Spirit Tree, Play Along with Me!

You've heard this before, I know, but every weekend I try to walk away from the computer to purge myself of All Things Social Media.

For me it's like an Honoring the Sabbath thing, an attempt at distancing myself from technology, a way of refreshing my soul with a bit of simplicity.

Sometimes I'm successful. Sometimes not so much.... This weekend was the latter, but I had a good reason: I participated in another PlayAlong courtesy of the 'Once Upon' site on Facebook.

You remember me telling you about the first 'Once Upon' PAL, I'm sure (if not, check it out HERE). The deadline for this one was yesterday -- a Sunday -- and by the afternoon of the day before I had yet to create my entry (you're surprised, I can tell).

It's not like I'd procrastinated about it, I've just been so BUSY. This is easily the craziest time of year for me what with the Monarchs, the grandbugs, the gardens, the Renaissance Festival, the fill-in-the-blank. When I remembered the PlayAlong I almost threw in the towel. I knew I'd be lucky to find the time....

But the directions for this challenge were to draw a 'spirit tree' on a sheet of 8.5x11 black paper stock using only white media, and I couldn't pass that up. Black and white? My favorite colors! TREES!? My favorite things!

Yeah, there was no way I wasn't gonna participate.

So although Saturday afternoon saw me scanning, cleaning, and readying original art for printing, I tried to sneak in some play time here and there with some construction paper and a white Crayola pencil. Thankfully my scanner is slow, so there were tiny blocks of time in which I could work.

Drawing on black paper was a challenge, but photographing it for the PlayAlong share was the pits. It would've worked had I used natural light, I'm thinking, but there wasn't much of that around at midnight. Still, I inched in under the deadline, and you can see my entry above.

I surprised myself -- or rather my pencil surprised me -- by drawing something more whimsical than spiritual. I went into it expecting to see stars and spirals and maybe a trunk like the body of a goddess, with arms reaching for the moon. Lots of drama! Yeah, no.... My drawing hand had other plans! But I like when that happens. I'm constantly surprised, and that's a good thing. And I wonder sometimes if having grandbugs now has my head stuck in Picture Book mode. Cool!

Be sure to visit the 'Once Upon' site and 'like' it, 'k? Then check out the PAL 2 album to see everyone's great Spirit Trees. Believe me -- there are some GREAT SPIRIT TREES. You'll be glad you did. :)
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Play-Along Update

This doesn't begin to describe it!

Remember my recent post regarding the PAL (aka 'Play Along') challenge?

Well, holy cow! -- I shared a link to it on the Once Upon page on Facebook before retiring for the night, completely unaware that as I slept all sorts of sparkly magick was about to take place.

BOOM went my 'likes' count, thanks to Janet Kisch and the very kind Once Upon Community! And by the time I logged in again in the morning my Mayfaire page had increased its audience by nearly a hundred new members.

It's been over a week and my astonishment levels are still in the red zone!

When I wrote that post I was in the middle of my PAL creation -- sketching, inking, and coloring tiny squares of Bristol, one for each day of the 12-day challenge. Each square featured an illustration and one-word description of the particular day on which it was drawn, and because 'The Day of All the New Likes' was so extraordinary -- and because it was all Once Upon's 'fault' (haha!) -- I created a square with a very happy owl on it, because Janet and a lot of what I like to think of as the 'Once Upons' are fond of owls.

Much of the remainder of my PAL challenge was spent up north at my parents' house in the country, enjoying long happy moments fishing, eating, visiting, relaxing, and (of course) drawing. And I finished it on my final morning there. Before I left for home I laid all the little squares out on my mom's oak dining room table, took a picture of the collection with my smartphone, emailed the pic to my home computer, and -- voila!

I promised to share it with you and so here it is. A bit blurry (sorry....) but I think you can make it all out. And if you're at all interested in a brief explanation of each square, a little write-up follows the photo.

Squares are ordered 1 through 12, beginning in the upper lefthand corner and ending in the lower right:
#1 -- Nostalgic. On this day I was looking at old photographs and enjoying the memories.
#2 -- Away. All my neighbors were home, doing noisy yardwork. I longed to move out to the Very Quiet Sticks....
#3 -- Playful. Time spent being entertained by my Grandbugs.
#4 -- Exhausted. Time spent recovering from being entertained by my Grandbugs.
#5 -- Cocooned. Windows are closed, A/C's on, my house is dark and silent and WONDERFUL.
#6 -- Patriotic. Drawn for the 4th of July. While fireworks go off outside, I write my blog post and link it to Once Upon.
#7 -- Astonished. I wake to a crazy amount of new 'likes'.
#8 -- Picnic-y. The Grandbugs and their parents visit for a barbecue and kiddie-pool party. (And yes, in the delayne dictionary 'picnic-y' is a word.)
#9 -- Hurt. I hate Facebook. 'Nuff sed.
#10 -- Withdrawn. More time spent in off-line rehab. Still hatin' Facebook.
#11 -- I visit my parents for an extended sleepover.
#12 -- My dad and nephew take me fishing. Best day EVER.
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Once Upon a PAL

