Becky adds to Erin's book: "Transform"

My creative nonfiction students created proper noun timelines of their lives. There are a lot of book and movie titles in their lists, and they've inspired me to brainstorm alongside of them, thinking of the titles that have fueled my life at all of its different stages. What resulted was a semi-autobiographic and mostly silly doodle of a few transformations from 16 to 42:

Adobe Illustrator remains a beast I choose not to wrangle--mostly due to reluctance to move beyond my comfort zone. I like feeling confident in the four things I can do with it. This gave me a little permission to stretch my AI boundaries and learn a few new things (adding textures!) without smashing my laptop.

My Singapore

Marina Bay Sands, the Singapore Flyer, rooftop bars, and skyscrapers don't do much for me. But turning a corner in Joo Chiat and seeing a friendly row of candy colored shophouses makes me grateful. "My Singapore" is those quaint, hidden pockets of art and charm and elegance. I love 'em.

Erin's wisdom

Erin's sketchbook introduction resonated with me. She writes about "enjoying the process of creation, layering words + image, found + repurposed items" and that she "feel[s] nourished every time I make something adds joy to the word." Oh, to always give myself that permission to nourish self, and oh to be confident in the value of joyful contributions that appear to have no monetary or productivity rooted value.

I tried to heed her words and just play--and to play based on inspiration from the world around me. A friend in India sent a block print card (upper left), and from there I doodled my version of the web of flowers. Into AI it went, and the flowers were recolored over and over again. Those hours could have been spent in many more significant ways, but I don't think my heart would be quite as happy.

One month at a time in Louise's book

Louise's theme is One Day at a Time. I think a lot about calendars and seasons, and I make long lists and tables of what lies ahead. Living in Singapore, we mark time differently, and at least in my mind--more quickly. Perhaps my listing and plotting is all about putting on the brakes.

I've been whittling away for a few months on a little calendar as a gift for my mom, and as I doodle the months, I think on what lies ahead in 2015. Hopefully--oodles of slow possibility. I like the thought of blank days and empty months.

Becky's Drawing in Martha's Book

I do love the value of a sketchbook exchange. We get to dabble, we get to fail, we get to try, and we get to learn to be okay with that. Right? Maybe? Sort of? For this round, I modeled a willingness to embrace doodles that veer off course.

Originally, I had fantasies a black line drawing would turn into a coloring book page as an entry for Doodlers Anonymous, but in the end...oh, in the end I just let myself step away from the book.

Sherbet Animal Party...ack!

The theme was "Contrasts in Nature." (great theme, Martha!) My vision was unusual animals decorated in patterns from the natural world that contrast with their unique selves. The result was not what I'd envisioned, and so after first drawing in pencil and then partially inking...I ran out of steam and found myself watching Jimmy Fallon Youtube videos and taking lots of snack breaks. So, to bring it to a close, I quickly scanned the drawing and "painted" with Adobe Illustrator in hopes of a miraculous (unsuccessful) make-over. It seems to me that a walrus and his wild friends have invaded a pint of rainbow sherbet. Sighhhh....

Black Ink Drawing

What's Brewing in Becky's Book

I initially intended to design some homebrew labels for my sketchbook. As a family, we're embarking on a lot of "brewing", and I had visions of clever faux-beer names that reflect the idea-percolating (and good microbrew sipping) that takes place in our quiet evenings.

As I doodled, and as we mused as a family, I realized that a lot of our mental "brewing" comes from two things in our lives: An old, about-to-fall-down barn and our ties to a third generation pear orchard. As people that have lived away from the homestead for over a decade, it's hard for us to sort out what we'll someday do or where we'll someday land or how we'll raise our completely unrooted son. So, we dream and we scheme. The dreams get large and unwieldy--tentacles all over the place of what might happen.

Returning to the sketchbook,  I took two beer mats and turned them into doors. If you flip them over, there's some embarrassing scribbles in there of what might become of the Green ranch or the 100-year-old barn. Looming over it all is our octopus of too-many-thoughts...it's a beast that is as stressful as it is liberating...and maybe someday we'll figure out what it's pointing to.

Becky sketches in Linda's book: Thinking on my two backyards

I'm of two minds these days. Linda Blaize's theme of "Art and Inspiration in my own backyard" gave me even more reason to ponder and wrestle and drive everyone in my house crazy.  November break needs to come QUICK.

