Summer is here and my garden is in full swing, giving me plenty of drawing material. All I need now is more time! 

I think the practice is starting to pay off.  I'm very pleased with these.  The nasturium could use a little something.  I'll have to play with it to discover just what it is they want.

In the meantime, get outside and find some flowers to enjoy.

This week there are more blossoms.  I like exploring the designs I can create with them. Not as many this week.  I've been wearing myself out working in the yard.  I want to get things in place before the hot weather comes.

Maybe I'll have something new for you next week, but it's very possible there will be even more flowers next week.

I've just been loving playing with the lines of these flowers.  Curving forms with a few fine details.  I added a little color on a few.  I'm looking forward to playing some more.

My sister sent me this video with the question:  What is art? And what does our art say about us?

https://www.youtube.com/user/schooloflifechannel

So, what is art?  For something I spend a lot of time on, I haven't spent much time defining it.  It's something I love making and enjoy seeing.  My niece loved it because it was one place that had no rules.    Those simple things have been enough.

But when the question is asked, I have to wonder...what is it for?  Is it really just one thing or is it many things to many people?

And all sorts of people have weighed in on it...

Mark Chagall: Art is the unceasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers – and never succeeding.

Ayn Rand: Art is a selective re-creation of reality according to an artist’s metaphysical value-judgments.

Georgia O'Keeffe: Filling a space in a beautiful way. That's what art means to me.

Robert Frost: To me the thing that art does for life is to clean it – to strip it to form.

Jacques-Louis David: To give a body and a perfect form to one’s thought, this—and only this—is to be an artist.

Aristotle: The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.

With all that being said...what is art?  What is it for to you?

It's hard to describe the joy I get when I'm feel completely enveloped in color.  In spring and fall the colors in the woods are so intense.  They almost glow.  And when I'm deep in the woods, plants crowding the path, surrounding me, and sunlight is pouring through the canopy setting everything alight...all I can do is stand still, soak it in, and smile.

In spring the color is green.  Everything everywhere is turning green.  That bright yellow-green.  The forest floor is carpeted with maple seedlings, young trees splash fresh leaves into the spaces between dark brown trunks, and the ceiling is a kaleidoscope of green, brown, and light.

I've been playing more with my spring plant details.  I'm fascinated with the shape and color of emerging spring growth, from spring bulbs to leaves.  The hickory and buckeye are my favorites.  They seem very exotic and strange.  Of course there's nothing like the exuberance of a crab apple. I just love spring.  Don't you?

I've been eyeing the trains on my daily commute; noticing interesting colors and patterns. This weekend I got my chance to explore the train yard.  It looks like most of the train cars have seen better days.  But they're hanging on.  Tough, scrappy and hard working, but with a beauty not to be overlooked.

It was just me and the pigeons out there and there were a lot of pigeons.

Spring is progressing at a leisurely pace this year. Temperatures staying mild with the occasional 70s.  My yard is  magnificent with the hyacinths, daffodils, grape hyacinth, and serviceberry all opening together.  Tulips are just starting and the apples and crabapples won't be far behind.

The mild weather is giving blossoms plenty of time to unfold and giving me time to capture them.

I always think of spring as the back and forth between winter and summer. A tug of war between the seasons.  It seems that summer has the advantage now.  We've finally broken free of colder temperatures.  Several days in a row of blue skies and temps in the 70s.  People are everywhere basking in the sun, young squirrels are racing up trees and along the telephone wires, leaves are starting to uncurl.  Everywhere life is waking up.

It's been wonderful to open the windows and let the fresh air in.  Time  to make room for lots of walking; looking at the emerging leaves and the early flowers.  I think my favorite part of all though is hearing the birds singing.  I only know a few by sound, but the anonymous choir is lovely.

These are a few of the early sights of color and life returning to the north.

Well, the pins have come out.  Hand freedom feels so good! 

It's such a treat to be able to use both hands again.  It's so instinctive to reach for things with my left hand.  When drawing with my right, I could feel the urge to switch hands and take up the pen with my left.  Now I can.  The drawings below are done with my left, I'd like to keep up drawing with the right.  I made good progress with it.

While I have the use of my left hand again, my lesson in patience continues.  My little finger doesn't like to listen when I tell it to do things.  It doesn't hurt, just stubbornly refuses to obey.  Routine tasks like typing had to be relearned.  It's amazing just how quickly the path between the mind and the hand disappears.  So I continue to try to reconnect them, doing my exercises, and asking it to do familiar tasks.  There is progress, but not as quickly as I'd like.  But that's where the learning lesson comes in.  It doesn't matter what I'd like, it's just going to take time so I might as well relax, accept it, and keep at it.  Sounds like the old concept of hozho.  Maybe this is a lifetime lesson.