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February 23, 2019

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And, I forgot to say, please tell me what you think!

Fascinating process! (and fantastic results)

What a fascinating post. I'm trying to decide which one I like best, but they are all so intriguing, each in its own way. I did gasp when I got to the last one of the bright colors with its cinnamon and mustard tones pulling my eye right there.

I have been sketching and drawing for almost 3 years now--mostly just swirling shapes and colors on paper. You've inspired me to see what happens if I try the same sketch in different mediums and papers. I wonder if the process is similar for abstract art. I will plan to do this soon and find out!

And I realize that you may have more/different books inside of you waiting for a chance to emerge, but if you ever assembled these posts (both the process posts and the why to draw/sketch posts) and drawings into a book, I'd love to have a more permanent record. I do think of books as more permanent than online sites, since online sites require someone else being dedicated to the site in terms of money and time and willingness to keep it public.

I love this post! I know this creative process but have not engaged in it for quite some time. Next thing you know, I'm going to be drawing again, inspired by you. I'm getting reading to start my 42nd mandala, but that is an entirely different kind of drawing.

I'm going to forward this to a friend who is planning to travel alone to Greece at the beginning of April. From what she has told me about a previous visit to Greece, she experienced the places you visited in much the way you did.

Thanks Martine!

Kristin, thanks for your comments and I do hope you'll try that experiment with different mediums. It usually helps me figure out where something wants to go, plus, it's just fun. Thanks too for the encouragement about a possible book. I've thought for a long time about writing and illustrating a book on creativity and process (not so much on technique) and appreciate the little nudge. Maybe it could be tied to travel, since travel enlarges our seeing, and inspires drawing, which also enlarges our seeing. Maybe it will happen...there's always limited time and too many projects on the front and back burners!

Thank you for writing, Ella (I think that is your name?) If you started drawing again it would make me so happy - the best possible result of writing about this process is when it encourages others. And I'm happy to know about your friend who is going back to Greece. We're hoping to go again next year and visit some other parts of the country - it seems like the possibilities there are endless. Please give her my best!

Beth, these drawings are all interesting individually and as a series illustrating your thinking about the subject. Your writing about it is part of the process and feels as if it could even be embedded within the drawings.
I like the first(top) drawing very much in the direct, simple way it responds to the setting, capturing the sense of 'being there, the loneliness of the place, its timelessness. The progression then moves towards artfulness, searching for style, and this too is thoughtful. The bright-coloured watercolour is the most attractive but, for me,the indigo brush draw absorptioning is the one that most closely recaptures, and summarises, the sense of absorption in the place that your writing and the first drawing expressed.

Don't know what happened to my typing near the end! The sentence was supposed to read:

for me,the indigo brush drawing is the one that most closely recaptures, and summarises, the sense of absorption in the place that your writing and the first drawing expressed.

I like this post--love the pieces--for the sense of a mind at work, searching for rightnesses.

And I also like the monumental quality of the stones next to the on-going, on-growing of the cypresses. The simplicity reminds me of Jacob setting up a stone where he wrestled with the angel...

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Who was Cassandra?


  • In the Iliad, she is described as the loveliest of the daughters of Priam (King of Troy), and gifted with prophecy. The god Apollo loved her, but she spurned him. As a punishment, he decreed that no one would ever believe her. So when she told her fellow Trojans that the Greeks were hiding inside the wooden horse...well, you know what happened.

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