If I hurry a little bit, I get to be part of the Memphis Rozelle Artist’s Guild Sketchbook 2012 Project that opens on March 2:
I’ve already missed the deadline to get in the catalog but I’ve got til Thursday to get it in the mail. To help me along in finishing it, the universe sent me a lovely cold so that I feel like sludge. Should I draw a sludgy slug? I wanted to do a nice themed journal about Memphis memories but it wound up going all over the place. It did, however, give me a nice venue to process some feelings about my mom dealing with dementia. Here are some sample pages.
One thing I really like about keeping a sketchbook or art journal is how you can see how different moods and events impact your drawing style.
The Rozelle Artist Guild show is a non-juried one, very democratic that gives it an exuberant quality. My husband likes to say life is what happens when you’re making other plans. I plan to get this finished in the next two days. It’s only 16 pages, for goodness sakes. I’ll let you know what happens.
joy murray art~stories~life 
Hi, Joy! I love the magnolia jungle! Wonderful! And your mom truly is a Southern beauty. “The Jungle of Memory” says it all so much more effectively than words could. I watched two of my daughter-in-law’s aunts struggle through the twisted jungle of dementia, and it was a heartbreaker all around. I think the experience taught my three grandkids a lot about life and compassion, but it was a hard, hard lesson. Go for it! Jean
Thanks so much, Jean. So much of life, I think, is a hard, hard lesson, but I believe we can learn and grow from these things. I see so much compassion all around me that I’m often overwhelmed by it. We focus on the bad, but there is much goodness in the world. My sister and the doctors are taking good care of my mom. It’s a blessing. And my mom is keeping her sense of humor, too.
The pencil and the sketchbook are the most important tools in the artist’s toolbox. These items help artists develop better sketching skills as well as capture ideas for later pieces of art. Despite this, some artists may not have any idea how to work with pencils or their sketchbooks. While sketching uses the same tools and skill sets that drawing does, the purpose of sketching is much looser and more open to an element of play that doesn’t always exist in formal drawing.
I love my sketch books and don’t really put any restrictions on them. If you’d like to see more of my work and thoughts on the matter, check out my new blog at joycorcoran.com