View from the kitchen window

Sketch a day - Day 124/365

I have become a bit obsessed with my stablio woody 3in1 colour crayons. They are crayons aimed at children (super chunky and nice to hold) they work as a normal crayon, as water colour paint and as a colour pencil. And you can use them on glass. To be fair while they are a great crayon they are too waxy to be a true colouring pencil or watercolour. However through (perhaps reckless) experimention I have discovered they are also fantastic on my white board (they wash off, phew). And they are fun. The palate is a bit limited. But I have begun experimenting with mixing colours and some interesting results are emerging.

What else do I have for you words wise today?

I’m still feeling knackered. Still taking things steady. So didn't go far today hence drawing the view from the kitchen window.

But I have been thinking alot today. Thinking about what Lou Sumray said in a recent video https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=81NRyMfvbFQ about how often the most interesting drawing for her is of ‘boring things’ and how I have realised I agree with her. And also, I like returning to things and drawing them again and again. I have lost count of how many times I have drawn different combinations of Jane's shed, the growing shelves, the canoe, the holly tree and the clematis (the view from my kitchen window). I never achieve what I hope to but I never get bored of trying.

Also, I have been thinking alot about an extraordinary recording of a webinar I listened to the day before yesterday on ‘becoming unsettled - why white virtue will not save us’ https://centerforneweconomics.org/events/becoming-unsettled-why-white-virtue-will-not-save-us/ really challenging AND somehow at the same time extraordinarily hopefull. Making links - seeing pain while also seeing hope - in some extraordinary ways.

Asking us to think about whiteness and blackness as many different things at the same time (which requires different kinds of responses. We may need to fight oppression in a moment but also fighting isn't the answer). It made me think about partical theory (if I have remembered this right) how particles can be in 2 places in the universe at the same time. The folks talking kind of said ‘we may need to be involved in a fight for equality in one moment but at the same time we have to be involved in thinking/making relationships/taking actions that are totally apart from the structures within & outside ourselves (whiteness/capitalism/colonialism etc), because the answers don't lie within the idea of reforming or overturning the structures of oppression. The answers lie in allowing ourselves to leak into different ways of being beyond these structures... i am not doing the thinkers justice (Báyò Akomoláfé, Erin Manning and Alex Forrester - such huge thanks to all 3 of them). It was hard work to listen to this conversation (as in, I had to really think to try and keep up) but also it was compelling and joyful and generous.

Extraordinary really.

No wonder that I am still so tired.

Anyway , that's the news.