I am still here...

I have been drawing and painting in my journal almost daily. I haven't been able to sew much and my dye studio is not yet functioning. It irks me and I wish I could feel satisfied sewing but there you have it. I am in transition and soo is my art making. I drew these folks this morning. The bearded man on the left made me long for my own bearded father.
Patty gave me Birds of America by JJ Audubon. The book is amazing. I wonder if his painting style was affected by his methods.
Here is what Wikipedia says, "In order to draw or paint the birds, he had to shoot them first, using fine shot to prevent them from being shot to pieces. He then used fixed wires to prop them up, restoring a natural position. His birds are set true-to-life in their natural habitat. This was in stark contrast with the stiff representations of birds by his contemporaries, such as Alexander Wilson. Audubon once wrote: "I call birds few when I shoot less than one hundred per day". One of his biographers, Duff Hart-Davis, reveals: "The rarer the bird, the more eagerly he pursued it, never apparently worrying that by killing it he might hasten the extinction of its kind."
Anyway. This is a drawing taken from the book, done in my own hand, not traced, and painted.
This page is inspired by a book of marks that Dorothy Caldwell did. I got to see photographs of her visual journal last weekend while taking an indigo dyeing workshop from her. I was really taken by her idea of marks and bet these will be percolating within me for quite some time.
So anyway. I am still here, we both are actually. I look forward to settling into sewing and making cloth again but until then...