Monday, December 30, 2013

No Rhyme..Nor Reason...

...Just a massive "End of the Year"
sketchbook blog "dump"...of unpublished (unblogged) drawings
taken from the pages of my
Red Hand.Book.
No holds are barred here.
Hence...you will see the good...
the bad...
and the ugly...
as well as the finished and the unfinished...
the colored and the "ink only"...
the single day and the multiple day...
waiting room...television watching...feel like drawing
doodles, and scribbles,
and 
just plain "pen dancing" events of my sketchbook life.
Each page was made "ink straight in"...
no lead sketches or markings or guidelines...
just raw pen markings
finding their way across my sketchbook pages....
which were usually balanced uncomfortably
on my lap.
No wonder there is a bit of wonkiness
to this collection...;)
Enjoy!



















And, now...a collection of "drawing" quotations
to inspire your artistic Muse
and
help you jump start a new year of artistic
exploration and fun!
;)

"Drawing
is the artist's most direct and spontaneous expression,
a species of writing:
it reveals,
better than does painting, his true personality."
 ~Edgar Degas

"A drawing a day keeps the cobwebs away." 
~Robert Genn

"I sometimes think there is nothing so delightful as drawing."
~Vincent van Gogh

"Draw everywhere and all the time.
An artist is a sketchbook with a person attached."
~Irwin Greenberg

"When my daughter was about seven years old,
she asked me one day what I did
at work.
I told her I worked at the college - that my job was to teach people
how to draw.
She stared back at me, incredulous,
and said,
'You mean they forget?' " 
~Howard Ikemoto

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Happy "91st" Mom...!




Simple things...
a homemade luncheon...
carrot cake...a candle...some apple fritters...
a 73 degree sunny, bright December Arizona day...
quality time spent together
laughing...talking...remembering...sharing...
 the love of family...
What lovely birthday presents, indeed...;)
xoxoxo

"Your birthday
is a special time to celebrate the gift of 'you' to the world."
~Author Unknown

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

From the Memories...


...of a Christmas "Past"...
...to the hopes and dreams of a Christmas "Present"...
I wish for your day to be filled with all the joy your heart can hold...;)
xoxoxo

"Christmas is the day that holds all time together."
 ~Alexander Smith

Sunday, December 22, 2013

"Oh, Tannenbaum!"..AZ style...







"Oh, Christmas Tree, Oh, Christmas Tree...
Your beauty green will teach me
that
hope and love will ever be
the way to joy and peace for me.
Oh, Christmas Tree, Oh, Christmas Tree
Your beauty green will teach me."

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

A Bit of a Holiday Kick-Off...















...spent with my family
celebrating the beginning of the Christmas season
 Arizona desert style...;)

"Rejoice with your family in the beautiful land of life!"
 ~Albert Einstein

Monday, December 9, 2013

Sometimes...

...the old harvest moon takes me places I need to go...
like back home...
into the warm embrace of long time friends...
many thanks, Jan...
from my heart ...to yours. ;)
A picture truly is worth a thousand words.

“Sometimes
being a friend means mastering the art
 of timing.
 There is a time for silence.
 A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves
 into their own destiny.
 And a time
 to prepare to pick up the pieces
 when it's all over.”
~Gloria Naylor 

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Thanksgiving Eve...

...Arizona desert style...:)

“When I admire the wonder of a sunset
or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in worship
of the Creator.”
~Mahatma Gandhi 

Monday, November 11, 2013

Thanks, Dad...

...for your military service to our country during WWII.
Thank you for fearlessly
flying long tedious hours "old school" style...
anxiously awaiting
the next circling signal ship stationed below
to help set your course
through the vast and lonely airspace of the Pacific theater.
Thank you
for selflessly risking life and limb and aircraft...
on a seemingly endless basis. 
Thank you for safely completing
repeated
take offs and landings on exotic foreign shores.
Thank you, too,
for skillfully and accurately negotiating those newly made
threadlike coral runways of
distant, unknown, microscopic atolls...
the names of which would soon become emblazoned
in the pages of history.
Thank you for all these things
which brought you home safely...to mom
and,
eventually, in short order to me.
Your service
not only
evacuated the sick and wounded,
returned loved ones home.
and
provided supplies needed for the war effort...
it also 
helped make our world a safer place...and my future brighter.
The freedoms I enjoy today
come from your unselfishness and love of country. 
Special thanks to you, too, mom,
as a young wife,
for supporting your true love...and keeping the
home fires burning here stateside.
I love you both.
 

"As we express our gratitude,
we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words,
but to live by them."
~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Star Stung!

