"Alas..."

...I feel "faint of heart"...as these 3 pages are my final contribution of art

in Nina Johansson's Maruman "Multitudes"...

and bit "verklempt", as well,

that this will be my "official signing off " post...

as my portion of the Maruman_X international sketchbook exchange

has hereby come to a close.

The sound you now hear is my breath exhaling in a big looooong sigh.

(Lower lip extended in a bit of a pitiful pout as well...)

What an artistic journey and spiritual joy this project has been.

The project developed from of the mind of Anita Davies...

Anita, your creative idea rocked!

I found it quite interesting and, surprisingly, a bit more challenging,

to be the last artist to fill spaces in Nina's book.

Because of the way the composition of pages filtered through our rotation

there were 11 blank sides left for me to design...

I was blessed with one extra!

But...

on the other hand it was fairly "cut and dry"

as to where my art would need to fit in-in order to complete the book...

simply put...

my creative wings had to learn to fly in "limited airspace!" LOL :)

The pages above were pages 38-40...the last three of Nina's book.

I designed them to provide a transitional, open ended view

of the ancient desert of my home in Arizona

to

the modern metropolis of Nina's home in Sweden...

symbolically marking the not an ending...but a new beginning.

...the native Arizona petroglyphs included as

being possibly the first "sketchbook" exchange ever! LOL :)

As always...

more art and information about the last two sketchbooks to be completed

can be found at the Maruman_X blogspot.

"The little dissatisfaction which every artist feels

at the completion of a work

forms

the germ of a new work."
~Berthold Auerbach