and is not reminded of the flux in all things?”

“The sun shines to-day also. There is more wool and flax in the fields. There are new land, new men, new thoughts. Let us demand our own works and laws and worship.”

Just recently my siblings and I spent a couple of days going through my mom’s belongings…a sentimental journey so many of you have already traveled. Old memories and new discoveries that take time and attention.

“ There is beauty, often overlooked, in nearly everything” -Annie Griffiths

This was one of the many old memories, rediscovered. On July 26, 2012, for their 60th wedding anniversary, Ollie and I and my siblings gave my parents a painting by artist Carol Maguire, titled “ Yesterday”. Along with the painting, we gave them an accordion book filled with hand-written memories from each of us, and all ten grandchildren. Each remembrance began with yesterday... Below is the painting and accordion book:

In looking at Carol Maguire’s website, I discovered that she is teaching a three day workshop at the Creative Arts Center in Chatham this summer from June 14-16, 2017. Each morning she will begin with a demonstration, and then we will paint from a variety of still lives she has arranged. I signed up for the workshop, which still has plenty of available space. The Arts Center is open Monday through Friday, so if you’re interested call them for details, and we can go together.

Camilla shared book artist, Alice Stanne's blog with us. She teaches a class at Mass Art called Books and Boxes. Look at her blog and make sure to scroll down to her older posts. For her sister’s graduation from college Alice made a book and titled it The Guide to Life After College. She asked friends and lifelong friends to contribute any words of wisdom, advice or meaningful quotes, and she added illustrations:

We briefly talked about The North Bennet Street School, and their large selection of continuing education classes .

Leslie and Camilla compared bullet journals. You can follow this link and watch the 4 minute video. I still haven’t fully grasped the concept, but it’s very interesting. They incorporate an index, which would be very useful as I am often struggling to find specific entries in my older journals. I may begin to number my pages, and try to make a table of contents for each of my journals.

Thanks to Leslie and Camilla I am now officially signed up for Amazon’s Audible Books. I have just started listening to Blessed Unrest by Paul Hawken.

If you haven’t seen this yet, watch this touching Michael Jackson Tribute, Heal the World music video, sung by children.

Here is one of Parker Palmer's favorite poems by Lynn Unger, titled Camas Lilies. It was posted in today's “On Being" : Parker writes: “ I take my work seriously, and I’m sure you do, too. But at age 75, I’m trying to learn (or relearn) that, in the end, what matters most is not my ability to “produce” but my ability to love…"

Camas Lilies by Lynn Ungar

Consider the liles of the field,
the blue banks of camas opening
into acres of sky along the road.
Would the longing to lie down
and be washed by that beauty
abate if you knew their usefulness,
how the natives ground their bulbs
for flour, how the settlers’ hogs
uprooted them, grunting in gleeful
oblivion as the flowers fell?
And you—what of your rushed
and useful life? Imagine setting it all down—
papers, plans, appointments, everything—
leaving only a note: “Gone
to the fields to be lovely. Be back
when I’m through with blooming.”
Even now, unneeded and uneaten,
the camas lilies gaze out above the grass
from their tender blue eyes.
Even in sleep your life will shine.
Make no mistake. Of course
your work will always matter.
Yet Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed like one of these.

The full Bloom of the Camas Lilies occurs during the last two weeks of May.

Something to add to our bullet journals in planning for future trips.

Keep writing and drawing

in your journals

xo Barb

Ordinary Pleasures

"Oh summer has clothed the earth In a cloak from the loom of the sun! And a mantle, too, of the skies' soft blue, And a belt where the river runs."

Once again I will be on the move, this time back to our Moffett way home, where the summer air has been so lovely and clear, and where linens on a clothesline inspire me, under the shade and comfort of great black oaks, and where I am never too far from the sound of the whispering breezes, gently playing the chimes.

Music is everywhere, on porches and under tabernacles, inside churches, circling beach bonfires, blasting out of car windows, congregated at farmers' markets, it plays on. And if we turn it off and simply open our windows, on a bright summer day, our own nature's symphony will fill our ears.

I finished a wonderful book called "Dwelling in Possibility, Searching for the Soul of Shelter", by Howard Mansfield. One review says. "you will look at your surroundings, and perhaps yourself, in a richer and more nuanced way." The cover of the book is beautiful but even more so are the depth of his words:

"To go house hunting is to dwell in possibility. But what is that possibility? One is that we'll be a new person in a new home. Given a fresh start our better selves will rise. That's part of the answer. But the real possibility we seek is habit; it's the ordinary. Give us room for tumult and quiet, for solitude and passing the time with friends. Give us room for ordinary pleasures, for a day well lived."

Hanging my clothes to dry in the warm summer air inspires creative possibilities for a clothesline series, or better yet fills my ordinary moment with an ordinary pleasure.

