Create time out in public to sit and write or sketch each week

In spite of the fact this comes up in my calendar every tuesday, I don’t go do it. That needs to change. I have small sketch books so there is no excuse. I just don’t. I’m not happy in most of my life right now and that drains the desire to do anything from me. But I know if I would do things that tap into my gifts and talents and take charge of the things I can change I would at least be happy about those aspects of my life. der.

Went paint sketching today with a coworker. We drove up to Canton and were going to draw on the square but there was an event going on complete with loud booming music so we kept driving…. Decided to draw/paint some old houses and parked at a pretty brick and tile catholic church. Across the street I noticed this tiny perfect little temple! We were both enthralled and set up right there to paint. So, here it is. My little watercolor sketch. The scan is really washed out and you can’t see the color depth in the washes in the vegetation in the foreground. It is hardly a great work of art, but not bad for an hour and a half of leisurely painting sitting out in the warm sunshine of a 74 degree February early afternoon.

Of course, my first attempt was to draw the temple in full detail….. I soon realized there was no way to paint it as small as I was going to with all of the detail. And it would drive me crazy. And not be fun. And look like poop. So I decided to go for something more gestural and just have fun. So I started over. Funny thing… that first page blew into the road at some point and got run over by a few cars! lol! I have it – it has tire tracks on it and everything. ha.

I was much happier trying to just capture the essence of it. I took a lot of artistic license with the vegetation in the foreground, haha. That is not my strong suit… It could certainly be better but considering how hideous it looked at one point, I’m pretty happy with how it ended up, lol!

It was a lovely afternoon!

When the roof in the art studio started raining inside and the men thing went to hell, this goal lost momentum as well. I just let everything slide and that is not good for my spirit. Time to re-engage the art inside me.

Fresh from vacation, I think I will start this back this week. Of course, I have no idea what my monday will be like at work, heh. Hopefully, it will allow this goal to begin anew.

I am thinking Monday at lunch will be the day I put in my calendar to take a private lunch somewhere downtown and sit and think about my creative personal endeavors. There rarely is a lunch bunch headed somewhere on Monday so I won’t have to explain that I won’t join them. It will be good to sit down at the beginning of the work week and think about my personal goals so they remain in the forefront of my mind. If for some reason, Monday doesn’t work one week, I can schedule another day and not have lost a chance in the week to focus on this goal.

So today, I did it. I walked the five blocks from my office to the MMA. I got a lovely tasty salad and ate it in peace while I read about the upcoming events at the museum. Then, I found a comfy chair in the permanent collections gallery and pulled out my little notebook and made a master list of all the art and writing ideas bouncing around in my head. And I wrote out a start of a plan for a couple of them.

It is a start.

I am thinking of taking a day at lunch and devoting it to idea brainstorming / writing / idea sketching and maybe a saturday or sunday afternoon at a coffee shop for the same. Ideas for my writing and painting projects. Maybe getting out of the house will do several things. One, provide a focus that I’m there to DO this so the mopping and dusting and laundry won’t distract me. Two, help me to take it more seriously and thus make progress. Three, to be out in public and maybe meet people. I’m single and almost 40 and being out in public is a much easier way to meet people than waiting for them to magically appear in my house, haha. And maybe my sketching and such will attract some interest from someone who can lead to some contacts, who knows.