Lee Michaels 1971

Been 14 days since I don't know when
I just saw her with my best friend
Do ya know what I mean?

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Up late at night reading blogs. One had a link to a music video on YouTube. I never can watch just one YouTube video. I have to watch lots and lots and re-live the halcyon days of my misspent youth.

Ended up singing along and dancing in my chair until dawn.

sigh

There's four hours of my life I'll never get back.

One of my favs is Lee Michael's "Do You Know What I Mean?" from 1971. I have to listen to it several times with the volume cranked up to 11. Dude knows how to rock a Hammond organ.

The most memorable lyric:

woo

Comes right in the middle of the song surrounded by total silence on either side. That little quiet woo speaks volumes.

EDM #19 - Draw Something You've Made

Journaling:

It was tough to find something I had made that wasn't two-dimensional arty stuff or dinner related. Then I spied this old basket tucked in the bookcase.

I remember making it. A lady I worked with conned me into taking a basketmaking workshop her friend was hosting. I really didn't want to learn how to make baskets, but I went, had fun, and bought some split oak to make more at home. I don't know what became of the others, I remember one was an egg basket. Haven't seen it in decades.

I was trying to remember when I made this basket, then I turned it over. I had signed and dated it (1984) along with the location and the note, "My First Basket!" (Had to laugh at that. How very typically anal-retentive of me.)

I hang on to this basket because it keeps me in touch with the survival skills of my ancestors. I figure if I survive the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust, basketmaking might be a handy skill to have.

Oh Little Playmate

Oh little playmate,
Will you come play with me,
And bring your dollies three,
Climb up my apple tree?

Slide down my rainbow,
Into my cellar door,
And we'll be jolly friends,
Forever more.

Journaling: I am delighted to have found a new playmate in Miz Dee. There's something special about a playmate that isn't found in a "friend, acquaintance, buddy, or hot partner."

A playmate is willing to go on new adventures, to poke in dark places with a stick, to find pretty rocks in the creek that will go home to live in the treasure chest.

A playmate has the sense of wonderment and delight to explore the world with new eyes every day.

A playmate can cause your soul to sing a happy tune.

Everybody needs a playmate and now I have one in Miz Dee!

Squee!

Giant Lunar Moth

Journaling:

Cheezburger the Porch Cat brought me a hunting trophy - a giant brown moth. And my little brain went immediately to this futuristic scene with it.

I brought the moth inside to study.

Cheezy was hot.

Today's EDM Challenge was "Draw the view from a window of your house, apartment, office, etc." I should have titled this post as such and let people wonder about me.

I ain't right.

Strathmore Visual Journals

Just stumbled upon this new product from Strathmore. From their current promotions website:

New Strathmore® Visual Journals are engineered to meet the intense demands of the artist's creative process. They provide greater freedom of expression, offering a full range of paper types and weights requested by artists themselves. The wire binding allows the journal to lie flat and open up 360 degrees. Journals are available in three sizes, in Drawing, Mixed Media, Smooth and Vellum Bristol, and two weights of Watercolor.

The colorful paper cover is removable leaving the solid brown textured cover.

Specs for all books:

- Spiral wire-bound on the long side
- Non-perforated pages
- Acid free

Sizes & wholesale prices
- Small, 3.5" x 5", $5.00
- Medium, 5.5" x 8", $8.00
- Large, 9" x 12", $14.00

Types

Drawing 100 lb (163 g/m2)
Heavy-weight drawing paper is excellent for pencil, colored pencil and charcoal. Also good for pastel, marker, pen and ink, light mixed media and collage techniques.
Medium surface, 84 pages/42 sheets

Mixed Media 90 lb (190 g/m2)
Medium-weight paper is great for wet and dry media including watercolor, acrylic, pen and ink, pencil, crayon, charcoal, marker and collage.
Vellum surface, 68 pages/34 sheets

Bristol – Vellum 100 lb (260 g/m2)
Vellum finish is great for any dry media including pencil, charcoal and pastel. Also good for pen and ink, marker and collage.
Vellum surface, 48 pages/24 sheets

Bristol – Smooth 100 lb (260 g/m2)
Smooth surface is excellent for traditional and specialty pen and ink techniques, marker and collage.
Smooth surface, 56 pages/28 sheets

Watercolor 90 lb (190 g/m2)
Medium-weight paper is great for watercolor, acrylic and collage. Also good for pen and ink, pencil and marker.
Cold press surface, 68 pages/34 sheets

Watercolor 140 lb (300 g/m2)
Heavy-weight paper is excellent for watercolor and collage. Also good for acrylic, pen and ink, pencil and marker.
Cold press surface, 44 pages/22 sheets

I'm not a "visual journal" kinda girl slathering gesso and collaging things into my daily journal, but several aspects of these books caught my eye.