"Why should beauty emerge from the world of the ordinary?

The answer is ultimately beacuse the world is natural."

-Soetsu Yanagi

BACK AROUND THE TABLE IN 2016

"There are those who make a difference in our day by holding open a door, waving us ahead in traffic, smiling for no reason at all. They may bring us a flower, a package, a plate of cookies. They may do their work so well we barely notice. They often offer a kind word. They should know they make our day. They should know our thanks.”

- Diane Hanna Stoneheart Collection of Story Pictures

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It felt so so great to have everyone back around the table for our first 2016 gathering.

A bundle of inspiring conversations and ideas were shared this week!

One of you left your beautiful, soft, navy-fringed scarf behind. It wasn’t gift wrapped, but it still found its way to my head:

For the next few months I’d like to try changing our journal gatherings from Wednesdays to Tuesdays from 2-4.

I really hope this will work for most of you. Could you let me know as soon as possible because I don’t want to loose any of our regular group. Camilla and I discussed planning the following week, Tuesday, January 19th to be an evening gathering at The Castle Hill Inn from 4-6. Please confirm this, as well, so we can plan ahead for some wine and hors d'oeuvres!

Feel free to bring any newcomers interested in seeing what our group is all about.

As some of us attempted to focus on making journals, we found ourselves easily and excitedly distracted by all the exchanges going on! If you want to make your own journal I think this is one of the best tutorials for how to make a coptic bound journal. Leslie made journals with her mom over the holidays, and below is the lovely one she produced with it’s tea-stained pages:

Meredith showed us her awesome journal with all her collage work, and told us about Kara Bullock’s new online faces and portraits course. Check it out. It goes on all year. I’m considering signing on as it seems to be a very fair price ($125), and a good way for me to get the discipline I need to explore new styles. Danny Gregory is starting a new online class, as well, called Expressing which begins on January 15th.

Portraits seem to be the buzz right now. I received the weekly journal review from Sandy Bernat, a very talented paper artist on Marthas Vineyard, who hosts a group like ours, and their focus was on portraits. They were discussing the artist Amadeus Clemente Modigliani(1884-1920). His portraits were known for their elongated forms, linear qualities and earthy tones.

Sandy’s group used the following instructions to create their own Modigliani inspired watercolor sketches. If you have time this week give your own Modigliani style portrait a try:

1.Beginning with a pencil, draw a U-shaped curved line in the middle of your paper.

2.Draw some hair.

3.Draw almond-shaped eyes and an L-shaped or U-shaped nose.

4.Draw a mouth.

5.Draw two lines for the neck(if you are close to the bottom of the page extend the lines off the page). Add shoulders and a collar.

6.Add several lines in the background to place your figure in an environment. They only need to suggest windows, doors and the like.

7.Paint with watercolors and use lots of water and work in layers.

We passed around Maira Kalman’s books, "Beloved Dog" and "My Favorite Things". I love her style, very simple and bold. Watch a short video about Maira to get to know her work. Try drawing your favorite sweater in your interpretation of the Maira Kalman style:

Meredith discussed the practical aspect of limiting your art tools. By keeping your supplies simple and readily accessible you will less likely become overwhelmed and more likely create. Create a page in your journals displaying your favorite art tools and share them with us. Meredith showed us her new Pentel color brushes that are pretty cool. This is an old drawing of one of my many travel paint sets. The paints aren’t top quality, but this set with the water brush is still one of my most accessible and favorite go to art tools:

Kim spoke to us about an artist who inspired her with an awareness of collecting images from out of magazines or from photographs or anywhere…as a way to awaken ourselves to the kinds of things that catch our eye and spur our emotions and creativity. Kim suggested the possibilities of recreating our images into our journals but in an abstract way. The simple drawings can become remembrances of moments that caught our attention.

Thanks Kim for always bringing your thoughtful and inquiring discoveries to our attention!

Remain aware of what moves you tho next week, and either make a list of the things, or if you have time create symbolic drawings in your journal.

A Year of Being Here, the daily mindfulness poetry project is now concluded. I’ll miss my daily mindfulness poem. The project curator, Phyllis Cole-Dai, leaves us with her verse "ON HOW TO PICK AND EAT POEMS", as well as these closing words:

"If you enjoy the taste of the wild berries I’ve picked, grab a pail of your own and head for light. That’s where these poems grow; there, and in the dappled dark of the woods. You’ll have a fine time, searching for them amongst the bushes and the brambles, so long as you go slow and watch out for thorns and bears". ⎯ phyllis cole-dai (project curator)

Leslie read "For Grief" one of the final poems by John O’Donohue to us:

For Grief

When you loose someone you love,

Your life becomes strange

The ground beneath you gets fragile,

Your thoughts make your eyes unsure;

And some dead echo drags your voice down

Where words have no confidence.

