unproductive

today i'm feeling incredibly unproductive.

i have things i could be doing...

but i feel the most accomplished after i've played with the dogs and taken plenty of pictures of them.

augustus is easy. he loves the camera.

sailor is tricky. mostly because he's comparable to a small black torpedo.

then out of the blue, he tries to climb up my leg, just wanting to be picked up...

doesn't work for a photo.

prairie should be easy. she's just not as photogenic as the other two.

she's best described as sweet and lumbering.

but she's a dear.

thoughtful...

these photos are from here.

In one of the stars,

I shall be laughing.

In one of them,

I shall be living.

And so it will be as if

all the stars were laughing,

when you look

at the sky

at night.

-the little prince

let's play upstairs...

Because it's too hot outside...

C.W. Anderson... a few drawings

since the beginning...

For me, I think it's always been about horses and dogs. When I was in kindergarten and the class went to the school library, I remember the two books I checked out the most:

Lonesome Little Colt written and illustrated by C.W. Anderson

and The AKC Complete Dog Book (the Irish Wolfhound was my favorite because it was the biggest. still want one. certainly Augustus would agree.)

C.W. Anderson wrote and illustrated a seriously long list of books about horses and ponies. I love these drawings. I'm putting some on the next post.

from a different era

"begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end, then stop."

-lewis carroll

These are the classic illustrations from Alice in Wonderland.

I love how they fit in so perfectly with the era when the book was published.

They're by John Tennel. There are colored versions too, but I just really like the look of the black and white.

skipping away

monica rich kosann photography

It took me forever to learn how to skip when I was a kid. I could only hitch up one leg for some reason,

so I probably looked pretty peculiar, determinedly trying to move quickly, but just not getting it right.

Last night, I used my now fairly adequate skipping as a defense mechanism against mosquitos while I was letting the dogs out before bed. It was a way to swiftly dodge those vicious insects, and I was actually really enjoying myself. So now I'm going to remind myself to skip daily... it creates a smile.

The pups were riled up by it too... which is always amusing.

But skipping always reminds me of childhood and my favorite form of movement when I was little.

To me, these photos represent the carefree days when skipping was almost always appropriate.

(this one could be my brother and his two best friends. the puppy's a perfect touch)

these photos are by monica rich kosann. she's amazing.

i collect cards with quotes

"i beg you... to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart & try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. and the point is, to live everything. live the questions now. perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer..."

-rainer maria rilke

using his noodle

My mom told me that she found Augustus with this water noodle, carrying it around like he thought he had found the biggest stick in the world, and it was his own prized possession. Augustus loves sticks. In our house at Baylor, there were always sticks from his collection to be found in corners and under the sofa.

So I decided to make a mini photo-shoot out of this new discovery.

I was holding the camera and the noodle. You can see he's bracing himself for this challenge.

Such agility. Look at those ears!

I'm just now noticing that these pictures are all slanted from the way I was balancing myself...

He finally swiped it. And off he goes...

He underestimated the thickness.

But he carries on valiantly. Determined.

The large blue stick is his.

wesley dennis

After hunting around, I found some decent images of Wesley Dennis's illustrations.

In 2001, the National Sporting Library in Middleburg, VA had an exhibit of his artwork, showing drawings from familiar children's literature, like Misty of Chincoteague and Justin Morgan Had a Horse (both by Marguerite Henry).

If only I had known... I could've gone to see it! But then again, I was in 9th grade at the time... That seems like a weak excuse, but it works...

Wesley Dennis and Marguerite Henry collaborated on 15 books together, but Justin Morgan was the first.

In an interview in 1956, Henry said of Dennis, "This artist saw beyond hide and hair and bone. You could see that he understood and loved animals, that he was trying to capture their spirit, personality and expression."

I absolutely love that. His drawings are wonderful inspiration for me.

Pollyanna Moments

"Let's play the glad game"...

if I can find the silver lining in something that might not be that marvelous,

whether it's a certain situation or things just aren't going my way, then it's going to seem better.