1.) The pages aren't micro-perfed for easy tear-out. THANK THE SWEET BABY JESUS AND THANK YOU STRATHMORE! Micro-perfed pages are just stupid. If I want to remove a page from the binding I can work an X-acto knife and scissors just fine thankyouverymuch.

2.) BOUND watercolor paper not in a casebound journal, in portrait format, and at a reasonable price, with plenty of pages that are not micro-perf.

3.) BOUND vellum and Bristol papers. I searched and searched and could only find this in single sheets or tape bound pads.

So, added to my art supply wish list is a medium Bristol-Smooth and a large 90lb Watercolor. Woot!

Hopefully Michaels, Hobby Lobby or Dick Blick will carry these. If not, they're just another pipe dream for me.

Oh, and Strathmore, if you find this post, update your website. I couldn't find a direct link to these journals. NOT. GOOD. BUSINESS.

EDM #17 - Draw a Musical Instrument

Journaling:

This guitar showed up the the corner of the living room about three weeks ago and hasn't moved since then. I'm kind of afraid to ask why. Sometimes it's better not to know what Hubby is up to.

Hummm.....

I've been doing very well with the Every Day in May challenge. I've drawn something every day this month! (happy dance) Only 14 more days to go.

However, I've fallen behind on the Every Day Matters challenges I was supposed to be drawing for the Every Day in May challenge. OK, that all sounds very confusing.

Anyway, I was busy drawing and painting other stuff on the 13th through the 16th and didn't draw the EDM challenges for those days. I decided to skip them for now and keep up with the group. It's more fun when everyone is drawing on the same challenge on the same day.

Happy as a Clam

Journaling:

After three days out of the house drawing multiple detailed sketches, I was ready to stay home and draw something quick and easy. Carol C. (cacollieotr) inadvertently became my muse.

Under my Relay for Life sketch I wrote, "I and my little introverted self retreated to the solitude of the high bleachers with Implements of Sketchification while my extroverted playmates worked the crowd on the field."

Carol commented, "I can see you in my mind, huddled up in the bleachers, happy as a clam!"

Yes, yes, yes! I could see it too, the clam part I mean. Had to draw.

Clam is such a fitting description of little ol' introverted me hiding behind a sketchbook. Thank you Carol for the inspiration!

Decided to add the iconic Speck pigtails and red striped shirt.

World Wide Sketchcrawl #27

Today was World Wide SketchCrawl #27 where sketchers across the globe get together and sketch their little piece of the world. This sketchcrawl I didn't have to fly solo and drag poor Hubby along. I had the pleasure of the company of the intrepid Miz Dee, my new-found sketching buddy. Yippeeeee!!!!

We met at the Museum of Natural Resources in Smackover, Arkansas. It is part of the Arkansas State Parks system and is dedicated to the history of oil, brine and bromine production in southern Arkansas. We didn't get to wander about on the grounds because it was drizzling rain. We both decided we weren't that intrepid.

First sketch was the circus carriage of the Goat Woman of Smackover.

All the journaling down the right-hand side of the page is the story of The Goat Woman copied from the museum's website. You can read that here.

Journaling:

Dee and I spent two hours sketching this. She's as much a detail addict as I am. That was way too long. After two hours we just quit and went in search of lunch.

Journaling:

Smackover, Arkansas is out in the middle of nowhere. We asked at the front desk if there was anywhere we could go for lunch. The only three places were truck stops with day-old fried chicken. We didn't think we could handle that so we made do with stuff from the snack rack in the gift shop. Vienna Sausage is a second cousin to fried bologna, but I was desperate.

I had hoped to get four sketches done today for the sketchcrawl, but it was 1:00 pm, I was fading fast, and I only had one sketch in the book. I took a few minutes to warm up on some speed sketching with the brush pen and sketched the remains of our meager lunch.

I have *got* to quit getting so zenned out on details. My brain is happy but my back screams that I've been sitting in one spot too long!

Journaling:

Miz Dee spied this old telephone in the Horseshoe Cafe exhibit that she wanted to draw. There were actually two phones but I opted for just one and other stuff on the shelves. There was a table and chairs in there so we settled in to draw.

Part of the exhibit was an audio tape of the sounds of a cafe: low murmuring voices, the clink and rattle of dishes being cleared from a table, and a guy coughing. Cough, cough, cough, cough, cough.

After a while I felt like I was sketching in a TB ward. The tape looped about every two to three minutes and the cough started to drive me nuts. "Get that man a Ricola!"

This is one of those instances where taking the time to sketch an event will permanently imprint it on my brain. Had I merely taken a photo and continued on, I wouldn't have experienced the dreadful repetitive TB cough. Yep, I'll remember that and this day for a long time.

The lighting in the museum was dark and moody and after squinting through the gloom for four hours my eyes were beginning to ache. My spirit was willing but my body wasn't able. It's hell getting old.

At 3:00 pm I closed the sketchbook and told Miz Dee I was done for the day.