Scraps of Paper: part 4 of a Humble Tribute to the Doodle

Casual scribbles - aimless in purpose, produced without thinking.

The Doodle

The Drawing

Scraps of an idea found on scraps of paper.

Minor works

Marginalia - in school notebooks and on agendas.

The Doodle

The Drawing

Unfocused, unconscious and simple eventually evolves.

Hierarchy in the Drawing World

Continuing with the theme of the Sketchbook Project 2014, a traveling library of artist's sketchbooks, at the Brooklyn, NY Art Library, I offer page 2 of "One Step Up from a Doodle" part of my tribute to the humble doodle.

The Doodle

The Drawing

There is also rank in the drawing world.

One Step Up From a Doodle

Last May I mentioned sketchbooks and the Brooklyn, N.Y. Art Library's collection of the Sketchbooks of  2011, 2012 and 2013. (See post of May 1, 2013 Sketchbooks and real drawings). This year I signed up again for the Sketchbook Project 2014 and have called my book "One Step Up from a Doodle" as a tribute to the humble doodle -- that source of solace and ideas. I haven't finished the sketchbook yet but wanted to start it off here with the original doodle and the drawing that came from it.

The Doodle

 

The Drawing

There is a hierarchy in the drawing world.

Layers of the Earth

Layers of soil fold-in and re-form in layers of landscape. Earth shaped by wind and water, by farming and mining, full of ups and downs.

Sedimentary layers deposited by slow movements -- almost sedentary, seemingly still and dependable, surprising us sometimes by upheaval. What fault can we find with this?

The Butternut Tree

They like to mow down the weeds to keep everything neat and tidy; nature is so messy! Young trees barely bigger than a large weed are clipped in the process -- "don't put your head up so high there"

When they rise up and grow -- if they escape the mower long enough -- they have multiple stalks and beautiful forms.

Seeing Stars

Seeing stars -- a gift of the darkness of the night. Concussed by other light-sources, we see stars but not those that shine in the dark.

And star-struck we watch.

Identity

Not crimson with fury, red from exertion, or blushing. No anger, effort or shame here.

Just counterparts, twins, a match.

Gale Force

Caught in an upward swirl, in a maelstrom, we are swept up and whisked away; the ground beneath us failing in its support. It flows away in rivers and eddies, the vortex out of sight.

Such turbulence reflects the state of our inner and outer being, reflects the age in which we live and reflects the direction of our individual and collective consciousness. As it lifts and carries us -- a soft landing is our hope.

The Sky Plays While We Sleep

Reflecting the light of the sun the moon marks time. Old and new, waxing and waning, it shines in the sky making magic in the evening.

 

Is this the month of the blue one?

What to do?

"Oh" she said, "I saw this face with so much going in and coming out of the head -- I loved it!! I thought it was exactly ----- me!! And it showed how my head was full of confusion and thoughts and things flying around in it. It said exactly how I felt."

Is this our reality when we are faced with decisions?

Alone in the Universe

Plotting a course through the immensity of the universe it never pays to dwell on our place in it, nor even ponder a little. Yet it is a constant this universe of ours; this immensity and our aloneness in it.

 

We are all so mobile and so connected yet if we stop to take notice, we are amongst the lucky ones.

Fields (liberated ones)

Free of woods, free of buildings, free of debris, they seem to move with the wind. Open land, cleared and enclosed but not magnetic. Not the meta in the data, not the field in the record. Cleared for landing, for grounding, a parcel, a lot -- a lot of lots, spruce barrens and fallow.

Weed research, foraging for biodiversity.

The Firmament (warning: archaic word)

The vaulting arch of the sky at once luminous, limitless, and ever moving, puts on a planetary show at nightfall. Within their own spheres, in their own orbits, they speak of light from long ago. Such immensity only shows itself in the dark.

No longer navigational guides they have become beacons to our future and objects of wonder.

Refugees

Mass movements in trickles or torrents; it is a perilous journey. Taking only what can be carried, the way is fraught with crises and the possibilities of crises within catastrophe.

"... in front of us and behind us, above our heads, on our right, on our left, below our feet and every other side to which we are exposed..."

Atmospheric Layers #2

Expressing an intense emotional atmosphere of anxiety, the approaching mood is heralded by an

unnatural stillness.

 

The tone of the day is set -- as is the sun.

Atmospheric Layers #1

It is airy, resembling the atmosphere, the colours part of the mass of air that proceeds from one's own vision. Surrounding the environment, layers of colour in the land and in the air lead forward and upward.

 

"...colors become visible in every object according to the nature of that object..."

Blue Grass Movement

"I saw blue grass right here on P.E.I." he said, "It was the first time I understood why it was blue grass; it really is blue."

In honour of the musician -- it is now a movement -- possibly in D major.

Bound By Water

Bound by water; its very definition is an island, a natural boundary unlike others that are just lines drawn in the sand. Contained by the sea yet the sea washes it away. We look outward -- not too far lest thoughts stray to other lands and other climates.

Bound to be.

South Shore Triptych

Composed and presented in three parts, it becomes one. Eyes fill in the gaps, effortlessly. Originating with the Greeks, of course, a triptychos displays three folds, three panels, three sheets of an essential unity of thought in an image.

 

The Shore -- south not north.

