A Mindful Life

Claire and I found a leaf on a walk at Central Park yesterday. It was distinctive, and I thought immediately that I should try drawing it.

“Found Leaf” / 7×10″ sketch paper with colored pencil

This is watercolor paint on sketch paper then drawn with ink. For some reason, lately I find drawing hundreds of tiny circles to be relaxing and meditative. This is how I spent my two hours while the babysitter took care of Claire.

This wasn’t the best day for creativity. I spent the morning at the doctor’s office waiting (much too long) to get a TB skin test. Claire and I will start a parent-participation preschool class next week, and because I’ll be in contact with other kids, they need to know I won’t visit a plague upon [...]

In just this day, Claire added more words: hammer, pliers, wrench (from her chunky puzzle), happy, crying, climbing, sad. I’m actually awed. I don’t know what is “normal” or “average” for a 14-month-old in terms of language development (articulation and comprehension), but I’m just impressed at how each day she increases her understanding of the [...]

I debated adding color to this but didn’t want to mess with the crisp clean look.

“Starfish” / 7×10″ sketch paper with pen

I’m raising a little sponge. Claire has more words now. What’s so fun is she is game to attempt to say anything. If you ask her, “Can you say [insert word]?” she will try it. It’s uncanny how well she pronounces words too. Here are her latest acquisitions:
achoo, back, beans, book, boom, bounce, bubbles, bunny, [...]

“Harvest” / 7×10″ sketch paper with collage, stamps, charcoal, marker, and inkThe usual metaphors are included here: tree of knowledge, enlightenment, dawn of understanding, etc.

I’m spinning my wheels today regarding what to create for AEDM. Every idea I have I feel is too complex for the time I have today, I feel stale and uninspired, and I feel unskilled to bring forth some of the ideas. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. I have very little free time today.

This week’s theme for Illustration Friday is wise, and owls were my first thought. Claire adores owls and loves to say the word, though she has yet to catch on what they say (who? who?). So here is my attempt at drawing a barred owl. Owls have such improbable faces.

“Wise” / 7×10″ sketch paper with [...]

I traced my hand. I tried not to over-think what to do with it. I wanted contrast and boldness. The result brought to mind a mandala.
Representing the universe itself, a mandala is both the microcosm and the macrocosm, and we are all part of its intricate design. The mandala is more than an image seen [...]