A book club report

Lynn wrote in spiral on the back of this card so that I had to spin it like an antique vinyl to decipher it. As I spun the card around, I learned that through drawing this card Lynn found that watercolor paper is not great for color pencils. It is hard to make the color even.

She also reported that she was a member of a book club at long last. They had just finished The Help by Katheryn Stockett, which just happens to be in the theater this month, and were about to read the The Elegance of a Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. A choice that Lynn was hesitant about because she had just read, and not particularly enjoyed, Muriel's earlier book, Gourmet Rhapsody.

It is funny to read this again now because The Elegance of a Hedgehog came up in discussion last week. A friend and I were chatting about recent/favorite reads and our reading addictions. I was lamenting that I was having a reading dry spell. For more than a year, I had been taking months to get through a single book, reading only a few pages a night. This is not at all like me at all, I had exclaimed, I am usually a binge reader. It was then that I remembered that The Elegance of a Hedgehog was the last book that I had read cover to cover in a single night. I had planned to read a couple chapters before bed but the sun was threatening to come up before I finished the last page. I only caught a few moments of sleep before work. Not particularly responsible, but perhaps not the worst pleasure to indulge. Lynn, I cannot remember your final review. Did you end up liking the book? What are you reading now?

(Note - I'm in Michigan and have yet to conquer the family scanner so this postcard is especially mini, sorry Pal!) .

Silly

This outline drawing is fun because in Oct of 2010 Jessica was just learning about silly bandz!  Having worked in an elementary school, I had known about the bandz craze for quite a while.  They are really fun! Apparently someone came to Ghana and brought silly bandz in the shape of Sherlock Holmes and Micheal Jackson.  I remember a lot of the time I needed the kids to tell me what their band was supposed to be as some don't jump out at you right away...I'm not sure I would have guessed those two.  Jessica saw some kids on her walk one Sunday and decided to draw up some silly bandz of her own!

Mickey!

Lynn's little dogs have been featured on a few postcards. This is a drawing of Mickey from a picture taken while visiting Lake Michigan. Apparently, he was so excited that he was flying around checking everything out. I totally relate with Mickey. When I hit the beach at home, I cannot help but jump around either. How could we not be thrilled? Who could resist this:

Picnics

Water color pencils. I had almost forgotten that they existed, and I never understood what to do with them until I received Lynn's card last summer. Lynn clearly knew that these nifty pencils can make clean lines easier. A great attribute, since successful clean lines are a headache for any new water-color student using a brush, or at least this has always been my experience (I know this may mean I need to learn to live in a world without lines; I am working on this. But as my post cards demonstrate, I have a hard time letting go of borders).

Lynn wrote on the card's belly that she had been thinking of picnics. Picnics she had decided were better thought of than to be had. Bugs, ants and heat, resident picnickers, make her prefer to enjoy her sandwich somewhere other than reclining on the lawn. Although I have had my share of lovely park picnics, living in the tropics, where we take all of aforementioned components up a notch, I must say that she may be on to something.

Cheers to the waning days of heat and bugs my pal.

Book portraits

Lynn was catching up on cards last June; just as I am now. There are some months that I just cannot keep up. Having read about doing bookshop portraits - a portrait showing only what someone likes to read - on Jane Mount's website, she used our postcard project to take up the challenge. Since Lynn goes to the library regularly, drawing only books she owned was a constraint. However, she made due, including bookends she owned as a child (she loved that they were blue) and 'escape' books that she had enjoyed. It is a fun window into my pal's far away life.

Since I haven't had enough time to do pleasure reading lately, I became a bit nostalgic about escape books re-reading this postcard. Sounds like such a luxury! I am afraid that a book portrait of my current state of being would be a bit too serious. Sigh. Somehow I think Lynn might agree.

School is out for the summer

I missed a card Lynn did last may, so I am posting it now. This 'photo drawing meld' as Lynn called it turned out well. It reminds me of a drawing assignment I received in a high school photography class. We ripped one of the black and white photos we had developed into half and then drew the missing side. Since I had never taken a drawing class (and still haven't!) I remembered not being sure I was up for this. I surprised myself a bit to find that with a little effort I could make the other side of the house I had captured with my camera materialize in pencil form. Makes me want to do this exercise again.

On the underbelly of this card, Lynn wrote about wrapping up the school year for summer. In addition to saying farewell to some retiring teacher friends, she also hosted the school's girls' club End of the Year Party. Apparently, this meant containing 35 girls with a sugar high for a few hours. Wild from all of the pop they drank, they broke out into playing 'America's Got Talent' for an hour. (Somehow reading this, I assume they were drinking red Faygo... I have no idea why.) I have a feeling this made Lynn especially appreciative of the relative silence that came with summer.

Tech toys and more

Jessica drew me this litte guy and then wrote about being busy at work.  Who is he Jess?
Anyways, she was working a a record breaking speed and feeling recharged by vacation.  She had gotten a cool gift from her dad, tiny speakers that plug into her iTouch.  These fabulous little speakers came from Singapore, she was impressed by the quality from the small size.   Hopefully her music or podcasts helped her to get through the summer where work was doing amazing and interesting projects but keeping her worn out!

