Memories of the Mundane

This is the Clothesline...Just a Clothesline, but it brings back memories of sitting on the back porch with my breakfast in the summer of 2019 in Auburndale Heights, Victoria, AUSTRALIA.  Just the Clothesline alone brings back memories of checking the weather to do laundry. I think,"Is is going to rain tomorrow?"

It's been over a year since I have returned to my son's house in AU. I had over 6 wonderful weeks visiting and relaxing as well as a trip to Tasmania. When not running to and fro, it was nice to be able to soak in the culture, the weather and the humdrum existence.

From 2019 to 2020 things have changed so much with the "introduction" of COVID-19. Will we ever see "the old days" of 2019 again? The term "new normal" may be the recurring chorus, as the "Powers That Be" continue to enjoy the control of the population through fear. 

Will the pleas of the praying Christians be enough to postpone the coming Rapture followed by the 7-Year Tribulation? Those who are to be taken by Our Lord are looking up for Him to rescue us, but still we have friends and family who may be left behind. What a dilemma! It's not up to me. It's all in God's Hands.

Spring comes 'round again...

Isn't that just like God, to be dependable with the rotation of the seasons. Here it is March, 2019 and I hear the spring chirping and smell the wet brown soil coming alive again after hiding in the cold frosted and sometimes white-covered dormant grass and greens. The buds are on the forsythia waiting to burst into life again.

How faithful is our God. Despite the World's turmoil, He is in charge. I await His call to take me up with him. It's only a matter of time, when He will call True Christ followers to join Him in the air. If only my loved ones and friends would see Christ's True Message of Salvation.

IMAGINARY BEASTS

The Hippoporcine insectivore can be found lurking around garbage cans and dumpsters. They do not eat the garbage but drool at the anticipation of devouring flies. The fatter and juicier the fly, the better!

The fun of being an artist is that I can create my own world...at least on paper. I am even allowed to be silly and ridiculous. My latest challenge was to create IMAGINARY BEASTS.

The method proposed to me was to think of creatures and their parts and what they are used for, and then mix them up and create new creatures. Their ears, noses, eyes, skin, feet, environments, and eating habits were taken into account. I had fun creating the visuals of my beasts as well as their stories.  All other BEASTS hopping around in my mind will focus on the annoyance of insects and what beasts I can create to rid myself of crawling or flying pests. Much research was done with books and internet images focusing on birds and animals on all fours, as well as insects. 

Stay tuned for more IMAGINARY BEASTS!

Count Your Blessings

"Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap 
nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. 
Are you not of more value than they?"           Matthew 6:26 ESV 

When you consider this holiday season with all the hustle and bustle, remember to count what you DO have and not what's missing. Make the most of your time with others–whether family, friends or just acquaintances. Make every minute and day count, as our time on this earth is one of God's blessings to us.

Most important of all is God's Gift to us. This blessing is that He loves us so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, to be our advocate and covering for our disobedience and pride from God's perfection. Make sure you know who your Savior is, and that you have the assurance of Heaven when this earthly life is done. Jesus is that Gift.

The Fun of Being a Kid....

I think my yard is the shadiest yard in summer...but that also means it is the most "leafy" in fall. Lots of leaves to fill barrels for the Tuesday pick-up crew.

I miss the old days of the "scritch, scritch, scritch" of the rakes. Now, noisy leaf blowers and lawn mowers and tractors clean up the leaves as fast as they can. No time anymore to enjoy the imagination of childhood. (No more burning of leaves either!)

As kids, we used to make a pile as tall as we could, then and jump in it...or maybe even dive off the the fence into the pile!

We played "House" by building the leaves into piles that represented walls. Even if the walls were only five inches tall, we made doorways and did not "walk through walls".  Then before bathtime, the crumpled up leaves would come out of our shoes and pants cuffs.

Is there time anymore for imagination? For me there is...I keep making up stories in my head. I may not be lying down in a pile of leaves making angels, but I will keep dreaming.

FEBRUARY...a time for L-O-V-E

Valentines and L-O-V-E are what comes to mind when planning a calendar theme for February.  Seems our human lives are centered around L-O-V-E...loved ones, family, romance, love of God...all that's good and lovely in the world...and the unconditional love of a pet!

