Month: February 2012

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Peg in Laguvajrasana

Deborah Santoro

Oops- this post was meant for my yoga blog, so forgive me for the accidental crossposting.  ~DS

Peg Mulqueen in Laguvajrasana

This is too much fun.  I feel called to name the flaws in the picture, but it occurs to me that if you can’t see them already then I don’t need to help you out there.  I think a lot of us do this in yoga too, somebody compliments our backbends and we deflect the compliment by saying “Oh yes, but what was happening on my jumpthrough today I wonder?”

I’m writing a blurb about yoga for church.  It’s a bit hilarious I think.  I’m a Unitarian Universalist, more or less because they don’t mind people who worship trees as much as anything else.  Now I don’t mean that I literally worship trees, but for me the universe is very present in the locus that is a tree.  So I walk in the woods a lot.  Anyway…  I’m writing about yoga for church, which seems harder because I can’t just hit “publish” and wait for the fall out.  I have to get up and say it in front of people I know, people I see at school and the supermarket.  It has to do with how my practice of yoga contributes to a sense of rebirth and renewal in my life.

For that matter, it’s bring a friend to church week at my little church in Groton, MA.  So if you live in the area and would like to come and see what some tree huggers and other folks do on Sunday mornings….  you just have to squeeze in your practice before 10AM.  We have a really good choir and, I think, the best minister in the whole world.  She makes me cry and always speaks to the inner depths of the human soul.

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MFA Boston

Deborah Santoro

Too bad that arm looks a little rubbery, not so attached to the shoulder.  We went to the MFA today and they had a marvelous Paper Zoo exhibit Curated by Cliff Ackley.  They had a marvelous ink drawing (I think) of a porcupine by Leonard Baskin that both girls got a kick out of drawing and a gorgeous print of trout in the water by Neil Welliver, who I just adore.  I didn’t get to draw yesterday so I did two today to make up for it.  Vacation week!!!  I am having a wicked time making a drawing of my middle daughter into a likeness.  In this one I think she looks more like her older cousin.

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Ball jar

Deborah Santoro

I love the new suite of gray Pitt markers with the brush tips.  I think there needs to be some black, for contrast.  I drew this last night after the Light, Wood and Bronze reception for Linda Hoffman and Sue Salem.  I didn’t really feel like drawing, but I didn’t feel like going to bed without having drawn at all either.  So I cleaned my kitchen, scored and tore a piece of that new hot press rag paper into smaller rectangles, and commenced.

I spoke with Miranda at the reception.  She has an amazing website for StudioMothers.  I mentioned that there is this aspect of daily drawing, now that I’ve been doing it for  a couple of months, in which I don’t start every day as if I’ve never drawn before.  The drawing hand, the hand-eye coordination is already primed and ready to go.  And this in only 15 minutes a day.  Why didn’t I know this before?  Even when I was working regularly in my studio I never drew every day.  It’s hard to explain what a powerful practice this is, but I’m going to write it up and try.

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Paintings and Couches

Deborah Santoro

I’ve been rather sick, with an unpleasant chest cold, and unable to practice with any regularity for over a week.  I really notice how yoga regulates my moods when I am unable to practice.  But I have been able to draw, and some very generous and beautiful yoginis have been sending me photographs.  Here is Christine from Gainesville, Florida, above, and below is another of her in kapotasana.

I’m planning a series of 3 panels, one each of the 2nd series postures Ustrasana, Laguvajrasana, and Kapotasana.  They’re for my living room.  They will probably not match my couch, which is a rather nondescript beige, rather old, gifted from a dear family member, and pounced upon and determinedly stained as only 3 young children can manage with delight.  It’s cushions are endless sources of forts and pillow fights.

This is why we can’t have nice things.

Clicking either image will take you to my art blog.

 

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Islamic Tile Patterns, revisited

Deborah Santoro

Here’s a painting of mine from when my oldest was little and naptime was sacred art making time.  This lasted until my second child decided to never, ever nap at the same time as her sister.

Here’s a detail, in which you can see the handwritten text beneath the paint.  The real point, though, is the Islamic tile pattern in the background, from Granada I believe.  I found the pattern on the internet today here:

And finally, here is the bare bones beginning of a sketch:

I love this pattern but it needs some work.  The six pointed stars are tricky.  There must be a way to graph out the pattern and make the whole thing easier to render.  Of course there are other ways to transfer a pattern, but I wanted to get it into my fingers, if you know what I mean, so that I could duplicate at will.

 

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Drawing in Church

Deborah Santoro

What can I say?  I’m getting in the habit of taking pencil and sketchbook everywhere that I go.  There’s a Twyla Tharp quote about this that I don’t remember offhand, something about having your tools with you.

On Saturday my drawing time became about making a Valentine for my valentine, the love of my life.

 

Most of these papers were done with gelatin printing.  It’s a good idea to keep a wide variety of pre-printed papers available for collage work, and I’m beginning to develop a system of sorting them by color families.  Here is a new goal:  set one of the vacation days aside for making papers with the kids, gelatin printing and other techniques.

Need to play with patterns!