Nearly finished now… I’ve looked at myself for more than 300 days, and am still finding little surprises in my own face (was that wrinkle there yesterday?! I’m going to call it a laugh line!) I even discovered some new ways of working with old materials. (When I say “old materials” I am not kidding; recently discovered a near-complete box of “Char-Kole” compressed sticks which belonged to my grandmother, also an artist, and she passed away in the mid-1980s. Now it was time, of course, to put these to good use…kudos to Weber-Costello for making such quality materials that last for more than 30 years…)
Not sure how these ended up in my studio in London but they were once in my grandmother’s studio in the 80s…
Anyway, I’ll be posting 40 or so drawings here as I count down to from Day 205 to Day 365… after that, who knows?
‘Your memory feels like home to me. So whenever my mind wanders, it always finds its way back to you.’ ― Ranata Suzuki #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 364 ink and wax crayon
‘Happiness consists not in having much, but in being content with little.’ -Marguerite Gardiner #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 363 ink and wax crayon
‘Authenticity is everything! You have to wake up every day and look in the mirror, and you want to be proud of the person who’s looking back at you. And you can only do that if you’re being honest with yourself and being a person of high character. You have an opportunity every single day to write that story of your life.’ —- Aaron Rodgers #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 362 ink and wax
#SundayFunday ‘The studio is a laboratory, not a factory. An exhibition is the result of your experiments, but the process is never-ending. So an exhibition is not a conclusion.’ – Chris Ofili Day 361 ink and wax crayon
‘I think that when you get dressed in the morning, sometimes you’re really making a decision about your behavior for the day. Like if you put on flipflops, you’re saying: ‘Hope I don’t get chased today.’ ‘Be nice to people in sneakers.” -Demetri Martin #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 360 ink
#FrazzledFriday ‘Every marathon starts with that first mile. But somewhere around mile 16 or 18 – trust me on this – your feet are killing you, you’re not sure you can breathe anymore, your mind is frazzled, your body wracked with pain, and all you want to do is stop.’ Betsy Hodges #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 359 ink
‘No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.’ -Hal Borland #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 358 glass dip pen and ink with wax crayon
‘Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it.’ -Rene Descartes #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 357 coloured ink
We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us. – Joseph Campbell #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 356 ink and wax crayon
In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer. -Albert Camus #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 350 compressed charcoal
It may be that the satisfaction I need depends on my going away, so that when I’ve gone and come back, I’ll find it at home. -Rumi #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 345 compressed charcoal and white chalk #selfportrait #loveyourself #createlove
The garden of love is green without limit and yields many fruits other than sorrow or joy. Love is beyond either condition: without spring, without autumn, it is always fresh. -Rumi #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 340
So you mustn’t be frightened, if a sadness rises in front of you, larger than any you have ever seen; if an anxiety, like light and cloud-shadows, moves over your hands and over everything you do. You must realize that something is happening to you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand and will not let you fall. -Ranier Maria Rilke #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 335 compressed charcoal
If in the twilight of memory we should meet once more, we shall speak again together and you shall sing to me a deeper song. -Khalil Gibran #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 330 ink and coloured pencil
Memory is the treasure house of the mind wherein monuments thereof are kept and preserved. -Thomas Fuller #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 325 fountain pen (blind contour memory drawing)
I thank you [Earth] for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes. -e.e. cummings #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 320 ink and wax crayon
#MondayMotivation I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. Thomas A. Edison #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 315 conte and compressed charcoal on brown packing paper
‘To reminisce with my old friends, a chance to share some memories, and play our songs again.’ -Ricky Nelson #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 310 reed pen, brush and ink
Fractured sleep #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 305 sharpie pen
#365LoveNotesToSelf Day 300 Reed pen and ink, over fountain pen
Early flight and so sleepy but so so happy to see my friend I haven’t seen in ages #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 295 ink and wax crayon
‘Don’t judge today by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant’ – Robert Louis Stevenson ‘#365LoveNotesToSelf Day 290, ink memory blind contour
‘The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.’ – William Arthur Ward #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 285 ink and wax crayon #selfportrait #loveyourself #createlove #wednesdaywisdom
On days like this, made of a dull and fathomless grey impenetrable to even a solitary ray of sun, all I can do is learn to love the rain. #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 280 ink and brush
‘Love is the crowning grace of humanity, the holiest right of the soul, the golden link which binds us to duty and truth, the redeeming principle that chiefly reconciles the heart to life, and is prophetic of eternal good.’ -Petrarch #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 275 #charkole #selfportrait #loveyourself #createlove #shadows #silhouette
Trying to find the sunshine under a wintry gloom #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 270 charcoal
Intro to Art Therapy “here’s some art supplies, now make something” and I am in a pink mood #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 265 collage and sharpie pen
The studio can be anywhere as long as I have pencil and paper #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 260 charcoal
Some days you just gotta chuck it in the f*ck it bucket and move right on #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 255 glass dip pen and ink
‘Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory.’ –Mahatma Gandhi #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 250 graphite (left) and ink (right)
‘This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet.’– Rumi #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 245, ink and wax crayon
SO very not in the mood for today #365LoveNotestoSelf Day 240 reed pen and ink
Was kind of frustrated because I wasn’t able to log the studio time I wanted to this week but that’s OK because I had sugar donuts for breakfast and what matters most is that I’m in the studio now #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 235 compressed charcoal
‘The path to success starts with you. If you can manage the person you see in the mirror, you can win at anything.’ -Dave Ramsey #365LoeNotesToSelf Day 230 compressed charcoal
‘When I am away, I am with it. When I am with it, I am away.’ ― Aditya Ajmera #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 225 ink
‘I wouldn’t describe myself as lacking in confidence, but I would just say that – the ghosts you chase you never catch.’ ― John Malkovich #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 220 charcoal
Reading ‘Fire and Fury’ by Michael Wolff and almost wishing I hadn’t opened it but now I can’t tear my eyes away #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 215 Sharpie pen
Experimenting with a bit of charcoal taped onto a metre-long piece of pvc pipe, makes me feel better when I can’t quite get the line right, I still know it’s in there somewhere #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 210 willow charcoal
Dreaming up the next art-venture #365LoveNotesToSelf Day 205 ink and wax crayon