Rosie & Magee have a special relationship. I have two stories percolating with this lovable girl and her rambunctious pup. One is already in the "dummy stage". The second story's theme will center around Christmas. 

Happy Valentine's Day!!!...get a purrr, a lick or a furry hug!!

 



 

CHRISTMAS...A time for Discovery and Making Memories

Christmas. So much preparation leading up to "the day" and then it's over. I set a goal to make the most of the season. Of course, that comes with the cold days of December, some snow and cold rain and ice. I have found concentrating on the positive keeps a smile on my face and joy in my heart. (Shovel away and hum "Joy to the World?")  ...and Make more Memories!

Besides making oodles of Christmas cookies with the help of Mom's old cookie gun, I have spent the last month making winter/Christmas illustrations of my newest characters, Rosie & Magee, in hopes of discovering inspiration for a Christ-centered story. The picture posted here is pretty self-explanatory. Time again to go up to the attic to get the Christmas decorations. In Rosie's discovery of the box marked "Nativity," she shuffles through the tissue paper and finds Mary, Joseph, shepherds, sheep....BUT the baby Jesus is missing!

How I get from "lost" to "found"  is still processing in my head, but ultimately, I want the reader to know that Jesus never left. He was there all the time. All we have to do is look for Him.  He is the GIFT of the season.  "Seek and you will find."

May you find Jesus Christ this Christmas...May you come to appreciate the FREE GIFT of eternal life God gave us by His sacrifice of coming down in the form of a human, Jesus Christ, and ultimately dying a sinless death, as payment for us. Amazing. Jesus said, "I and the Father are One."

Have a BLESSED CHRISTMAS!!!

Winter is Just Around the Corner!

Time to buckle down and grumble about the coming season, or is it time to anticipate the joys of winter and embrace it? ?? Today is the last day of November. Thanksgiving is over and families are eager to decorate their houses and lawns with all sorts of lights and decor. Even I am starting to get a bit of Christmas spirit as I "embrace" my new characters, Rosie and Magee and think of a new adventure.

Winter is a time for cosy fires, grilled cheese sandwiches and soup, and making hot cocoa, and baking cookies after shoveling or exploring the new fallen snow. Maybe even time for tasting snowflakes and making snow forts and snow angels...or just getting nostalgic about what you used to do as a kid.

May your December be inspired–"embroidered" with love and anticipation as a child. May it be infused with the real reason that we celebrate. Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matt 18:3)

 Search your heart for that childlike awe for our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who came to earth as a man, to be the ultimate sacrifice for us. Remember He is in charge and is sovereign. He knows the beginning and the end, so rest in that knowledge. 

Make Lemons into Lemonade!

My first "adult" reaction to the First Snow of winter 2016 was, "OH NO, I AM NOT READY FOR WINTER!" 
An artist friend from San Diego, replied in a Facebook post, "Get out and enjoy and make Snow Angels!" So instead, on that Sunday morning, November 20, 2016, I took up my pencil and sketched out my new characters, Rosie & Magee, experiencing their First Snow with their tongues. (Sketch to be colorized and may be used as a promotional postcard)
The magical quiet that comes with snowfall is awe inspiring.  OK...enough of that dreamy drivel...I had to bundle up and clean off the car and get to church. (Oh such a Scrooge!)
My prayer is, "Lord, help me to enjoy and be in awe like a child of this upcoming Christmas season."

Darkness of Night Holds Mysteries and Fright

Here it is October again. I am not a fan of Halloween and all it seems to stand for.  Each year gets creepier and creepier. This year CLOWNS are jumping out of bushes and scaring school kids. There have been some arrests, but even I was "accused" of being a clown when taking a walk in my white hoodie after dark with my flashlight. I thought the initial news of scary clowns was a publicity stunt, but it's not! What next? No clown illustrations here. Just Imogene, who likes to read scary stories late at night.

BOOKS help us GROW!

Of course, we have heard this before, but I am convinced that books, reading, etc. certainly can broaden the mind. The "How-To" books of writing and illustration still "talk" to me.  I am especially convinced we are never too old to learn as long as we maintain a teachable spirit. I continue to put on paper the stories from my own childhood experiences and meld them with the quirky stories of my own 4 children. My attempts at writing children's books are heart felt, but time and again I am reminded, "you are an illustrator."  Is this going to discourage me from trying to be a writer? an author/illustrator? Maybe? maybe not. 

