Inspiration!

I have been feeling rather dull and empty for a few weeks now. A bit tired out, I suppose, with not enough sleep and too much worry. I notice that the worry mode slips over into everything and after a while I can´t look at anything without seeing a pending catastrophe. I have woken up every day this week from a nightmare: too much to do, I fumble with everything, am delayed, and find myself trapped in different settings. I find that if I´m not attentive to it, I can easily build up a kind of war inside.

The best way to put a stop to it is to engage in something interesting. I am very excited about three books I ordered last week, when I was recovering from my illness. I am really determined to draw more - I have also discovered that drawing is a great way to exercise mindfulness.

The books I got are "Compendium of drawing techniques" by Donna Krizek, "Urban sketching - a complete guide" by Thomas Thorspecken, and "Sketch your world" by James Hobbs. What I am after is something like this, something that has more to do with a point of view, an experience, rather than just depicting something. The camera can do that so well.

I have been trying to practice every day. I find that it is really fun to revisit old school books from my childhood (there are actually some still on the shelves, belonging to the husband, who rarely throws anything away, unlike me) and draw the illustrations. To the left is a lady demonstrating how to pay with a check (remember those?) and a selection of portraits from a chapter about "us" - the children in society. There is probably something jungian therapy-like going on here...