A goldfinch, a heron and an old man in a wheelchair find their way onto the page
Dear Sarah - Day 101 Daily Writing Exchange
April 11, 2025
Hi Nikki,
I follow the Audubon Society on IG, and discovered a series of videos featuring David Sibley teaching how to draw various birds. I did two today: a goldfinch and a heron. His instructions are very straightforward, and he's not a "fussy" teacher. An oval or two here, a triangular beak, some feathers. No big deal! His voice is very soothing. I think I'll have a go with the watercolour pens tomorrow--after looking at photos of the birds I drew. Or maybe I'll draw an owl!
I am going to search YouTube for "how to draw a dog." I can always make Kianna laugh by drawing a dog (or any four-legged creature, really), so I want to surprise her with a recognizable dog (or cat or horse or jaguar). Who's laughing now?! And now I can teach her how to draw a bird.
XO S
Hi Sarah -
ooooh… these look like they would be fun to try!
Meanwhile, I’m struggling around with Camino images… Dani and I both need to come up with something that somehow relates to the wheelchair phase.
This is a strange hybrid of photo, collage, scanned and then manipulated digitally, drawn/painted over and then the original photo deleted completely. I wanted to keep it on the verge of abstract - capture the essence of buildings, plaza, hat, chair and incorporate the scallop shell motif… no hands (that’s a theme in the written essay) but have the ghost of Dad very present (as in, not just a generic old man in a wheelchair). The buttery yellow is the colour of the arrows that guide pilgrims toward Santiago.
I’ve been messing around with all that for a while and not quite there yet, but have all the elements in hand and the general idea, so I may take another run at this one over the weekend. Fortunately (unfortunately?) the final deadline for submission is coming up fast, so at some point I’ll just have to hand it over to Dani and see how she will work the images into the layout/design.
Tomorrow morning is our first lecture relating to the Rome travel study trip in September, so I’ve been speed reading the first chunk of Delizia: The Epic History of the Italians and Their Food. We have also been assigned two poems about the Roman forum from the wonderful collection, Poems of Rome. So while I am bagged, I’m also feeling very enriched at the moment - and a bit frustrated with how the artwork is going for the project for the class we are just finishing. BUT, it wasn’t that long ago that I would not have seriously considered trying to come up with something visual to go along with my writing so, progress I think.
On that note - BED is calling (I may take the poetry to bed with me… they are short and I can read them a couple of times each before falling asleep…)
Until tomorrow -
Your partner in virtual crimes, art, and making stuff up
Nikki