The Home Run -- Enjoy this film!

Hold that pose!

Demi is so well trained that if I give her the Down-Stay commands she will stay in that position FOREVER.

Many times I have left the room only to return an hour later and the poor kid was still Downing and Staying!

But there's one concept she can't grasp - Don't move. Hold that pose!

This morning, while the kids in Juvenile Hall were drawing, I was sketching Demi.

Every time she moved her head I began again. And again. And again. Often she would return to an earlier position so I'd draw as fast as I could to get in a few more lines, then she'd move so I'd re-start, then she'd move and I'd work on one I had half finished. And so it went.

The flip side was that it gave me needed practice on quick gestural drawings and it was one of the few times I wasn't drawing her asleep!

Stamping out fun

I've become interested (again) in postal art, especially artistamps.

"What," I hear you asking, "is an artistamp?" Well, it's a tiny piece of art depicted as a postage stamp, complete with a nation of origin. Everything is imaginary, of course.

And, I add quickly, when you affix an artistamp to an envelope (which may be elaborately decorated), you also affix the correct postage of your country (unless you were looking for a new residence in the lock-up).

My first issue shows the kissing camels I watercolored several months ago. It was issued by the Republica de Slonoma for 44¢. I can't wait to link up with some other postal art aficionados, use it and wait for their artistic response.

Kids' jail

I work professionally and also volunteer in our local Juvenile detention center 13 hours a week. Today I was trying very, very hard, to begin to learn some of the skills of perspective drawing while I was sitting with kids.

Both drawings are abysmal, but that never stopped me from posting to my blog!

The first sketch shows an open housing unit with few locked doors. The boys here have done well and their charges are usually minor or they have been in the Hall for months or years and can now be trusted with more freedom.

As a beginning art student, I was simply trying to draw the many squares and rectangles visible in the room and to place objects in relative size comparisons. It didn't work, but that was what I was trying for.

In this second, more complicated drawing, there are two tiers of rooms with locked doors for more serious offenders.

I was attempting to draw the central staircase with protective grillwork and additional grillwork around the second tier (so no one falls through or gets thrown down). Again, I was only trying to depict the relative size of the doors and railings.

Alas! When it comes to architectural elements, I haven't a clue!

Not so different

I love the way men accuse women of nattering like old hens. These guys, sitting at their regular table at Starbucks this morning, were doing the exact same thing.

I allowed myself a 45-minute time block with my venti nonfat latté before heading off for a haircut near by. I sat in one of the nice cushy chairs in the corner, exactly facing the guy in the center. There were a couple others in the group too, but they were off the page.

I'm still learning how to put people in my drawings and to tell a story by the context. Moving from single objects to objects in their own narrative is a very brand new effort for me.

Roley poley little pups

If you have never experienced the joy of holding very young puppies I feel incredibly sorry for you, truly.

Part of the fun of being part of Canine Companions for Independence is that litters of pups are born throughout the year and the word gets out! Each puppy is raised to become a service dog. About 40% actually make the grade, as did our Demi, who was out there working until she was sidelined by a medical retirement. (In her case, because her health has been stable, she was retrained by Assistance Dog Institute as a Social/Therapy dog and now works with me in Animal Assisted Therapy.)



Today we visited six-week old puppies who will soon go to their puppy raisers and begin the two year course of training. In the photo above you see my daughter with one of the pups.



And here's Steve with another one.



Above: A close-up of the puppy Steve was holding.

This litter was small - six were born, five survived. Both boys and girls, some black and some yellow. All gorgeous!

Read while you can

Finally, after waiting for longer than forever, 98 of us are going to begin Cathy (Kate) Johnson's class on art journaling. Over 800 messages have flown through the group like bird chatter, constant, incessant and sometimes downright lyrical and amusing.

But tomorrow is the real start-up day and I saw it coming so I did some free reading ahead of time.

Harriet Doerr's STONES FOR IBARRA was a re-read, the third time through. When I find a good book, I'm loyal, I stick to it through the decades and pick it up and read it again. STONES is one of those books that appreciates my aging. Details that meant nothing to me earlier have significance now. It's a lovely read.

FOUR SEASONS IN ROME, by Anthony Doerr, has similarities but is very, very different.

By the way, I do not know if Harriet Doerr and Anthony Doerr are related. (If you do, clue me in!) They are generations apart but could well be relatives, I just don't know. It was such an oddity to read two books back-to-back by authors with the same surname!

