Connecting to Joy

It's full summer, my work is going well, websites are taking on "personalities" of their own, my sculpture pieces are moving along, and my urban sketching is still great fun. I'm living in a wonderful place close to nature, next to a vineyard. Birds, animals, wildflowers, and trees surround me. It's a time of creative energies, comfort, and joy.
A big revelation that I am on this summer is that all these "venues" that I create can express these things. I can share the good things with others. Somehow, everything that I do is flowing together and all I have to do is flow with it in joy, contentment, and happiness. It's a journey and more and more I want to share it with others and bring you along with me. Sometimes, especially on my websites, I follow traditional advice and try to sound "professional," which means writing in a manner of professional detachment, avoiding overly emotive sentiments. That is wrong. The internet is a new concept in the world, and I want to approach it in new ways. This is a heads-up to you my readers to tell you that I will be modifying some of my writings and approaches to websites and blog. That's all I have to say. Except this—Follow Your Joy. 

More from SketchCrawl

Sketchcrawl is part of urban sketching groups. It's organized periodically in many and various locations around the world. Groups of artists get together for a day and walk around sketching what they see.

SketchCrawl April 2011

This sketchcrawl was organized by artist Jim Stigall. A small group of artists wandered through downtown Denver sketching various scenes along the way.

New York City sketches

I had a great visit to the big apple. My purpose was to seek out contemporary art and artists. I went to a lot of different galleries, in Chelsea, SOHO, and some others. I also went to both the Museum of Modern art and the Metropolitan. I spent a great part of my young life in these museums. It was nostalgic to visit them, even though there were great changes at MOMA. Much of the art is the same as I remember. It is very energizing to to be around art, to see what emerging artists are creating, to remember the modern artists, and to connect with the old masters. Of course, I also found a little time for a few small watercolor sketches, hard to do in the cold of winter.

Urban Nature

These are some sketches I've done in Denver. I'm a member of Urban Sketchers group. One is a band that is playing during the People's Fair in the park. One is at the Chalk Fest, with two artists at work in the street.  One is outside the Paramount Cafe, along the outdoor 16th Street mall. Yes, I know it's not nature, but I love urban sketching--sitting and watching people has always been my favorite activity. Sketching is great fun, but I truly had to train myself to draw fast to capture people's gestures and poses. These are all sketched in pen with watercolor washes over the top.