WORKING ONE'S WAY OUT OF A SLUMP

I don't know about you, but my journey through this Covid-19 experience has been full of hills and valleys. You can always tell I'm in a slump, feeling like maybe mankind isn't worth saving, if I haven't posted anything here at Seasonality in a while. Fortunately, I'm optimistic by nature, and always manage to crawl out of that valley before too long. Here are some of the things that helped me this time:

1) Sending And Receiving Snail Mail

This is the last card I sent to my pen pal Calvin. Last time my best buddy Paula was here, she brought a whole sackful of Transformers that had belonged to her grandson. Instead of giving them to him all at once, I decided to do two at a time. He got a firetruck and a police car on his last visit, and that's all he's talked about ever since! I set out Optimus Prime and Bumblebee for the next visit, but then along came Covid-19. Although drawing stuff like this is most certainly NOT my forte, I was told this post card made one little boy extremely happy. Bumblebee is in the works.

2) A Great Jigsaw Puzzle

My Hubby is not really a puzzle, cards or board game person, but when I saw an article on line, suggesting great audio book/jigsaw combinations, and one of the books was a Sci-Fi selection, I had to give it a try. Turns out, neither one of us is good at multitasking, and it was either do the puzzle, or listen to the book, so we opted for the puzzle -- and had a blast! We will save the audio book for our next car trip. The only problem with the puzzle was it completely absorbed us for two days, then left us feeling totally bereft. We already had several others on order, but they are taking way too long to get here. If quarantine is over when they arrive, they might never make it out of their boxes.

3) Starting A New Art Journal

Some of my favorite things I've ever painted were a couple of little girls. Unfortunately, they both ended up in other people's journals, when I participated in a "Circle Journal" project where our journals moved from one person to the next around the country, with each person adding something to them, until they finally maid it back home to us. Luckily, I at least thought to snap a photo of them before I sent them off.

Coming across them when doing a purge on my stash-basket reminded me of how much I enjoyed painting them. I also found magazine pages I had torn out and saved, showing the work of some favorite inner-child-artists.

Next thing I knew, I had a new art journal in the works!

4) The Everchanging Menu Of Wildflowers Popping Up In My Yard

So, what keeps you going these days?

SHELTER IN PLACE: FIVE GOOD THINGS

Well, we've been "social distancing" for two weeks now, and just got word that we have been upgraded to "shelter in place." After reading the restrictions, I realized that it was pretty much what we were already doing. The only big difference is that they have closed down all the parks, so we won't be able to take walks on the Blue Hole Park trails. But that's okay. We've got into the habit of taking walks down to the end of our street and back -- mainly because we like checking on what our newest neighbors are up to. They caught our attention when they were first building their new home -- and a fantastic tree house at the same time. They are just about the only people in this neighborhood who have young kids. Next they built and planted an amazing vegetable garden, and now they are building a chicken coop! Kinda remind me of me, when we first moved out here, but with more skills!

The second good thing is that my garden is fixing to burst into bloom, which can't help but brighten one's days. First up every year is this Crossvine, which has spread from its little mannequin shaped base,  onto the porch rails and across the fence!

Third up was a call I got from our little grandson, after I sent him this.

I knew he was probably a bit sad and confused about not being able to be around us right now, and I needed a way to stay connected with him, so I came up with this idea.

A Sketch Of One He Built From Magnetiles Last Time He Was Here

A couple of days after I mailed this handmade postcard to him, his mama facetimed me, and there was Calvin, waving his postcard around, saying "Yes Mimi! I want to be your pen pal!" I can't wait to see what he sends me in return!

Waiting on my nightstand, to be read each night.

Fourth on my Good Things list is that Mandy Rowden -- an Austin singer-songwriter and the leader of all things musical at Lucky Star Art Camp each year -- decided to spend her unexpected downtime reading The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, and working through the lessons in it. She invited other Lucky Star gals to join her on this journey, and set up a Facebook page where we could leave comments and have discussions. I jumped at the opportunity since that book was a real life-changer for me when I first read it many years ago, and I'd been longing to get back into the habit of doing those "morning brain-drain pages" that are so crucial to creativity. This was just the kick in the pants I needed!

Waiting for me to scribble my "morning pages" in, first thing when I wake up.

Last, but not least, I did a bit of work in my mindfulness-art-journal-agenda- thingy, based on prompts from  No Excuses Art Journaling, by Gina Rossi Armfield.

