“A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.”

- Lao Tzu

My Summer Sketchbook page 2and listening to this and this lately...

“These are the soul's changes.

I don't believe in aging.
I believe in forever altering one's aspect to the sun.
Hence my optimism.”

~Virginia Woolf
Having three kids at home all day, all summer long, is presenting a challenge for me to get over to my studio to paint lately. When my paints were here in the house, I would just stay up into the wee hours of the morning playing. However now that they are a couple blocks away, its just not as easy. So instead of getting all stressed about it, I decided to buy myself a new, small sketchbook (for my birthday) and at least do a drawing of whatever I feel like, on page or two a day.

These are quick sketches of some of the people at the pool today while my kids were taking swimming lessons...
My summer sketchbook Page 1

...desire cracks open the gates.
If you're ready it will take you through.

But nothing lasts forever, time is the destroyer,
the wheel turns again and again, watch out it will take you through.
~Starhawk

I took the day off from the massive house de-cluttering that I am currently immersed in and went to the Capital Exhibition with my family for a very hot day on a midway. I'm not much of a crowd person and never really go to large events (unless I am drawing at them) so its always interesting to be a participant once in awhile. Its been at least 15 years since I have drawn caricatures on any midway grounds and so none of my children had ever actually been to a midway before today.

We had a good time.

On Saturday I sailed up and down the North Saskatchewan River on the
Edmonton Queen Riverboat drawing caricatures with the
hilarious (and multi-talented) artist Keith Sandulak.
Thankfully we survived the 29 degree heat and did not come across any pirates.

On Sunday I drew at a summer birthday party...Hope you had a great weekend!

I wanted so much to write something profound today.
Unfortunately I can't seem to form a cohesive string of thoughts together into a proper sentence lately.
So, all I can offer are the beads of words jumbling around my head lately
...perhaps you could make a nice bracelet with them...
saturated

validation

acknowledgement

cold

leaving

Staying

Indecision

avoidance

distraction

purpose

flirtation

passion

comparison

cliche

contrived

LOVE

balance

STRUCTURE

What words are floating around your head lately?

Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone.
~Gladys Bronwyn Stern

What a great weekend! Seeing Whyte Avenue transformed into La Rive Gauche (The Left Bank) is such a wonderful sight. A huge round of applause is owed to Kim Fjordbotten, her staff at the Paint Spot and the Old Strathcona Business Association for organizing this event, year after year. Another round of applause for all the volunteers (without which the festival would not be possible).

Finally, thanks to all of you who stopped by my booth and browsed through my journals and altered books, looked at my paintings and cards, and for all your comments and feedback. And of course...a very special thank you to those of you who bought cards, prints, and paintings, or had your caricature drawn.

If you live in Edmonton, please come down to Whyte Ave this weekend for the artwalk! It is such a great atmosphere with over 300 artists set up on the sidewalks. I am set up on the SE corner of 104 and 82 in front of Death by Chocolate.

...and yes that is me on the cover of the program from last year's Art Walk.

The Quirky Art Cafe is now Open!

Finally.

Tonight I will have my first class in my new studio and I am so excited!
My "official" grand opening Open House will be
Sunday, September 13, from 1-4 pm.
So mark you calendars!
Also, I will have details of my Fall Classes up on the website by tomorrow,
so if you would like to register for one,
please do it as early as possible because
I only have 8 spots available in each class.
Here are some more pictures for you...

So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.

~Christopher Reeve

Its just so exciting to have everything come together and I can't wait anymore...so here's a small peek of my new Quirky Art Cafe Art Studio...

I will post a few more pictures over the next couple days as everything gets finished...

Busy as a bee in Spring!
Here are just a few of the faces I have drawn in the past couple of weeks...

Also, I will be drawing for the Village of Holden this Saturday for their Centennial Celebration...Stop by and get your picture drawn if you are in the area. Otherwise, have a great weekend!

today, like everyday,

we wake up hollow and frightened.

don't open the door to the study & begin reading.

reach for the musical instrument.

let the beauty we love be what we do,

there are hundreds of ways to kneel & kiss the ground.

~ rumi

(Thanks Misty for reminding me of this quote)

Last weekend I was flown up to Fort Smith (in the Northwest Territories) to teach an altered book workshop at the Northern Life Museum. We had so much fun! My class was filled with a wonderful group of very talented and generous ladies!
Look at some of the remarkable books they produced...
(unfortunately I didn't get pictures of all of them)

Thanks so much to Laurie Young, manager of the Museum,
for inviting and arranging everything for me to come
(and for taking care of things while I was there).
It was truly a pleasure to meet all of you.

