winter wonderland. Yes. Still.

We got another snowstorm yesterday,

so before doing anything this morning,

i made a good pot of coffee,

and found my way to my little blue room

for a quick sketch.

It's supposed to be a self portrait,

but i see no resemblance at all...

Maybe portraits first thing in the morning

are not the greatest idea for me.

I see a bored librarian.

Or a pissed off Walmart employee. 

hehehee...

Either way, i want to do

a self portrait a day for a month,

on small index cards

so it doesn't feel too overwhelming.

15 or 20 minutes per drawing, that's it.

Some are no doubt gonna be crappy,

but i'm curious to see how different

the SAME face will be in the course of a month.

I think it all depends on how different I FEEL

on each given day.

I love this quote by Picasso:

Painting is a blind man's profession.

He paints not what he sees,

but what he feels,

what he tells himself 

about what he has seen.

An then, i looked outside to see
last night's damage from the storm...
Welcome to winter in eastern Canada. ;-)

Thankfully, the plows came rolling in 
before too long...

It always kills me how rushed everyone seems

to go out after a snowstorm,
when the only place they really want to go
is to Tim Horton's for coffee.

Beautiful blue skies today...
cold, but nice.

I took these photos just a little while ago,
before the sun set.

 I may be risking a death threat by saying this,
but I just love the snowdrifts...

How beautiful is this?
Those were the actual colours 
as the sun set...
no added filters here.
There were actually pinks
and purples and deep blues...
So much beauty around us, 
if we only bother to notice it.

They're not the greatest shots,
cause I shot them with my cheapo camera
and I was freezing my ass off out there,
but still, you get the sense of how pretty it can be, right?
I'm sure there are things as beautiful
in your part of the world,
but I just wanted to share with you, mine.
Wishing you all
a wonderful week ahead.
May your days be filled with green lights
good music, and warm socks.
:-)

Liberation of Auschwitz...70 years later

For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.

- Elie Wiesel

70 years ago this month, on January 27th,

the liberation of Auschwitz.

 I sketched this about 10 years ago...

It's more of a writing than a sketch,
during a time when I was still trying
to make sense of the nonsense.

One of my favorite books...
because it encompasses three of my favorite things:
books, photographs & jewish history.

So much was lost during the holocaust,
and yet, 
these 2400 photographs survived.

Breaks my heart to see the innocence
in these beautiful photographs.
Families, friends, children,
going about their daily lives,
much the same way we go about ours.

I'd like to think we've learned from these moments in history,
and that humans will never do this to humans again.

But I believe I'd be wrong.

There are injustices all over the world,
still today.

The one thing I do know with certainty,
is that I am changed
because of this moment in history...

I am more curious about the world,
about different cultures,
and how they got to where they are today.
I am more compassionate
towards people who are different than me.
I am more skeptical.
I TRY to be less judgmental,
although the Nazis make this really difficult.

There are so many reasons to hate,
still today...
but I try not to go there,
because hating hurts me more than anyone else.
I read a few books
about good Germans who risked their lives
to help the Jews during WW2.
It helped me not hate them all.

somewhere over the rainbow

hello world!

I've had less time for art these days

and even lesser time for blogging,

now that I am working 9 to 5.

I am making the best of it while I'm there,

but I won't lie.

I'm already counting down the weeks.

(4 months to go)

I need to have a few things in my day

to make my life feel like it's mine.

Books.

Art.

Music.

Nature.

Writing.

Notice how office work is not on the list?

But I've made the choice to go back,

so let's just talk about something more interesting,

shall we?

By the way, thank you for all your words

of encouragement in my last post.

You all made it a little easier for me...

I sketched this while watching TV.
A show about some guy
who stalked and raped women.
Probably Dateline...

He scared me as I sketched him
in ball point pen,
so I planted flowers in his hair.

The freedom of being an artist.

Then I did this one below

and felt a little better afterwards.

This book was recommended to me

by several artists,

so i finally got it for myself.

I LOVE books like this.
So creative and fun.

So many fun exercises and
interesting points of view.

I mean, who wouldn't love
this kind of homework?

Can you imagine how inspiring she must be
as a teacher?
I'm sure she helped a lot of kids
find the courage to be themselves.
High marks in school (or college, or university)
aren't everything.
Actually, to me, they mean very little.

I always found it so difficult to grade the students

when I taught part time at the college.

There were some who never struggled

with the deadlines or the assignments

and they always pulled it off smoothly,

with what seemed like

very little effort.

But then there were others,

who struggled all the time...

the quiet ones in the back of the class

trying not to attract attention to themselves.

Working hard,

but unsure of themselves.

Unsure of their ideas.

Afraid to tackle the next project

for fear that they wouldn't be

as good as the others.

Those were usually the ones

I focused on,

without losing touch

with the rest of the group.

Those were the ones

with the magic inside.

They just didn't know it yet.

And it was my job to help them

find it.

And oh, what a feeling when they did.

I'll bet there are many of you out there

with the same magic inside...

and you just don't know it yet.

Don't give up.

Keep doing what you're doing.

Don't lose heart.

xx