Lonely is the Illustration Friday word this week and I must admit that I think I've missed the mark here because although this little girl is alone she's not really lonely.  How could she be when the trees and lamp posts have been so wonderfully decorated. Perhaps it's all the people in the background, at the edge of the park, who aren't enjoying the wonderful yarn bombing who are the lonely ones.  You can definitely feel lonely in a crowd. This is a reduction linocut inspired by a picture I saw of a yarn bombing in Seattle.  Thank-you to all the knitters out there who stage these magical events!

A little Illustration Friday for Sunday.
It always amazes me that when I paint over layers of old paint and ink interesting things happen.  In this picture, the man's face was there, I didn't paint it for the picture.  Also his pants pocket was there and I thought, "Oh, he's wearing jeans". I do have fun.

I've been working away and trying to get enough art together for our print show this fall. (I'll be posting all the details about it later)  One thing I know about myself is that I can't create under pressure.  Many is the time I've tried to make a little birthday card for someone the day of their party.  I should be able to whip up a little card right?  Nope.  The second I start thinking that I have only an hour, or a day, or a week to do something, the creative muses fly away.  I'm not sure why this happens.  Creativity seems to creep in from the side and take over my brain so that there is no room left for practicle thoughts.  I need blocks of time where I don't have to think of anything else.  This sounds a little weird and I know lots of people create wonderful things under pressure.  Maybe if I understood the process better I could too.  But for now, it's a hot summer and the print show is months away, so I can hide in my cool basement studio and let linocutting take over my brain.