I'm Fond Of Flowers
How can I describe my life to you? I think a lot, listen to music. I’m fond of flowers. — Susan Sontag
Those who know me, know that I enjoy simple pleasures such as…
Visiting a new grocery store and taking home a drink from a different country to try
Putting some fresh flowers in the bottle when it’s empty and setting them in a place I can see even if they trigger my allergies
Drinking a good coffee
Having a sweet with that good coffee
Sitting in the sun and cuddling with my dog
Listening to a record and reading books with my husband while sitting in the sun and cuddling with my dog
Having a small conversation with a neighbor
Watching my dogs whole body wag with excitement to greet a neighbor
Finding a book that looks good in a little free library
Leaving a book or some other little treasure in a little free library
…to name a few. The past couple of years I’ve felt compelled to try and write more about these moments and draw them, both new ones and old. And that’s how the moments category on my work was born.
However, an illustration like the one above lives somewhere between what I’ve categorized as a “moment” and something else. Honestly, it doesn’t fit neatly into a category on my illustration page, at least not my current conception of those categories.
That illustration was inspired by a quiet moment from my life. But it didn’t really need a whole blog post to accompany it, Susan’s words were enough. However, I’m really proud of how this came out and I wanted to share it with you. Drawing it was a kind of meditation itself, I enjoyed getting lost in the colors, textures, and light.
The Postmistress Of Paris & Other Influential Women
Illustration of Mary Jayne Gold by Bree Reetz
The first book I finished this year was a good one!
I loved how the main character was strong, independent, piloted her own plane, wore trousers, loved her dog, was friends with surrealists, could laugh at herself, came from a life of comfort and left it behind to adventure, and took action to help people escape the Nazis in France by delivering secret messages. When I finished The Postmistress Of Paris I was surprised and delighted to learn that the idea for the main character was sparked by the very real, Mary Jayne Gold. I’ve drawn her portrait, above.
The seed of inspiration for drawing women was planted…
… while reading Inferior by Angela Saini. I felt white hot anger reading about the incredible women in this book. I started furiously writing down their names as I read. I wanted to see their faces. How had I not known about these badass women? And as I learned about them (sometimes having just heard of them for the first time and sometimes gaining a new appreciation for their contribution to their field) I decided I wanted to draw them and share their story.
So I made a plan.
In the front part of my journal, the first 25 pages or so have a different layout and I like to use this area for fleshing out my ideas for personal projects. Because they’re located in the front of the book, they’re easy to find and reference later.
I wanted to share this example because one of the things I’ve learned in my own practice is that having a few projects outlined means that I don’t wait for inspiration to get to work and that inspiration finds me working. Having a to-draw list, allows me to show up and focus on my practice without getting hung up on big questions or lost in inspiration rabbit holes.
Do I always draw from a list or for a specific project? No. Illustration is my personal practice and I find that I get the most joy out of my practice if I don’t force myself to be too rigid or results focused either. But I do owe a lot of my consistency, growth, and evolution as an artist to little personal projects like this.
I write these project outlines for myself, with no intention of showing them to anyone, so consider yourself lucky to have this rare glimpse at my messy notes behind the scenes.
Want to see the portraits I’ve done so far?
Cold Weather, Warm Heart
Here in Portand, the winter weather consists mostly of dark gray skies and drizzling rain with moderate temps. But once a year, the rain turns into snow. Everyone is seized with a sense of wonder if the snow actually sticks. Sleds are tested on our hilly neighborhood roads - you won’t be driving if the snow sticks anyway, not in this city. Snow men are lovingly rolled - I saw a group of six sitting roundly on patio furniture, having a barbecue in someone’s yard (a dangerous pastime for snowmen).