Bales of Hay

Properly curing, rolled up and tied in a large round bundle, it stands as a promise of nourishment for the winter. Herbage and grasses, clover and timothy cut and dried.

Storm clouds blow in following red roads, driven down green fields punctuated by bales of hay. Lazy summer days saved in a bundle of foliage.

Third in the Artscapes Canada portrayals of Prince Edward Island this will be on view at my show at Howes Hall Gallery July 8-15 2013.

Sailing

Blown away on water the colour of warm places, feeling the undertow, the pull of the tides lifting us out to sea, we live on dreams on cold winter days.

On the solstice, close to either pole there is comfort in this.

More in a Row

"Oh" he said,

"a real drawing of real trees with real leaves."

How we do lack in the eyes of the beholder.

All In a Row

"Oh", he said.

"These ones have leaves!"

Canaries - in Greece

Heard all over those Cycladic islands, they are in cages hung out to air on high walls like so much laundry. And like so much laundry they are returned to the house when the sun sets.

Sweetly singing little yellow fluff balls -- joyous creatures thrilling to the day --

a day of streaming light, blue sky, blue sea, blue frames on doors and windows.

Dancing Partners

Trees on windswept islands partner in a dance with the wind.

Bow first at the beginning. Bow last at the end.

Sketchbooks and real drawings

I am a purchaser of sketchbooks. Can't resist, must have, do have. Many. Never completed, I left them for another day. Then one day I bought another sketchbook, brought it home, looked at the pile of unfinished ones and brought myself to account. "No more sketchbooks until you finish the old ones" I told myself. This was very hard. This was difficult. This was like not scratching an itch! BUT, it worked. I still buy sketchbooks but now I finish them.

Completed!

Incomplete

Then a friend sent me the link to a traveling sketchbook project "Sketchbook Project 2011" sponsored by the Brooklyn Art Library, NY. Such a great idea! Sign up (and pay for) a sketchbook, one is sent to you barcoded with your name and the theme you chose. Complete it by a certain date and mail it back to participate in a traveling exhibit of thousands of sketchbooks that travel all over the USA and a few cities in Canada.

Here are links to my three:

2013 "Faces Book, or, the Art of Making a Face"

2012 "Travel With Me"

2011 "Secret Codes"

Getting real

"Oh" he said,

"This really is a drawing!"

It's real

"Oh" he said.

Upton Farm Butternut Tree

"A real drawing!"

Shadows and shading

Light, shadow; light, dark and shade.

 

Contrasts and choices made.

 Spare the ink, spoil the drawing.

Time's Gift

Reflection, meditation, creation: three necessities for the human spirit. Time slips from our grasp in a myriad of activities and errands, yet there is a longing to save time, to store it, to savour it -- to use it wisely.

Seeking time's riches on a shore gasping for perspective, for insight, for inspiration before the froth stirred by the undulating sea washes our traces away.

Migrating to the day

Migration leaves things unfinished. The focus leaves, the concentration is broken, the train of thought gets shunted to the side.

 

Should I welcome the break?

,

Time's gift is the chance to stand back; to look, to find the centre, to find the edges, to stop before it overwhelms the page.

Early morning

Meditation. An act of creation. Early morning meditations flow downward, flow upward and flow from the side. They move in all directions.

 

A migration to the day.

Taking Flight

Hollow bones are needed. Feathers too, lightweight but strong. Feathers conditioned with daily grooming. The preening of plumage to and fro in frenzied but orderly motions takes on such importance. For what purpose do these daily duties prepare them?

Taking flight to other climates, other springs, they return to us.

Large Trees

Large trees grow in small towns with space around them. In small towns, trees grow tall and large in branch and limb. They age with beauty; they are rich in time.

They pull up and push down -- reaching for the sky and seeking the earth.

Rock Country

That place on the shore -- impressions in the mind collected while roaming rocky shorelines in search of fossils, shells, or sea glass. Impressions formed from regions and countries on different continents and in different climates.

 

Rock Country -- seeking to convey the interplay between rock, sun and sea. Rock Country -- ever changing moods reflected in the lives and identities of those who make their home there.

Colliding Orbs

Suspended motion in the universe.

A very brief moment in time.

The Road Forward

Pulled by the allure of a road, we follow. We speak of bends and curves unfolding before us. We label the bumps and rolls. We follow onward; we go up the road, down the road and across the road.

Why is it greener on the other side?

What is that allure?

Sunset Dance

Autumn light leaves early; the colours on days when the temperature is "crisp"are intense. After the leaves have fallen, after they've been raked up and carted away, the grass is left still green waiting for the snow.

The tree dances in the wind.

The Woodlot

Light flickering in a chancy, undefined way catches the eye through the leaves, stems and brambles. Cool in the summer. Outlined in snow in the winter, brilliantly ablaze in the autumn, the eye's task is to define and trace branch to root; the roots impossible to trace.

Such a tangle!

Worlds within Worlds

Enter the world of "Let's Pretend" -- allowing one's mind to accept what it knows is impossible -- suspending disbelief . What is the opposite of this? Real worlds that are within worlds, even a dream that turns to reality ten years later, are both within us yet elsewhere... 

and are not "pretend". Worlds within worlds are reality.

Suspending Belief

Worlds within Worlds. WWW - you thought it meant world wide web. Submerge yourself in a tropical sea and a world within a world opens up. It is surreal.

We all suspend belief. How could we live otherwise?