Wind picks up and the next thing I know, I am painting. Since the middle of last week I have been keeping watercolors in my car, on the back porch, and in my purse. I have stacks of paper cut up and ready and I just restocked paper towels and scotchtape.
There are only pockets of time to sneak in work on the small fries I'm making. Some for 6 x 6, some for my own silly reasons, others for old friends.
There's a big difference between fitting watercolor painting into my busy life, and way back when I had a little studio and time to make messes turn into successful paintings. I think this is making me more deliberate as a painter. Here's what happened when I tried to translate this old missing painting into a new image.


Tuesday Afternoon , watercolor and ink on paper, maybe 1999

and now,

Gust , watercolor and ink on paper 13.5 tall x 12.5 long, April 2010

I deliberately changed a lot. I had to. I see the world a lot differently now. Feels like it's good change; I think I see more.

Makes me wonder about the paintings (or poems, or songs, or ...) you make now and how they're different from the ones you made then. Show and tell?

take care,
Rachael

I hate to be on hold. I am on hold. So far it's been an hour and 12 minutes. I am trying to talk to a major internet company with a name that sounds like a cowboy noise, trying to cancel a very old website and a slightly newer website. Web identities I no longer need since I have this blog and the evil network that is facebook. But the good thing about holding and cancelling, is that I can also share about writing and drawing. I learned a couple two, three things last Saturday, see. This blog (unlike the old website or the slightly newer one) is at least easy enough to write and upload a little wisdom while I hold.

Simply, last Saturday (March 27, 2010) was magic for me. I was one of only a few attendees at a great workshop the novelist Ann Patchett gave at Writers and Books. Since I always draw when I take notes, she looked just a (very) little like this:



But it wasn't how she looked (beautiful even if tired from three days of book talking and gracious people meeting), I was most struck by what she said. Wisdom for writers from the "despot of Ann Patchett-ville" then:

Ann says she reads what she has written before she goes forward, she folds the new writing in "like eggwhites"

Ann says it's important to forgive yourself if you cannot write every day, or write X number of words a day. She told us that she is a slow writer and committed to finishing the projects she starts...
And she managed from what I can tell (unscientific analysis) to inspire us all. I left the workshop and went straight to the nearest computer where I unearthed the writing project I had abandoned last year. I forgave myself and started folding in eggwhites. Thank you, Ann Patchett. I do now intend to "dance with thems that brought me" (her striking phrase for finishing the big projects)...It is indeed one of the reasons I have blogged less, because I am now writing more...I don't need to decide if it's good writing. Ms. Patchett advises against judging the book before it is finished. And I don't even know if what I'm writing is a book, I only know it's a story I need to write.

But I only wrote for a few hours, and then I ran off to draw.


And then there was the drawing. That same day six of us gathered at the Rochester Public Library downtown to draw at a Sketchcrawl. We got restless in the quiet library, though, and soon ventured to a nearby park. For me, it was all buds and birds. Genine has already posted some sketches so here's a little bird.

Oh, and I just hung-up. I will hold again tomorrow I guess, but now I've got some writing and drawing, and oh yes, some sewing to do...

best,
Rachael

I looked up and realized. There's a lot going in the month of March in Rochester, NY if you happen to be someone who likes to draw and wander around the city. The sun has come out and the snow is very busy melting. I will simply be trying to catch as much of it (art, sun, post-winter socialization) as I can... here goes with what I knows...

Thursday March 11, itinerant artist Jim Mott has a show opening at St. John Fisher college and will give a talk about itmore information here

Saturday March 20 The Creative Workshop, the art school at the Memorial Art Gallery, will have a free/fun Open House from 11:30 to 4:30. There's going to be a little of everything- from painting to pottery to drawing, sewing and jewelry. I'm biased because I plan the event, but I'm also reminded by all of the teachers and students and visitors how much they love the Open Houses. And it'll be the last time to see this show.

Sunday March 21

Thursday March 24 Novelist Ann Patchett will be in town to speak. All of Rochester is s'posed to be reading Bel Canto, so the talks should all geared towards the general public-- I find engaging writers on stages to be ridiculuously fun to draw...

and then on Saturday March 27 Rochester Sketchcrawl will be meeting to draw at the Rundel Library downtown at 2pm to draw. Panorama by Will Yurman for the Democrat & Chronicle, he's got many more of them and they're all really cool. Rochester Sketchcrawl BlogMost up-to-date info will be on our blog (thanks to Genine!)

