Little Bird Marks

Yesterday was really cold and the chickadees were all puffed up and ravenous. We filled the feeder 3 times. And so for them and the hours of pleasure they bring, I photographed their foot prints; a wonderful arrow shape. The light dusting of snow really helped them leave their marks. I think I should have called this one Start from the Center.

The chickadee poem in 3 lines

Light and Shadow

This year our very slanted and southern light is hiding more days that I wish. So that when it finally emerges one really pays attention to where it lands and the shapes it illuminates and hides. The exterior world of snow and the interior world of white walls make for a canvas waiting to be marked.

The sun's mark making

Scribbles

As you can see I am still filling images away. These are ones I found yesterday and seem to follow the idea of Gathering Lines, the last post. A few years ago I did a series of drawings which I called the scribble drawings. At first all I wanted was to make marks [hugely pleasurable in itself] on the paper [in this case vellum] that would make visible the essence of the stroke of the pencil or the crayon or the charcoal. I wanted or rather hoped that the energy of my hand and pencil; the way my body moved in the gestures, and repetition of the stroke of the pencil on the surface; all that would be visible, and that in the very "act" of making marks something, or some new understanding would emerge.

From the Scribble Drawings