At any rate, FOUR SEASONS is about a young couple who venture from the United States with their six-month-old twins and live for an entire year in Italy. The twins don't sleep, the pope dies and yet they live and thrive. I loved the detailed descriptions of this narrative. This was my first time through, but I can imagine choosing to read it again a few years hence.

And now, bring on the art!

Move over Pieter Bruegel

One of my most favorite of the Great Masters is Pieter Bruegel, a 16th century painter whose work is full of lots and lots of people doing lots and lots of interesting things. If you're unfamiliar with his work, click on the title above (Move over, etc.) to see a sample.

How I would love to be able to depict like that -- drawing or painting my days, including all the folks I see and all their interesting activities.

Alas! I'm a lowly (very lowly) beginner. Every step has been a challenge. First I had to learn how to draw one single item and make it look like what I said it was. I still can't draw buildings, get the corners of rooms in the right place or have the shadows fall where I saw them in real life.

Adding people was the ultimate challenge. For a while I drew entire pages of stick figures and even they were wonky with people bending with joints that don't exist.

This morning I was back in Juvenile Hall, sitting with one lone guy who doesn't identify with the gangbangers. We were in the back of the large day room.

He began drawing from his imagination, I from the scene in front of me. I omitted the other tables and kids, the mural on the wall and lots of other stuff.

But the reason I became excited about this simple sketch was that it was the first time that I had three live figures in one place! Two staff members were yakking it up by a high semicircular desk while Demi was wandering around and her water bowl was up front.

So cut me slack, you-all, lots of slack. Take it as one tiny step forward, one very tiny step, but going in the trajectory of my truest delight. I'm just thrilled with this little bit!

Yes, no, maybe...not

While the boys were drawing at Juvenile Hall this morning I was trying to figure out if I can make a zentangle Christmas card. Dang! It was harder than I expected to come up with a design.

This was my first project idea and it won't fly although I did have fun thinking it through and chatting with hoodlums.

"Change the subject, Guys," I requested as they described their crimes and exploits. Sometimes they switch languages but I know just enough Spanish to preempt that tactic too. If they want to speak Spanish they have to help me with the nouns they aren't too eager to translate. (You wouldn't believe the vocabulary I've acquired!)

Had it been a therapy group I could have asked follow-up questions and moved towards more explanation if the life of a gangster is really their very highest goal in all of life. But it was the art class, I'm the assistant and we try to keep it focused on the work at hand.

Since I didn't like my card idea I called poor working dog Demi over to get her to pose. She gets so tired of that place! She gave me one, long bored expression and put her head on the floor and fell asleep, waiting for snack time which is much more worth the effort.

The invalid

I played invalid today and was it fun!

Let's be clear: I feel great, I'm not at all sick, not so much as a sniffle. But it was a holiday and I had nothing on my schedule, nada.

I slept until 8:30, made myself a Poor Girl's Latté (microwaved milk with instant coffee crystals stirred in) and hung out with the newspaper in my jammies.

Eventually Parisse and I took a shower -- which freaked her out because the doggie shampoo destroyed all her "information" and she was left spinning around the living room, rubbing her face on the rug to regain her dirt. In the meantime, I put on fresh pajamas and took a book to bed. Demi jumped up and kept me company while we waited for Steve to return home with a real Starbucks latté. (I'm powered by caffeine, my off button is totally engaged without it.)

When that jolt kicked in I christened my new Holbein art journal with a title page. Kate Johnson is beginning a new class on Monday and I wanted to be ready to go!

About the invalid (who is still in her jim-jams, at 5:30 pm), think of it this way. If a 65-year old woman living with Stage 4 cancer (chemotherapy yesterday), working 25 hours a week, supervising a disabled adult daughter and three dogs, one cat -- if this person can't slack off and play invalid, who can???

Lightening up

Every few days I kick back and doodle more squares for next September's luminaria display at the Relay for Life in Santa Rosa, California. I attach four-inch squares to the white bags that will encircle the track at one of the high schools.

I promised a chemotherapy nurse I'd produce 200 by then. I've only made 15 so far so I'm hoping that my private factory will speed up as the year progresses. It's TV time when I can't figure out what to draw in my sketchbook.







The weather has shifted to an obvious fall/wintery pattern. After last week's 80ºs we can tell that it won't happen again in 2009. There have been rainy days, not enough, but a start. Showers are predicted for later this week.

