The Wise Woman Archetype

...was the image brought forth in today's birthday celebration.


Here is my wise womandala -
(top view of collage w/quartz stone on round, flat  container)



...can you see that cast shadow to the right...like a large crescent moon?!   incidentally cool.

Organize That!

Did I mention I've been (re)organizing my studio?

Yes, yes I have... 


( there are those lousy Prismacolor graphite pencils which I'm going to give away, the great Faber-Castel 9000 graphite pencils in the tin, and the absolutely fabulous Tombow Mono Professional drawing pencils in that nifty black roll-up)  

Here we have just one layer of my gel pens - in color wheel order, of course...

dry pigment in bottles from my days of making egg tempera paint from scratch...

and piles of various drawing materials through the ages.

Re-touching the Void

...or another week of Resting in the Darkness of January



...(actually, it looks pretty comforting to me...)






-  a time full of potentialities, 
of process - not product...

Art and the Continuity of Self

...is the name chosen for a workshop I've been asked to facilitate celebrating a special woman's fiftieth birthday.

and here's a few of the books I've been revisiting in the process of preparing for the event...

there will be mandala-making for sure...

I want it to be very special...not too this, not too that, just right! 

Touching the Void

...is my image for Stage 1: Resting in the darkness -  from the Archetypal Stages of the Great Round of Mandala
workshop.





it's really more of a blue moon than a void...

A Watch in Hand

Here it is...Isn't it lovely, watch of mine!

I know now it is Friday, January 21, 6 minutes to 4 in the day time - or it was when I took this picture.

anyway, everything in its place and all that...


now where are my reading glasses...

Inkling note: Be here now!

The writing's on the...napkin!


I've been spending time re-organizing my studio to be in the present moment rather than in the way-back machine.

No wonder I was feeling so, so, so --- like misplaced - or like my supplies weren't immediately handy - or - like things were so discombobulated in there...

Once I realized what was up, it was such a Eureka! moment. Now it's a matter of getting it all back together again.

My New Watch!

Can you believe it..?

I bought this watch through e-bay for 12 bucks yesterday afternoon...

just 24 hours after I posted a very similar looking one saying... "this is what I desire most..."

Yes, I do believe it - you know this stuff happens all the time.

Inkling Note: more moon phases

here's my clear light image which ended up looking like a lunar eclipse,

or a crescent moon...















and this obsession with moon phase watches clearly continues...




just check this out!












Now this is what I desire most -

a watch that shows me the day of the week and the month of the year
(both spelled out as words, not just as numbers!)...

the date, the phase of the moon, the hour of the day...

and has a second hand - so I can tell if the whole thing is working or not!





and this guy is definitely out of this world!

Inkling Note: cycles

Archetypal Stages of the Great Round of Mandala

just noticing my interests in:

perceiving life cycles...like in the memoirs of Balancing Heaven and Earth by Robert Johnson, or the Archetypal Stages of the Great Round Mandala by Joan Kellogg...

gathering together my drawing lessons in a step-by-step fashion like the sketchbook I just did...

and wrist watches that show the day of the week and the date of the month and the month of the year and the hour of the day...

Inkling Note: archetypal stages & moon phases

my image of stage 0: clear light
(I am more than...ad infinitum)


from the Archetypal Stages of the Great Round Mandala workshop that started this week -




I am really at this stage, man









and the other thing is this obsession with moon phase watches



(pictured are my old and broken moon phase watches, alas)

"It Must Be..." Completed!

The last page acknowledges Mom...



















who had saved this wallpaper molding forever

that perfectly fit my sketchbook as a cover...

back,
















and front!

(psst) notice the title on the book...

"It Must Be...taking a line for a walk!

The second drawing from the class is



taking a line for a walk, lightly














and then filling in each shape created by the overlapping scribbled lines

with light scales








using all the pencils in one space...or just the "B" pencils...or just the "H" pencils...or even just one pencil


to create a mesmerizing work of art!

"It Must Be..." circles into spheres!

This is where the orchestra gets to tune up


or the juggling starts to happen...


using all the pencils, rather than just one -

but we do start off slowly, with one family of pencils at a time.


using light scales to turn 2-D circles into 3-D spheres



and the environment in which they exist.



there are endless possibilities...

"It Must Be..." test driving pencils!

Yep, that's the second exercise - get to know your pencils.

The first drawing was all 4B.

Now we get to use the whole orchestra.


So I got myself a new set of pencils after all these years.


I chose Prismacolor brand because I LUV their colored pencils.



But their graphite pencils were awful...





which led me to research...


I found www.penciltalk.org and the coolest looking pencil sharpener ever*

along with my info on primo pencils,

I discovered amazon and e-bay as a source for new art supplies

and voila...



Faber-Castell 9000's



and even better,



Tombow Mono Professional graphite pencils







delivered right to my door
at better prices than art supply stores - online or in Chicago
(yea)

The Hal 9000*

"It Must Be..." focus points

This finishes up a step-by-step visual of the first drawing exercise I give in my Creative Drawing workshop...


a sense of rhythm created by repetition,













turning white spaces into light shapes,














creating movement by overlapping light scales,














achieving an overall sense of harmony and interest.

"It Must Be..." more light scales!

Ha! I realize now that the sketchbook pages are going to be shown here in reverse chrono order, sorta...


the next pages for today are...


light scales joining to create negative space,








adding enough darkness to get a sense of luminosity,















and creating visual tension.

"It Must Be..." Sketchbook Project 2011

This is one of the latest projects I've been working on that seemed to "magically" come together...


It Must Be...
















a light scale
















and random light scales