May your tricks be few...and your treats be many...
Have a Happy Halloween!

"There is a child in every one of us
 who is still a trick-or-treater looking for a brightly-lit
front porch."
~Robert Brault

Monday, October 28, 2013

On My Radar...

...On this very day...October 28th...2014...
San Miguel Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico...
El Dia De Los Muertos
Tesoro del Corazon art retreat...
just sayin'!!!!! ;)

"Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat
 than in his own soul.”
~Marcus Aurelius 

Friday, October 25, 2013

Another Trip Around the Sun...

Many thanks to each of you
for helping me dance joyfully through my day!

"Our birthdays are feathers in the broad wing of time."
~Jean Paul Richter

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Happy October All!

I celebrate the birth
of my most favorite month of the year
with
an ATC sized white ghost pumpkin card all star dusted
and happily nested in her
desert digs...
a hint of what is to come...very, very soon.
Only three days remain of our seasonal love affair
in the Midwest... 
making today somewhat truly bittersweet...;)

"Bittersweet October.
The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause
 between the opposing miseries of summer
and winter."
~Carol Bishop Hipps,
"October," In a Southern Garden, 1995

123 years...

Happy Anniversary Yosemite Park!
(Image compliments of Google)
What a cryin'
shame we have a government shutdown in the works!!!
Come on Congress!
Get it together!!!

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.
Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.
The winds will blow their own freshness into you,
and the storms their energy,
while cares will drop off like autumn leaves."
~John Muir, Our National Parks 

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Oh! How Long My List...!



"Autumn is the perfect time
to take account of what we've done,
what we didn't do,
and
what we'd like to do next year."
~Author Unknown

Saturday, September 21, 2013

A Sign of the Season...

...a solitary "ghost pumpkin" at twilight...
all snuggly and happy...
nestled within some early autumnal foliage...
looking skyward...
patiently
awaiting the sparkly splendor of
the coming nightfall
and the rise of the long awaited harvest moon. 
I love this time of year!

“The true harvest of my life is intangible...
 - a little star dust caught,
a portion of the rainbow I have clutched."
~Henry David Thoreau

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Sweet, Sweet, Autumn...

...what a "honey" of a perfect season in Illinois...;)

“Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers.”
~Robert Green Ingersoll 

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Nothing Like the Birth of a Baby...



...to make the collectives hearts of a family
go "pitter-patter".
Congratulations Grandpa Scott on #3.

“A babe in the house is a well-spring of pleasure,
a messenger of peace and love,
a resting place for innocence on earth,
 a link
between angels and men.”
~Martin Fraquhar Tupper

Thursday, September 5, 2013

September...Already????

...Just how can this really be???
As you may have noticed...or NOT noticed...
 there has been an enormous
lack of any kind of activity here on my blog...
even
 after I faithfully PROMISED to you all
that this year would be different.
Well, in reality, it actually has been...different...
...sort of.
There have been a number of remarkable "firsts" that
have occurred during the past 30 days.
The past month has found me driving a couple of
thousand miles...(a recent "first")...
and seeing a region named after a couple of thousand islands
(an actual real "first").
It has found me
drawing and painting a "bajillion" artist trading cards...
(not really a "first"),
and...best of all...it had found me
visiting family in beautiful upstate New York...
(definitely the BEST "first" of them all!).
The artist trading card above was inspired by
 my grape loving cousin Cathy
and the glory of being in a Cranberry Lake
"state of mind".
I find...blessed by the golden wisdom age provides...
that
there are those special moments in our lives
when the stars seem to align
 and
all seems perfectly right...
the exact way it was somehow destined to be..
from the beginning of time.
Cranberry Lake made that happen for me
and
 memories of my short time there
will bring a warm happy smile to my heart...
for a long, long, long, long time.

"What is the definition of a good wine?
It should start and end
with a smile.”
~William Sokolin 

Monday, August 5, 2013

An In Flight Illo...

...letting my mind wander and dream as we flew
over the quilt like ranches and farmlands of the central plains...
a "no holds barred" peek at some
imperfect pen dancing.

“Dreams are illustrations...from the book your soul is writing about you.”
~ Marsha Norman

Friday, August 2, 2013

Part One of a Double Page Spread...

...drawn in my Illinois travel sketchbook
while waiting to board our flight from Phoenix Sky Harbor
to Chicago ORD.
One of the joys of carrying a sketchbook is that 
one has a constant companion
and
time really flies by!

"Calling O'Hare an airport
is like calling the Queen Elizabeth II a boat.”
~ Andrew H. Malcom