A Little Bit of Anything and Everything

Sometimes, it is necessary to be scattered.

Sometimes, it is necessary to be scattered.

Nature scatters seeds near and far to expand the growth territory for a plant. I have been scattering my seeds of curiosity lately, in order to expand the growth of my creativity.

As a society, we seem to think lack-of-focus is a shortcoming, but there are better ways to think about that.

Sometimes, we blur our vision on purpose to get more focus - as when we squint at an art composition to figure out what the focal point is. What stands out?

Or when we can’t see the trees for the forest, we can sometimes get a better idea of the essence of the trees by gazing long at the forest.

Anyway, about two months ago, I knew I had to quit my futile attempts at focusing (in other words, narrowing my scope in the name of efficiency), and open up to anything and everything. My creative tank needed refilling, but I wasn’t sure which fuel to stick in there. So I went for a mix.

I started watching YouTube videos on any arty subject that popped up, and then let those and the algorithm lead me where they might - anything from women living the “Nomad” life in their cars to crazy craft techniques that were actually scary - in the “why doesn’t that blow up?” kind of way.

I got fascinated by paper arts again - like origami and artists like Karen Elaine, who folds paper into the most beautiful little creations. I knew both Karen and lots about paper arts for the first fifteen years of this century - because I was in the art paper business and Karen was demoing for Yasutomo at all the trade shows. She introduced me to my first Niji Waterbrush!!!. I am almost as grateful as I am to the person that introduced me to my husband.

Years ago, I studied handmade bookmaking with some of the top artists in the field - like Daniel Essig and Carol Barton. How I loved that! But the commercial possibilities were dim (unless you were Daniel. I still have a book of his I paid $400 for and have never had the guts to put anything in it!). Also true of the one I created in his classes. Things that did not produce income fell away in favor of things that did.

All of this started coming around again, and the more I re-engaged and remembered, the more exciting it all became - again.

Not abandoning my sketchbook love affair - I signed up for Danny Gregory’s latest workshop - Sketchbook Journaling - to get back to my daily sketchbooks. Although Danny and I have been sketchbooking and teaching it for the same amount of time, there is always something to be gained from another practitioner. I’ve been working mostly in travel books and neglecting the dailies for too long. I recommend the class for inspiration and reminders of how easy it is to keep up this daily habit.

I bought the VIP ticket to access 5 Years worth of Sketchbook Revival and watched about ten workshops so far.

When asked what media I work in, I have always joked that it is easier to say what I don’t work with - ceramics. At the end of April, I bought a small ceramics kiln from a friend who moved back to California. Have not done a thing with it yet, but pretty soon, I won’t be able to say that I don’t do ceramics.

I took a two week road trip to the Texas Hill Country with a great sketching buddy, Dottie Best, and met up in Houston with my good friend and fabulous watercolor artist, Tania Miller (@taniamiller.art).

Here are a couple sketchbook spreads from that trip. The ghost towns of New Mexico are a LONG way from Houston in energy level.

Just after returning home from Texas, I went up to Taos, NM for a little more visual stimulation. Here’s my favorite roadside attraction sketch from that trip. This was probably somebody’s dream gallery for awhile, though I can’t find any info on it, and it is now abandoned. I discovered it when I pulled to the shoulder to let cars pass, or I would never had known it was there.

Has all this driven me crazy?

No - it has actually had a calming effect. I am learning to accept that my artistic highway has many lanes - sort of like the I-10 freeway in Houston. If you ever want to see humanity “on the move” watch that from an overpass for a few minutes. Eight lanes in each direction, and overpasses for cross traffic. Yikes!

I am going to stay on my multi-lane mental highway for awhile and share some of the stories with you.

An EXCITING New Art Supply!

I have no idea why I think I have seen it all (and bought it all) when it comes to art supplies. I am always wrong!

One of my favorite art supply stores in the whole world is Texas Art Supply in Houston. First, they have an ENTIRE room of art books. Not just a shelf, or even a whole section - a whole ROOM! So I spend hours in that room alone.

And then, they always have something I did not know existed.

I LOVE Pitt artist Pens from Faber-Castell. I have used their fine liners for as long as I have been sketchbooking (23 years or so). I own the entire color collection (72) of their Pitt Brush Pens, and and all of their colors of Fine Point pens (only about a dozen available). The Brush Pens are still wet after 10+ years. The fineliner tips never wear out like Microns can, and it takes a very long time to run them out of ink

I love them because their inks are are bright and do not fade. The inks dry almost instantly and are entirely waterproof on almost all papers.

So, what’s more to love? More Pitt Pen colors and tip varieties - that’s what.

And there they were at Texas Art Supply - The Pitt Dual Pint Markers…

Great Pitt Ink Colors and two tips - a large, flexible brush and a .8mm tip for writing and outlining sketches. For comparative reference, the regular Pitt Fineliner Tips are .3mm (S), .5mm(F), and .7mm (M).

I love the .8mm tip for my sketchbook text because it is just the perfect size (see pages above), and the Brush can fill in areas without going through the paper like alcohol markers do.

I use my Pitt Pens with watercolor in some unusual ways, which I will be putting on my YouTube Channel in a product review. Yes - one of the many parts of my current scatter of activity is revitalizing and growing my almost 20 year old YouTube Channel - which has been inactive for a very long time. Since I have a ton of videos on hand, it should be fun.

Here is a color chart of the 30 Available colors. The markers should retail for around 6.50 ea, but Texas Art has them online for $5.01 ea. They are hard to find in the online store. If you have trouble, call the store on Montrose Ave. and the nice lady will give you an item number to search - which will bring up the whole line. They also have sets of 5 and 10. Blick has them and Amazon has some sets of 20 from Germany which are a very good price and take a long time to arrive. Folks in Europe should find these more easily.

It feels really good to talk to you again and share what is going on.

Be back sooner than later.