If nothing else, these tales and characters I create will supply fodder for illustration in order to compile a dummy for submission. Despite other mundane jobs, I will attempt to create my fantasy world and to hopefully grab the attention of an agent or editor. At the very least, I continue to entertain myself!!! Still finding my niche.

My First SCBWI conference was an EDUCATION! Let the WORK begin!

School may be out, but now the work begins. My recent "education" was my first SCBWI conference in Princeton NJ in June 2016. Being an attendee, I have special privileges to send work to agents within a window of 1 month to 1 year. I am self-examining and say, "Do I have anything ready for submission?"
At the conference, I displayed my portfolio and viewed the displayed portfolios. There were illustrations submitted for judging...my spot was an empty space on the ledge–Just not enough time to even think about it before leaving on "the California Tour."  Having just returned from 3-plus weeks in CA promoting PLAYMATES FOR PUPPIES© by Roz Silva, published by Dayton Publishing, LLC. I flew by the seat of my pants and drove to Princeton for two days of listening, exchanging ideas, absorbing like a sponge, and frantic note-taking. As I perused the displays of various portfolios, I saw that I was lacking certain elements. Time to make "to-do" lists, and GET TO WORK!

The Journey of Creating a "VOICE" within the Development of a Children's Book

Above are Tank and Topo from Playmates for Puppies to be published May 2016, prequel to Three Tales, Four Dogs ©2015.  Below them are their "co-stars" from this second children's book by author Roz Silva and publisher Dayton Publishing.

Seems like I have been working on this second children's book "forever," but in reality, from conception to finish, THE JOURNEY is months of changes, tweaks, and just plain fortitude. One ebbs and flows through the excitement of creating the characters to the tweaking and tweaking and TWEAKING to get the characters to appear the same on each page. I don't think I realized how hard this would be over a period of months. I even find I am doubting myself by saying, "Are you sure you really want to be an illustrator of children's books?" And another exasperated "self-comment" is "I am so OVER THIS!"

This book has had me combing through reference material on drawing all kinds of houses, trucks, people, and DOGS! A good training, I suppose, but I still question, "Where am I?" My art toggles back and forth from cartoon images to realistic watercolor images, as I am also a trained fine artist. I bring some of the fine art skills into my cartoon images, and sometimes lose my way. My schizophrenic mind of silly to serious gets confused sometimes. Still, in all, I have created, or am in the process of creating, my "voice."

Puppies, Puppies and More Puppies!!!

Been a busy summer and I realize I have not posted in almost 2 months.

I am presently working on illustration for a prequel to my first children's picture book, Three Tales, Four Dogs by Roz Silva. With the help of Linnea Dayton, publisher of Dayton Publishing, we are attempting to carve out a picture of Tank's neighborhood approximately two years before the Three Tales story, "Tank Takes It All."

Take a walk through the neighborhood with the curious basset, Little Tank, and his inquisitive dachshund companion, Topo. Though new to the puppies, it will be an all too familiar journey for the reader in Anytown, USA, with a wonderful surprise at the end of the walk for the peppy puppies.

See preliminary sketches of Little Tank and Topo:

Little Tank

Topo

Plein Air Painter in Jersey Jungle Needs a Break!

My more recent watercolor classes have been plein air. What a challenge this New Jersey Jungle is! For those of you who have seen my FB posted watercolors and studies of "The Smokehouse"--enough of that! Trying to train my eyes, but "are we having fun yet?" So much rain! So much GREEN! So many shades of GREEN!

While on my visit to CA, I took some pictures of my green thumb friend's balcony. Painting the colorful succulents is a nice break. This is a study for the eventual watercolor painting.

The Isolated Life of the Artist–What is "GOOD?"

This drawing started on a vomit bag on a flight from San Diego (it was the closest thing to drawing paper I could find). I was inspired to write a story about a little girl who had a favorite uncle who was an entomologist. He arrived from the jungles of South America (at least that is where the story is for now) on her birthday and gifted her a headlamp. How the story evolves is still to be sorted out. The story is "shelved" for the time being, but its genesis provided fodder for illustrations. I have gone back and forth on Hannah's expression, the "buggy" birthday elements, the contrast, does the final art capture the original energy? etc...What works? What doesn't? What will a publisher think? See what you think!

