Sheep

Sometimes sheep just need their own attention - 

This lady posed at the recent Shepard's Harvest fiber's festival at the WashingtonCounty Fairground.

I was at The Daily Grind yesterday - trying to stay sane. Drawing is a big help. Has always been. So out came the the Altoids container now containing bits and pieces of Prismacolor colored pencils. It's always amazing how much art can still be made with the smallest nubbin of pencil. Three or four blues. A too-pink pink. Some white to blend and mute. I tried taking care to note correct anatomy, but also wanted to catch this ewe's calm demeanor. Then there was the wool..... Anybody can draw this wool - haha! I could STILL be drawing this wool.

But I'd set a timer and the timer ruled. This does help force one to FOCUS and not care so much - both at the same time.

Now it's time to focus on getting our window air conditioner into the main studio.

And see if we can beat pending thunder storm.

Fare-thee-well. Draw a sheep.

- Sue

Keeping On Track.

Sigh.
I am not so good at staying on the blogging track.
Priorities. Remembering. Keeping track. 

Too many "irons in fire" or not the best irons?

Time to consider creating more sheep - 
because friends on Facebook suggested a number of excellent Sheep Names.

Rosemary, for one.

Here is the photograph I shot at the Minnesota State Fair that was used for newest pastel - now titled "Luna."

Focusing in helped. So the above became this:

Somehow "art" happened. Decisions were made. Guesses were second-guessed. And a few last marks were decided upon. 

I do not know how YOU keep on the various tracks you are on. 
I do know that now I can leave a coffee shop and block on a few more tiny squares in a journal. 
Lose the journal - lose the life! Almost Haha.

I guess this life is about making marks - in the manners in which they might add up to living a life...

So - back up the hill - 
And on to getting back to blogging more often and with better content.

Hi-o, filling in "boxes" - away!!

- Fare-thee-well,
Sue

P.S. - We have been accepted into the Spring Green (WI) Art Festival in late June, 21018. We ARE excited!!

Focus/Care

It's early Monday morning. Dark outside. Sitting under faux Ott Light.
Listening to sports-talk radio guys discussing Minnesota Vikings' ugly defeat to Seattle Seahawks yesterday. They are noting how the team appeared not up to the day's task - especially quarterback, Teddy Bridgewater. "Didn't take chances." "Yesterday he gave you no chance to win." About recent games:"Even though they were winning, Teddy wasn't progressing."

Then about  Carolina Panthers' Cam Newtown and team doing all they did to win THEIR game and remain the only undefeated NFL game - "Because they had to."

A wee tad about Focus and Caring?

I watch football for many reasons. One is to be inspired by great talent and effort.

So what do I do with this? I walk laps in house and clean out a box filled with greeting card this and thats. I need to be focused on organizing and getting stuff in order. And becoming fitter. Never football fit, but get-into-the-jeans-you-like-best fit.

So the task was to focus for one hour. Done and done.

Result? ONE EMPTY BOX!

                          If not a Win, at least a SCORE!!

And since then another box emptied. This means a few peace-of-mind breaths. And knowing that much is still to do.

For many of us an hour of focus is easy.
For many it is HARD.

The iPhone and oven timers are my friends. If that One Hour or even Twenty Minutes chunk of time is clinked  I am free to do that decided task and nothing else.

If I don't put boundaries on a plan I flitter and dilly dally and do Other Things  and and and.

And that's even if I WANT to Focus and Care. 

Because without the Timer everything is equally important and in need of doing.
This does not lead to Great Success.

If you can just decide on a task and do that task - well, consider yourself patted on the back.

I'm on Team UnDiagnosed ADD. 

But also on Team Timer.

I'm amazed that I sat here and typed this short blog. And thought only about doing the deed. And did the deed.

On to the rest of morning and day.
A group of us get to visit the National Park Service Headquarters in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin,  and learn more about our wonderful St. Croix River and surrounding area. I will be forced to Focus. Without a timer - ha! 

Then on to more empty boxes. 
And back to football on Thursday.
The Vikings play again.
Against the 10 - 2 Arizona Cardinals.
May each team care and focus.

As for me - GO, Team Timer!

Oven Timer Miracle Worker

Greetings -

As you may know, I am mostly self-employed. Four days a month I put on the retail smile and work at American Gothic Antiques, and that is well and good. But especially during Winter and Early Spring the motivation to do a thing or many things has got to come from The Inner Boss.

Having not punched a real Time Card since about 1980, one must create ways in which to be aware of Time and What Gets Done. Lists and the Oven Timer seem to do the trick here - most of the time.