On one such day this winter, while out on a walk in the cold, I encountered something I hadn’t seen before. I saw a neighborhood family (from child to gran), bundled up and sitting out on their driveway around a warm chiminea. They had a sign that read “Free Hot Chocolate!” and one of the children waved at me wildly. Did I want some? Of course I did. Their mom offered me various toppings while warmly pouring hot chocolate from a large thermos into my cup. I accepted two marshmallows, beaming with delight.
A little kindness goes a long way.
Yellow
It was last year around this time, that my Grandma asked me out of the blue, “what’s your favorite color these days?” I paused for half a second before I answered, I hadn’t really thought about a favorite color recently.
And yet, I could immediately visualize…
…a collection of my things, all in the color yellow.
And so I said “Yellow” and her eyes lit up and she said “Ooh I thought yellow!” in what had become her simple, unfiltered way.
Now, when I look at my yellow things, I like to think of how yellow brought her joy too. You lose people, but they’re never really gone, they just come to you in different ways.
Alice Phoebe Lou
Alice Phoebe Lou’s Album Glow was the soundtrack for every sunny moment of my year.
In 2021 I listened to 1,808 different artists and 143 different genres. But I spent the most time (1,097 minutes) listening to Alice Phoebe Lou. Apparently this put me in the top 0.5% of their listeners!
Listen to the album Glow here.
“I’m one of those witches, babe
Just don’t try to save me, cause I don’t want to be saved”
I knew I wanted to create a drawing of Alice Phoebe Lou to commemorate how much the music has meant to me. While there are many gorgeous photos that could serve as muse, I was particularly inspired by a charming live performance of the song Witches and decided to create this five-frame illustrated animation.
Watch the live performance here.
Olive You
It was Christmas Eve and my Grandma was working her magic in the kitchen. The dining room glowed with warm light and good smells were wafting down the hall. If I craned my neck I could make out the Poinsettia tablecloth and a couple of small, cut glass dishes - one filled with cranberry sauce and the other with black olives.
Liking black olives was on a long list of things I had in common with my Grandpa. And so it was with a wink and a knowing smile that my Grandpa would sneak them out and into my hands before the big meal was ready.
Avoska
In general, I enjoy words and I take pleasure in adding new ones to my vocabulary. After all, words are just another medium for painting pictures and articulating thoughts.
There are certain words that don't just give you a name for something, they give you access to a concept that would otherwise be really hard to understand, or even talk about. I first spent time with this idea when I heard the Radiolab episode, New Words, New World.
Now consider how some words are unique to a specific language without a direct one-to-one translation. This takes the idea to another level. Is it possible to think differently in different languages? I think so.
Of course my insight as an English-only speaker is limited. However, I know that the ability to describe a complex idea simply with the confidence that you’ll be understood is powerful. Applying this idea to shared collective experiences and nuanced emotions is particularly compelling.
These are just a handful of examples that have captured the imaginations of English speakers:
“Hygge” - The cozy, intimate feeling of gathering with friends around a fire in the winter. (Danish)
“Schadenfreude” - The joy you feel at another person’s misfortune. (German)
“Saudade” - a pleasure you suffer, an ailment you enjoy. (Portuguese)
With these kinds of thoughts on my mind, I asked my bi-lingual co-worker to tell me a Russian word that could describe something in one word that would take several in English. She humored me and that is how I discovered that a netted string bag is called an Avoska in Russian.
It’s my understanding that the root of the word avos’ means “maybe” in Russian. And that in the historical context of the USSR, there was quite a lot of uncertainty about whether there’d even be anything available to take home in your bag.
Now I not only had a new word, but a better sense of context and history for an object that I had formerly only known as a cute, trendy, produce bag.
Do you have a favorite word that articulates a bigger concept?
Becoming A Bird Nerd
Books have a tremendous capacity to surprise and delight us. For example, recently I read a book (The Genius Of Birds) about birds and I was touched to discover that there are birds that sing for the joy of it, birds that use tools, and birds that collect things in the color blue. I’m becoming an entry level bird nerd, what’s your favorite fun fact about birds?