Saturday was one of the best days in recent memory, devoted entirely to drawing on the sketchcrawl with new friends and with a challenge to pay attention to what I saw. Drawing isn't ever easy but it is amazingly rewarding and I remain fascinated with what I saw, thought of, learned and considered in a new light after wandering with open eyes and sharpened pencils.

It seems right that we get what we need when we need it.

I will post my sketchcrawl results soon but in the meantime, here are my comrade Genine's drawings from the day.

And then yesterday, I was compelled to make paperdolls again. What happens when we get started is often just about right.

goodnight,
Rachael

Not a real solution...

Just a response to a busy week...
soon I get to draw all day...SKETCHCRAWL!

see you Saturday,
Rachael

I am getting very excited about Saturday's Sketchcrawl and about taking a careful look at Rochester by drawing it in the company of a group of strangers. Since I did just read about the public, social and religious culture of Rochester in 1815, I can't help but notice the structures, the deeper history is still here. I need to do some looking, some walking, some listening to the stories.And I need to just shut up and draw...

Now as I've talked to people about the Sketchcrawl, they often say, "well, I don't draw but I've always wanted to," I have to say if you don't choose to draw on Saturday the 21st, just draw sometime.
So then, hope to see you at the Public Market at 8am...
onward and upward,
Rachael

I've been reading a little bit of everything (from John McPhee traveling with a trucker to My Year of Meats to the early history of Rochester) and then sitting out in the grass of my in process garden (snapdragons planted, tomatoes getting ready, tiny little strawberries tasty and basil, my friends, basil!) and letting it all brew together.

Likewise, I've been drawing strangers and random things, paying attention to a few visual projects (day-job related mostly) that have been a bit abandoned, and thinking about clay again (doesn't the world need a few more lumpy coffee cups? with drawings on them? hey, I thought so too!).

And while my creative work of late has been...undisciplined...it is (and by this I mean the daily work of sketchbook drawing, some sort reading/writing) filling the well, making me consider a bit more carefully what the project will be when I sit down in my studio and spend some time on the thing that needs to be created. In the end it will likely have a smidgen of the small strawberry taste, a bit of the mission of the meat book and the trucker reportage (without the preachiness of the former or the heroicizing of the latter), and with the joy of the making fully present in the thing made.

So then, come out and draw next Saturday!
best,
Rachael

If you'll be in Rochester on that day, please join us to draw...

Rachael