Friday morning, I headed to our front porch, coffee-in-hand, with my sketchbook, to start my day with some new ideas.
But it turned into a stroll through ideas I had already recorded.
The sketchbook I had picked up had plenty of blank pages in the second half. But the first half was filled with ideas I had recorded over a period of several years.
My sketchbook entries are never fancy. They are seldom fully realized. They are almost always quick studies – almost a shorthand.
I am usually the only one who sees them. And I am the only one who has to understand what they mean.
I make a sketch so I won’t forget an idea.
I make a sketch so I can turn it over and over, trying it out in different variations.
I make a sketch as a place to return to – to jumpstart creativity at times when the well is dry.
It became a wonderful way to start my day. I remembered techniques I intended to try out on fabric. (Some I completed. Some I did not.) I remembered ideas I wanted to develop. I even remembered color palettes that had interested me, described as margin notes.
Saturday morning I began the day on the porch again. This time I did begin work on new ideas.
But, I believe my thoughts that day were enriched by having revisited those pages of old sketches.
. . . . .
Meanwhile – In my studio this week I’ve been working on paper collages. I’m getting ne work ready for the Fall Festival of Art November 21-22. It’s almost here!
For all of us: focus each day
on the good that needs to be done in the world.
Be part of doing it.
Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi
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