A rabbit, a squirrel and a crow walk into...

... my awareness

Earlier this week I began a new sketchbook page inspired by the new purple-puffball plant

J. L. Sullens

and I got last weekend. Here is a photo of the plant.

The plant's puff-balls remind me of the big paper-ball lighting some cafés and coffee shops have over their outdoor seating this time of year. A rabbit had visited our yard earlier so that's why I chose a rabbit character for my sketchbook drawing.

As usual I worked on this drawing during breakfast over multiple mornings. But rather than show each step (I shared some of that on my Notes) because I have other things to share with you today, including footnotes, here's the finished sketchbook pages.

As for the handwritten text I was thinking about creativity - that it's the willingness to see whatever is there in front of you as a gift, an opportunity to combine and recombine those things until something works. This thought also reminded me that creativity is the willingness, even within difficulties, to look for the possibilities. That thought reminded me of the “glad game” spoken of in one of my favorite books from my childhood “Pollyanna” by Eleanor Porter.

In that book the main character practices finding something to be glad about no matter what the story circumstances are. This isn't toxic positivity or a cynical swipe at naivety, Eleanor Porter created not just a delightful cast of characters but a strong argument for emotional authenticity. In the story playing the glad game, and being authentic even during adversity, serves to strengthen both the individuals and the community. The story also questions whether our sophisticated cynicism serves us better than determined optimism.

Nowadays, a century later, in our current era of doom-scrolling and performative rage and despair, the story character's insistence on finding reasons to continue facing life, in a comunity oriented elbows up¹ way, is surprisingly relevant even revolutionary.

Eleanor Porter wrote “Pollyanna” in 1913² and of course it's quite old fashioned in many ways when viewed from today's time (or even from mine as a child in the 1970's) and yet somehow it's more relevant now than ever.³

Especially the glad game.

And it's a version of the glad game that I play in my sketchbooks. I take whatever I see in the real world and combine it with my internal world and, hopefully, create something that makes me smile with gladness.

For example it's beginning to be warm enough to sit outside on our patio during breakfast. So we sit out there quietly in the A.M. and crows, rabbits, squirrels and other beings visit our yard. I carry my sketchbook, pens, water-brush and paint box to the patio with me to draw whatever I see.

Here's a look at my portable sketching kit. My sketchbook is 3.5 x 5.5 inches, the paint box, when closed, is 3 x 5 also. Everything is small enough that I'm able to carry it all outdoors in one trip. The water-brush (in the photo near my coffee cup) contains water inside it so I don't have to get up to refill a water dish or wash out a paint brush. To clean my water-brush between paint colors I squeeze it and let the water drip through the brush onto a paper-towel (not pictured because it's in my pocket) and wipe it a few times till the brush tip is clear.

Here's an example of combining something from the real world with my internal world: A squirrel came into our yard and into my sleepy-morning awareness. If you zoom into the distance in this photo you can see the squirrel…

…. and here's a closer look.

So that morning during breakfast I worked on drawing that squirrel and combining it with what I was glad about at that moment.

I was particularly glad of the warmth of the coffee as it was still a bit cold to be outside. Here's my finished drawing of the squirrel almost blue with the cold hugging the warm coffee.

If you saw the crow wearing blue sneakers in my sketchbook photos above and wonder what inspired that: Recently we visited a newly remodeled locally owned independent bookstore White Oak Books. There I discovered that they have a new section with art supplies and sketchbooks!

And they even have a small sized sketchbook similar to the ones that you see in my posts all the time! (And, yes I bought one!)

The next morning during breakfast I saw a crow walking sneakily and joyously in our yard. So I drew the crow wearing blue sneakers and carrying a bookstore bag - aka my gladness at having a local source for sketchbooks!

I hope you find many things to be glad about during your weekend!⁴ ⁵ ⁶

Thank you, to all of you, for your ongoing patronage and support of my work! I appreciate every one of you! If you're a newly paid subscriber please feel free to access or download any or all of the 24 ebooks that I've written and illustrated which you can download and access anytime you wish from this index page.
Thank you again for being here!! 💚💙

1. The term ‘elbows up’ which originated in hockey and now has broader application refering to community - “In a sport defined by toughness and grit, raising your elbows signals that you’re ready to protect yourself, and your teammates, and push back —” - source: https://hiphopcanada.com/elbows-up-movement-canada/

2. A good summary of the book “Pollyanna” - https://newbookrecommendation.com/summary-of-pollyanna-by-eleanor-h-porter-a-detailed-synopsis/

3. Here's a free downloadable version, both text and audio book, of “Pollyanna” - https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28798

4. What Are We Going to Do?

5. My friend

Jason McBride

has a post I enjoyed which see as related to my theme today and adding something special to the glad game mentioned above. I couldn't figure out how to include a reference to it within the body of my text above so I'm adding it here. Hope you enjoy Jason's post too! 👇

Living an Audaciously Mundane Life

6. On hopefulness and good reasons to maintain hope.