Summer Selfies and Don't Say No to Yourself First
Summer Selfies with creative friends
Hello! It's been a long while since I wrote my last blog post. I hope you have been well.
Over the past month or so, I've had the chance to travel twice, once to the Boston area and then to the Chicago area to see my parents, friends and colleagues. I made a point to try to meet as many people as I could while visiting. My friends and I had fun with taking selfies to commemorate doing something social and finally meeting in person after online workshops taken in 2020. So many smiling faces!! While away I also got in a little bit of touristing with my daughter before she starts at Roosevelt University in Chicago next week. I am officially now an empty nester. It's strange not having her in the neighborhood.
Recently I came across a piece of advice on life which I connected with and have since been trying to follow as best I can. It is: Don't say no to yourself before you've even tried. Let other people say no to you. It is very easy to self-select yourself out of the picture by not applying, not trying, not submitting, or not asking because of fear, a sense of insecurity or a feeling of not being good or experienced enough. Instead of not mentioning your idea or question aloud, say it or ask it. Let the people responding turn you down. Maybe though, instead they will say yes. If the idea is put out there, yes is always a possibility. If you turn down the idea first, the answer will always be no.
The last drawing from my Amsterdam Dailies. White pen and gouache on black paper
A couple of weeks ago, I finished drawing my Amsterdam Dailies series after 297 days! I decided to end the drawing series at the end of my first day in Amsterdam. Keeping the drawings from my first day's experience seemed a good way to constrain the project. For me, the first day in a place is often the most exciting and interesting because everything is new and different. I want to now turn the drawings and various of the dailies into a book. A working title is, My First Day in Amsterdam. It'll be an interesting adventure learning how to make a book.
I put together videos from every 50 days of progress. I have three videos now done through Day 150. Three more to go. If you want to see the days as they are done, you can see them on my Dailies page or you can follow me on Instagram or Facebook. The videos can be found on my Dailies Collections page or on my YouTube channel.
