I spent a couple more days doing intricate and steady work on my current prints, but tonight I was missing my sketchbook. The Memphis Urban Sketchers had a "virtual sketch crawl" today (Saturdays are our normal days), so I wanted to join in. I sit on the sofa a lot in the evenings, but this is my other favorite spot. I'm grateful, so grateful, that I had spent the last year working to make my house a warmer, more pleasant place to be. This corner is one of my new happy places.

I just framed the poster last month to remember a really pivotal show for me. It was a solo exhibition of Berthe Morisot, and she's my new art hero. She just flat out went for it. She was showing in the salon in her 20's and then showed at every Impressionist exhibition that they put together themselves. Frustratingly, fully half of the show was from private collections. Museums just weren't collecting her when they were sucking up every available male impressionist canvas. And her work is amazing. One critic called her "the angel of the incomplete" because of her confident, calligraphic style.

After I saw her show, plus another current woman artist show, also at the Musee d'Orsay, two different friends challenged me to go for it if what I wanted was another museum show. My first, at Dixon, was a career moment, but I'd been having this "what now?" feeling ever since. I don't see ever landing in the Orsay, but Morisot's gumption and drive made me redouble my efforts, and I was awarded a show at the Walter Anderson Museum of Art for 2022. Which, given the current world situation, is perfect. And I'm so glad for something really exciting to work towards just now. It's been a huge bright spot for me lately.

I got really deep into print work for several days and didn't take time from that to do any Quarantine Journal, but last night I was missing it. I also got my first ever groceries delivery, and that seemed worth celebrating. I'd gotten some lettuce from the open air farmers market, but it had been just on a month since getting any other groceries. My milk lasted amazingly, but it was finally time to get fresh. So morning tea today was a treat as well.

The other provisions I got were books from Burke's Books here in Memphis. Their website is open for orders, they have free local delivery, and there is also curbside pickup. I took a break from work the other day and got on my bike for some loops through midtown and new books. Milk, avocados, blueberries, and books make for a good home life.

I've been outside inhaling spring. The mayor has threatened to close the parks if people can't behave, so I've been diving deep into the forest and sitting and sketching and drinking it in, in case we lose it. I know my journal is heavy on the green lately, but that's how my mind works in spring pretty much every year.

Then yesterday I worked on the garden, which may be the real sign that the world as we know it is ending. I did have some help come in, since that's open air and socially distant. It's the last piece (except one tiny, bad upstairs bathroom) of the yearlong project sprucing up the house. I needed help getting out some poison ivy that I'd let get way too entrenched, and they put in blueberries and a fig tree for me. I got some herbs from an open air nursery, and my dad just brought me a couple of tomato plants (SO odd not to hug him!), so I planted all of those myself.

Usually I'd rather make art than take care of the place, but I have found a lot of satisfaction recently in making the house nice. Just in time for all this. So grateful. And usually I'm traveling, which makes watering and caring for a garden a nonstarter. But this year seems like the year to try once again to grow some tomatoes and herbs at the very least. So yesterday I did all that instead of a journal entry. I'm working not to put pressure on myself for specific projects just at this moment and instead do the things that bring me joy. So now I'm going to make dinner, listen to 2010 baseball on KMOX, and read some more Harry Potter.

As I approached my fiftieth birthday, a lovely minister friend of mine reminded me that Biblically every 50 years, fields lie fallow, debts are forgiven, and there are parties all year. I loved that. I had already set a goal for myself at age 49 to get my family house in the shape I would like to live with for the next 25 years of my living here, and not wait till I was ready to move out to do nice things. It was helpful to have time to think ahead, and I did do a good amount of cleaning up, repainting, fixing things, and buying a few new things (stained glass lamps, a comfy loveseat, etc.). I had planned to have the house ready for a Jubilee on my birthday, a party with music and dancing and all my favorite people. But the world had other plans.

My birthday was right as the ground shifted underneath everyone (except for Washington State, who had already gotten the preview). So no party. But I could not have done better work to make my home, if not magazine ready, a place I am very happy to be in. I think of myself as someone who does appreciate the small beauties of daily life. My show last year was Daily Pleasures, a still life show of  tea things and farmers market bounty. But I also know that I have a tendency to be rushing out of town on a regular and frequent basis. It seems that this year I am getting a master class in the Jubilee of daily life.

Instead of the dance weekends, adventures, and new places I had planned, I am walking every day in the forest. I am home to see the bulbs give way to the wildflowers and the wildflowers give way to the blooming trees. I am sitting nightly with my dog. I am chatting with neighbors (from a good distance away), tracking the sunbeams' journey through my house, reveling in my newly blue-green bedroom, knitting, reading books, and drinking tea. I know there will be hard times to come, but there is great beauty to be found in the every day. So instead of thinking of my jubilee as being postponed, I am thinking of it as unexpected but still beautiful. 

I've really locked back into my main print work in a satisfying way this weekend, and I've also spent some nice time outside, since it's been flat out gorgeous. But it was also good to get back to the QJ after taking yesterday off from it. I have a friend who uses the hashtag #dailyish, which I love. It has an intention of frequency, but with enough grace and flexibility built in for a little breathing space without guilt. That's what I aspire to for any project.

Below is the new print I'm working on for my WAMA show in 2022. It's a gorgeous place called Barnaby Slough (it could maybe use a slightly more poetic name) outside of Concrete, WA. I find that when I work on prints from places I love, I end up mentally still in that space while I'm working. So it's nice to take a mental trip at the moment while we're all sticking so close to home.

I was more organized last night and had my journal and watercolors on the coffee table before settling in with the baseball game. (KMOX had the inspired idea to replay the last seven weeks of the Cardinals 2011 season, game by game, night by night. I'm grateful for the familiar company and Mike Shannon's infectious laughter.) Mr. Darcy was so cute I couldn't resist, so here's the updated Day 7.

The weather was flat out perfect today. I'm trying to lock back in on my show, but with more rain coming, I decided to head to the forest first. I found a safe spot well off the path to sketch, away from both other people passing by and the now sprouting poison ivy. It was delightful to sit on a fallen log and draw wildflowers.

Then I took my bike out to enjoy the day further. My favorite bookstore, Burke's, in business for a whopping 142 years here in Memphis, has their building closed to the public but will do delivery, mail orders, or curbside pickup. So I picked up on my bike and did a lovely large loop through the neighborhood before starting carving on my new print block for the second half of the afternoon. A lovely day overall. I also took a little video of Mr. Darcy and the gorgeous wildflowers in the forest. Just for fun, and for anyone who isn't able right now to ge out and walk.