Everything feels different. The Christmas catalog deluge has begun. We wear jackets some days and flip on the heat to ward off the early morning chill.

Is this complaining? No, the opposite. This is my most favorite sort of weather!

Shifting gears

Now that I don't have homework to complete, I can have fun! I've never gotten much into collage but after watching several of Teesha Moore's videos on YouTube, I was inspired to try my own.

I'm hoping that I will branch out on my own, develop my own collage style and perhaps, combine drawing and collage.

It's unfortunate that, in a massive clear-out just a week or so ago, I tossed stacks of magazines that would be perfect for my needs now. On the other hand, in our home magazines seem to reproduce in the dark so I'm sure there will be more by the weekend when I have more free time.

Next Monday Kate Johnson will begin teaching her new art journaling class. I've taken other classes taught by her and am looking forward to acquiring new skills.

I'm very clear about my art goals. I only want to be able to chronicle my life as freely in drawings as well as I used to in words.

Depicting the dailiness of life with all its triviality is much more fun than writing it out -- but harder for me because my skills are still weak. But I've gotten more comfortable with that -- I draw what I can, I keep practicing, and each completed art journal is better than the one before.

Call me a quitter, but...

I dropped my life drawing class even though there is only one month left. I hadn't missed any sessions and had turned in all the assignments and maintained the art journal, but I also felt as though I had taken it as far as I could go and dreaded each class session.

In the meantime, there were so many other things I wanted to be doing, most of them related to drawing and art.

I now have six extra hours to call my own plus commuting and homework time. That's a chunk returned and I'm thrilled to have it back. As Steve said, "It's not as though you need the class for a degree or anything...." Community college courses are so cheap in California that I feel that I got more than my $60 tuition worth. It was a great class, and I'd had enough. Both.

Here is Demi, two views of her as she shifted position, asleep on a red towel in church this morning. I love to draw my doggies!

No way ... Yes way

I was drawing with two boys at Juvenile Hall yesterday morning. One of them, a gang member with serious charges, kept saying, "You can't draw, you can't even draw a maple leaf. You're gonna fail miserably."

Let's just say I've had more encouraging sketching partners! In the meantime, my task was to make use of Prismacolor pencils, a media I rarely use. Like many sketchbookers, I have a plethora of perfectly useful drawing utensils -- every imaginable graphite or colored pencil, watercolors and watercolor pencils, acrylics, gel pens, black and colored pens, a 120-color crayon box and several assortments of markers. That's on the first shelf ... need I say more?

Don't even get me started on the sketchbooks, filled and empty, on the next shelf.

A long day

Demi and I were on the go from 6:30 this morning until 9:00 tonight. That doggie works! We were in Juvenile Hall all morning, class all afternoon and attended an evening meeting. She's tired, I'm tired, but the day was good.

This little sketch is almost too light to scan. I don't usually draw in pencil alone, but today I did. Demi, as always, was sitting next to me. Like my hand, she is always available to draw.

Two month goal

Yesterday morning I attended the funeral of a person I knew from church. I actually knew his wife better since she was in a religious class of mine many years ago. I knew so many of the people there although it is no longer my current parish. How great it was to back - home - and how I wish I could continue to participate more fully in that place.

There wasn't much time to draw but I did manage to capture the basics of the paschal candle and part of the altar area at Trinity Episcopal Church, Sonoma, California.

There were well over 250 trick-or-treaters at our front door last night with many awesome costumes. I stationed Younger Daughter and one of her friends there with the door open and a dog gate crossing the threshold. They laughed their way through a busy few hours passing out candy and eating pizza.

Steve isn't feeling well today so we missed church even though it's All Saints' Day. He was awake coughing but I got to sleep in that extra hour and feel oh, so much better!

The new energy made me assess the mess in this house - mostly mine - and I'm starting a major clear-out that I hope will be an ongoing project that I complete by December 31st.

I've just spent the first hour in my home office. It is now totally unusable because I unloaded several shelves of books and art supplies onto the floor. I dusted and washed the shelves, tossed a bunch of dry markers and am in the process of putting every thing back in a semblance of order. My plan is to stay in this one room ALL DAY so if you're looking for me, I'm right here.

If you come in you should wear a mask because I'm gonna raise dust!

The count is on

I'm hoping Steve will do the heavy lifting and carve one of our many pumpkins, but at least I got one painted to set out NOW.

