Here's the thing I've been wondering: when we rush around doing so many many many things at once we are not so productive but yet when I have weeks that seem so fast they blur, I sometimes find my paperdolls are dancing into the world, my stories are multiplying, and my creative output is richer. Feels like I'm making more of the good stuff.

Is it the swirl? Or maybe it's that I learn to weed out the nonsense (or channel the ridiculous) and focus my energy on the cohesive stuff (the big picture)?

With the projects I've been nuturing (two shows in two places, more here and here) I've been thinking a lot about the ways in which we make decisions resulting in art and the high quality of the things my peers make. I have the great fortune of working with a host of highly talented and hardworking artists who are, as I think about it, always busy and often productive. They've focused and paid attention to the thing they need to do...

Here's hoping you (and me both my friends) can do the same...

take care,
Rachael

Multiple views of a sculpture I would never have looked at in this way...Thanks to all the Rochester Sketchcrawlers for inspiration and dedicated looking, drawing, listening and crawling...

off to draw more,
Rachael

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