Many of you know that I love to walk. Prior to my illness and surgery, I walked several times a week, 3-5 miles in and around my neighborhood. The first day I was home from the hospital, the outdoors called to me. But I was only able to make it to the stop sign at the corner of our property.
But each day I would try to walk a bit further. Hunched over and shuffling, I just didn’t care how feeble I looked. I took my husband or a friend with me, and breathed in the fresh air, drank in the lingering spring, enjoying moving my legs.
The last two days, I have ventured up to Silver Dapple Lane. My favorite lane in the whole world. My neighbor and I have gone down and back twice. And today, I even made it three times! Progress indeed! The lane is lined with wildflowers, especially over in Mr. Whicker’s field. At the end of the lane is the best view ever! One of Mr. Whicker’s pastures for his cows is burgeoning with buttercups! It looks positively dreamy!
So I came home today and tried to capture that dreamy field on paper with watercolor. I don’t know that I got it exactly…but it’s enough to remind me of this morning…a gift to start my day.
Thank you, thank you one and all for your unbelievably kind, sweet, and encouraging words in the last post! I am indeed surrounded by so many who are supporting me in my recovery. There is much more I could tell you about the last couple of months. So many amazing ways I have been carried and bound up in a wonderful lenten journey. Perhaps someday I will write it all out. But for now, I’m wanting to turn the corner. To round the bend as it were and set my face like a flint to what is ahead. (Isaiah 50:7)
This proves to be very difficult some days. Every few days I am hit with an emotional state which I can only describe as grieving. Perhaps it’s grieving all that has happened to my body. Maybe grieving the life I used to have before surgery and an ileostomy. I don’t really know it’s source, other than medical people telling me it is due to all the medications and trauma I’ve had. Whatever it is, I endure these days only by simply riding them out. BE-ing where I am.
Nonetheless, I want to move forward. Even if it is only baby steps, I still want to look for and rejoice in the small improvements I’m experiencing along the way. One of the days soon after I got home from the hospital, my husband took me to our Ciener Botanical Gardens. The tulips were in full force!! Their upturned faces to the sun made me think of that verse in Isaiah which speaks to setting our faces like a flint, unashamed, unmoved by circumstances, to face what is ahead, whatever that might be. I took a bunch of photos that day.
And just a few days ago, I felt well enough to stand for a length of time at my drawing table and create this page. There will be more to come. It felt so good to be drawing and painting again. I look forward to being well enough to draw with my friends on Fridays downtown Kernersville. I look forward to being able to drive again and cart my kids to the places they go. I look forward to a lot, and I need patience to wait for them.
Thank you again for your faithful visits here and for comments you make! I read every one of them and they make my heart leap! I hope each of you can find some time to create something. I know it brings healing.
This is where I’m longing to be lately. Yes, I’d love for the weather to be pretty and warm enough for drawing at the Factory Courtyard, but I’m also longing for quiet spaces, a less frenetic life. With that in mind, I’m going to take a break from all my blogs except for Letters To An Artist. I’m planning for this break to coincide with Lent (which begins tomorrow!:), and resume here on Drawn2Life after Easter. I’m also planning on taking a break from Facebook too.
I hope the next 40 days are filled with drawing and inspiration and deeper creative roots, for you and me.
I love the French “au revoir!” It doesn’t have the same feel of finality as our Good Bye. Au Revoir literally means: til we see each other again!
Chris Federico, the owner of Eclection in downtown Kernersville, has opened the arms of her shop to the faithful few who love to come out and draw. We are really grateful for such a beautiful spot to be indoors for the cold weather, to have so many wonderful things to draw, to sip delicious tea, and even shop the unique, eclectic creations there if we want to!
Even though there are only one or two others who draw with me, I love having this regular spot in my week to get out in the world and draw. This is just one of the many drawings I’ve made this winter while sitting in the lovely “living room”. Each week it is arranged and decorated differently, using some of the unique creations from the shop. One time Chris even set up a still life for us to draw, gathering this and that off the “floor”. Now THAT’s rolling out the red carpet!
I won’t be able to be there this Friday, due to the Art Show happening the night before and needing to either recuperate from that or go in and do some tidying up from the show. But I look forward to next Friday, and the next. If you’re in the area on a Friday morning…come draw with us! Chris would love to have you!
So the point of this rather odd little sketch made completely out of my head, is to ask a question: Who is he?
