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Saturday, July 19, 2014

Heading to Summer Camp


Let's start with food. I'm hungry.


John got up on his tall fruit ladder to show you his jack in the beanstalk sunflower. 


We did a big blueberry picking this cool, overcast morning before the sun came out.


Hauled in 17 more quarts to add to the 14 we already froze.


Here is the way John waters some plants. 


We have a very fast draining soil so it he starts them in sunken areas inside pots with no bottoms, then he can pull out the pots at some point and have a depression that will hold water. 


 Sewed a coptic book block for my next journal.


Covered it with buckram, a book cloth that you can see through. So the stitching is visible through the spine cloth. But then painted front and back. This is the front.


This is the inside front.


This is the back.


Inside back.


I got out my photos from a trip a few years back to Spain and Portugal. Did some sketches from them.


Some of you know that I signed up for Danny Gregory's Sketchbook Skool. I love hanging out with sketchy friends from around the globe. Love looking at their work and admiring the variety and enthusiasm.


One conversation today was about how art school can really take the fun out of life.
Telling you to only make high art and not have the fun you had as a kid, just being carefree and enjoying the materials.


For me that was drawing in the spirit of the comic strips that came to the house every day in the newspaper.


Sundays were extra good. An entire newspaper of colored comic strips. I devoured them. And with my allowance I bought Katy Keene comic books. Brenda Starr and Katy Keene. They were my mates.


So for reasons I can't quite explain, Sketchbook Skool has freed me to do something that's playful and entirely fun; return to that mentality in my journal along with my morning pages.


It's just fun. No expectations, no rules, just playing with my art supplies in the quiet of my studio.


The best things happen when I let myself drift and be useless. I become serene and happy. 


Monday morning I load up the van and return for the 4th year to teach at EncautiCamp. I look like I'm putting out a huge effort in my drawing but the truth is that this is when I come to life. Summer camp. July!! Seeing familiar faces and being an encouraging voice.  Giving mi amiga Trish Seggebruch a huge hug. I'm counting the minutes.

So I think the take away from this week at Sketchbook Skool is this: That it's okay to enjoy what you're doing in art. To make beautiful things if you want or silly things or the stuff your professor said was junk.  Amuse yourself to high heaven and don't let anyone step on your heart. 

16 comments:

Pilgrim said...

I love this post. Have fun at encausticamp.

Sue Lloyd-Novak said...

"...don't let anyone step on your heart." Thank you for that, Judy! Have fun at camp!

Unknown said...

So much happy here, your words and artwork are always good medicine��

Wishing you a blast at camp chica, see you when you get home.

��jenny

Timaree said...

Absolutely! And you can even fall behind like I do and it's really okay. Who is handing out grades anyhow? Enjoy yourself at your camp and play, play, play!

kathyd said...

awesome post .. i could fill a journal on comments from art school.
great post . art always felt good to me (:

Sue Marrazzo Fine Art said...

Cool post and BLOG!!

lyle baxter said...

sounds like fun. your posts always make me smile! have fun at camp!

Amanda said...

See you tomorrow, friend.
I absolutely love your little sketches. I'm going to play with this on the plane. :-)

bridgette said...

You and John are just so inspiring.
Thank you for your wise words at the end, I needed to hear that. Will be thinking of you all at ecamp. xo

Anonymous said...

I love your comics! Don't worry what that stuffy art school says, enjoy your drawing time however you want!

Gigi @ Old World Patina

Tara's Art Camp said...

Such a great post. I love all the creativity you and john share. From your stomach to your mind. Thank you. We do wonderful things with our hands...and I truely appreciate.

Michele R. Unger said...

Have a fantastic time at camp, sweet Judy. I hope your time there is as special as mine has been here with Bee on Nantucket!

XO
Shelley

Cynthia of Cynful Creations said...

I am hoping to attend Sketchbook Skool one of these days. The dates for the first 2 sessions weren't convenient for my schedule but I did enroll in Mary Ann Moss's Sketchbookery in the meantime! Thanks for sharing your journal pages and this very good advise to just have fun and be playful in our journals!!

Sharmon Davidson said...

Absolutely love this post, including your lovely garden and especially all the FANTASTIC comic-booky sketches!! You definitely know how to have fun!

Parabolic Muse said...

Hi, Judy, my wonderful person friend teacher giggle mate. This is a great post. Your drawings are lively colorful fun. It's rare to be actually magnetically drawn to something that is supposedly inanimate. Your work does that to me.

I hope your camp is the BESTEST!

Chrissy

Abigail said...

Your journals inspire me to get back to journaling! I sketch, but randomly, chaotically, in this notebook and that. I have always dreamed of having a shelf of dated sketch journals in my studio, marking the years of life and art and fun. Maybe I'll pick one to stick with and start it just in time for vacation next week...