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                                                  DRAW A PILLOW

 

 

            NEW NECKLACE

Glass beads and waxed linen.

Made this with my favorite green glass beads, and love the big splash of color!

 

 

Found a photo of this bug online. He's actually much more beautiful than he is creepy, but I'm not so sure I'd still feel that way if he landed on me!

I'm still running one day behind on my "Everyday in May" drawings...need to draw gloves today in order to catch up. Not so sure I'll make it. This is our last night in Boulder and then back to New England. We've been eating way too much good food, but we did make a two hour hike up to the first Flatiron today. Boulder is one of the most beautiful cities anywhere, and the University is such a wonderful wonderful school where the kids seem happy & healthy and engaged. They all seem to love their professors, and if you think about it, who wouldn't want to teach here where the quality of life is so high. Wish we had another week out here. As Julie Andrews said at the end of her commencement speech, " The hills are alive with the sound of CU students!"

My daughter, Anna, graduated yesterday from UC Boulder with a degree in Anthropologie. It was an absolutely perfect day. The graduation took place in the stadium and was truely magnificent with big TV screens showing closeups of all the graduates as they marched in, making wonderful happy gestures and silly faces. Julie Andrews was the commencement speaker, and so much more wonderful than I could have ever imagined. You can watch the live speech online, but below are some of her main important points.  

 

 

 

 --Be an ambassador for 'the kind of world you want to live in'--

"Be a part of all that is decent and be an ambassador for the kind of world that you want to live in," she said.

To help make her point that graduates should "go out and learn something" when faced with adversity, Andrews shared a personal anecdote about a botched throat operation that caused her to lose her singing voice.

At the time, she was writing a children's book with her daughter.

"I was bemoaning my fate and she said, 'Mom, you've simply found a new way of using your voice,'" Andrews recalled. "Suddenly, the weight of sadness fell from my shoulders and I embraced this new learning experience wholeheartedly."

Since then, Andrews and her daughter have together written 30 children's books.

Andrews also made an endearing pitch for the arts during her speech.

"Wherever your path takes you, make the arts a meaningful part of your life in some way. Honestly, they are food for the soul. They revitalize us. They transport us. Inspires us. Shape us. Humble us. They connect us worldwide in ways that nothing else can."


Everyday matters in May #8 draw a coffeepot

Resting in our cottage in Boulder, waiting to go over to Anna's. I can't quite keep up with these daily drawings; usually find myself running one day behind. Yesterday's challenge was to draw a coffeepot, today is to draw a lock and tomorrow is something creepy. The weather is overcast and drizzly and chilly! it hardly ever rains in Boulder, but it is still beautiful out here. On our way out the door with yogurt and bananas...a call for smoothies just came in.

Everyday matters in may #7

 

 

 

Made it to Boulder and settled into our Chautauqua cottage. Anna is studying in the library for her final college exam which is later this evening.

 This chair was the drawing from yesterday:

"Something you got for free".

I have no idea where this chair came from, but it's got so much character, and it looks great out back on our brick patio. Today's May challenge is to draw a coffee pot, so I'm on the hunt for a good one.

 

 

SCENTED HEART SACHET...

A christmas present from my dear friend, Kate.

 

       drawing #6

 All caught up. This was a bit of a long process. My first attempt to draw a pine tree turned into a black mudbath, so I whitewashed my journal page, and stuck a piece of torn yellow paper on top and tried again. Looking forward to drawing perfume or something scented tomorrow. 

             PINE TREES AND THE SKY

Then from the sad west turning wearily, I saw the Pines against the white north sky. Very beautiful, and still, and bending over, their sharp black heads against a quiet sky. 

And there was peace in them; and I was happy, and forgot to play the lover, And laughed, and did nolonger wish to die; being glad of you,

O pine-trees and the sky!

                                  -Rupert Brooke

EVERYDAY MATTERS IN MAY #2

M 

May 2nd  EDM

FAVORITE SOUND  

So many favorite sounds, but the birds singing in my backyard are right up there on top.  I'm thinking about all the wonderful summer sounds that begin with the birds and then lawnmowers and screened doors slamming, thunder storms and laughter outside. The sounds I love in any season are my boys at the piano, good conversations n the kitchen, my husband coming in the door after work, my cats purring, an old friend's voice on the phone...

Joined a May challenge group...one drawing a day for the month of May. May 1st was draw something bubbly. If you are interested in participating you can join the group at: http://www.flickr.com/groups/edmeverydayinmay2011/

 

 

Thank goodness for love and creativity. My son, Amory, recently sent me this wonderful quote from Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch by Henry Miller:

"The Windows of the soul are infinite, we are told. And it is through the eyes of the soul that paradise is visioned. If there are flaws in your paradise, open more windows! VIsion is entirely a creative faculty: it uses the body and the mind as the navigator uses his instruments. Open and alert, it matter little whether one finds a supposed short cut to the Indies--or discovers a new world. Everything is begging to be discovered, not accidentally, but intuitively. Seeking intuitively, one's destination is never in a beyond of time or space but always here and now. If we are always arriving and departing, it is also true that we are eternally anchored. One's destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things. Which is to say that there are no limits to vision. Similarly, there are no limits to paradise. Any paradise worth the name can sustain all the flaws in creation and remain undiminished and untarnished."


Cat renderings

Gouached quick renderings of my cat drawings while Charlie played the piano until he couldn't anymore, and collapsed into his bed that had been freshly made and waiting for him. Charlie returned home from Australia early this morning, having been gone for 3 months. It was a long trip, after a canceled flight from LA, but he is home now. We talked briefly about the senseless tradegy of the Boston marathon bomb. There was little to say, but our quietness said it all. The heartache was tangible.   

"Drawing" by Carla Sonheim is a book I just recieved in the mail with 52 fun drawing exercises. The first exercise is to draw at least 30 cats from your imagination in as many different poses as you can think of. These are the drawings I came up with. I'm going to spend some time looking at our real cats and try again. The next step is to pick one or two favorite drawings and render them again in different ways.  

 

Today is one of those quiet grey days, conducive to indoor projects. I was finally remaking beds after a full house over Easter, when I sat down to look through a photo album I had given to my daughter on her 21st birthday. This photograph, of her in Africa, fully covered the final page with one of my favorite Antoine de Siant-Exupery quotes:

"HAPPINESS! IT IS USELESS TO SEEK IT ELSEWHERE THEN IN THE WARMTH OF HUMAN RELATIONS."

Meaningful connections have seemed more challenging to me over the past 6 months, but I know that's not the case. I've been grieving, missing my dad and kids, worrying about my mom, and not feeling ready to move on, but spring is such a cathartic season, and I can feel the joy again. There are so many wonderful opportunities and ways to connect, and I'm ready.   

chalk/magnet board

 I love this 3x4 foot chalk/magnetic board that hangs over my desk in the kitchen. I bought it years ago from pottery barn, and have been slowly adding and removing pieces from my everyday life, keeping the more sentimental ones over time, so that now it has become full of warm memories. Find a spot and start filling it with your own meaningful collection of quotes, photos, poems. The familiar colors and images and words assure me.