Spending Time Drawing and Walking

An evening sky.

The walk to tai chi yesterday.

And this morning coming home from coffee.

And now for getting back to illustrating.

What follows are all the little works that finally finished one-sixth of the six-way opening book. All wildflowers.

There are seventy pages, counting both sides, in each of the four smaller books on front and back of the larger book that holds two more.

So I turned the book 180 degrees to open the opposite side (left to right) and began a series of butterflies and moths.

I love the sound of turning these pages of thin paper I used to spin into paper threads for earlier works and workshops. The brushed on gesso in the middle sections gives me a place to draw and use watercolors.  The lack of a quality page to work on gives me a built-in excuse for poor drawings.

Here is another image of ways the books open….

I realized since I moved here, just how much I enjoy my own company. Morning coffee with the guys, three early mornings at the gym, weekly tai chi and chair yoga classes, monthly poetry critiques, and an occasional lunch out or wine with a neighbor are the only times I see people. Days can go by with no conversations and I find my voice is gone when I try to use it again. It is all gravely until it gets worked for a bit. And I like all this time alone. Now, thanks to the library setting up an audio book system on my Iphone after recommended by Ben (Amy’s partner),  I can listen to writer’s stories. It is such a good idea since I don’t like sitting still and turning pages. With these audio books on my Iphone I can get my steps in and listen while at the gym, working in the studio or walking through the house.

Someone asked who I walked with. No one. I prefer to be alone when walking so I can put my mind to something and work it out. Same way at the gym. I do my  workouts by myself keeping to my own time schedule. When I do go out to lunch, I am doing less talking. Just listening is enough any more. We all have our own stories and people have a need to tell them. The only time I get “talky” is here on the blog. And aren’t you lucky to be able to just shut me off anytime?

I can get 250 steps by starting at my front door and returning there after walking into every room, bathrooms and closets included. I liked figuring that out by circling the dining room table twice. Isn’t it odd what pleases us when we get older. So, if the goal is getting 8,000 steps per day, walking around the neighborhood is a nice 1,500 each time I make the loop. It is Friday so I have to do more laps around the house. Better get to it. Then a glass of wine.

Sounds like a good plan.