Perspective

Blogging a year ago reminded Lynn about 'perspective.' What she meant by this was that she had remembered that when she was eleven she loved watching the Commander Marc program on PBS. He would draw lots of streets along with interconnected pipes to teach roundness via shading. This card was a back to the roots activity not just in its style, but in that the street is loosely based on Lynn's neighborhood growing up (a postcard from the past I never thought I would receive). Since I know that Lynn's family now lives in a new area, I was at first impressed by her memory, but then I began to think about my own childhood street and I feel like I can remember every blade of grass.

Perspective. It is drawing term that makes you step back and think. Have you been practicing this lately, Lynn?

Photographer to the Tzar

Winter is coming to an end and spring is in the air in the Midwest - or it should be. It sounds as if winter is reluctant to release its hold this year, since it is late April and I have been receiving pictures of my father's snow filled yard in my inbox. However, snow or no snow, spring break must go on and Lynn recently return from her 'spring' break pilgrimage to the Twin Cities just as she did last year.

While she visiting her parents a year ago, Lynn's mom shared a program with her on the work of Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii, the photographer to the Tzar who began producing color photographs in 1906. When you look at his images it seems impossible they are real. They feel staged, because we are so used to seeing that period in black and white. Lynn found inspiration in the photos he took while on the silk road and this postcard is from a picture titled, Fabric Merchant. When I look at the photo now, I again wish I could travel to Russia to see how it has developed in the last 100 years and to have a better understanding of the street view that this merchant may have been looking out on to that day. Thank you for the inspiration a year later my pal.

Sewing Machine

This is a drawing of Lynn's grandma's sewing machine. It was old and apparently made the 90 inch seams of her duvet cover feel like they took forever. Lynn wrote that she was glad to back in the modern age after a recent upgrade, which lets her zip along with ease.

Since I have been wanting some new skirts, sewing is something I have been thinking a lot about recently. I dont have time to sew at the moment, but one perk of living in the developing world is that it is easy to get clothes made. All I need to do is dream up a design and buy some fabric - no new machine needed.

Beer Margaritas

A fun recipe from Lynn, one year ago:

A ray of hope for Detroit

Lynn saw this image in her rear view mirror last fall and ran home to draw it. She found it ironic that this this beautiful image showed up in a reflection of downtown Detroit, especially since the city's decay is all that you see in the media.

For Lynn, this card also demonstrated that our card project had strengthened her creative muscle. She was getting stronger. She had an idea and she went home and drew it - just like that.

Plan "B"

From what Jessica wrote me on this card, her original idea was to cut out this same ceramic studio scene, she actually called that her brilliant plan a.  Seems having to do it on a 4x6 canvas caused some difficulty so she settled with plan b drawing.

While I don't remember when she signed up for her ceramics class and studio time, I know that last fall I was often talking with her on her way there.  Jessica likes to commute by walking, so she would make quite a hike there from work, and we could touch base about her life. 

Speaking of plan b- she was hoping that some of her job opportunities outside of war zones would come through for her in the next few weeks.  Relief for those of us who like Miss Jess in one, healthy piece. 

Stitch by stitch

Lynn was stitching up a storm last fall. She spent labor day weekend transforming her living room with pillowcases. As this drawing shows, sewing was on the brain. Most of the writing on the other side though is focused on asking me probing questions about boys, Afghanistan and crazy work hours. I cannot blame her since I vaguely remember calling her at random moments (when I was not writing proposals, which usually meant that I was walking somewhere) with a new plan and a new date. I would want to have serious discussions about whether moving to Afghanistan was worth risking my life and morals if it meant I could pay off my student loans. While at the same time I would go out on eharmony dates with quirky guys who wanted to settle down and had no idea I was planning to flee to a war zone. I was weighing extremes. Ditch it all and become housewife? Sell myself in order to find financial footing? Or, continue the exhausting search, which seemed endless, to find a job that I was passionate about? Thank goodness for Lynn, who wisely reminded me to have patience and stay the course - it paid dividends.

Pencil time

School is starting again. Kids are back to doodling in the margins, and Lynn is starting at a new school this fall. Settling in alright my friend?

Around this last time my desperate quest (yes, it was at times desperate) for a change in employment was gaining momentum. Enough was enough. I needed something new. Lynn was filling in as my full time cheerleader and this is what most of the back of this card was devoted to. She dared to guess what I would take on (aiming suitably high for a motivational pep talk). And, perhaps also feeling restless, suggested that maybe one day our paths would lead us to live in the same city again. Can you guess where she suggested? Its not in Michigan.

Back to our regularly scheduled posting...

Its been a few posts since I've put up a postcard drawn by Miss Jess, and its past time to get back to what this blog is all about. I actually found a card that I'd forgotten to share from early last June.  Here is a young lady blowing on a dandelion puff, such a classic summer image.  Jess wrote on the back about her drawing of this girl "looking like an alien" but I think she looks pretty well drawn!  I'd like to think both Jess and I have used our project to improve our drawing, trying out some different subjects or methods of creating.  Its fun to have a reason to experiment and try something new and an audience too! The last of summer is floating away just like those little dandelion seeds so enjoy a lovely, long holiday weekend.