On 01.02.02, I was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. Too late for surgery, I had chemotherapy, which failed. In May the chemotherapy was changed and I was soon in remission which was celebrated and welcome and lasted nine years - until October 2011. There was progression in 2011 so more treatment was indicated and I am now back in partial remission. But I'm not only a cancer patient - I also enjoy my family, walk my dogs and am learning to draw and paint. Life is good!

Friday, October 24, 2008

Read or draw, read or draw?

Last night I finished reading a wonderful book by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, THE SOCIAL LIVES OF DOGS: The Grace of Canine Company.  I just loved this book!  The author and her husband live in a rural area with many dogs, cats and exotic birds. So the book has as much to do with the sociopolitical relationships of all of them as it does about how dogs interact among themselves.  The more I learn about animals, the more respectful I become, that's for sure.

We've started carving our linoleum blocks in the mixed media class.  It's labor intensive, but meditative and soothing.  I ordered a bunch of smaller blocks for my own projects because I really like to work small.  

In my watercolor class, when we post our work for critique, mine is always the smallest piece on the wall.  I think that's going to be a ditto for block printing too, not because I shun the work of a larger block, but because I can only manage small, individual images at this point and I appreciate the sense of control when I work "little."

1 comment:

  1. I think some of us just like "small". I tend to make things small. I also use smaller brushes than usual to paint with and I like seed beads over other beads because they are small. I have some so small I can hardly get the smallest needle through them. When I was making bobbin lace I went for Honiton style as it was very fine thread to make small motifs. Think about it, do you like small elsewhere in your life? I don't think it's that we aren't daring or bold as others, we just like things small over large. Some people can't do small!

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