Lists? Oh, so many through the years. In the past they were separate pieces of paper that would get lost in purse or under the table or in The Stacks of paper stuff that wasn't lists or might be a pile of lists.... Oh, the memories of tossed out backs of envelopes with pertinent info now recycled into nothingness. Oh, the finding of little pieces of paper from 1998 from which items must yet to be crossed off. No more of that - now the things that still need to be crossed off are in small notebooks of various kinds - in semi-chronoligical order. Lots crossed, some not crossed. But now, if one is brave enough to thumb back through the pages, one is immediately aware of done/not done. Decisions can be re-decided. Priorities revised. And on those Bad Days you can simply admire the many tasks checked off when you'd thought "Oh, my life has been completely wasted." No, You DID pay those bills, you did enter those art festivals, you did "enjoy the day." Gotta love those little notebooks.

I also love my Oven Timer. It times the bread. It times the muffins. Pizzas. And me. I need structure - even during good times of Flow (just keep re-setting timer). A forced fifteen minutes of "You can only work on business stuff" is short enough to not set off business nerves, but can even lead to another 15 minutes. Sometimes an hour. Woo hoo! Most of the time the timer is set for an hour. An hour is a good-sized block in an artist's life. Enough to focus on Serious Art or Serious Cleaning the Studio. At least when the timer goes off I usually know that I didn't start washing dishes, doing laundry, or cleaning the living room. Artists get turned off the artist path Really Easily. Especially when working at home. The Timer is my Boss. Then it's a good idea for We Who Do Not Remember to note the time that has been used to good stead. In our little notebook.

It's time to make a cup of tea, fry an egg, toast some home-made bread, and then pop that little external prompt. First task: figure out the order of the tasks, projects, missions, moments to relax and enjoy. Gotta find that notebook!

Fare-thee-well,

Be Braver,

Sue

1-5-12 - On To It!

Sheesh. Focus . Do.

These sound so simply easy to do - but the bag of sugar needs returning to the correct cupboard, Facebook Friends need propping up, one must glance out to see if the birds & squirrels are re-using/recycling, & yes, there are bits of stuff in floor corners that will have to be swept up if one is to live slightly less free of house-work guilt.

Light Latin Jazz is helping..... One small pastel has been finished this week, as well as some small sketches. I admit to spending way too much time with Roz Wound Up blogs, but there are so many excellent posts to catch up on. Then Roz sends one down other darned fascinating paths, one looks up, and oops, the early morning is all used up.

So, today I will FOCUS one hour (30 minutes?) on serious business doings - laugh, you Serious Business Sorts, but we artists at home must put really thick blinkers on our brains & not consider sketching the jade plants right now, or experimenting with the raku clay that we keep forgetting we want to play with, or writing that long-over due letter to a favorite aunt.

The oven timer has become a great friend in The Focus. Even 30 minutes of "You can no nothing else but (fill in blank)" helps immensely. Although self-employed, I do have that inner boss. But in winter I tend to sneak off for really long rest-room breaks. And I really don't want to do what the boss wants me to do. Sigh and huff. And if one hides in the mental rest-room long enough, well, it's time for 10 AM coffee break. And so it goes.

30 Day Challenge: 30 minutes actually doing Bear Business. On to it!

If you have advice for the focus-impaired feel free to share! Millions of folks are accomplishing wonderful things today. Whew!

Fare-thee-well,

Sue

Drawing for Discipline

Once upon a time, perhaps 30 short years ago, I bought a studio photograph of an infant in a wonderful Christening gown. Now the vintage photograph collection includes 19th century schoolyard kids, old folks on various couches, a whole album of two sisters' train trip across Canada, and whole lots of images that simply proved too fascinating to not rescue from antique shops, estate and/or garage sales. Real people, real lives, living on paper, whether in black and white or fading shades of color.

On a recent drawing-at-coffee-shop adventure I decided to use a photo chosen at random as a bit of focus and inspiration, and to see what my brain would tell me to do with it.

Starting with a sheet of heavy black paper I "knew" the images would begin as a value study. Look, scribble, look, measure, scribble, compare, re-measure, scribble. I "knew" the drawing would focus only on the subjects' heads. These decisions appear to come unbidden, the thoughts simply are. Then I have to agree to play by each new rule. So far, so good. Go for one hour - see what happens. Even with years of life drawing classes, I've never been secure in being able to depict humans, especially faces. But if faces are made of shapes, well, perhaps results won't be a complete disaster. Be brave in the attempt. Strive for focus, not for perfection. HAVE FUN.

It's amazing how quickly new rules pop up. Sorry, guy, you've been blocked in, but now you're going to be blocked out. It's mom's, auntie's, grandma's turn to shine. Immediately the mind ignores the left side of the paper.

On to the drawing adventure - (to be continued)

Sue