Over the years, on Wordpress, people have come and gone, shared lives and left, left old blogs to pursue new ones. They continue on with their lives, maybe updating with the occasional life update, but most often not. … More You’ve Got a Blogger in Me
Sometimes I don’t really know what to write, and then I think oh, you shouldn’t write for the sake of writing, you should write because–because you’re trying to write something. Because you’re trying to convey something. Because there’s a story you have to tell, a thought to flesh out, a destination to get to. You’re … More Writing
Ooooh, I am so. very. excited for New York. I’ve been trying to get ahead at work, asking for assignments in bulk. I worked a bit later into the evening and started tomorrow’s work today. I plan to do Thursday’s work on Wednesday, and then Friday’s work on Thursday. Stress now, relax later. I want … More Excited I Am
March 19th, 2023 Have you ever finished a book that left every tiny hair on your body standing? That’s how The Little Snake left me. The whole time it reminded me of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry… a very faint echo. On the last page, the author thanked Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. I was … More 2023 Reading Challenge
A few days before, I plugged in a Fujifilm recipe reminiscent of Kodak Tri-X 400 film stock. Black and white, heavy contrast, grainy. I went for a walk by the lake. I had walked this very path several years ago. I had brought along my iPad and read The Power of Now while sitting underneath … More Simulating Kodak Tri-X 400 on Fujifilm
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. It is also an excellent source of practice. For this week’s Old Masters drawing project, I looked up famous Italian sculptures. Michelangelo’s David – the famous pensive subject above – popped up. Immediately, I thought of this book I had read as a child called the From the … More Sketching Michelangelo’s David
Can’t believe I’ll be in New York next week. I felt like going, so now I am. Visiting The Met for an art project seems perfectly justified. Mostly I want to loiter and go to the library and see what Little Italy looks like (do they sell olives?) and maybe visit the Tenement Museum. I … More The One Where My Tarot Cards Told Me To Grow Up
After a wonderfully raucous meeting with my new art group – a story I’ll save for later – I went ice skating with an old friend. I also ended up befriending two little girls who asked if I could teach them to skate. One thought I was 15 years old – turns out I was … More Figure Eight
Every weekend, I’ve been working on one pencil drawing, usually at a local cafe. Recently, I discovered an art group that draws together on the weekends. I decided to go. It was fun! We all drew different subjects and babbled about movies and art. For a moment, it felt like art class: a space carved … More Imitating Art’s Old Masters
Lately I’ve been taking my camera everywhere. Mundane places, too, like the coffeeshop or lake. I’ve been making an effort to shoot in black and white. A part of me misses the magic of B&W photography, especially the old filmy style. I’ve always been reluctant to embrace it, though – what about the colors? I … More Juxtapose
The book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain talks about the concept of negative space. Our brains tend to focus on objects – positive space – rather than the edges surrounding them – negative space. One example the book used was Bugs Bunny running through a door and leaving his imprint behind. Emptiness … More Negative Space
On this week’s edition of Silent Sondays, I share photos of my sons. For context, I am a doting mother of two pigs, who are adorable and intelligent and feisty. Despite being twins, each has his own distinct personality and set of strengths. While one is beautiful and docile (looks) the other is smart and … More Silent Sondays
One of my goals this year is to sketch one drawing every weekend. This was my first graphite piece in a long time. Nothing fancy – just shapes and values. But it felt nice, getting back into art. I drew beside an old friend as she studied for a certification test. The hours flew by. … More Gradients in Graphite
“My story will be over soon. But it’s not something to be sad about. As we count up the memories from one journey, we head off on another. Remembering those who went ahead. Remembering those who will follow after. And someday, we will meet all those people again, out beyond the horizon.” Hiro Arikawa, The … More Wisdom of the Traveling Cat
Looking ahead, I wanted to note some changes to coolpeppermint moving forward. The first big change is that I finally went ahead and upgraded my Wordpress. The pesky ads are gone. And I have a domain: coolpeppermint.blog! … More Changes
Lately I have been feeling like a creative spigot. Unsaid poems are tumbling thru my fingers – sketchbooks are beckoning, whispering. Whereas I once made excuses not to draw, I find myself drawn to art again. I’ve been reading and writing, too. Truth be told, I don’t feel like I ever lost myself. I think … More Stories
It’s a bizarre and paradoxical, growing up. Here I am, looking ten years my junior while planning to attend the university reunion with my best friend, because we’re at that age where our class starts to, like, have reunions. I’ve honestly never been much of a rah-rah reunion person, but I do have more attachment to my alma mater than other institution I’ve been a part of. My best friend will be there and hopefully it will be nostalgic and magical. … More That my Best Friend
I have been reading the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. It’s like Drawing 101, but now I’m putting theory to practice. I would find myself using these art tactics without fully understanding why. Instead of doing all the activities at once, I’m taking my time, absorbing the concepts and following the … More Sketchbook Challenge
I’ve been having those moments where everything goes tunnel vision, the person in front of me is glowing, I’m entering a strange dimension where everything is surreally unreal. It’s the most beautiful space in the world and it lasts only a minute or forty five or however long the conversation goes. … More Until You Aren’t
Before visiting, I intuitively knew that I would like Italy. I didn’t know I would love Italy. But it’s settled: I love Italy. At night, the air smells like smoke and salami. I have tomatoes in every meal. There’s cappuccinos and pizzas and pastas a’plenty. Instead of planning anything, we took the ferry to Como … More Dreaming of Olives
We took the ferry to Cernobbio, a quiet town on Lake Como. Beforehand, we had a leisurely breakfast overlooking the lake. Every morning, our kind waitress set up the table with an obscene amount of food: fruits, bread, cereals, salami, cheese, croissants, cucumbers, and more. Because it was a small hotel, we felt guilty about … More A Day in Cernobbio, Italy
We almost went to Milan yesterday, but changed our mind after the train was late. Without anywhere in mind, we walked around Como, consuming pasta and chocolate and pizza and salad. I paired olive oil with fat Sicilian olives and promptly entered the gates of Italian cuisine heaven. After some frantic Googling, though, I was devastated to find that you cannot bring fresh olives through customs. Today we successfully visited Milan, taking the ferry and then the train. … More Daytrip to Milan
Lake Como, Italy, is quite possibly the most beautiful and magical place I’ve ever seen in my life. I have almost no words to describe it. The beauty. The food. The nature. The mountains, the lakes. The way the air smells. It smells familiar – it reminds me of China somehow. At night, the smell of firewood … More Amore, Italia!
At 11:53 PM NYE, we stood on the hotel terrace, looking across the lake and shadowy mass of mountains. In the afternoon, we had taken the train from Switzerland to Italy. The hotel desk person had informed us that fireworks would start around midnight. At this point, though, there were two distant fireworks – behind … More Happy New Years from Italy 🎆
With the two day Swiss Travel Pass, we decided to visit Mount Rigi. Located in the Alps, Mount Rigi “towers majestically between Lakes Lucerne, Zug and Lauerz.” It was a peaceful journey there and back. We took the boat from Lucerne to Vitznau, and then rode the cogwheel railway – Europe’s first mountain train – … More Queen of the Mountains
coolpeppermint 