Should all be awesome, off to sharpen my pencils...and begin!

It's good to hang out with smart curators because they know where good painters are. I found myself at the Hungerford building today discovering the work of the collective known as Sweet Meat.

They clearly worked their individual and collective tails off to put together the fantastic experience that is sweet meat. Should you be here in upstate, cold state, seemingly sometingly feeling art-less Ro-cha-cha, I heartily encourage you to get out Friday night to see it because they'll be taking the whole thing down. They'll remove the paintings and the meathooks and the big bulldog and the fireplace and the...

see what I mean? here's your chance:

SWEET MEAT CO. - EXTRAVAGANZA! closing reception
Friday Feb 5, 2010
6-9pm
The Hungerford Bldg.
1115 E. Main St.
Rochester, NY

All the good shows full of collective energy are up and then they're down. On that, see this rad little roadtrip blog Mark made about the show and teaching he co-conspiratated on... I am very proud to have been a party.

And I'm pleased as punch that the artists are making their own shows happen. One sweet meat at a time...

onward and upward!
Rachael

Letters. I've been writing them. Since about December 27th or so, I have been writing a letter a day to an old or new friend. Often filled with random flotsam and jetsom, mundane details, and hopefully at least an ounce of joy, these letters are my whole hearted effort to regain the connections I used to have to magic people all over the country. Also, they keep me out of trouble. And the joy of these letters is that...

they've brought me back to the daily routine of writing something worth reading.

they've reminded me that I have old friends who are experts on the size of lemurs, community heroes in Sackville, New Brunswick, and fantastic people as well as artists.

they've further connected me with new friends who are modern day itinerant artists, people who made me smile every time I went through MARTA when I lived in Atlanta, and just wonderful people I met randomly.

Not to ruin the surprise, but today's Letter of the Day is to this artist. We used to play show and tell at the art library, each of us opening our sketchbooks and smiling at what the other had drawn. Now I suppose a letter can share about the same thing...

take care,
Rachael

hello strangers.

It's been a while since I've written anything here so for anyone listening/looking at this blog, bear with me as I explain that I've been single-minded lately. It's the needle. I have been trying to sew lots of things together for reasons I don't understand myself (getting sick of buying clothes with little style for too much money, feeling that all those years when I was a kid drawing fashion models should turn into something, and probably just the thrill of learning something new.)

See, I'm not a real sewist yet, but maybe I'm getting there.
I have had my sewing machine for about a year. That machine works for me to cut the stress sometimes. And somehow I've become mildly obsessed with sewing.

I now check Burdastyle daily. And now the The Selfish Seamstress. And often Amy Angry Chicken Karol, particularly when she is sewing



After some bazillions of projects in which I tried to figure out fitting, I did recently manage to make something I'm happy with. My Made to Measure skirt (of which I only have crummy pictures) was really just a plain black skirt until I remembered that I had this ribbon.



And a bright yellow zipper.


I slowed down to take my real measurements and tried to sew it better. I wear it even. And when I do, I can measure stuff!

happy making to you and thanks for listening, take care,
Rachael

A few weeks ago, at the Second Storie event, I gleefully traded a very lovely sketchbook by concepcioun for a paperdoll. I felt pretty confident I can/could/will fill it with private stuff (i.e. no opening the covers for others)

But first I had to finish my existing and very public sketchbook. So I crammed it with self-portraits and doodles like these.

And speaking of drawing in public, we will sketchcrawl in the new year folks, it will be good for filling books and starting 2010 off right. Right? right.

Draw your way into 2010, join us for a
Rochester Sketchcrawl!*
We’ll meet January 2 at 10 am at the Lamberton Conservatory in Highland Park.
They’re at 171 Reservoir Ave, Rochester NY, 14620. Entrance to the Conservatory costs $2 but the Sketchcrawl doesn’t cost a dime – just bring your own drawing materials and come ready to draw and have fun.
For questions, contact Genine at g9@rochester.rr.com or leave comments below...
*Sketchcrawling is essentially drawing in public. We gather in one place to draw and sketch. No instruction and not a lot of rules, open to anyone…See Enrico's awesome www.sketchcrawl.com to learn more about why it’s fun to draw with strangers…


And also, I love Doodler's Anonymous, and also I have to go draw...

Rachael