I am again participating in
the Sketchpack Project this year.
I chose a theme of “Emotional Body.”

Why Emotional Body? Because the mind-heart connection is important to physical health, and certainly ours in the USA, and also the world, is stressed to the breaking point.

I was introduced to these concepts 40 years ago as part of my
Buddhist practice, and it is integrated into my way of thinking.
AMA doctors are slow to understand this is a real thing.
Western doctors feel their medicine, which is in its teen years,
is much better than ancient Eastern medicines, and I keep a foot in both worlds,
but always start in Eastern traditions, because I find by the time
I need to value AMA medicine it is for drugs or surgery… maybe too late!

I wanted to explore it without words, because my words
were yah-yah-yahing away and not getting me anywhere.
Turning to art to express feelings and dreams rather than talking —
which often now leads to politics – seemed a better way to try to heal and balance my emotional body.  Know that rarely did a word arise with the images.  And NO rules.
If so, I am putting them below the image.  If later I saw the image
and understood a bit more about my own image I will write about it in the second line.

My third line is for materials.

I made my “sketchpack” this year by removing the covers of two 5″x5″
Hahnemühle ZigZag Accordian Journals taped together with strong tape,
and covered the structural tape with red dragon washi tape.

Dragons symbolize potent and auspicious
powers over water (emotion!)

I am not sending mine off to be displayed (not sure if they will be displayed this year)
in Capetown, South Africa, run by the talented Di Metcalf.
ABOUT SKETCHPACK PROJECT: The project began in 2011 to get folks to draw daily. The sketchpack is a small zigzag journal with two usable sides, allowing one to sketch on both sides of 15 ‘pages’ to complete the month of August. There was much enthusiasm and the project is now repeated yearly in August, with a Facebook page for us to share as we go along.  (The page is closed for viewing but you can join to play along!)  There is an Exhibition held in October at the Artsauce Studio in Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa of mostly local Sketchpacks!

Conclusion, which I decided to insert here.
The exercise of working with pure color first (usually)
and then moving to imagery if so moved,
and sometimes not for days,
helped me to work through the issues.
No solutions, but then, when things happen
that are out of your control and
for which you had no hand,
there is usually no solution unless
other parties decide to weigh in.

Tsunami

Duke Fude with DeAtramentis Document Urban Grey ink,
Robert Oster Green Olive ink.

Future

Duke Fude with DeAtramentis Document Urban Grey ink, Robert Oster Muddy Dragon ink.

Chaos

Duke Fude and Platinum Plaiser pen with DeAtramentis Document Urban Grey ink,
Birmingham Albert Einstein Relative Cadmium ink.

No one word floating to my mind as I drew this… but not hard to figure out.
I am in Portland Oregon and the federal invasion of our city when in fact most of the violence was caused by the feds or outside agitators was extremely distressing.
There was also violence by our own Portland Police Bureau but it was not as violent,
and they did not also take on press and medical personnel.
Portland has a long history of peaceful protests and yet often the few outliers
are covered as if that is what is happened.  In fact, literally thousands of people
took to the streets for weeks (it is still going on) and all was peaceful.

Duke Fude and Platinum Plaiser pen with DeAtramentis Document Urban Grey ink,
Birmingham Pens Dennis Rodman Gunpowder Tea ink, Robert Oster Muddy Sand ink,
Krishna Pencil ink, watercolor pencil.

Platinum Plaiser pen with DeAtramentis Document Urban Grey ink,
Birmingham Dennis Rodman Gunpowder Tea ink.

Floating

Duke Fude (Bent) Nib with DeAtramentis Document Urban Grey ink,
Robert Oster Muddy Water ink.

Duke Fude (Bent) Nib with DeAtramentis Document Urban Grey ink,
Platinum Carbon Pen with Platinum Carbon ink waterproof cartridges,
Birmingham Cranberry Nobel ink.

Pressure Cooker

Duke Fude with DeAtramentis Document Urban Grey ink,
Blackstone Wild Orange (Scented) ink, .

Continuing, and I was thrown a bit this week….

My friends lift my heart, and many are overseas.  So many in Australia!

