"Take a Break" Word-Art Doodle ✍️

I haven’t shared one of my doodles in a while, and this rushed season seemed like the perfect time to post this one.

Whether it’s a fifteen-minute tea or coffee break; an hour with a book; a week off from work; or an afternoon of baking, or streaming movies, or catching a nap, or writing, I hope you also put a thing (or ten) on pause to savor a little break. You deserve it!

Here’s my initial doodle (using pencil and fine-line black pen) from my sketch pad. Yep, I also used crayons on this one. You’ll notice some pencil marks here and there that I didn’t erase well enough (oopsy!) and that the curve of my T and my second line’s k got some extra ink that was inadvertent. Handmade things are perfectly imperfect this way. 😁

Then, I scanned the initial doodle, cropped it, and experimented with adding filters for the background and the doodle itself.

Art & Interview in Bait/Switch 🥳

A true delight to get to participate in Bait/Switch, an innovative, inspiring “call and response art publication” where creatives are given a piece of art as a prompt to then create a new piece of art.

I had the best time creating my cyanotype, “On the Move,” and had a blast talking art, letter-writing, and more with multitalented editor and executive director Lu Valena. Check out the latest/fall 2022 issue for the work of wonderful creatives here: clickety.

Extra props and a very special shout-out to powerhouse of art and dear friend Christine Tierney. Many thanks for your encouragement to submit to Bait/Switch and for the marvelous poetry and life conversations. Such a joy to be publication twins with you, and kudos on your group show! 🥳Check out Christine’s gorgeous collage art and interview in the issue as well as her fabulous poetry book, chicken+lowercase=fleur .

To continued artistic inspiration!

New Month, New Word-Art Drawings ✒️

I have a penchant for doodling everyday things. Things people kind of hurry past. Things that are utilitarian but that are integral and, well, handy.

I bought these scissors before Christmas a few years ago at a discount store; they were around $3. I stood before the display for way too long, comparing and contrasting the red-and-white chevron pairs to the green-and-white chevron pairs. In the end, green won out by a slim margin. Like my ‘90s film cameras, they have a nice heft to them and are neither too clunky nor too crowded in my grip. I most often use them for cutting the little shipping label before sending away my film to be developed. Now and again, I pull them from the drawer and find a little something that just has to be trimmed for the satisfaction of using them.

I picked this daisy dress online during the first months of Covid, during quarantine. I noticed it because I wanted the happiest possible design I could find. It’s a Kelly green with white daisies with yellow centers. The last time I had a dress with daisies on it, I was 22 and getting ready to walk across a graduation platform. That dress was black-and-white checked and mostly covered with my graduation gown. This dress I put on during days when it’s gray as a crayon and raining. Or days when I want a spring in my step. Or just days where the green pops out at me as I stand before my closet. Green has always felt a color of calm strength, renewal, and hope to me. There needs to be very little reason for a daisy pattern. This is the first time I’ve drawn a hanger or the drape of this dress. I got the proportions of the sleeves a little too long, but the daisy chain on my joy’s -y was a spark of last-minute inspiration and great fun.

For more versions of these drawings, check out my Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/writepath99/ .