There’s this man, who stands on the side of Sedge Garden Rd. near the intersection with Kernersville Rd. He’s there every morning when I take Maddie to school. He’s there every afternoon when she needs to be picked up from after school activities. I began to notice him last Spring. And I’ve seen him there ever since.
He is always holding something up to his mouth or ear that looks like an old cell phone. He’s often talking into it. Sometimes, he has a pipe also. My sketch, all wonky and out of scale, seems to show him looming on the sideline. He actually blends into the wintry surroundings with his woodsy coat and hat. I wonder if others notice him at all.
My imagination takes hold of me…is he an undercover agent recording the comings and goings of a particular person? Is he a granddad who watches his grandkids walk to school and back while talking on the phone with a friend? Is he a writer recording the daily events of cars and passersby at a single intersection? Will my white Mazda 5 wind up in a short story or novel someday? Is he, as my husband suggests, simply listening to a CB radio? Does he live in the side-of-the-road trailers and this is his “front porch”? Does he need to come outside in order for his cell phone to have any reception?
No matter the season, no matter the weather, this guy is there. There’s a part of me that wants to stop and ask him kindly someday what he’s up to. To know his story. To discover the character behind the mystery. But then again, part of me doesn’t. The wondering about it all is just too fun!
Do you have mystery people like this in your neighborhood or town? Kernersville seems to have quite a few. I wrote about (and drew) this guy several years ago. I did actually stop and ask him if I could take his photograph, to which he replied, “Five dollah, five dollah!” So I paid him the $5 and got a few good reference pics for the drawings. There’s also a dancing man at the corner of one of our major intersections. He isn’t so much a mystery (since he’s gotten a good bit of press:) but he’s certainly a character we consider to be Kernersville’s own. All these folks make small town living interesting and delightful.
Drawing with friends downtown Kernersville has been one of the highlights of my week since last Spring. We started out at the Factory and kept drawing through the summer there. then we moved to the Ciener Botanical Gardens in the fall and now we draw at Eclections, a wonderful artisan booth space with a cafe and seating area.
Sometimes we chat more than we draw…
Other times we’re quiet and concentrating on our sketches…
But most of the time we are chatting AND drawing, multi-tasking at its best!
Fall has morphed into winter here, although by today’s temperature, it feels like spring. We’ve been inside at a new awesome spot for drawing downtown Kernersville! It’s called Eclection (NOT Eclections, as my silly drawing indicates!)
This relatively new shop is a wonderful boutique filled with booths by various local artists and artisans. There’s a cafe inside with a marvelous seating area. The shop owner, Chris Federico, has an incredible flair for decorating and arranging the booths and all the arts and crafts. If you live anywhere near Kernersville, you simply must make a trip to see the terrific creations here. You might even get a bunch of your holiday shopping done here!
We will be drawing here through the winter months when it’s too cold to be outside. Chris really spoils us! We buy tea and sometimes a pastry. She has even set up a marvelous still life from all the terrific artsy wares for us to draw! Come join us! 10-noon on Fridays!
Just bring a sketchbook and pen…the place itself is inspiration for your drawings be they sketches, doodles, or chicken scratch! We welcome all! Click on the link below for more info and directions.
I’ve not been able to blog as much lately due to many wonderfully awesome things going on: the Ciener Botanical Gardens Art Show last Thursday, commissioned works due early December, several choral events our kids are involved in, holiday dinners with my gal friends, etc.
Tis the season to make merry and there’s been a lot of merry making going on! I’m thankful for all of it! But sometimes I’d like to slow down a bit, catch my breath, draw/write/process the event I just attended and then go at it again. Lately I’ve not had the draw/write/process part. That’s ok. Soon. Very soon. I can feel it!
I leave you with this little peek at the banner I had created for my recent Art Show. I was very pleased with how it turned out and how it expresses all the many things I love to do! Thank you so much for all who came out for the show! I loved seeing you ALL!
Put it on your calendar to come enjoy wine, hors d’oeuvres and music while browsing fine art & craft for your holiday shopping! Entrance cost is $10, and a portion of anything purchased goes to continuing the growth of our Ciener Botanical Gardens!
It has been a loooonnnngg time since I’ve done something like this and I’m soooo excited! I do hope to meet many of you at this lovely event! I will be featuring my drawings and paintings of downtown Kernersville, as well as offering Genevieve Cards and Prints.
