Back at work today on adventures #4, in which I cannot draw a dog. This of course is the whole point of the endeavor — to practice. To build a practice. Consistency, repetition, progress. Right?
Man, it’s hard to stay positive on so little sleep.
The puppy is near four months old. She’s been with me for just one week and I’m exhausted, I love her, I hope I’m doing it right. She’d never been on a leash and I don’t know why but I didn’t think it would be this hard. I leash trained a cat for goodness sake.
Welcome. Been a minute since I was down in the furnace workshop. I mentioned that I queued the blog so that I could be present over the holidays, but I did not mention that I also queued the blog because three weeks ago, while I was having my coffee and watching the Today show and doing my morning check of the rescue where I got my lovely cat, there she was.
A burly little golden floof with dark, soulful eyes and a graceful black snoot. My heart, I realized, was suddenly racing. Oh no, I thought. Now? This is happening right now?
Hi, welcome! I have a confession to make. I’ve been meeting puppies. I’ve been reading dog books and stalking dog reddit and trying to get “AI” to tell me what kinds of dogs these rescue pups are. Trying to see the future. Medium, or big, or perhaps extremely big? Can I picture that? Will this dog be kind to my cat? Can I know that somehow?
Meanwhile I’m plugging away at the little adventure comic and plugging away at the laundry, down in the basement, snow piling up outside and muting the light trickling in through the glass block windows.
I’ll have to get up early and shovel before I go to work, but I can only be glad. I put 50 plants in the ground in the last weeks before the weather turned, a garden hail mary. The more snow the better. One year we got so much, even the gladiolas made it.
I’ve got all the lamps on; the little 70s swivel neck I found in the basement of my apartment in Seattle near 15 years ago, the green glass bankers lamp on the bench, the silver clamp lights I paint under.
I swept and vacuumed the floors, and dusted the worst of the cobwebs, and now I’m here, brush in hand, thinking.
Yesterday the temperature rose above freezing for the first time in weeks, and the cat and I spent some time outside, investigating the rows of icicles forming along the new gutters, and the deepening tracks of the rabbit road. The snow was melting in soft, wet heaps, and the cat made nose prints and paw prints while the sun shone out of a clear, blue sky.
We had company last week and through the weekend, which ratcheted both the cozy festivities and my usual holiday stress to new heights. I miss having that full house, but I think we’re all glad that things are back to normal.
I wrote yesterday about making turkey stock and getting into a new blank MIDORI notebook. Today has turned out much the same. I think I’ll end up with some seven quarts of stock, all told. Not too shabby! Completed artwork and some discussion of bike life after the cut, please stick around:
I wanted to share a little piece of writing from this time last year, when the cat and I were only eight weeks into our acquaintance, and just embarking on our outdoor adventure together. The photos are both from our walk a few days ago, ft. the garden’s lovely final show of the season. Stay tuned for how it started, how it’s going.
Someone told me recently that I should be working on my art for me, not to seek recognition. Huh. Does it mean something bad about me that I see no reason to make art that I don’t intend to share? To seek recognition implies, I think, a desire for accolades. I do seek recognition, but literally just that — to be recognized. I see no reason to tell this story to myself, as I already know it. I want to tell it to you.
I recently ran across this advice while doing hundreds of hours of research before adopting a cat: start as you intend to go on. And by recently, I mean over a year ago, around the time I decided to start this blog. The purveyor of said advice, whose identity I have unfortunately forgotten, stumbled upon it herself in a parenting book, but felt it had a broader relevance, and I quite agree. Because while I don’t remember where exactly I heard it, here I sit, one year later thinking yeah! That is how I should start this blog!
adventures 