The kids will start ringing the doorbell in a couple hours and we usually have a goodly number. This year, because the weather is splendiferous and it's a Saturday evening and fall-back Sunday tomorrow, makes me think that maybe we should rush out and get just one more bag of candy.

Reliving the past

My third book this week was Carmina Salcido's memoir, NOT LOST FOREVER. Those of us who live here in the Sonoma Valley remember with vivid detail how her father, Ramón Salcido, went berserk and killed seven people, including Carmina's two sisters and her mother and grandmother. He slashed Carmina's throat (it was ten days before her third birthday) and threw her in the local dump and left her for dead. It was quite coincidental that she was found at all and amazing that she was still alive.

All of that I knew. I used to see Ramón every week when San Quentin's death row visiting area was still open. He would sit in the back of the room having a great time with his various visitors, of whom there appeared to be no shortage.

What I wanted to know more about was how Carina got from age three to the present day. What a horrible what-happened-next! She was adopted by an abusive couple who took the money well-wishers had donated for Carmina's future and kept her away from her remaining relatives, withheld their letters to her and didn't allow her to socialize in any normal way.

And then things got even worse. But if that interests you I'll let you read it for yourselves. The good news is that still Carmina thrives. She's a lovely young woman and the community here continues to wish the best for her.

So not me

It seems that every decade I reread this same book, A WOMAN OF INDEPENDENT MEANS by Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey because I like it that much! I just read it for the third time and it was better than ever.

Do I aspire to be like the main character? No, we couldn't be more different just by natural temperament. I like to think I'm not as controlling or meddling but also hope that I'm as thoughtful as she can be too. Certainly she is well drawn in the letters she writes -- the entire book is her correspondence -- and unforgettable as well.

A thoughtful read

This was an impulsive pick off the library shelf and I expected nothing more than to be entertained. How wrong I was! Since Demi and I spend so much time in a chemotherapy setting as well as Juvenile Hall and the library, I figured I might even pick up a few tips on how to go about our work.

WHERE THE TRAIL GOES FAINT: A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF A THERAPY DOG TEAM, by Lynne Hugo began as a memoir about her dog Hannah, newly credentialed to visit nursing home residents. But as the chapters passed, the subject matter deepened.

It wasn't just about the Hannah and Lynne team, it was about how awful most homes are for the elderly, with what boredom even our most capable elders pass their days. The author offers other models of caregiving both in and out of institutional settings. Having the responsibility to nurture a pet - even a goldfish - or plant, or listen to children read or tutor a school child, for those who are able, the need to be needed can be fulfilled in countless ways.

We all want to be valued contributors in our communities. To have work that matters to us and to have a world and experience larger than ourselves is necessary for our mental survival. Simple things, like fresh air, matter. Having visitors matters. Being taken to places outside of the home matters. But being able to add our gift of participation matters even more.

Facing a draw

I never dreamed I would eventually be able to draw a facial likeness but this one does, in fact, bear a resemblance to the model.

In class we're currently focusing on heads and faces more than full figures and I find it quite difficult. My list of things to practice just grows and grows while I'm getting older and older.

I'm reading more now too, but that's another post.

I missed it!

This is my 702nd post - so I've officially missed the big 7-0-0. I was SO looking forward to it!

In my figure drawing class we're finally drawing facial features. I can't draw eyes, I can't draw a nose, I can't draw a mouth and I can't draw ears.

So.... when you put it all together for a homework assignment, what do you get? (I don't know either.)

Feeling grateful

Forgive me, but I was drawing in church again. I can focus so much better if I do and fidget if I don't.

This was the first time I tried to overlap the figures and was surprised by how easy it is. Now I'm wondering if I can start overlapping in other drawings too - overlapped dogs, for example, and landscapes with branches that bump into each other. Some day I would like to be at the "intermediate" level.

Steve baked a shepherd's pie for supper tonight. It was truly awesome. I know I have it good - home cooked meals that I rarely prepare for myself.

Saturday's update

My 10-year old grandson is totally "airplane struck" and e-mailed me this drawing. His present goal is to become a pilot. He visits airports and flying events regularly and now he is beginning to draw them too.

Today was another all day session of docent training focusing on the architecture of the historic buildings -- the mission of San Francisco Solano (the 21st and last built of the California chain of missions), the barracks, Petaluma Adobe (where I hope to lead tours) and General Vallejo's home. It was a little hard being indoors on such a glorious day but the material was presented in an interesting way and certainly whetted my appetite to learn more.