This is a one evening event! Please come by and say hello!
For your invitation and ALL the details of this event, click below!
**Several of my works created on location at the Gardens and downtown Kernersville area will be displayed and offered for sale! The above drawing of Angel Trumpets was created while sitting at the Ciener Botanical Gardens drawing and enjoying the flowering purple basil next to it!
I’ve heard artists say things like, “I won’t paint today, the light isn’t good.” They prefer to have shadows cast under a brilliant sunny blue sky. I have always wanted to draw no matter the weather. No matter how gray. No matter the fog. No matter the chill. Fridays have been lovely to venture downtown and draw here in Kernersville. We had been camping out at the Ciener Botanical Gardens for several weeks. Blue skies or gray! Just last week, our cold fingers and toes chased us indoors! (more coming soon about our new indoor drawing locale downtown Kernersville!)
The thing I don’t get about artists who always need sunny days with strong shadows, is that these gray days seem to heighten the color around you. Artists know that a grayed background, or surrounding area, causes the main subject’s colors to sing! This was certainly true as I looked at the beautiful roadside profusion along the Gardens’ wall.
The only thing that gets a little interesting on foggy mist-laden days, is that watercolors don’t dry very quickly…or really at all. This one was swimming in color for a long time. I eventually put it in the back of my car to “dry” while I drew in another sketchbook.
It’s always good to have more than one sketchbook going when you’re out drawing. That way you don’t have to stop drawing to wait for paint to dry.
I sat across the street from the entrance to the Gardens to attempt this one. It was really too much to take in…all the gorgeous purples and magentas growing along the border. I often call colors “delicious”. These were positively scrumptious!
Once again, I am honored to have a piece of my artwork chosen (this one above) for this year’s Out of the Garden Project Honor Card!! Beginning very soon, folks will be able to receive a beautifully printed card with the above painting on it as a way of saying thank you for your donations throughout the Holiday Season. Click here for more information about this wonderful mission to provide meals for children and their families on the weekends throughout the school year. It is an EXTRAORDINARY work started by ordinary people.
Don and Kristy Milholin are ordinary people who, like myself, have a love for ordinary things. I suspect that they, like me, love to see Beauty happen in unexpected places…perhaps even in hopeless places. The above drawing, I created in my unassuming small town, in a place that is somewhat hidden from plain view. I did not travel to France to create this artwork. I did not go trekking in Nepal. Nor did I stand on the edge of the Grand Canyon. I sat down in little ole Kernersville, and put pen and paint to paper. Ordinary stuff.
I imagine Don and Kristy sitting down a few years ago on their back deck perhaps, and thinking they could provide some food for a few kids at a local school in Greensboro. A fairly ordinary thought: providing food for those who have difficulty getting it.
I think about Don and Kristy a lot. They don’t know this. But I thought about them in the spring, as my neighbors were planting their gardens. I thought about how a garden starts off with a good bit of enthusiasm, energy, and some resources. You have this plot of land, some seeds, a hose. You plow and dig, plant and stake. You water. And then…you wait. At first it seems like it doesn’t really take much, this gardening thing.
But along about mid-summer, your garden goes POOF! And all of a sudden there are more tomatoes and cucumbers than you know what to do with. The weeds are multiplying faster than you can deal with them. The ground can’t seem to get enough water. And you wonder how you’ll be able to bring in the harvest…there aren’t enough hands, resources, or time to do everything.
I’ve wondered if Don and Kristy feel this way when they look at how their ordinary desire to feed a few children and their families has mushroomed to cover over 40 schools in Guilford and Forsyth Counties, providing weekend meals for over 750 school children. Out of the Garden Project has surely POOFED. An extraordinary thing has happened in an ordinary place. Hope is brought to places where it is lacking. Food is provided for children whose families struggle to have this most basic of human needs.
The amazing thing about all of this, is that when ordinary people pool their ordinary resources, EXTRAORDINARY things can happen.
Your “ordinary resource” may be a bit of time to help sort food, bag it, deliver it. Maybe you have an ordinary talent or gift that can be given in some way. Or your “ordinary” may be $5, $10 or whatever. Don and Kristy want to thank you for your monetary donations by giving you an Honor Card for every $5.
Won’t you join me, in offering some of your ordinary resources, to accomplish something extraordinary this fall and throughout the holidays: Food and Hope for every child!
