The Art & Poetry of Mary Coleman

My abstract drawings remain abysmal but I’ll keep doing them. Eventually I should improve. Hopefully. Everything in me wants to give up and just go back to doing what I know how to do, but I really want to see this through; try something new and experiment. I never used to be fearful of new things before art school. It’s so frustrating to feel the inhibition and discomfort. I’ll just keep ploughing ahead and see what happens.

Right now I’m only using water soluble crayons. I bought a big set of them years ago and I’m finally getting some use out of them. I have a gigantic sketchbook that’s 600 pages where I am writing my poems in and doing my daily abstract drawing in. What I’m hoping is that I can see change over time in both poetry and in drawing because it will take me a year to fill up this book so that should be a lot of progress.

Today’s poem…

I am not handy so I have never tried to do anything around the house lest I make a mess, but I have bound books which is kind of do-it-yourself in a way. You have to sew the leaves and assemble the whole thing gradually, so it’s a whole process.

I have made a considerable dent in Nothing To Declare, a compilation of flash fiction. Reading two chapters a night for the past week and a half has gotten me almost halfway through the book. Some of the sequences I like, some of them not so much. I really liked this quote:

“Dearest, don’t you know the toughest ghosts to get rid of are the ones that don’t visit.” -Cathleen Colbert

I ran 3 miles today. It took me awhile to get to it. After I finished my morning routine, I sort of started procrastinating about jogging. But I did do it eventually. While I ran I listened to Mansfield Park. I am nearly done with it now.

Yesterday and Monday I managed to avoid ultra-processed foods and sugar so I’m on track for my weekly goal so far. Sunday I had nachos for dinner (but other than that I ate whole foods) so Monday I had cravings for more UPF and sugar too, but I managed to have a healthy dinner and no desserts. Then Tuesday the cravings were mostly gone (although I have had some minor sweet cravings today). One serving of ultra-processed food causes me to want more the next day, but if I can break the cycle for just one day, the cravings fade to a tolerable level.

To-do-list

1. Brush dog’s teeth, water plants, breakfast
2. Write poem
3. Draw
4. Get exercise clothes on
5. Go on a 3 mile run
6. Shower/dressed
7. Walk dog
8. Lunch
9. Cook dinner
10. Read 2 chapters
11. Meditate
12. Go on Instagram and add 7 new people
13. Play video game