roots and plants

Ansel brought me some beautiful light green bok choy from the market this weekend. They were hydroponically grown by a farmer in the city. Each one had a little block of soil at the bottom, filled with tiny roots. "I think if you plant them, you can grow more bok choy," Ansel said. 

"Wow, neat, great idea!" I said, and went on to do other things. 

A little while later I thought of it again. "Maybe I should plant them now," I said, turning around to find them. 

And there they were already, rooting in a glass.

2 others, in a bowl

And a profile of Ansel :)

happy xmas eve!

Loads of things to do today, but this little guy showed up on one of my to-do lists:

Good thing, too, because it had been a while!

Happy Christmas Eve to everyone, Happy 3-days-after-Solstice, Happy Wednesday, Happy Last-night-of-Hannukah. 

watercolor abstraction

I love doing these abstractions. I love how the water and pigment interact, and how the colors interact with each other. I love watching it happen. I love how the different areas are like different lands, with topography that my eye can wander around in. I love how sometimes there are paths between them. I love discovering different events (shapes, colors, lines), preconceived and un-preconceived.

happy advent

Advent is a time of preparation. Things are coming. They are not yet here; we have to wait.

And yet Advent is also a time of movement. If we only wait for joy, then we may not know how to receive joy when it comes. Perhaps Advent can also be a time of practicing the art, the habit, the skill of receiving, creating, accepting, making space for, cultivating, and propagating joy.

pears, no partridges (yet)

Here are some earrings I made for a friend...along the fruit-and-vegetable theme...

cellist

Here's my friend Casey and her cello, waiting on stage for a concert to begin. I had fun trying to draw her in different poses, trying to catch her before she moved again...

Finnish fish

Good morning! I figured there was no better time than a Monday morning to introduce you all to a toe-nibbling fish:

He comes courtesy of my friend and colleague Marja, who told me that her sister used to torment her with stories of this creature. Marja drew the front-and-center foot. 

Then, unrelated (or perhaps not?) there's me, up top, dreaming of the ocean...

philetta

Happy December!

I've been doing a lot of painting lately, on canvas, not in my sketchbook. This morning though, as the snow fell thickly past my window, I thought it was time to put some color in my sketchbook again, and here on my blog!

These leaves of my baby split-leaf philodendron were right in front of me. I painted them with acrylic gouache, which I love because of how thick and matte it is, and how definite. It was exciting, too, to make some more indefinite marks with such a definite medium.

happy thanksgiving!

I spent Thanksgiving with my boyfriend and his wonderful family. They are the kind of people that say, when you bring over a celery root to put in the stuffing, "Wonderful! But let's draw it first."

So we did.