Artful Journey

Procreate practice  With number of books read.  January January books included two CJ Box books,  Badlands and Paradise Valley,  because we were watching the show Big Sky based on the series. Another case of the books being better than the adaptation but if you like a quick, murder suspense series with a strong, smart female protagonist, this is a good choice. As far as the series goes, it was entertaining despite deviating from the book and a miscasting of the characters. I listened to a podcast on Miranda’s Tea and Tattle podcast with Katherine May on her nonfiction book Wintering. I promptly ordered it from the library, a perfect choice for our COVID-19 environment. I preferred the podcast, as that seemed to cover my favorite parts of the book including the poem Prayer  by Carol Ann Duffy.  Another nonfiction book that I came across though a podcast was Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer.  There is a great review and synopsis of the book on ...

 Counted among my treasures are books.  I have favorites that I keep in my bedroom and go back to regularly.  Among the oldest are gifts from Nish, tiny treasures by Joan Walsh Anglund. To me they contain pearls of wisdom, love and kindness. Her words are so poetic and her simple illustrations are filled with childlike wonder. My procreate portrait  of  Joan Walsh Anglund Many people are familiar with the quote “ A bird doesn’t sing because he has the answers, he sings because he has a song”, which has been widely attributed to another favorite author Maya Angelou, although in fact Joan Walsh Anglund first penned these words. April is national poetry month, a perfect time to reflect on some of Anglund’s beautiful words. There have been many interesting articles -written about her life  after she passed away at 95 on March 9, 2021, noting her love of family, friends, nature, gardens and reading. Reading and a cup of tea sound perfect. Tea and a cookie, Plus ...

  Four years ago, on April 12, 2016 in honor of Beverly Cleary’s 100 birthday and in support of  # equal pay for women and gender equality, I drew and posted this on Instagram. With my procreate practice, and the passing of  Beverly Cleary, I thought I would do a procreate illustration of Ramona. “All her life she had wanted to squeeze the toothpaste really squeeze it...” I’ve read a lot of articles about Beverly over the past week and it reminded me of the humor and kindness with which she wrote.  Inspiration and Joy I finished off with a portrait of her on procreate, which is my first attempt at a procreate portrait. It was fun to practice this while thinking of her. Beverly said it best, “children should learn that reading is pleasure” and she certainly made it so.