The Challenge of a Challenge

Yes, I enjoy giving myself 30 Day personal Challenges. But just now I had to go back into the posts to check on what exactly this month's challenge WAS/is! That's not a good sign.

It WAS/is to Play the Banjo Badly. I am failing - not only in the picking, but in the forgetting to remember to lift up the machine!
There are reasons - and other daily things somehow wedged their way past the banjo in its case.

Drawing rabbits and bunnies  - mainly.
This was not on purpose.
But it happened.
And it is O.K.
And it's an Unstated 30 Day Personal Challenge.
These things happen.


The banjo has been waiting patiently (?) for years. It's on the radar. Perhaps November will be it's month. We will be home more often. Paper and other art supplies are easier to haul around than a weighty banjo. (I am still practicing that basic fingering method in a first lesson from the YouTube.)

Sometimes we have to be flexible enough to be brave enough to be more flexible. My mind is on people dealing with hurricanes and fires. Their Challenges are greater than anything I can imagine, and NOT of their choosing. They have to bend in ways they'd never thought of bending. Some will break. I might have been a break-y sort. We never know until we know.

I know that every time I check the weather forecast for this weekend's Red Wing Art Festival the weather for Saturday gets worse. Not hurricane or fire worse. But rain-all-during-art-fair-hours worse. We will bring plastic. And weights. And warm clothes and beverages. We probably won't display the more pricey pieces. We will be flexible. And the customers will be, too. Hot chocolate instead of iced coffees. Goose down vests instead of sleeveless tee shirts. Red Wind boots instead of sandals.

A friend challenged me to the Seven black and white photos - no people - no explanation Challenge. It's been fun. I decided not to challenge others. the Ponzi Scheme pattern sort of happens as more and more people become involved. But it has been fun to see others' images, and it's been fun to get into an Instagram semi-habit. I tend to "live" on Facebook, have not become a Twitterer, nor am a Linked one. Should I tweet? Should I link? Even less time to not practice banjo! Even less time to draw and paint. And the "hearts personal challenge" has been ignored, as well. Though starting a "bullet journal" has been sort of helpful in herding the life's cats. WHEN I REMEMBER TO DESIGN THE WEEK AND FOLLOW THROUGH. 

Really, Everything is a sort of Challenge. From minute of waking to moment of nodding off. Not for everybody, but for someone. One challenge is simply to wash out every crumb in a particular plastic bag. Another is, for particular friends, to make sure mom is fed and warm and safe.

One new aquaintance's Challenge is to get her family farm's Costa Rican coffee into more farmers markets. She can vend at some, but not at others. Reasons and rules. Several chats with her have been interesting and eye-opening. It is often a good Challenge to oneself to talk to a person one does not know. After a few visits one can start in on conversation where it stopped the time before. I now know a tiny bit about being a coffee grower in Costa Rica. And now our daughter in California is sipping through a pound of their really good coffee.

Uh..., and though I should not be sipping it - that free sample of cold pressed coffee is seriously delicious!

Enough about coffee - sigh. Another blog has been typed - thanks for reading!, and now it's time to do the List-y things. 

Hmm. Perhaps not yet. It's almost time for ten o'clock break. And as I am already at a local coffee shop, it might be time for a second cup. De-caf, sadly, but in my favorite Daily Grind cup: the one with the elephant (trunk turned upward) and the quote from Buddha: Live in the present moment, wisely and earnestly." 
No Challenge to that!!

Fare-thee-well,
Sue

www.suerowe.com
Facebook Page: Sue-Rowe-Studios

Motivation - hahaha

I do not feel like doing anything. Much less the work this self-employed person has on the Damn it Do it list. Idon't really have a  list called this, but I should have one.

But the Daily Bun is freshly done.

Here's Step One:

Another widdle wabbit on a 7" x 5" piece of used Strathmore watercolor paper. I used a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen to semi-boldly sketch the outline of this petite beastie. With ink - well, (oops - haha) one must simply go and do the deed. One line I hope to somewhat hide with dark layer of gouache, and a longer-than-I-liked part of lip is already partially "erased" with a single-edged razor blade. Odd to think that through both twenty years making model horse tack and twenty years (over-lapped) making art the one constant has been boxes of single-edged razor blades. So it goes.

After using the above image as today's #InkTober  entry, I got out the tiny (SQUIRREL!! [Excuse me, it's breakfast time for the fuzzy tailed crew, and blue jays, chickadees, and crows]) metal box of gouache and watercolor paints and a water brush (brush with water in its barrel). A few broad swipes of a few colors - bun and background, and then settling to apply many strokes of "dirty white" mix  - mostly on the nose and rest of head. A few other muted colors were added as well. I guess a lot.

Another fine tool - literally - is the Signo Uni-ball ink pen in White. This was used to add more whiskers and also highlight a few areas. I tend to go back and forth with the various pens and brushes till an image yells, ""Yes! I'm finished! Please STOP!!!" (There have been times when I have not stopped...

Here is the final image. (SQUIRREL!) I remain thankful to the person who painted the original areas of color in this paper, and to my hubby who decided not to toss the watercolor block away. Minor miracles are better than none.

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Oct. 7 and 8 are Stillwater (MN) Art Festival dates. Our Booth number is 113. Due to flooding this year's fair is in a different part of downtown. No booths in actual park. But we will make this rainy start of weekend work. 'Cause that's what art fair artists do. I am thankful that we are not the artists awaiting yet another hurricane. A number of artists are doing that...

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Now, on to trying to make brain and hands and rest of body do the Real Work. Good luck with YOUR doings of the day!

Fare-thee-well,
Sue



www.suerowe.com
Facebook: Sue-Rowe-Studios

Old/New/Different

Labor Day was the last day of the Minnesota State Fair. A serious hockey mom and I went together. Our family's kids were never serious about participating about organized sports. Choir and video games -  yes. Sport sports - no. That was fine with us.

Plus, I am from Wisconsin. Back in the day Cheeseland types had very little interest in the puck and stick thing. It's much different now.

Anyway, earlier in other State Fair visits I'd been past the large trailer truck holding "the NHL Experience." No urge to go in. It became a destination on Labor Day.

(Sadly, we found out that we'd missed seeing Lord Stanley's Cup. It had been on site Friday and Saturday. However, as pal and her family had previously had their personal Stanley Cup experiences she was not too upset.)

What caught my eye was the old gear. I've loved leather in it's many forms since forever. The boots and helmets were cool, too, but the gloves held the mystery and power for me.
Here are (most?) all of the ones on display. They look like sculptures. And hold much NHL history. Look at the design and stitching. And wear.

I was glad I went. Am still O.K. fine with never being a hockey mom, serious or not.

Back to filling orders, finishing pot of veggie bean turkey soup, and battling Japanese beetles.

And considering a Personal Challenge of creating 100 Hares/Bunnehs in a month. 

Then there is cheering on particular players in the U.S. Tennis Open.

There is something to be said about having a shell of Shallow in these trying and confusing times.

"Good Luck and Be Safe" to all in harm's way. So many ways of being in harm's way these days. May we offer aid, comfort, empathy, and compassion when we can. And accept it with grace if we need it. Seriously.

Fare-thee-well,
Sue