The Art & Poetry of Mary Coleman

Today I painted skin, completing the rest of the face, the neck, and the bit of arm that’s showing. The neck is really tricky and still needs some tweaking. There’s a bit of light shining at the bottom of the neck that is hard to render. I think it will look better when there is cloth around it with highlights on the cloth to show that light is hitting that area. Right now it just looks like she lacks pigment in a patch of her skin.

I really should meditate in the morning more often. Focus is a little easier earlier in the day. Today I didn’t do a loving kindness meditation, I just listened to an ocean stream on my AirPods and tried to think about sitting there making a drip castle. My mind wandered, but it always does, and I make a note of where it goes and return to thinking about the stream. As I was feeling very anxious beforehand, meditating seemed to help ease my stress a bit. I did it for 15 minutes.

Something else that helps with anxiety is to say a mantra to myself over and over in my head. “This is a moment of suffereing. Anxiety is something millions of people struggle with. May I have kindness for myself in this moment. May I give myself the compassion I need.” If I repeat this to myself long enough, my anxiety starts to ease up a lot, although it does not work for sugar cravings.

I have been listening to X-Ray FM lately, well streaming random programs hosted by it, to mix up my music a bit. Usually I just listen to Jordi Savall who does music dating from medieval times to the baroque period. His discography is so vast I don’t really run out of things to listen to by him, but I wanted some more modern music in my life and listening to different radio shows meets that need. I never really know what I’m getting because I just put on whatever is streaming that day and go with it.

We went to a little Italian restaurant with my Uncle and his partner last night. I got the scallop linguini which I cut up into small bites so I could chew it safely. Afterwards we all got dessert (I got cheesecake) and my uncle’s was free because it was his birthday. They lit a candle for him to blow out and his partner sang Happy Birthday.

Today I hung out with my friend Riona. We went to get coffee and watched The Decameron on Netflix. It’s a fun show loosely based on the book which is set during The Black Death.

Things I saw on my walk today:

So I’m limiting my goals to a week at a time because I was getting too intimidated by setting monthly intentions. Taking it seven days at a time is more realistic. This week my goals are as follows:

Intentions for September 30 – October 6:

(I’ll put an X next to the intention for every day I do it)

1. Do not eat any sweets all week except on Sunday X

2. Meditate 7 days this week X

3. Take the dog on a walk every day X

4. Do painting for 4 days X

5. Cook dinner at home 5 days X

6. Go on Instagram 5 days of the week

7. Run 21 miles and complete the Portland Marathon (doing the half)

8. Clean the house.

Painting Schedule:

Outline photo, grid, print out gridded drawing, grid watercolor paper Wednesday Sep 25 Draw figure onto gridded watercolor paper Friday Sept 27 Outline drawing and paint in background. Saturday Sept 28 Paint eyes – Sunday Sept 29 Paint skin – Monday Sept 30 Paint hair net – Tuesday Oct 1 Paint mask – Wednesday Oct 2 Paint glove/hand – Thursday Oct 3 Paint glove/hand finish – Tuesday Oct 8 Paint shirt sleeve – Wednesday Oct 9 Paint shirt 1/2 – Thursday Oct 10 Paint other half of shirt – Friday Oct 11