Fathers Day

To all of the dads out there who have done the best they could to provide, to protect, teach, share with, and love your children. To all of you who have thought you were doing the right things that turned out to be the wrong things. Who would do anything to have known and done better. To all of you who have, for better or worse, given it your all. Today, you and I are honored for the simple fact of our parenthood. Happy Fathers Day.

lilies in the yard, 10" x 7 1/2" Derwent Inktense pencils

Sad beauty

What business I have being so deeply sad on such a lovely, quiet morning in June I can't quite say. Yet the fleeting beauty of these seasonal blossoms over the patio wall seems oddly compatible with some ineffable sense of mourning. Beauty and sadness.

lilies and peonies, 10" x 7 1/2", Derwent Inktense pencils

Over the wall

The brick patio that I had built on the side of our home almost ten years ago has a knee wall with brick coping, running most of its length. Tina has lovingly planted and maintained a variety of perennials in beds that hug that wall and buffer it from the yard, and that mark the progress of the long growing season here in Lancaster county. Daffodils, bleeding hearts, and other spring flowers have given way to iris and peonies which are already shriveled and nearly gone, the roses are past their prime, and now the lilies are opening. In this year of big changes in our lives, their beauty takes my breath away, reminding me that there is always some quiet marvel if only we will pause and notice.

peonies wither and lilies open, 8" x 6", Derwent Inktense pencils

over the patio wall, Sunday morning June 9, 2013

Cycling with a sketchbook

It's so easy to make excuses for why there is no time to go out on a bicycle on a cool, clear summery morning. Professional commitments and work deadlines are the usual ones with me. And so tempting because forgoing self care for the obligations of our livelihood makes us look and feel so responsible, so mature and adult-like. In the meantime, we fail to give our bodies, minds and spirits all but the most minimal maintenance. We wither, lose our fitness, sharpness, creativity, hope. We lose the love we say that our work serves.

So this morning, after completing the first two drawings of the day for my graphic design buddy Tad to position in the product guide we're working on against one of those fast approaching deadlines, I threw on my bike cleats, stuffed my little Moleskine sketchbook and a tin of colored pencils in my back pockets, and rode out on my 22 mile route across western Lancaster county's rolling farmland. Halfway through the ride, the elongated shadow of a concrete silo against the gable end of a red barn stopped me and I did this little sketch. And now I take even more time that work says I don't have to put up this brief post.

But here's the thing: temps fugit. Time flees. I can work late, but I would never have been able to recover this achingly lovely fragment of an early June morning spent under the clear blue sky, fully engaged with my world, in love with my messy life.

barn, silos, trees, and shadows 8 1/2 x 5 1/4, Derwent Inktense pencils

a little update

I can scarecely believe that it's been five weeks since I last posted on this blog. My apologies to friends and visitors who have come here looking for fresh content and gone away disappointed.

Yesterday, I said this to a good buddy: "Life doesn't happen in concisely themed little chapters. The (crude noun - use your imagination) happens all at once." His response, equally crude, agreed emphatically. For me, a heavier than usual workload as I've split my business into essentially two separate divisions that I continue to run as a sole proprietor, and ramped up demand for both, designer services and product development, have left me with almost no time for anything but work. A year long residential project drawing to its conclusion, a major product series introduction only three months away, new contracts, and feeling my way along with strategic planning have taken more attention. Along with that, the requirements of a family in the midst of major transitions, and trying to lead a reasonably healthy lifestyle have left me, like many other people, feeling overwhelmed and barely able to keep my head above water.

But enough of that - you didn't come to hear me whine. Since I haven't done any "art" drawing in the past month, here's a little series of color sketches I just did for a favorite designer to present some options to one of their clients who was a bit on the fence about whether or not to award the project to her firm. The basic scheme was developed by the designer, with tweaking and visualization by me.

basic scheme, view 1

view 1 a bit more traditional Japanese looking

view 1 including some glass

view 2 basic

view 2, more traditional

view 2 with semi elliptical curved hood

After all that and more, the client came in for the meeting with a set of architect revised house plans that included a completely different sized and configured kitchen space. But, the renderings and options along with the designer's great sales skills were enough to convince the client to move forward.