I was late doing a journal entry last night because I'd dived back into a new print, and that felt great. I had two really happy days in a row and then made the mistake of reading the NYT over dinner which brought down a bit. So I got out the sketchbook and sat by the fire, and all of that was good. I'm grateful for this cheerful project, and I'm grateful for my cosy space. That stained glass lamp is one I found last year at a local antique mall, and I had a sudden realization of how happy stained glass makes me. I've been buying lamps and one panel for my landing window ever since. I'm looking forward to getting out again someday and seeing if I can find any more pieces of stained glass happiness. It's a fun treasure hunt.

I had an honestly, really good day yesterday. I just finished the other half of that avocado, and I'll miss them for a while, but lots of happy things are happening. I'm feeling more locked in for my work. I got to take part in a Zoom Bible study class with my favorite teacher who had moved away years ago. Purely due to everyone being trapped at home, he's teaching a class online that I can access now. AND baseball! Sort of. KMOX in St. Louis (I'm a total Cardinals fan) had the brilliant idea of replaying the last 7 weeks of the 2011 season, day by day, game by game. An occasional highlight rerun is one thing, but having the announcers for company each evening is going to make my world a lot more familiar and comforting. Plus Mike Shannon has the most infectious laugh I know. I'm so grateful for them doing that. I'm also grateful to be cosied up in my quiet house with work I love, enough food, and a snuggly dog. I'm ridiculously lucky.

I'm still really enjoying doing some colorful, quick sketches as I adjust to the new world normal. I also turned off the news today and caught up on my favorite writers podcast #AmWriting. It's three friends talking about the self directed creative life (including lots of nuts and bolts advice that transfers over to lots of creatives, not just writers), and it's warm, funny, and super informative. I've learned a ton over the last few years. Last week's episode was on websites, and it made me consider how mine looks on a mobile phone. Fortunately my Weebly platform converts itself to mobile. I love having a site I can control, update, and expand without knowing coding. But I hadn't considered the question of which information rises to the top as my two columns on the main site merge into one. Now I've got that fixed for better information sooner.

In the process, I scanned in my recent sketches. I've been mostly just snapping iphone photos and throwing them up lately, but boy howdy, are they nicer when I take the time to scan them in. So here are the next installments of the Quarantine Journal, and I decided to give it its own page as well. They'll pop up here first, but there will be an in order narrative on the QJ page.

Boy howdy, y’all. The world changed fast. So I’m hunkering down to make art and am feeling continually grateful for my WAMA show to work towards. It gives me something positive and productive to focus on and it also means that I’m in a hunker down and make art period anyway instead of a cancelling shows period. I’m deeply lucky to be in the haven of a family house with a fantastic dog and a beautiful forest nearby to walk in. There’s enough space there for people to spread out. Watching my friends in the denser cities in Europe I feel very lucky indeed.

I’m also grateful that I’ve spent time over recent months trying to make my home the place I really want it to be. I had my birthday in mind as a deadline. I’ve lived in this house 25 years and have just lived with many inherited, not ideal things. Like the wallpaper in my bedroom. I decided I wanted to change it now so I can enjoy the next 25 years instead of waiting until I have to move. There are a couple of things on the list that I haven’t gotten to yet, but I have painted my bedroom, cleaned various spaces, framed and hung artwork that has been sitting around waiting for me to get to it, and bought a few things that make me really happy, like a stained glass panel for my landing window. My house feels really good to be in now, and I’m grateful to my friends who are wizards at creating warm, welcoming spaces for inspiring me to finally move in this direction.

Yesterday before dinner I sketched my birthday flowers from my dear friend Melissa Bridgman (bridgmanpottery.com). She so kindly left them by my side door, and I love being able to capture them to keep them forever in my sketchbook. Looking back through the years there are other birthday bouquets from her as well. Such kindness.

I’ve been working on my first large block (18x24”) for the new press, and it’s been going incredibly slowly. I’ve also been a little under the weather, so sketching has been sparse lately, but here are a few. They postponed baseball today, so I took to the forest with Mr. Darcy to draw. Always a good option, no matter what is going on, and I needed to clear my head.

A couple of nights ago I got super tired of my own cooking, and I headed to Huey’s. It’s One Week, 100 People on Instagram, and I’m home by myself too much to make any headway, but I did go do a token couple of pages. I got in 12 on this page and another few close up sketches in another book, but I won’t be getting close at all this year.