Your heart has grown heavy with loss

And though this loss has wounded others too,

No one knows what has been taken from you

When the silence of absence deepens.

Flickers of guilt kindle regret

For all that was left unsaid or undone.

There are days when you wake up happy;

Again inside the fullness of life,

Until the moment breaks

And you are thrown back

Onto the black tide of loss.

Days when you have your heart back,

You are able to function well

Until in the middle of work or encounter,

Suddenly with no warning,

You are ambushed by grief.

It becomes hard to trust yourself.

All you can depend on now is that

Sorrow will remain faithful to itself.

More than you, it knows its way

And will find the right time

To pull and pull the rope of grief

Until that coiled hill of tears

Has reduced to its last drop.

Gradually, you will learn acquaintance

With the invisible form of your departed;

And, when the work of grief is done,

The wound of loss will heal

And you will have learned to wean your eyes

From that gap in the air

And be able to enter the hearth

In your soul where your loved one

Has awaited your return

All the time.

One last thing we talked about was using gesso or paints in collaging pages. Kim applied white acrylic paint to paper bags, and by using the negative space technique created wonderful gift bags for the holidays:

Remember to let me know if Tuesdays will work for you. Our next gathering is scheduled for Tuesday, the 13th, 2-4

JOURNAL PROMPTS:

What moves you?

Draw a sweater, really simplified, using bold colors

Paint a Modigliani portrait

Draw your favorite art tools

Keep Writing and Drawing

in your journals !

xo Barb

SOMETHING CLOSE

blind contour drawing of thanksgiving flowers

GUIDELINES

Here's what you need to do, since time began:

find something-diamond rare or carbon-cheap,

it's all the same-and love it all you can.

It should be something close-a field, a man,

a line of verse, a mouth, a child asleep-

that feels like the world's heart since time began.

Don't measure much or lay things out or scan;

don't save yourself for later, you won't keep;

spend yourself now on loving all you can.

It's going to hurt. That was the risk you ran

with your first breath; you knew the price was steep,

that loss is what there is, since time began

subtracting from your balance. That's the plan,

too late to quibble now, you're in too deep.

Just love what you still have, while you still can.

Don't count on schemes, it's far too short a span

from the first sowing till they come to reap.

One way to count, since time began:

love something, love it hard, now, while you can.

- Rhina Espaillat

May 27, 2015 Journal Review

Hey guys,

We're on again for tomorrow from 2-4. Last week Camilla Eagan joined us, and she and Kim and I painted pears. Camilla glued her pear onto the cover of her new journal.

While drawing and talking as we like to do, Camilla and Kim mentioned an article in the globe about a newly published Sketchbook Project book. There is a The Sketchbook Project Library that began in Atlanta in 2006, and moved to Brooklyn in 2009. It has grown from a small organization into a worldwide community of over 70,000 artists. Maybe sometime we can organize a trip to Brooklyn to visit the museum. There was a good article written up about the book in the Austin Chronicle. Hopefully it will arrive at my house tomorrow in time for you to look through it and be inspired.

Kim recently participated in a two day "Expressive paintings from photos workshop" with Nancy Colella. She is going to share some of Nancy's techniques with us tomorrow. It involves photographs with simple subject matter, bright colors and shadows. If you have any photos with those characteristics bring them with you tomorrow. I will have some photos here as well. I attached Kim's photograph of pears beside her completed painting below. Pears seem to be a popular theme.

In looking above at the Sketchbook Project site, another thought for tomorrow is to glue a section of a newspaper article into your journal, and we can paint over them with Gouache. Gouache is an opaque watercolor so it is thicker and more vibrant.

I am attaching a link to a section of the latest Brain Pickings Weekly entitled Nine Podcasts for a Fuller Life. It has a most wonderful and beautiful podcast, interviewing Mary Oliver, on being. If you haven't subscribed to Brain Pickings, I highly recommend you do so, but be prepared to get lost in all the many directions it will lure you off into.

Hope you guys can make it tomorrow from 2-4. I'm thinking of extending the time from 1-4. Let me know what you think. I haven't been very productive myself this week, although I did make a new journal since I only have two pages to go in my recent one.

Barb

Journal Review May 20, 2015

Hi guys!

What a beautifully perfect morning. I finally got to bed at a decent hour last night, allowing me to be fully awake at this early hour. We had a good group yesterday, always something for me to look forward to. Kim was back from France and had some great photos as well as drawings to show us. She saw an exhibit of exquisite book art while in Chartres, which got us on to the discussion of what exactly book art is.

Elizabeth decided to make an accordion book for her daughter's graduation, so I helped her with that.

Kim had made a lovely little one for her daughter. If anyone else is interested, I am always happy to help make those. They are quick and make really nice gifts. I attached a photo of the outside of one i had made for Charlie's birthday one year. They can open up to as many folds as you need for photos or drawings, and on the back you can write a note to whoever it is for.

