Paper and Threads

  I continue to practice figure drawing and enjoy adding them to my recycled Michaelangelo book.  But I will never buy rough watercolor paper again - just have to get through these pages!

Posted by Shirley at 9:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I was tagged by Katherine Tyrrell of http://makingamark.blogspot.com/ on Friday and posted the "7 things you don't know about me" on Saturday on my blog:

http://www.paperandthreads.com/2007/05/post_24.php 

Yesterday the tagging spread to our EDM members and since everyone needs to tag 7 more people, I'm not sure how quickly and how far this will spread.  It is fun to do and definitely will help to develop more of a community among our EDM group members - if we know a little more about each other.

So in order to pass the Tag along, I decided that I would like to tag any EDM member who joined the group in the last 6 months.  After you post "7Things" to your blog, please leave a message on the EDM message board so we can all visit and get to know you better.

Posted by Shirley at 6:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

  We spent several hours in Central Park with my son, daughter-in-law and grandson Robbie in celebration of Mother's Day.  The weather was beautiful and the Great Lawn was full of families and softball players.  I sketched the city skyline looking south from the Great Lawn at 86th St.

 I still hate the rough watercolor paper. This sketch was done in my NYC Journal using Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils.  The piece of subway map that is above my sketch is my addition to the journal to cover the gap between signatures.

Posted by Shirley at 7:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

  Today was my monthly Empire Quilt Guild meeting which is held on the 8th floor of Building A at Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT).  I arrived early to meet with my small applique group and while sipping more coffee sketched the view from the window - another NYC rooftop image.  I'm not sure what fascinates me about these water tanks.  If you take a minute to look up in the city, they are everywhere!  And no two structures or rooflines are the same.  This is the back of the buildings on W. 26th St. 

Posted by Shirley at 9:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yesterday I received the following email comment from Katherine Tyrrell of Making a Mark - one of my very favorite art blogs. 

Hi Shirley you have been tagged by me - and now need to share with us seven
things most of us don't know about you (if you care to play  along!)   

I treasure my visits with Katherine when I'm in London and would never consider saying no.  So here goes:

1. I met my husband in our final year of high school and this year is our 40^th anniversary. We married after our second year of medical school, but I remained in Philadelphia and he stayed in Chicago and we had a long-distance marriage for 2 years. He still thinks of me as "the captain of the high school cheerleaders" or calls me the "dancing hematologist." If it weren’t for his encouragement and support, I may never have gone to medical school.

2. We had 3 children between September 1971 and July 1975. I was permitted 2 weeks vacation after my first and second children were born, and then moved from California to Texas when my 3^rd child was 14 days old. I have always loved being a mother (and now a grandmother) and a physician.

3. I just reduced my work schedule to 3 days/week, but continue to work as a Professor of Medicine at a New York medical school. This allows me to expand my interests and passions further - and I started sketching, painting, and joined Everyday Matters in 2005.

4. I spent 3 years intensively studying my family history (2000-3) and have 10 leather-bound, 3- ring notebooks full of birth/marriage/death records, passenger lists, and naturalization papers. My great-great-great-great grandmother was kidnapped as a child by the Delaware Indians in 1757 during the French-Indian War and released in 1764 by a treaty between the British and the Indian tribes in Ohio, USA. I read the original letter sent by Colonel Bouquet to General Gage about the prisoner release this past year at the British Library in London.

5. I don’t like or exercise, organized sports, running, jogging, hiking, or camping. I took dance classes "on and off" throughout my entire life, most recently ballet classes in New York. I have never been to a spa and have no desire to do so. I love living in a city where I can walk anywhere I want to go, but still drive to work.

6. I love textiles and everything related to them - sewing, smocking, French hand sewing, silk ribbon embroidery, Madeira applique, quilting, painting silks with procion dyes, and beading, These interests started when I was very young and I continue to add additional skills.

7. I adore bookstores and stationary stores! I have a shelf full of blank journals and many journals of various types that I keep: sewing, quilting, cooking, fabric dying, books I have read since 1985, travel journals and now travel sketchbooks to name a few. I write a "welcome letter" to each of my grandchildren when they are born and a detailed letter to each of them on each birthday. I have very few things left by my ancestors and want to make sure that I change that with my family. One of my favorite books is Leaving a Trace by Alexandra Johnson and I’m trying to do so!

Addendum: On 5/14 I was also tagged by Casey Toussaint and told her that I would add her name to my entry so she could stop looking for another to tag.

Posted by Shirley at 5:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)