The Art & Poetry of Mary Coleman

I decided to take a day off of art because I was feeling a bit burned out and not quite ready to begin my new painting. Tomorrow I’ll get back into it but it’s not the end of the world to go a day without doing some art. I did do 10 days in a row of it.

I’m looking at a different artist each day to inspire myself. Today I looked at Cui Jie who does a lot of architectural work that is kind of abstracted and surreal . Here is an example of their work:

It rained yesterday. I love the sound of it on the roof and pattering against the windows. Margot wasn’t too happy with me because I took her on a rainy walk and she hates water. Afterwards she got the zoomies and raced around the house shaking herself off.

Still no fall or Halloween displays around the neighborhood. Someone is growing a massive pumpkin in their yard that’s on a platform so I suppose that’s fall-related. My neighbor did put a skeleton up on their porch and a tombstone in their yard after I put my pumpkins out so there’s that. They also have some orange fairy lights.

One time when we were at the Sauvies Island Half Marathon there was a woman who saw Margot and exclaimed “a bitsy wein!” Now I call her my bitsy wein and sing itsy bitsy wein to her in the morning which is a play on the itsy bitsy spider.

Today I read The Land of Lost things for a bit and played Hogwarts Legacy. My husband gave me his old steam deck after he upgraded to an OLED one and I haven’t really been utilizing it like I should. He even installed a bunch of ROMS of classic Nintendo games on it for me. I have Bubble Bobble, most of the Super Mario games for Nintendo and SNES, Zelda Windwaker, and many others and I haven’t played any of them. When I first got the steam deck I played a ton of Sim City but got frustrated because my town would always go bankrupt as soon as it really started to grow. Hoping it might inspire me to play more, my husband bought me Hogwarts Legacy (I’m a Harry Potter fan). The day before yesterday was the first time I had tried it since he bought the game 6 months ago.

I ran 4 miles with a friend today. We went up to Mt. Tabor which is a formidable hill near my house. It was slower than the last 5k we ran together, but I felt really heavy on my feet today so I struggled to maintain under a 10’30” pace.

There’s a post that’s part of our fence that has started leaning forward. The landscapers said they could fix it with a brace and a bit of cement so I have to get on them to do that. They quoted me 100 dollars which is cheap for a fence repair. Ideally I’d just like them to do it when they come to clear out the leaves this fall but it’s putting stress on the rest of the fence. We had all the wisteria and trees removed that were growing behind it and so there is less pressure on the fence overall now, but that leaning post is still an issue that needs addressing soon.

As for house repairs, there is a bit of rotting wood on one of the eaves of the house. I’m not sure how much that will cost to get replaced. It’s on a small overhang coming from the upstairs bathroom so it’s not one of the main areas of the roof. Hopefully that means it’s less of a job to fix. I know rot can spread in wood so it is something I need to get done. We use a general contractor who works as a handyman and he could probably do it for an affordable cost. Ah the joys of home ownership. Always something needing to be done.

So no sweets today and I did Instagram yesterday and meditated even though I didn’t feel like doing either. I’ve continued to limit my ultra-processed food to one item in the evening or nothing at all, and I’ve painted or drawn every day for the past 10 days. Additionally I have cooked at home the past three nights and tonight I will also do it because I defrosted meat and am now committed to cooking it. I have run seven miles so far this week out of the 21 I have as a goal. I’ll do five more tomorrow and then ten on Saturday bringing my total to 22, so overshooting my aim by one mile. My rough calorie goal has been 1500 a day but I don’t list that as an official aim because I need to be flexible. Sometimes I have more food than that and on some days I have less and so as long as most days I follow it, I feel pretty good.

For the rest of the week I am going to add the intention to do something enjoyable for an hour a day because I really struggle to relax. Once I get my intentions done for the day, I kind of sit around and do nothing the rest of it, laying down with the dog or sitting idly in my office chair staring into space. It feels like if I’m not doing art or another important goal, then I shouldn’t be doing anything at all. The guilt sets in and inhibits me from enjoying myself. Reading and playing video games would make me feel much better because it would stimulate my brain a bit and make me feel less bored. I have to overcome the guilt and realize it’s okay to do something relaxing that doesn’t contribute to a more important aim.

Art Goals

Wednesday 9/25 – Gesso watercolor paper, trace image on Procreate, grid line drawing, print drawing, grid watercolor paper Friday 9/27 – draw on figure to watercolor paper, paint lines, paint in solid background. Saturday 9/28 – paint face and neck and skin on arm Sunday 9/29 – paint mask Monday 9/30 – paint hairnet and sleeves of shirt Tuesday 10/1 – paint shirt

September and October goals so far…

9 days out of 46 days without sugar

11 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…

4 days out of 6 days cooking at home

7 miles out of 21 miles of running

3 days out of 5 days of meditating

3 days out of 5 days of going on Instagram

2 out of 5 days spending an hour a day relaxing and doing fun things

Not a bad pace for 4 miles. I ran with a friend so I was a bit faster than yesterday when I ran on my own.