sketchdump & life recently 🚶🏻‍♀️🌞

hello!

these are some recent sketches and explorations from my sketchbook. I've been using pen a lot lately to draw, it helps me practice line confidence and keeps me thinking forward. drew a line I didn't mean to? that's okay, it's already on the page so let's find a way to make it work instead of agonizing over a misplaced mark. I've found that it encourages me to think on my toes and engage more with creative problem solving. maybe it didn't go as planned, but what is a plan besides one idea out of many?

life has mirrored this process as well, art imitating life and vice versa. you may remember I injured my back in May. immense pain and limited mobility ensued. I was recovering, then reinjured it in June. turns out it was a slipped disc causing a pinched nerve. I've been in physical therapy for a month now and have improved a lot. even as I regain ability and strength, my relationship with time and energy has been fundamentally altered. recovery left me with a lot of time to sit and think, to reevaluate and clarify my priorities. with limited energy, I became choosy about what I'd engage with. only activities that were absolutely necessary passed through the filter. things I saw a million times before took on a new shape and dimension. nothing about my surroundings had changed, but I was learning to see from a new vantage. beauty emerged everywhere I looked, I could hardly believe it.

this change in perspective has also affected the art I make. I used to throw my energy around, trying to do everything at once, busyness with no focus. I begged for an answer to my indecision, not knowing it would come to me through such a physical channel. I'll go on another walk after this, move my body and remember that life is a perpetual state of change, even when I can't see it.

hope you have a nice weekend,

vicki