dancing, doodles, and the boogie man... ;-)

And those who were seen dancing

were thought to be insane 

by those who could not hear the music.

- Friedrich Nietzsche

a bit of drawing from last night...
dry pastel on paper.

pastels are messy, but fun.
i love adding white to the tinted paper...

 Then a bit of journaling in cooler colors...

Found the image in a magazine,
painted & wrote the rest.

then a bit of doodling
with micron pens and Sharpies.
(this girls' all over the place!)

Mark Twain was a wise man,

with sage advice.

I also believe our brains need trampling on now & then.

Some of the ways i trample on mine:

- reading books for more than just entertainment

- writing whatever comes to mind without thinking too much about it

- crossword puzzles or sudoku

- doodling or painting with no particular goal in mind

- meditating

- avoiding TV, facebook, twitter - basically, bubble gum for the brain.

- going out in nature & pondering a leaf. (yes, a leaf)

- watching TED talks

- learning what i can and sharing with others

And here's a little creature...

in the name of Halloween

and Illustrated Friday. ;-)

Wishing everyone a great weekend!

xox

Golden Lotus shoe (watercolor on paper)

I love history and when i read, i tend to gravitate towards stories of sorrow or hardship. For a while, i tried to stay away from such weighted stories, but when i look back now, i realize that reading these stories gave me a great sense of appreciation for how good my life is - for how far we've come.

There are stories of suffering in every culture. When I first read about foot binding in China, one of the first things that came to mind was how easy it is for human beings to follow - often without question - and how deeply rooted belief systems can be. I wondered about the chinese mothers, binding their daughters' feet... did they feel sad or guilty about the pain they were causing or were they proud to be grooming their daughters to become chosen ones, Golden Lotuses?

The last line of my writing isn't visible, but it reads: I don't consider myself a feminist, but whenever i read stuff like this - i could easily become one.  :-)