If I remind myself about my Pollyanna Moments, then it's easier to be happy in general.

It's really easy too. All I have to think is, "well, I can be glad because..."

(right now I'm glad that I didn't get the eric carle internship because it wouldn't have been the right fit for me)

Play the Glad Game

All

Day

Long.

pursue love.

a love that values others over yourself.

regard relationships with HUMILITY.

treat others as if they are more valuable than you.

"you can't reason with your heart, it has its own laws, and thumps about things that intellect scorns." -mark twain

the eric carle museum of picture book art.

It's built in the middle of an apple orchard. That's definitely kid-friendly.

Actually, that could be a 2 in 1 field trip now that I think about it. Apple-picking and Eric Carle all in one afternoon.

If you're small enough, you can brag about sitting under The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

It's a lovely little museum, and nothing less than you would expect a picture book museum to be.

Let's see, there's a library, an arts & crafts classroom, a theater, a cafe, and obviously, the gallery.

In the gallery, there are two visiting exhibits, plus a room for everything Eric Carle. It's definitely a place for young readers and artists to learn, and it doesn't take long to get to the end.

I underestimated how lively a museum would be... and I know I would be bored if I had been chosen for the internship here. So that was my Pollyanna Moment of the day. I'm glad I'm not working there.

I think I liked the gift shop best of everything there. It was basically a bookstore, but the majority of merchandise being picture books. Which reminds me...

I always forget how much I like Wesley Dennis' illustrations of horses and ponies. But picking up Album of Horses made me smile. I love the drawing on the cover with the grey mare and the chestnut foal looking over the stall door.

Which reminds me of something else...

I'm instantly drawn to horses & dogs.

(Augustus agrees as he lounges beside me on the couch at the moment)

i think i'll go to boston.

I'm pretty sure Boston is officially on my list of places to live.

I loved strolling around Copley Square and jogging along the Charles River.

Being surrounded by historic buildings with so much character is an atmosphere where I thrive.

Having the Freedom Trail right there? You basically have the opportunity to create your own National Treasure!

That's just the way my mind works- I've been a history nerd since 4th grade! I can't help it.

All I needed to complete my stay... Augustus and my bike.

Okay, so now I can cross off the option of getting a masters in Writing for Children.

Visiting Simmons College and finding out more about the graduate program was my excuse for going up to Boston in the first place.

The Director must've thought I was crazy for scheduling an interview in the first place... since I'll need about 84,000 things to add to my experience in children's literature. She was genuinely concerned that my application was going to make the admissions committee laugh out loud.

The program just isn't what I thought it would be. These candidates live and breathe children's books. Each story is an analytical project for them and they delve as far as they can into each aspect to determine what it represents. Plus, they never discuss "the audience"... which would be kids. Umm... not really meshing with my background in child and family studies.

It seems like a grad program called "writing for children" would be such a sensible step into the book world. Apparently though, it's more for people who are already there and are furthering their understanding of children's literature. I don't want to discuss why one sentence in a book determines the whole point of the story though.

Writing is an art, isn't it? So like drawings, individual interpretations of a story will be different. And even though it's nice listening to what others think, that's not on my path to becoming an author and illustrator.

words & drawings: what i love

"We must absolutely do what we LOVE or we run the risk of doing nothing at all."

That's so undeniably true. And challenging.

Even if we can't have what we want or do exactly what we love,

the best next option is

to make sure we're working towards

attaining it.

Obviously, I don't expect everything to just fall into my lap,

allowing me to do what I love

without a care in the world,

but at the same time,

nothing

is

impossible.

Doing what you love makes you happy,

so if you're not doing that,

how likely is it

that you'll be as happy

as you possibly could be?

I think it kind of relates to taking risks, coming to conclusions, being honest,

saying what you need to say,

and getting everything that needs to be out in the open...

out in the open.