...from the song "sweaters"

A Weekend in the HOT Sun!

I just got home last night from San Jose, California
where I attended a journaling workshop
taught by Teesha and Tracy Moore.

This was the cover of the journal I made in the workshop... I enjoyed the workshop,
particularly my conversations with Joanne Burkett
(a wonderfully generous person and talented artist),
but I have to admit,
the highlight of my weekend
was definitely being able to visit
with my brother and stay at his house.
We are very close
and chat almost everyday on our macs
but don't get to see each other or spend time together that often.

I arrived in San Jose Thursday night
and Friday morning I woke up
into one of the best days of my life.
This is where I sat and drank my morning latte
with my journal/sketchbook...
and this is the view from that chair...

I had the whole day to draw,
glue in sketches (of the people I drew in the airports on the way down),
write and swim, (and repeat... many times)
...until I went to the workshop at 5 pm.

Here are a some pages of that day...
and here I am being all Californian in the convertible,
on my way to the workshop on Saturday
when the temperature reached 100 degrees.


Now I am back in Edmonton already
and it is snowing here today...
*sigh*

Besides renovating and getting my new studio
ready to open I have also been busy with other things...

This is an Art Nouveau style "Quaker" wedding certificate for a wedding in Paris next week. All the guests at the wedding will sign the bottom section of the certificate. (A first for me!)


Then of course some caricatures...

...lots of live drawing gigs...

Birth Issues layout (for the special 30 year anniversary edition)
...and a lot of tree climbing supervision...

de⋅ci⋅sion

[di-sizh-uhn]–noun
The act of reaching a conclusion or making up one's mind.
For me, making a decision is a relatively simple but timely procedure...
It just has to feel right.
Thats it.
It doesn't matter if its logical or reasonable.
When the right solution appears, I know it instantly.
However, I have to admit that during the indecision time,
I can get really cranky
(especially the longer it takes to find the right solution).

This is my process.
Its the way that I approach my painting, my design work, my parenting and basically...
my life.

I never realized just how many decisions are involved with opening a new commercial studio space. Every night I feel the "overload" alarm in my brain going off
(which fortunately is silenced easily by red wine).
Even with the essence of overwhelm wafting through the air,
its very exciting,
especially every time I realize that it can be
"Whatever I want it to be".

I have been working so hard on the new studio space!
One short week ago it was a completely blank canvas
and now it has...

• a floor plan,
• a flow plan (how things will work there)
• a colour scheme (warm colours),
• second hand wooden dining tables and chairs (costing me only $45 in total),

and is starting to have the feel of the most inspiring little cafe that you could imagine.
I have always loved the feel of funky little cafes. When I personally want to go out and write or draw in my journal the first thing I think of is some cool little cafe, so I wanted to combine and recreate the essence that I have found in all my favorite cafes around the world.
...and its getting there!

This is the part I know that might confuse a lot of people.
It FEELS and looks like a cafe but its an art studio cafe, not a regular kind of cafe.
You don't come to eat, you come to create!

For instance...on the tables are

• the condiments—fluid acrylics and gel medium,
• the place settings—paint rags with scissors, glue sticks and paint brush and a glass filled with paint sponges.

The most exciting thing today was to be at the studio measuring the dimensions for the new front bar counter and the reception counter with my Dad, who will be building it for me. He loves building and refinishing things and I can't tell you how thrilled I am that my Dad is here taking part in this new entrepreneurial adventure with me. He is the person I genetically received the entrepreneurial spirit from. 35 years ago he started his own locksmith company with a couple of friends and it was a very successful company. Then, when he wanted to change things up a bit he had the courage to sell his part of it and go travel Canada in a Winnebago with my Mom. When they arrived back home 6 months later he began to do something completely different.

Since his renewed health, due to his double lung transplant, I don't take any time with my parents for granted, and the fact that my little studio will have his wood work means more to me than anything else in there.

Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind.

~Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519)

I had a wonderful morning at the zoo with my son's grade one class
and my camera, (all 297 pictures worth)
Here are some of my favourites...

Lots of people talk to animals.... Not very many listen, though.... That's the problem.
~Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh

Dealing with too much to do...