TGIF for sure

Oh my goodness, at this point in the week, you just get what you get! I am so very tired, fried.

But I'm continuing to work on skulls and bones which hold an adolescent fascination to me these days. I guess that's what happens when you spend 13 hours a week at Juvenile Hall where kids LOVE to draw skulls.

Boys do, anyway, girls never draw that way, they draw hearts, endless hearts. Sometime when I'm in the girls' therapy group and want them to draw symbolically I say, "No hearts, anything else, but no hearts." They moan, but plunge deeper into their imaginations and come up with stronger images.



And, to show I haven't completely given away to Halloween, death, bone structures and morbidity, I found an illustration similar to this in one of the flower books in "the Hall." I seem to like stippling as a shading method. It takes forever and slows me down, but I like the end affect. What do you think?

Draws with kids

I'm lucky that my job assisting the art instructor at Juvenile Hall allows me time to sit and draw while I chat with kids. They are drawing/painting and so am I.

Learning how to draw does not come easily to me. I sketch almost every day or attempt some other kind of mark-making. Call me compulsive, but when you don't have tons of natural talent you have to devote hours of practice to learning the most basic skills.

In the meantime, I'm just grateful that it's about 3-1/2 hours before Friday. You know, TGIF. I live in a state of perpetual exhaustion and welcome the weekends as much as any nine to fiver. I'll somehow manage to keep myself busy, I promise.

What I see

The recent rain has made our geraniums very happy. It's cooler now too. So, chilly and thoroughly dampened, they bloom and bloom. Most are red but there are white ones too.

So tempting to pick -- I plucked one little sprig to draw and paint. The colors didn't blend the way I wanted - the perfect excuse to clip another stem and practice again.







When I was in chemotherapy yesterday, as I wrote before, Demi was with me waiting for nurses with passing treats. Here she is from my perspective, looking downward.


I was home most of today, which was great. I commute a lot between medical treatments, Juvenile Hall and art classes - a three town circuit, so when I only have to make one trip out I am delighted.

I got a lot of cleaning done which really helped. What is it that Fly Lady calls it? CHAOS - Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome. Well, I conquered most of it in one free morning.

Underneath it all

I'm still practicing drawing skulls and bone structure. This one was adapted from a drawing I found in an issue of Juxtapose and was particularly fun to draw. I was trying to use stippling too, not my usual shading method.

Demi accompanied me at chemotherapy today. She loves to go because the nurses give her dog treats, each nurse thinking s/he is the first one to offer one. It's a parade of treats and Demi knows what's coming and how to fix those warm brown eyes on each person who passes by.

Can a dog be manipulative, or is she just hopeful?

Page after page

I've been reading steadily, just not posting it. Most recently I read Tracy Kidder's nonfiction piece, AMONG SCHOOLCHILDREN.

It was the third of his books that I've read - and enjoyed tremendously. I also read HOUSE and HOMETOWN. I really appreciate the depth with which Kidder goes after his subjects. After I finished HOMETOWN I felt as though I could drive into Northampton, Massachusetts - a place I've never seen - and just take up life like a townie! Not really, of course, but close.

The other book I read this month was BEAUTIFUL BOY, by David Sheff. It was a heartbreaker. Anyone who has raised a meth addicted child (thank god, I haven't) or worked professionally with same (I have, many) will recognize the frustration and sadness in the loss of relationships and potential.

David Sheff writes about his several years with his adolescent/young man son and the countless attempts at rehab and recovery. He offers a comprehensive exposition of the various treatments, the impact on the rest of the family and the sleepless nights of agony with a kid who doesn't return home during relapse. Hard reading, but well done.

When three leaves you see....

....stay away from me!

That's the rhyme I remember growing up in southern Illinois during poison ivy season. It works just as well for California's poison oak.

Youngest Daughter and I have just returned from Hendy Woods State Park, a redwood coastal campground near Boonville and Ukiah in northern California.

Hendy is gorgeous! There was hardly anyone there because it's so far off season and had rained hard the previous week. We had most of the park to ourselves.

Here's our morning view from inside our tent.


And here are the gorgeous redwoods, some virgin growth nearly 1,000 years old.


I wish I could say I drew and drew, but the truth is, I slept and slept! We roasted marshmallows, built a large bonfire and played rounds of gin rummy. So entirely relaxing and fun.



Youngest Daughter is already asking when and where we're going next!