Adrian Stephen

"Adrian looks immensely long, & his little bow tie somehow gives him a frivolous rather than distinguished air, as if a butterfly had settled on him by mistake."

Virginia Woolf, Diaries, 6 May 1918

Home-making

I'm a domestic person. I like cooking, sewing, and moving furniture about. I learned to knit a few months ago, and have entertained fancies of all the scarves and socks I could make ever since. Gardening and preserving are in my future as surely as time moves forward. To some extent I even like cleaning and putting things in order--organization is peaceful.

But did you know I'm also, literally, a home-maker? During this week of packing and preparing to move I came across a doll-house I made when I was a kid. Hidden on a top shelf in my old closet, the house is constructed of shoe box cardboard, roofed with a cereal box, and held together with scotch tape and Elmer's glue. I wouldn't have the patience to build such a house now, but I once put a lot of work into my little domestic dream. Just look.

The kitchen was my favorite room then, and it's my favorite room now. What could be nicer than a table holding a plateful of donuts? Or a soft, sunset-colored rug underfoot? Or a calendar over the stove featuring a whiny, orange-haired child? I, for one, would buy a calendar composed entirely of scowling children over a calendar featuring sleepy kittens any day.

Anyway, I'm moving in a few days. I don't know what I'll be doing in Chicago or where I'll be working, but it will be a chance to make exciting new decisions. In the coming months I think this blog will focus more on my movements in a new setting--an unfolding story of my doings for the friends and family I leave in Ohio.

In the meantime, I still have to finish packing so I can get this show on the road and make my home in a new place.

 

Paper work

Here's what I've been working on lately:

Lots and lots of little newsprint triangles. My sister says the first page looks like a city shrouded in fog.

Today I'm feeling like this:

Business

Dear readers, I have just eaten a thick slice of crusty bread with butter and lemon curd. Although I could devote an entire post to Things I Love to Spread on Bread, I won't. I'm here on business. See below.

This is a business man with his enormous business phone. I unearthed them last week in boxes unopened since childhood. I don't remember making the phone, but the inspiration for the business man was his fantastic button. "What would Mr. Henry look like?" I must have asked myself before proceeding to cut out his lapels. (Like Donald Draper with a smile and no shoes, apparently.)

The other bit of business to cover is this: the winner from last week's Postcard Quiz is Kate! Please email me at pencildrawn(at)gmail(dot)com with your address and a description of your dream postcard, Kate. I will post a picture of it here once I have completed it.

Drawing book in review

I like monsters. Before I drew them with my red litho crayon, I often used purple marker. Or I made them with paper.

Here are sketches of a dog breed I'd never heard of until last year:

After I made these sketches I drew this Schipperke on a postcard and mailed it away.

(More about postcards later. I love them.)

Oh, and one time I drew a house:

I meant to fill this page with more houses in other colors, but never got around to it. I like how blank it looks, though.

In March I began a series of portraits in red litho crayon. Then I started this blog. I've enjoyed sharing my drawings with you, and I look forward to sharing pages from my new drawing book, too.

A few things inspired me to start blogging. Jill's Today I Saw blog was one of them. It combines two things I really like: drawing and postcards. If you're fond of either, and you have an address, then you'll definitely want to be part of her postcard swap.

Clear sailing

Afternoon, friends. Today is wonderfully breezy and eye-squintingly bright.

Naturally I had to take my boat for a sail.

How was your weekend?

Mine was shrouded in rainclouds and thunder. Other than one great rainy run, I stayed indoors with books and sandwiches and tea. I sank into the kind of reading I haven't done for a while: an hours-long absorption in the sentences and paragraphs of other people's thoughts. Reading makes my mind come alive with thoughts of my own, so I wrote a good deal, too.

Thanks, rain.

I forgot to mention: I captured something in the wild today. It likes to eat coins, of all things.

Birds

I found something strange this morning. Just before it flew away I managed to snap a shot:

A bird in my hair!

I've always wanted to know what birds sing about when the hour is early and the air is cold and blue. It seems like an enormous racket to make over the rising of the sun, which happens every day, after all. And why don't they sing when it rains? And how do you make them your friends, so that they'll flutter round your head and perch on your shoulder whenever you like? I took this opportunity to ask.

What do you sing about, bird?

Oh really? That's awfully poetic of you.

I think it's probably more like this:

Well, who wouldn't sing about sunflower seeds? They're delicious.

Favorites

Someone needs a reminder.

Yesterday my favorite person threatened to beat up a seven-year-old. It was because she gave me this:

It's hard being the favorite person of two people. There are duties. Obligations. Soothing things to be said to both parties.

Fights to be broken up.

So let me confirm it again. In technicolor.

Reader: why not print this simple statement out for your favorite person? I think I might, once I decide whether I like it better in color or black-and-white.