This last one is older — a couple of weeks ago. It was a gorgeous day, and I took my bike out the green line and had lunch at the park at the edge of town. There’s a bench by a small lake that always has ducks (and occasionally buffalo hanging around behind a fence too...don’t ask), and it’s my favorite long bike ride destination. The flowering trees are going like crazy right now, which always makes me happy.

I was living my best life yesterday, which felt lovely. It was a glorious, warm day in the middle of a rainy winter, and I decided to enjoy it to the full. I worked on the print I’m excited about in the morning (see the bottom photo for a close up — I mostly finished the sky), had lunch, and then went out to enjoy the day. Mr. Darcy and I walked first. I packed my small backpack with sketching gear, so we hung out, painted this glorious curved tree that I walk past daily, and chatted to neighbors as they too got out to bask in the 65 degree weather.

After that I got back on my bike, which has been neglected the last couple of weeks. I did some loops around midtown, enjoying our neighborhoods and looking at the houses, and I stopped at Burke’s Books, Memphis’s 140 year old independent bookstore. Beautifully I happened on a $6 biography of Berthe Morisot. I just ordered a frame my poster from her solo show at the Orsay this past summer, so it was a perfect time to revisit my newest art hero. I looped back through the park for the sheer pleasure of the forest and logged right at 11 miles total. I only learned how to ride a bike this summer, and it has greatly increased my joy. I feel like a kid swooping around. It’s kind of nice to have some pleasures that are delayed to discover along the way.

In the evening I met friends for dinner and a concert by the New Orleans Dirty Dozen Brass Band. So much fun. I’m really grateful for this life I get to live.

I enjoyed yesterday’s dawn sketch so much that painted my new-to-me Frankoma teapot over breakfast today. I’d been collecting the teacups and other bits at antique malls. They feel so good cupped in your hands. But I hadn’t found a teapot (these pieces were made mid century at a factory in Oklahoma), so I treated myself and ordered a small one, just right for one person, online. It’s fun to sketch new tea things, and I love the colors and lines of these.

This was extra important today because I’m in day two of painting my bedroom, so very long overdue, and it’s a big project solo. I knew I’d be working on that with all the rest of the daylight and wanted to make a little art first. The #AmWriting podcast and Facebook community is big on “morning pages” for writers — something that’s purely yours, to loosen up for the day. I don’t mind having the energy to dive straight into good work, the way I did right after breakfast on that print yesterday (before starting the painting marathon), but I do really enjoy the looseness of an early sketch. I love that podcast for how they think about living a creative life but also handling all the business and marketing necessities that go with that. I’ve learned a lot from them and enjoyed their company in the process.

Ok, back to work. Here’s where I slept last night. The gray is primer. Color today and trim tomorrow is the plan. I hope to be done for the weekend and back to painting I enjoy more, but it’s also satisfying to be making my space somewhere I’ll really enjoy being. And doing it myself.

I’ve had a lot of midlife sleep troubles lately, along with a ton of other women, and it’s made it hard to bound out of bed ready to work (at least, after tea) the way I am used to doing. I’ve been working hard to get more sleep — limiting evening screen time, drinking milk with dinner instead of wine, stopping caffeine after 10am, etc. January usually helps anyway, which is a blessed relief after show and holiday stress and generally bad sleep for a while. I’ve gotten myself on track the last couple of weeks, and it’s felt good. This morning I’m having a great day, and I want to write about it and remind myself to at least shoot for this more often.

Instead of lying in bed too long looking at instagram (I do love to scroll through artists I follow and get ideas for new things to try), I got up quite early. It was still firmly dark, so my kitchen, which is very cheerful in the sunlight, was more dreary. I decided to have breakfast instead by the gas log fire, which was a cosy, warm, and happy way to start the morning. You can just see Mr. Darcy next to my chair in the semi dark.

The dawn was gorgeous as I went out to get my paper, and my iPhone couldn’t capture the colors. I decided to do a quick sketch to start the morning. I’ve been concentrating on prints lately and not sketching much, so this was a very happy way to start the day. I’m going to try to remember to build more sketching in, even when I’m doing good work already. And I was still at my table and working on my print at 7:15 to enjoy the morning light. I got the last tweaks (I think) done on my current print, proofed it, and submitted it to a place where I’m dreaming of having a show. A very good morning indeed. Now off to some different work.