The Art & Poetry of Mary Coleman

I have decided to abandon my drawing prompts and start a painting. Today I traced the photographic image in Procreate, gridded the drawing, printed it out, and gessoed and gridded the watercolor paper. Tomorrow I plan on drawing on the figure, painting the lines, and then putting in a solid background. Ideally I’d like to be done with this painting by the end of September and in October I’d like to get 3 paintings done. Two weekends of it I’ll be away so I’ll do digital drawings on those days.

They are putting me on antibiotics for 10 days. 5 days before my surgery and 5 days after. I’m not looking forward to that. Though I understand the reason, I rarely ever have taken antibiotics and I like to keep it that way. Resistance is a real problem with them and over-use is a chronic issue although I think they are wising up to giving people antibiotics for every ailment now with all the superbugs. If things keep going the way they are going surgery might become a lot more dangerous and we might go back to the days of sepsis wards full of people with post-surgical infections and no effective treatment.

I read The Land of Lost Things yesterday and played Hogwarts Legacy. My house in the game is Ravenclaw but I’d like to think of myself as a Hufflepuff in real life. I’m not used to modern video games so I really suck at the game but it’s on the easiest setting where if you fail enough at something it just lets you move forward anyway. For me it’s more about following the story than being good at it. Usually when I play video games I play old fashioned side scrollers like Super Mario World or I play really easy casual games like House Flipper or Bridge Constructor.

My dentist has decided to stop taking Delta insurance so I need to find another one to do the crown for my implant. There’s another dentist nearby that takes Delta Premiere and we are going to upgrade to that for next year so hopefully I can get some of my implant covered if I go to them. February 7th is when I’ll be due to get the tooth in.

I ran a 5k today. It was okay and I managed a 10’52” pace overall. A bit slow but then I am always slower when I run on my own. At races or with other people I lean towards a 10 minute pace. Sometimes a little under that for shorter runs but only when I’m with another person. I listened to Hercule Poirot short stories while I ran. That book is never ending and I still have ten hours remaining. I think it is around 35 hours total.

I had a bunch of cookies this morning. My husband’s coworker made them to celebrate their program going live and sent a bunch home with him. It was really tricky eating them with my loose tooth but I managed and that means I can’t say I didn’t have sweets today. I tried softening them with almond milk but they weren’t the kind of cookie that goes mushy with liquids.

It’s been really hard on soft food to get enough fiber. Usually I have chia seeds and raspberries each day to help me get a load of it but both those things are currently impossible for me as the seeds get inbetween my teeth. I can still eat blueberries but one can only eat so many blueberries in one sitting. Perhaps I should introduce some oatmeal because that is super soft and full of fiber.

As for my goals I have been crushing them besides the cookies this morning. I’ve been cooking, meditating, going on Instagram, limiting ultra-processed foods, and making sure I do art every day. It must seem a little weird to make social media a goal as so many people are addicted to it but I really do not enjoy going on Instagram. I have to force myself to use it, but Instagram is the only way I get to share my art with other people so I need to suck it up and go on there, interact with other artists, and post work. Seeing the work of others inspires me to do my own.

Art Goals

Wednesday 9/25 – Gesso watercolor paper, trace image on Procreate, grid line drawing, print drawing, grid watercolor paper Thursday 9/26 – draw on figure to watercolor paper, paint lines, paint in solid background. Friday 9/27 – paint face and neck and skin on arm Saturday 9/28 – paint mask Sunday 9/29 – paint hair net and sleeves of shirt Monday 9/30 – paint shirt

September and October goals so far…

8 days out of 46 days without sugar

10 days out of 46 days limited ultra-processed food

10 days out of 47 days painting or drawing every day

Goals for this week so far…

3 days out of 6 days cooking at home

3 miles out of 21 miles of running

2 days out of 5 days of meditating

2 days out of 5 days of going on Instagram