hello

Hello out there, loyal readers, casual stopper-byers, people stumbling across this blog by accident. Hello, hello! I'm taking this opportunity to say hello since I haven't posted in a while.

There are so many reasons for this. I won't regale you with them; instead I'll tell you that I recently made an inner pledge to draw just a little bit more and since I was on my way to yoga class right as I made that pledge, I brought with me a little sketchbook and my favorite brush pen (thank you again, Ansel) and drew people as they warmed up.

Then I went to work and right before my first student appeared I had time to sketch these cute birds from the bird calendar hanging on the wall in my studio:

I love the action in the picture above.

I have been reading about Goethe, who struggled with reconciling different parts of himself: the artist, the man, the member of society, the efficacious maker of policies and shaper of civil life.

He wanted to be it all, cultivate it all: he felt it all within himself, could not let one part die so that another could live. 

That, he felt, would be an untruth.

As far as I can tell what he felt, of course.

Here's what I can share with you about Goethe with certainty:

random drawings

Katie allowed me to draw her - this isn't her, but it captures something about her. And she requested a ruff, after I said I'd made her look like a young Shakespearean actor.

San Francisco, and its patron saint, have been on my mind.

People in water.

just 4 days late

to honor This Guy:

bartok

This man, I think, said what he had to say in the only way he had to say it.

seamus coleman...and what i've been up to

In my spare moments, I've been making notebooks. Notebooks out of junk mail, flyers, foam board, old containers, sardine can boxes, etc etc...

small ones, long ones, tall ones, weird ones, straight-laced ones.

Many of them have landed with Ansel, being my beloved and directly in the line of fire (as well as a great source of inspiration and helpful suggestions).

So when Seamus Coleman, right-back for Everton FC, suffered his horrific leg break as a result of a nasty tackle in an Ireland-Wales game and Ansel asked me: "Can I commission a notebook?",

"Of course," I said.

He designed it, I made it.

Our hearts go out to Coleman, who always shows up, always works his hardest, always brings a million things to the table.

spend some time with these guys

un petit dessin

Some days, little drawn characters just show up. These guys are small, very small, on a to-do list.

send your dentist another postcard

Because in your excitement, you threw the first one in the mail without a stamp. And though you wanted to lie in wait and intercept the post-person the next day, you had an appointment at the very time the mail was supposed to be collected, so you couldn't be there.

So instead you took a giant piece of cardboard, glued a white piece of paper to it, bordered it with purple leopard print duct tape, and wrote a message to the mail carrier: PLEASE HELP! Please find this postcard (drawing included) and put this stamp (stamp included also, taped to the center of the piece of cardboard) on it. Much gratitude! and threw that into the mailbox, too. Maybe he or she would glimpse it, and feel generous!

But JUST IN CASE none of these theatrics worked, you made another card. Something will get there!

send your dentist a postcard

They're always getting in touch with you, right? Why not send them some love?

This is a shout-out to my dad's dentist, John Ford, DDS. This man has taken care of my dad's teeth for 43 years. Through moves and changes and life events, John Ford has been there. Teaching my dad how to take care of his own teeth with all those little picky and shiny instruments, gleefully setting up mirrors in order to show him the inside of his own mouth, explaining everything he did, and generally doing his job, doing it well and loving it too. All the while, as my dad makes sure to point out, with a tremendous aversion to causing pain. Here's to you, Dr. Ford!

morning doodles

Some of my favorite moments are when Ansel and I are lingering over morning coffee, maybe listening to the radio, tossing ideas back and forth, doodling.

We were talking about how March was generally a hard month (in Rochester, weather-wise, it's not really winter anymore but not quite yet spring) and Ansel mentioned that Julius Caesar might agree...

hofmannsthal

DSCH

This man may have been unique.

good morning!

This morning I was admiring my coffee mug, made by Marla. You can find her beautiful creations here.

fear 2

It's recital season, and a tough season in many other ways. There's a lot of fear, floating around.

My Alexander Technique lessons are always inspiring and exciting. Today Katie and I were talking about the prefrontal cortex, and how it can talk to and mitigate the fear response which nestles at the back of the brain, telling us that everything is awful and everyone is out to get us.

happy birthday, F.M.!

Happy birthday to this very hip dude. For more information please visit my talented friend Katie's website: www.alexandertechniquerochester.com

composers

Name them all!

on the subject of vegetables

Ansel and I went for dinner at our friends' house last week. Their son, faced with the vegetable selection, made this announcement. (Though he found they were quite ok when roasted underneath a chicken!)

Later, Ansel suggested this solution:

You know, with an axe or a sword, your choice :)

(If anyone wants to make this into a T-shirt and produce at least 36 of them (the minimum), so I can give one to Padraig, let me know!)

many ansels

Trying out a new set of drawing inks, I did a 2 minute sketch of Ansel with each one.

weekend of concerts

It's concert season: Suzuki group concert, two studio concerts (hip hip hooray for my students!) and a voice recital.

In a spare moment, I got to do a few quick sketches of Casey as she rehearsed with her musical improv group. Yes, she had a funny hat on - a crown, actually!

And here is Ansel, pooped out after 4 solid days of concert-going. If there were a medal for audience members, he would win it!

We've got one more: come hear Ansel play in Dido & Aeneas (along with 3 other wonderful string players) with the members of the Opera Scenes workshop at the Kanack School of Music. 

Wednesday, June 17, at 7 pm. 

springside farm

This weekend Ansel and I met our friend Alicia at Springside Farm in Fabius, NY for the sheep and alpaca shearing festival. It was a perfect day for it: sunny, not too hot. Lots of kids running around making noise. 

I got to hold a lamb in my lap. 

We saw pot-bellied pigs, and chickens, and bunnies, and of course sheep and alpacas. 

Alpacas never cease to amaze me. Their funny heads, their alert but odd stance, their big eyelashes. And of course their beautiful fur.

I thought I might draw some of them, but the crowds (and I suppose my residual shyness) were a deterrent to my getting out sketching materials in the barn. 

Instead, I plopped myself down in the grass outside and drew: 

Ansel, from a distance, wandering around a pond:

A blossoming tree:

And a view of the whole picturesque farm.