The dancing
and noticing what we like in the forest
A dear friend of ours broke her arm recently. I made a get well card with a dancing cat because our friend likes cats and once-upon-a-time had crocheted a cute dancing animal so I thought she might like my drawing. I sent the original card to her. Then I decided to use a digital image of my original art to make a reproduction get-well card to add to my Zazzle shop whimsical get-well card collection. The reproduction of dancing cat card has a more generic message inside - so you can personalize it in your own ways. I enjoy making cards because I think making stuff that people can share with other people is one of the purposes of art. Here's a link to this card.
While I was doing graphic design hocus pocus to make the get well card I also created the poster that several of you, in my last newsletter, had expressed interest in having. This poster can be ordered, to be printed in many different sizes, unframed or framed, from this link.
As I worked on the poster I had more thoughts about the metaphor of forests and how often in fiction the forest is a symbol reflecting our human minds, our innermost thoughts, emotions and preferences. I thought of how the forest of our internal and external life is - in our modern time - a very dense undergrowth packed full of choices to find a path thorough. It can help sometimes if we see a pathway someone else has begun and can try it out. But we still have to do the picking of our own paths via trial and error through our particular neck of the woods. Its hard sometimes to remember that paths previously worn aren’t ruts we're doomed to follow but to remember that we have agency, we can choose what we want to do, believe, or say in this life.
Here's a related quote I'd written in a sketchbook…
And I thought about how much we rely on people to follow their own paths. Throughout our lives we rely on each other's education, experiences and expertise. For example when we need medical care we rely on the nurses and doctors who chose their own paths, who pursued their curiosity through their own life forest to get to where they are today, in a position to help. We presume that the nurses and doctors cared about their studies and were curious about their specialty enough that they persisted in the pursuit of their degrees, certificates and ultimately their professions. The same is true with all other specialists - our mundane lives are richly thick with people who've done the work to know how to teach kids, care for the elderly, harvest food, prepare food… or know about roads, bridges, houses, waterways, plumbing… all kinds of taken for granted mundane things that make up our modern life.
Then I thought of how this reliance on each other's “pursuit of our own paths” is an ongoing choice of civil/civic stability1 we all live our lives by (whether we realize it or not) trusting that everyone else is personally chosing and maintaining the mundane things that they personally care about which also benefit all of us collectively. (I’m presuming normal people here, not abusive bullies who enjoy hurting people.) Seems like a paradox - that by pursuing deeply our own passions we end up helping others - but it's true.
This reminds me of the quote by Marcus Aurelius about doing things for the common good - which I had also made into a poster earlier (link here) and which I saw again when I made the forest-thought poster above.
So all of those thoughts add more items to my list of reasons for thinking that mundane things - including our awareness of mundane pleasures, the things we like and are interested in - matters a great deal. Those small pleasures help us keep going and that ongoing maintenance of our ordinary life is what matters to everyone.2
One morning I drew a frog enjoying their coffee.
It's worth the time spent, I think, to write about one thing we really liked during each day - even if it's only a simple list so we can remember and repeat them.3
In the evenings I’ve been reading What Art Does by Brian Eno and Bette A and it speaks to the role of art in figuring out what we like and care about. (link here) As I read I feel reaffirmed in my choice to use my art skills to comfort, care about people and to regularly remember that there's more to life, than doomscrolling hate and anger. And while being aware that there are real problems to be faced remembering that it is possible to work towards creating a better world one small moment at a time.
Another morning found me drawing a mouse who is drawing something he likes and writing a thought on the wall …
Yet another morning I wrote, using my blue fountain pen ink, a conversation between Matt Damon and Prince that I'd read about somewhere and can't find the original source for now 🤦♀️ - but still I liked it so…
I hope you live inside your own heart this weekend, enjoying many of your favorite things and wholeheartedly caring about what you care about. Even when it's as small as sending a card to a friend.
P.S. My fine art exhibit continues at the Aurora Gallery (see links here and here) and I'm still very pleased with my newest artist book The Rag Dog (printed book link here and my read-aloud video is here). Thank you all again for your ongoing support and encouragement of my work - your comments and your 7 dollar subscriptions may seem like small things but they matter to me. Thank you! 💙💚
Like the magnificent Sequoias here in California whose roots may be shallow but they tightly interconnect to keep all the trees in the forest growing tall and strong for centuries.
Thank you, Sue, for your wonderful artwork 🤗 and will reStack ASAP 💯👍