"BOUNCE"

June 2015 entry for SCBWI  gallery for "DRAW THIS."  The word of the month is BOUNCE.

"Trampoline" was the first thing that came to mind..."pure" as opposed to other interpretations of "Bounce" i.e., "bounced checks", "bounced from a bar", or "bounce from job to job", or even "bounce back."

My neighborhood is changing, house by house, as younger neighbors are replacing the older. Two doors down from my house, the "squeak-a-squeak-a-squeak" of the trampoline, reminds me of the trampoline that sat in our backyard for years...Once my girls were done with that jumping period of their lives, they used it as a place for "girl-chat".

Change is inevitable, and I always hope that I "keep on bouncing" as those changes come my way.

My "Flying Companions"

I am soon flying to San Diego with Tank, Fluffy, Rocky & Ready to promote our new children's picture book, Three Tales, Four Dogs, by Roz Silva and illustrated by me, Sue Ann Erickson.

I will make sure Tank has a seatbelt on. He tends to wander and "borrow" things, and before you know it, the mess is everywhere!...not to mention some little girl crying that her iPad or teddy bear has "disappeared."

Scaredy-Cat Fluffy will be in my lap, as we take off. She'll be shivering through security before that! She's so afraid of everything...EXCEPT the Big Blue Garbage Truck!

Rocky and Ready are looking forward to the snacks–probably pretzels....I don't think airlines pass out peanuts anymore...good thing!! as Rocky's peanut allergy flared up at the pool party picnic in Bradley's big backyard last summer!

We should have 3 wonderful weeks in San Diego, as children get to know and love us!!!

Three Tales, Four Dogs by Roz Silva, illustrated by Sue Ann Erickson is available @amazon.com and other booksellers.
Published by Dayton Publishing LLC, Solana Beach CA (www.daytonpublishing.com)

My PURPLE Toe

I finally went to the Foot Doctor today. January 3rd I kicked a milk crate full of textbooks in bare feet...one of those, "Can I redo the last 5 seconds of my life?" moments. I asked myself, "What would a doctor do with a broken toe?" and decided a DIY taping would do the trick, while nature took its course. Wore socks, a velcro boot, and now rain boots with socks for the past 2 months, and the toe is purple and is still missing the "knuckle wrinkle"...Yes, still swollen.

I saw Dr Neshweiwat's smiling face, with his fast-talking information-infused positivity, enter the room..."How are you" he said, and the look on my face told him all he needed to know. Yes, I was back, but with "something new". (He treated my plantar faciitis months ago on the SAME FOOT)

After hearing my story, he said I was going the "caveman way", i.e., swelling envelopes the injury, cushioning the bone until it heals. Xray confirmed compression fracture has healed. No longer B.C., so cortisone was the next step. Yes, I actually wished for it...Yes, fix me.

If you have ever had cortisone shots for inflammation, you know it's not a one time prick and it's over. As he moved that needle in and around the small joint of my 4th toe with several injections, I white knuckled the armrests of the chair. I wonder if the other toes were scared for Mr. Ringman?

I see Dr. Neshweiwat in about 2 weeks for a check back. He says eventually I should be able to wear "Designer Italian pointed-toed shoes"...I am deciding if I should wear those shoes to the next appointment... hmmm?

Yearning for the smell of D-I-R-T

By now my sister-in-law in Upper New York State must be imagining (yearning for) the beauty that exudes from the soil in her garden. Years of work from her talented hands and the planning of decades will eventually flourish over their "lush estate." In the meantime, they keep shoveling that "lake effect snow."

Oh for the days of gardening to return! (I remember Crayola even had a "smelly color" named "dirt".) Are we there yet? Now, the end of February and we Eastcoasters (along with the rest of the country other than Southern California) are overtired of winter. This happens every year, doesn't it? The newscasters report that March 20, the 1st day of spring, is close. That is not some "magic day," but a glimmer of hope that we are just weeks closer to seeing the tips of tulips, daffodils, crocuses, and hyacinths peek out from under possibly the last bit of snow.

(To hold me over, maybe I will open that bag of potting soil and take a whiff!)