Down, up, down

Dear Nikki/Dear Sarah--Y2/D13 of our daily drawing exchange

Hi Nikki,

Busy day—work, a visit to the periodontist (expensive and will be more so, since I need a gum graft), tea with a friend and then more work. Went back to the black-and- white prompts for today’s drawing, this time using the vases from a previous exercise. Drawing #1: upside down; #2 right side up; #3 upside down again. Kinda messes with your head. In a good way. I think #3 shows improvement from #1. Maybe.

Just bought tickets to see a film called The Painted Life of EJ Hughes at the Victoria Film Festival. He’s one of my favourite artists, so I’m really looking forward to that. Did I tell you that a cabin I used to live in is in one of his paintings of Cowichan Bay. It was painted at the time I was living there, so I like to think I am one of the indistinct figures on the beach near the cabin.

XO S

Hi Sarah -

gum graft? Sounds … unpleasant.

Had a very long, very full day that culminated in a Fireside Chat at the Canmore Library. The panel members were Joanna Croston (author of Mountaineering Women) and two subjects included in her book (Sharon Wood and Sarah Hueniken). It was a full house - the library has been wonderful about supporting and promoting these events, but as moderator, I’m always left pretty bagged at the end of the evening.

I had a thought I was going to draw this:

It’s a fake bit of branch that had blown off a local cell tower, disguised as a tall, abnormally straight tree. I thought I’d draw the fake and then a real piece of tree and compare them… but I was fading fast and wound up drawing this instead:

Not a feather, exactly, not a piece of tree, either. It’s a purple thing that my father might have called ‘a natural form.’ I mean, it’s not a building or a vase, but it isn’t an actual anything, either. Interesting, it sort of echoes the subject of your drawing today.

And with that, I’m going to collapse into bed.

See you tomorrow!

Nikki