Calendar sketch

Tomorrow Spring Break is over.  Back to regular schedule.  I am constantly amazed by the quantity of time that is used up in figuring out how to use our time.  We use technology to coordinate schedules, but it still takes more time than it used to to keep it all from falling apart.

I did not paint today, but I could not end the day without putting something down. I am not sure I would want the actual words from my calendar in the final product, but maybe I would.  It is real, edited just a bit.  April 12 really is at the bottom of the calendar because that is how it worked out.  We try to erase the past weeks as soon as they are done so we can always have this calendar 5 weeks into the future.  This calendar was a gift from my daughter and I like it a lot because it makes family discussions about schedule easier.  We also have a shared online calendar, but this one is right there by the table.

A work of art with the calendar in it would be about how difficult it is to carve out time to work on art.  Really though, when I look at the calendar, there are lots of blank days.  So it must be my daily schedule that is the problem.  

I need to set up a still life of stuff from my classroom at school.  But how would I work on it?  I would be surrounded by all those things that need to get done.  Right now I need to end this post so I can carve out time for sleep.

Dirty Dishes

It is time to stop working on this for today.  I had a hard time getting started because guess what. I felt I needed to finish the dishes first.  Sigh.  And then it took me forever to set up the still life again.  I tried to cheat and use clean dishes in this second time setting it up.  It was not the same.  I can't keep using the same dirty dishes, gross.  That would not be the same either.  That would be a whole new problem.  No, the problem is how the dirty dishes come back day after day.  

I finally was able to get started painting after I had a bowl of cereal and set that bowl and spoon in the front of the still life.  The cup and other dishes are actually clean ones today.

I was hoping to get all the dark areas blocked in today, but I am not quite done with that step yet.

Obstacles

Over the past few days I thought a lot about why I create art and why I don't create art.  Do I really have something to say or am I just creating pretty pictures.

I let obstacles get in my way because I am not confident of what I want my art to say.

There are probably others besides myself that have something they want to do but they let other things get in the way.  We throw our hands up and claim that we can't.  We have do this other thing first.  Once that is done something else demands our attention and before we know it the day is done and we are no closer to our goal.

I hate dirty dishes.

I hate the fact that dirty dishes often keep me from creating art.

This is the beginning of a still life of dirty dishes.

Love your enemies.

Pastel class

Here is my first attempt at a new technique.

The electric onion