Today's square -- drawn for the 4th of July :)

Not so very long ago I 'liked' a page on Facebook called 'Once Upon.' It's an online Facebook community for "rediscovering the tales of childhood, revisiting the magic hidden there and fighting some demons" and it's hosted by a charming artist by the name of Janet Kisch.

Janet updates 'Once Upon' often each day, sharing samples of her own work plus wonderful art that she finds all over the Internet. (I can't begin to tell you how much I personally appreciate the fact that she credits the artists, too, which hardly ever happens on the Internet and is just so darn refreshing, don't you think?).

Less than a week ago, Janet gave the members of her site this great suggestion. In part, her status post read:

"On some of the craft/sewing/crochet pages they sometimes have an online 'get together' and create something from a pattern to be finished by a certain date, and then at the end enjoy all the individual ideas that jump from that, and vote for their favs... Now as you know, I'm always encouraging you to PLAY and to bring out your gorgeous inner child into the light of day and have some fun. SO... here's the thought, and it's for EVERYONE, even if you don't think you can be creative, whether you're an artist or crafter or stitcher or writer or even a plumber for that matter, you can join in! It would be a small block a day for a certain number of days with a theme. This can be drawn, collaged, sewn, buttoned, can be ink or paint, whatever speaks to you! I will post some simple rules so we're all working within the same basic parameters. It would be so amazing to see all the work at the end of the time. You would be posting it to me at the end and I will make an album for viewing? If you're interested in a PAL (play along ) just leave a comment..."

Oh yeah, I commented, you bet I did! And although having done so makes me a little bit apprehensive (who knows what accomplished artists are also taking the challenge!), I can't help but love stuff like this as it makes me think outside the pencil box.

When it appeared as though a number of us in the community were interested, Ms. Kisch gave us her guidelines for the challenge, including the time frame and date of deadline (and I won't include those dates here as the challenge is already underway and nearly half over as of the time of this posting, but feel free to visit her site, 'like' it, and go from there, 'k? You could always catch up!):

"Here’s our PAL (play along) and a few guidelines. You can create using any art medium. You can work on paper, card, fabric, you can crochet or knit or take photos, you can make relief sculptures on your squares, anything goes! The theme is “This Day." It will be a reflection of your daily mood, your loves, your joy or anger in each day. If you love a certain thing (like owls) you can do a square a day with an owl to reflect your mood. Works can be abstract, realistic or atmospheric. Your squares could have a button a day, or a brooch a day, a doodled design, black and white or multi-coloured, anything goes! Here are the only things we will conform to….thus making it a project of the same size with the same theme.

• You must have fun, and play, stress free!
• There will be 12 squares each measuring 5cm. (The finished work will measure 15cm x 20cm)
• The object is to complete one square a day, and that they are individual squares as opposed to a page mapped out in squares. The squares will be assembled at the end of the project."

How exciting! I wasn't sure what medium I wanted to be creative in, exactly. I already write a daily e-mail blast and do a daily 'doodle' that I post to my own Facebook fan page, and I try to blog here as often as I can -- all in addition to my regular art, etc., so it would have to be something that wouldn't take up too much of my time. I figured: as long as I'm already putting pencil to paper during the day, perhaps I'd just continue to do so for this challenge. It seemed like a good fit, too, because I've lately been interested in working smaller by taking my designs and my style into Art Cards and ACEOs (2.5" x 3.5"). For me, one of the biggest parts of this challenge would be making use of a size of paper that, at 2" x 2", is even smaller....

Each square so far includes one word that describes how I'm feeling on that day, plus an accompanying illustration. On the back, the square is dated, signed, numbered (#1 for the first square in the project), and labeled with a note detailing what was happening on that day to warrant the word I chose to illustrate.

I promise to share a photo of the assembled collection of squares when I'm finished, 'k?  In the meantime, PLEASE consider visiting Janet's wonderful site and 'liking' it. If you're a lover of book illustrations and whimsical, thought-provoking art, I guarantee you won't be disappointed. Plus, if/when there's another PAL challenge, you'll be one of the first to know about it. :)
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