The Doodlebug

A Sketchy Life

I admit it, I'm a doodlebug.

I have doodled my whole life.  I think

I started with crayons and have moved

on t0 pencils, pens,  markers, pastels,

charcoal, rapidographs.  I think I've

even doodled with thread.

I doodle during meetings, when I travel,

at home, when I go out to dinner...

I doodled my way through 18 years

of school.  It is as if my hand has a

mind of it's own, I can't help myself.

I doodle in notebooks, sketchbooks,

on cocktail napkins and old receipts.

Recently, a quilting/facebook friend

introduced me to Zentangle.  I find the

idea very interesting.  As my interest in

surface design grows, I've decided to take

my doodling a bit more seriously and try

to make a little piece of art each day.

Do you Zentangle?



Museum of Modern Art

MOMA, NYC

I was lucky to go to college in the

New York area and as an art student

there are certain NY museums that

were my classrooms.  The Museum
of  Moderrn Art is one of them. 

Take a stroll with me through the

galleries and let me show you

some of my favorite pieces.

I feel like I'm visiting an old

friend when I look at this painting.

On summer Fridays from 4pm to 8:30pm

the MOMA has free admission.  Don't be

daunted by the line that wraps around the

block, it moves very quickly.

I was fascinated by this young

man who was sketching his heart

out.  I asked him if he wanted to

be an artist and he said yes, but then

I thought, he already is.

Amen.

Gracious Living is the Finest Art

Wandering Through an Art Museum

While on campus to pick up Brennan

last week, I stopped in to the Art Museum

at Ball State University.

I have a degree in Fine Art.

So I sometimes feel I have spent

half of my life roaming through museums.

I find art to be a very personal

thing and I like to go through

a museum by myself and meet

up with my companions at the

end of my visit.

Generally I can only spend about

an hour in a museum or it all starts

to become a blur.  There are times,

though, when I go by myself and

get lost in the Met or the Frick for

a good part of the day.

Inspiration

Open Your Eyes to the World

I spent a few hours today roaming around the

galleries of the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

In my work, I'm known for my use of

color.  People tell me they can walk through

a quilt show and pick out my pieces without

having to read the name.  

People ask me all the time about how to use color.

I must reveal I have spent years studying color

and I have spent almost my entire life wandering

through museums and libraries or in a studio.

But that's not necessary because inspiration is

EVERYWHERE!

If you see a painting you like, use those colors

 in your artwork.  Take a photo or buy a

postcard and file it away.

I have kept a clip file since I was a little girl.

It is photos and things torn from magazines

or snippets of fabric or lace.

People will say but it doesn't match...

Match Schmatch!  it doesn't need to match.

I have seen some of the most dismal,

boring interiors where everything matched.

What if we lived in a world where everything

was the same?  What fun would that be?

Take a look at everything.  I'm the girl

who will be touring a grand palace but taking

photos of the doorknob or heating grate.

Take a look at the things around you.

Why did you buy the plates in your cupboard?

Was it the color?  Use that in your work.

Look at this painting from 1483, look at the floor,

they are quilt blocks!

And here.

And here.

Here is a relief of Robert Louis Stevenson,

whose writing inspired a sense of wonder

and adventure in me at a very young age.

So get out there and open your eyes to the world,

you never know what may spark your imagination.