Boy has it been a busy few months. I have a persistent daydream that consists of me lying on a sofa watching the Godfather trilogy with a block of chocolate next to me. Maybe one day… Last month I bit off more than I could chew, and it is only now that I am beginning …
So I managed to get through two fairs in a row, Mclean Day, and ViVa Vienna! (yes it is meant to be written that way). To summarize briefly, Mclean day was cold, soggy, and just okay as far as experiences go, and ViVa Vienna was……….AWESOME! I love having a booth at ViVa Vienna. I live …
This is a blog post that I wrote last week, and never got to send off, but it seemed a shame to leave it sitting in a folder – so here you are… “Never run in flip flops!” I have been known to say to my kids. It is common parenting wisdom that running in …
This post is dedicated to all you individuals slavishly hand writing prices on stickers, and loading cars with grid walls and EZ Up tents, or whatever it is you do to keep the dream alive. I’m here for you. The great rush is on to get things ready for the Spring fairs, and things …
You might have noticed that I have not been blogging much lately, (I’m not sure whom I’m referring to when I write ‘you’ – in all probability, my regular followers have dropped like flies by now!). Anyway, my circumstances have changed a bit recently. I now have an almost-three-year old sharing my workspace with me all …
I’m back on the proverbial wagon. “When did you fall off?” I hear you say. “Wow, I didn’t know you had a drink problem.” I hear you think. No, no, no. I do not have a drink problem (unless it is tea we are talking about here). I mean the productivity wagon. For approximately four, …
News flash!!! I finally sent my manuscript off to a publisher!! I like to think of my manuscript as a precious Faberge egg. I have been sitting on the egg for a while now, too terrified to send it off, editing and re-editing it, looking at it lovingly, and making up all sorts of reasons …
“Oh! I love these shirts, they are so vintage looking!! Said the young woman before scooping up a couple and buying them. Vintage looking? I guess she was referring to the low-tech printing process that I employ. Or maybe I really am aesthetically stuck in a different era. You really learn a lot at fairs. …
After my Summer of Germs, I thought it would be easy to make a fresh start and get back into work. I was wrong. Life has been throwing rotten bananas at me for a couple of months, and despite dodging a few of them (and using them to make banana bread), most of them have …
When I was 19 years old, I convinced my parents that I was mature enough to travel around Northwestern India on my own. I obviously possessed greater powers of courage and persuasion then.
My idea was to travel around with a sketchbook and camera, and produce an amazing portfolio of work that would help me to get into an Art college of my choice.
It worked.
While on this trip, I often ran out of art materials in places where there were no stores that sold them, so I improvised. I painted with spices such as turmeric and chilli, and used old pieces of fabric and packaging to draw on. But my favorite of these ad hoc materials by far was a stick from a neem tree that I had carved to a point. I happily filled sketchbooks with big, drippy ink drawings, and actually had a period of mourning when the stick finally broke, exhausted by my furious scribbling.
Many years later, I would range around woodlands like a crazed yeti, collecting sticks and branches for my students to dip into ink and draw with at school.
I have recently rediscovered the joys of drawing with ink. It is really so much fun.
It is hard not to relax when you draw with ink, because you have less control over the sorts of marks you produce, every line has an unexpected beauty to it. Try it.