A Couple of "Card Peeks"

A Favorite Quote Used For Lettering Practice

And A Couple Of Quotes That Came In My "Mindfulness" Agenda

As my little sketch above says, considering what's going on in the world right now, things here could be a whole lot worse! Hope it's the same for you.

SPRING BEGINNINGS

It started with a sleep-over, when it was finally warm enough to go out on the balcony and blow bubbles with Papa.

Then the first of our spring visitors showed up for a super fun family weekend.

Then there was a meet-up of the Tiny Dinner Club, where we got to sit outside and partake of this amazing charcuterie platter that our hosts' teen-aged daughter prepared for us.

And THEN, I finally had enough free time to sit down at my art table and play!

 

A Spring Color Scheme

A Collage

A Few Butterfly Wing Sketches

My First Card Peek For The Month. (In case you didn't know, those reddish cork-shaped things appearing on the Prickly Pear Cacti right now are called Tunas)

Am I happy about this new virus scare? No, of course not! Do we introverts mind being forced to stay at home and read good books and play with our art supplies all day? Weeellll, not so much...

AND SO IT CONTINUES...

Long ago, when I had that very first brain fart -- about something I later came to call "seasonality" -- it was simply the realization that life was better when you made the most of its seasons. Back then we were still big-city-suburbanites, and  it was mostly about how I decorated my home and entertained, and that when I incorporated seasonal touches into these activities, I was much less likely to get bored with them, or with everything I owned, making me want to go out and buy a bunch of new stuff I really didn't need.

Then we migrated to the Texas Hill Country, and it turned into something else altogether. I started reading books like Animal Vegetable Miracle, The Good Life,  and A Reasonable Life, and I learned about the Slow Food and Farm to Table movements. Then "seasonality" became less about stuff, and more about how I gardened and what I ate, watching the seasons change outside my treehouse windows, and wondering what kind of world we were bequeathing our kids and grandkids.

Twenty five or so years down the line from that first light bulb moment, I am a much different person. I spend much less time entertaining and decorating, and my hubby has taken over the gardening. I still love to cook and eat what is in season and grown nearby, but mostly I spend my time playing with those grandkids, reading, journaling and occasionally, drawing or painting. Is it any surprise then, that Seasonality has followed me here as well?

I'm pretty sure that, back in December, I told you about grabbing this planner at Costco just because I needed one, then discovering that it was actually a mindfulness journal. But did I mention that a few days later, I was digging through my art shelves looking for something, and stumbled upon a book I had bought a couple of years ago, then forgot all about?

When synchronicity knocks, I listen, and it was clearly telling me I needed to use the techniques from that book to develop an artful journaling habit in the other one.

First step was to copy the yearly insert and paste it inside the cover, to remind me of my daily, weekly and monthly assignments.

My First Assignment

The Result

 I really did intend to follow their instructions, but then my hand, of its own accord, reached out and grabbed something that was laying nearby, and I knew that was the only image I needed to fill my altar -- the place I go every fall "to catch my breath".

Instead of New Years Resolutions, we were asked to make a vision board showing things we wanted more, or less, of in our lives in the year to come.

I had a lot of fun prepping my journal according to the No Excuses instructions -- adding things like envelopes for collecting collage fodder in, and sheets of water color paper on which to do our weekly "card peep" sketches. I spent so much time searching for the right colors of washi tape and envelopes to match, in seasonal colors (hmmmm...) that I ran out of time to finish all four of that month's card peeps.

So Wintery!

One of the many meditative coloring pages provided in my planner.

One of the No Excuses daily instructions was to track the weather, while my agenda had this handy little chart for tracking your mood each day. I ignored them both and turned that mood chart into a food chart, where I could track what was in season and available at the farmers' market.

My Beginning Assignment For February

The collage was supposed to be of lots of February-ish images torn from magazines, to use as inspiration. Again I disobeyed, and used my collection of colorful painted papers to pay homage to the first of the asparagus spears that were poking their heads up in my garden.

I actually managed to complete all four card peeks this month...and, of course,  they were all about seasonal things!

My Version Of A Love Letter To Myself

So, as I said, when synchronicity knocks, I listen! What was it telling me? Perhaps to slow down and pay attention? To spend more time on art and writing and sharing? To remember that life is better with Seasonality in it?

 I still don't know for sure. All I do know is, it's gonna be fun y'all!