Leslie was still interested in a watercolor demonstration, so I took advantage of the lovely card Susie brought with the peony watercolor on it, and attempted to show how I would go about applying and blending the paints. Hope that was somewhat helpful. It is actually a wonderful image to practice on so maybe we can all try it next week.

Express Yourself has theirannual show tonight at the Wang, amazingly inspiring and upbeat and FREE. It starts at 7 and is open seating.

Look at their site to see how young people's lives can be powerfully changed with art.

Have a wonderful day! And thank-you for supporting my journaling.

It is so nice to be able to have this weekly time with you guys!

xx Barb

Journal Review May 6, 2015

Hi Guys!

During my two days in Burlington, I stopped into a large communal gathering spot to get a coffee, and I noticed beautiful poems, written by teenagers, encircling the room. They were collected through an organization called "The Young Writers Project" founded by Geoffrey Gevalt. I attached two links. The first one is to a beautiful short memoir written on Thanksgiving day 1995, by Geoffrey, about his daughter, Lily. It takes a minute to upload so be patient. I highly recommend you to watch it, and the second is the link to an overview of The Young Writers Project. Enjoy.

Envelopes and the mysteries of all the possibilites of what the letters inside could be seems to be a recent theme. Some of us attached envelopes to the inside of our journals. Others decorated envelopes with drawings and pretty stamps to be mailed off to someone they love. I have The Griffin & Sabine Trilogy a beautiful series of stories told through decorated letters and postcards that I will show you next week.

Elizabeth brought me a lovely book called The Art of Stillness by Pico Iyer. Thank-you Elizabeth!

I'll share a line from it which is perhaps why we all get together:

" Sitting still is a way of falling in love with the world and everything in it; Going nowhere as a way of cutting through the noise and finding fresh time and energy to share with others."

I showed a short video that gave a crosshatching demonstration, and will have a handout on that for next week. I am panning on showing a watercolor video next week because I know many of you are interested in doing more of that. The Handbook Journal Company makes a wonderful watercolor journal that comes in a few different sizes for those of you who want to focus on doing watercolors.

Below are two quotes from Kim's journal entries about drawing and beginners, both applicable to our sketchbook journaling gatherings:

"Day after day.

Never fail to draw something

Which, however little it may be,

Will yet in the end be much,

And do thy best." - written in 1340

"To bring possibilities into your life, unfold the beginners mind in all situations. In the beginners mind there are many possibilities, but in the experts mind there are few." - Roshi

I discovered an illustrator named Jess Polanshek, owner of a small illustration business called Polanshek of the Hills Illustration. Check them out. I purchased a book of hers called The Quilted Forest and decorated an envelope for my mom for mothers day with some of her illustrations. They combine pen and ink and patterns and nature and lovely colors. I attched a photo of my envelope which I am now off to mail.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

xox Barb

passages of time

Summers wind down, the air has changed, and I pause, before driving away, to embrace a spontaneous moment. Warm interiors and the gradual layering of clothes will begin to replace porches and bare feet, but the music will linger in my heart, and the passages of time will continue to strengthen my love.

Paper Art

Seastone Papers : Inside of Sandy Bernat's studio in West Tisbury, on Marthas Vineyard, is where I've spent my last three mornings. This is one of my completed projects. If you had ever asked me whether or not I had any interest in making paper, I would have assuredly said no, but that was before meeting Sandy two Saturdays ago at the Tisbury farmers market, where I first laid eyes on her beautiful coptic bound journals constructed of some of the most exquisite hand made papers I have ever seen. She uses locally harvested fibers and botanicals, as well as cotton rag and hemp. The cover of the book I bought has bits of a hornets nest added, as inclusives, into the pulp. Sandy is both an english teacher and a paper artist. She has traveled to remote areas to study the art of handmade papers. With her papers she creates individual books, each of which is a unique and individual piece of art. The three classes I took were "Monoprinting with a Gel Plate", "Collaged and Printed", and finally "Making Gel-Printed Books". I plan to return for a papermaking sampler class. You can visit Sandy's website, but for a real treat stop by her studio on your next trip to Marthas Vineyard, or maybe even sign up for one of her many classes. I may see you there!

Making time

Last Wednesday our sketchbook journaling group had a discussion about making time to journal. My only suggestion was to carry your journal and simple supplies along with you at all times. There will almost always be moments throughout your day if you are aware of them. You only need a few minutes here and there. You could try challenging yourself to make one entry a day for a couple of weeks. Make it a habit and making time will come more and more naturally. Personally, I have plenty of time to submit journal entries, but I still don't do it as often as I would like. For me, it's not so much a matter of making time as it is just becoming more impromptu and less concerned about controlling the outcome. Making time starts with being ready for unexpected moments and then diving in.