Becky recycles in the mystery sketcher's book

I learned that I like a few boundaries, and when a book doesn't have a theme, I have to work a little harder. It's not bad, but it makes me think. The mystery sketcher had a vibrant geometric tic-tac-toe of patterns that Leigh built upon with likewise embroidery. Betsy collaged  a Degas-like woman covered in keys over a whirling dervish. Where's the common thread???? And so I ended up with a collage of my own that echoed some of their choices. But the real message in it was that  sometimes the best ideas are the ones we've used before. I don't think ANYTHING in the sketchbooks is cheating, but after some discussions with sketchers this weekend, I realized that we all have our internal "rules" we're following. I believe good work can be already-used work, and I made myself do it. Almost every image is one I've drawn for something else at some other time.

What Inspires Me

I had Becky's book this week, and I used a paper shopping bag I received from the Tabitha sale as the inspiration for the tree layout.  Then, I used my family-Josh, Ethan, and Laney-as the main sources of my inspiration, while the multi-colored circles at the top of the "tree" are additional sources of  inspirations: friends~movies~cheesy TV~naps~bike riding~traveling~massages~reading~eating out~shopping for good deals~organizing.  The phrases are hard to read, but I liked how they blended together, and I also intentionally included empty space.

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mothers I know.

Becky feels angst about Leigh's book

I had a karmic bite in the keister this weekend. Many kind and creative and inspiring folks have come to me with their sketchbook worries. Should I finish this piece? Is this good enough? Is it okay that I did this hastily? And while I DO care and AM sympathetic, I also have been flippantly saying, "What does it matter? Post anything! Make anything! No one cares! Live it up! This is not worth worrying about!" Sixty-seven miserable hours later, I post my fourth creation for Leigh's book. Leigh's theme of, "Choose your attitude: positivity" caused me to create things that looked like Barbie had a party and puked all over the place. Bubblegum pink and smiley shiny sunshine:

A reject

That's not me. So I'd sketch again, and soon I found myself muttering the phrase that lets me know I've crossed into a bad place. I'll keep the blog PG, but it's a phrase my dad often used while working in his wood shop (usually post hammer-to-thumb). It's part of my DNA, and man...I said it a lot while working on this page on positivity. (I think my dad would find that absolutely fantastic) I come from a line of cave dwellers. We are retreaters. We are people that hide and hermit and fester. We have to force ourselves to people and to the Light. And as I worked with Leigh's theme, I realized that in order to cope with my nature towards the glum and isolated (and the swearing), I have attempted an attitude and loosely followed a code of conduct. I tried my best to document that (often violated) code...albeit with a *&%#@$*^% pen and ^%@&&#** results. And now that I read it, I'm crafting addendums...there's nothing about service, or selflessness, or kindness, or...etc. etc. etc. Sigh. It's hard to be a *&%$#%**@# work-in-progress.

One of these kids is not like the other ones

Betsy's "Outliers" themed book arrived in my hands as I was thinking about writing. I was wrestling with the balance of humor and tragedy and working on personal narratives that I worried would make my readers wince (but made me chuckle). I was also listening to a lot of David Sedaris and Anne LaMott. After all these weeks absorbing wit and self-deprecation and also pondering how to write memoir and not be disgusted with oneself, I decided--enough already--and let a little dirty laundry air. Some of us were slow to gain wisdom. I spent most of my 20's on a runaway train of folly and now-hilarious choices. The result is a silly clothesline of nine former dates: Flip the card, read the narrative, and find the outlier!  (Becky)

A clutter inspired minimalist

We're always trying to streamline and declutter our lives at our house, and yet we find ourselves crowding our art/thinking spaces with obnoxious, messy bulletin boards. I've thrown them out with every one of our moves, but we always decide we need 'em. We'll never be the people with the grown-up office space; we are still college-dorm-room-thinkers, and so when I pondered my theme of "what inspires you," I wanted to create something that looked a little like those inevitable patchwork bulletin boards I stare at when planning my next creative endeavor. Usually I need color, but this time, since coloring books are something I collect as an adult (okay, so maybe we should label ourselves farther back than the dorm...it is possible that we're still in middle school around here), I wanted to evoke those thick black lines that always inspire (and maybe save an hour or two).  --Becky

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