daily-ish notes…

  • to march fo(u)rth.

    March forth and never give up.

    March forth through not just the easy tasks, the obvious solutions or the simple actions, but through the difficult, challenging and complex.

    March forth against the adversity presented by your self doubt.

    March forth and do the crazy thing that no one else is doing.

    March forth, but rest when you need to and take a break, pausing to catch your breath and look around.

    March forth with strength and determination, heart and soul, mind and thoughtfulness, humanity and compassion in all that you create.

    March forth even when you’d rather sit still.

    March forth and on and be you.

  • on defining purpose.

    For over five months I ran this website as a simple collection of a few medium-length blog posts. Then, about three weeks ago, I decided to add a bunch of new features: this daily blog, a gallery of my sketches, and some space for creative writing. It went from very simple, to moderately complex, and got me thinking about what else I could put here.

    Sometime you have a purpose for something when you start out and it is very clear and obvious. Other times you create a space for purpose to fill into. I thought I’d started with a clear purpose, but it has started to seem like there was some space that was calling out to be filled.

    I don’t think either approach is right or wrong, good or bad, up or down.

    I think it’s merely important that you are able to recognize where purpose comes from, and when it enters into the narrative of your efforts to create something interesting.

  • for finding inspiration, part one.

    How do we find something to draw? I still struggle to think like a painter when I’m so used to thinking like a photographer. I look for scenes or composition, and I need to more often look for objects or shapes or colours or something that can’t even be captured through a lens.

    Look in nature for things that have colour and shape and form: mushrooms, pinecones, flowers, leaves, bark, small animals, stones or insects.

    Look in the city for objects with geometry and tones and function: signage, boxes, bikes, bins, trash, doors, valves, food, or the feeling of a texture on the side of a building.

    Look around home for stuff that feels familiar and you think you know: shoes, cans of soup, brushes, books, boxes, tools, toys or bits of technology.

    Inspiration is everywhere.

  • on painting sunsets.

    Over the last couple days I’ve left a short note about two different things; sunrises and daily sketching in March.

    As March begins and I pull out my sketchbook for the first of thirty one consecutive days sketching and painting, I return here to note that this first sketch is compounding from those two previous thoughts: a daily sketch, but a sketch of a sunset.

    I don’t think this strictly qualifies as a successful bit of storytelling traversing three days of posts, but if someone else said it I wouldn’t object.

  • about #mARTch.

    As February draws to a close, I look to the changing of the calendar page (as I often do) for inspiration for a month of — something. (In April I’m already planning a fitness blast and looking to run every day of that month, but for March I figured something a little more creative and relaxing.)

    Thus, #mARTch.

    Thirty-one days of art.

    In my case, I’ll be cracking open my various watercolour books, wetting my brushes, and dirtying my palettes, in an attempt to complete an ink-and-paint sketch (of no specified size or subject) for each day of March. Hopefully, I’ll simultaneously think of some way clever to share them on this site, too.

    Wish me luck.