WHEN I GROW UP - BRAND NEW SKETCHBOOK

When I grow up....

I wanna be a Funky Old Lady

While I was in Santa Fe I treated myself to a brand new, leather bound sketchbook filled with handmade paper.  Since I was a kid I've loved new art supplies and a new sketchbook holds such promise.  I often will hesitate to use new pencils, sketchbooks or paints forever because they look so pretty and perfect in their packages.

I knew just what i wanted to do in this sketchbook.  I want it to be something of a journal/diary.  

When I was in high school a ka-zillion years ago I wrote and illustrated a journal in my English class.  I loved my teacher and I really worked hard to create an original book.  When I was finished she loved it so much that she asked to borrow it.  I never got it back - NEVER!  I've tried to find her and once, actually discovered her mailing address and sent her a note asking for the book back - no response came back. 

I've thought alot about that book and it's contents.  So I decided I'd build another just for fun.

This first page is totally true.  When I was a kid I answered the question of "What do you want to be when you grow up?" with "A Funky Old Lady."  I'm just about there (in my mind but maybe more so if you ask my family and students).  When I showed this drawing to my husband he laughed and said it really did look me as I rushed off to school each morning.  He knows that because he usually is loaded up, too, with frames, art supplies and display items.  I've never learned how to teach art without lots of stuff. 

Whenever we travel somewhere one of the biggest chores for me is to decided which art supplies to leave at home.  I never know what I'll want to play with so I usually pack EVERYTHING just in case I get the urge to paint or draw or sew or whatever.