Platinum Carbon Pen with Platinum Carbon ink waterproof cartridges,
Blackstone Australian Bush (Scented) ink.

Summer storms… and not much summer in them this year.

Duke Fude and Platinum Plaiser pen with DeAtramentis Document Urban Grey ink, Robert Oster Green at Night ink.

Platinum Plaiser pen with DeAtramentis Document Urban Grey ink,
Robert Oster Sydney Lavender ink.

Then, suddenly, my creativity dried up for a few days, and I got behind.
I am very very kind to myself about this, especially when there are circumstances
beyond my control that take me out…. I turned to knitting, as I love the
feel of the wool between my fingers and the color lifts my heart.  WIP, above.

Pause.

In the second post I talked about overwhelm and upset,
and finally working through it.  These images reflect those issues.
I had no ideas, felt spent, so each day I only did inks until
I began to make pencil marks here and there.

Platinum Carbon Pen with Platinum Carbon ink waterproof cartridges,
Duke Fude and Platinum Plaiser pen with DeAtramentis Document Urban Grey ink,
Robert Oster Chartreuse ink, Robert Oster Melon Tea.

Platinum Carbon Pen with Platinum Carbon ink waterproof cartridges,
Robert Oster Orange Zest ink, Robert Oster’s Motor Oil ink.

Duke Fude with DeAtramentis Document Urban Grey ink,
Robert Oster Thunderstorm ink.

Such an amazing watery pacific ocean bay ink;
though made from an Australian so reflecting his oceans?
Anyway, it got me to cry laying in this ink, and that was good.
In many of these the inks came first.

Platinum Carbon Pen with Platinum Carbon ink waterproof cartridges,
Robert Oster Opal Green ink.

Yes, I muted a word….

Duke Fude with DeAtramentis Document Urban Grey ink,
Vinta Sea Kelp Leyte 1944 ink, 3oysters Gogung ink.

New Moon.

Duke Fude with DeAtramentis Document Urban Grey ink,
Waterman Tender Purple ink.

Who knew there was so much gold sheen in Taccia AKA red ink?

 Platinum Plaiser pen with DeAtramentis Document Urban Grey ink,
Taccia AKA red ink, Robert Oster’s Motor Oil ink.

The protesters are getting hit with tear gas!

Duke Fude with DeAtramentis Document Urban Grey ink,
Robert Oster Melon Tea ink, Birmingham Green Weenie ink.

Looking forward…

 Platinum Plaiser pen with DeAtramentis Document Urban Grey ink,
Robert Oster Dark Chocolate ink.

Saturday when no one intrudes.

 Platinum Plaiser pen with DeAtramentis Document Urban Grey ink,
Troublemaker Sea Glass ink.

 Platinum Plaiser pen with DeAtramentis Document Urban Grey ink,
Robert Oster Cosmic Swirl ink, Robert Oster Australian Opal Grey ink.

Sometimes it is a song that gets stuck in my head…

Lamy Joy with De Atramentis Document Black ink,
Robert Oster Melon Tea ink, 3oysters Gogung ink.

Platinum Plaiser pen with DeAtramentis Document Urban Grey ink,
L’Artisan Pastellier Classique Jaune ink, 3oysters Gogung ink.

Boxing at ghosts.

I hate that.  I prefer to confront problems.

Lamy Joy with De Atramentis Document Black ink,
Platinum Plaiser pen with DeAtramentis Document Urban Grey ink, Pitt White pen,
Papier Plume House of the Rising Sun ink, 3oysters Gogung ink.

 Lamy Joy with De Atramentis Document Black ink,
L’Artisan Pastellier Classique Jaune ink, Robert Oster Marrone Mustard ink.

Robert Oster Vine Leaf ink, Monteverde Moonstone ink.

 Platinum Plaiser pen with DeAtramentis Document Urban Grey ink,
Robert Oster Sydney Darling Harbour ink.

We all saw this coming.

 Lamy Joy with De Atramentis Document Black ink, KWZ Grapefruit ink.

 Lamy Joy with De Atramentis Document Black ink,
Robert Oster Australian Opal Grey ink.

To hear about classes, follow me on Instagram, Facebook
or check out my new, improved dkatiepowellart.com