When my roles as an art teacher and a mother allow me time I paint. Years ago…..okay, decades….I was painting semi-abstract figures on huge canvases. As my life became smaller I found that I needed a smaller, more portable canvas….viola – Moleskines! I now draw and write in the precious little pockets of time I used to so flagrantly waste: waiting in line; during my child’s piano lessons; sitting in boring meetings; etc.. I can bear all kinds of things when I have a Moleskine and writing instrument.
I find myself deciding which garments to purchase based on if they possess a pocket large enough for a moleskine & pen. Although I’ll draw with whatever’s at hand, my secret drawer full of multi-hued Microns, Ticonderogas & Flairs bely a latent snobbery. Ultimately it’s the day’s pocket that determines the drawing tool. I think all Moleskines are beautiful enough to covet, but I don’t stock up. I have to earn new Moleskines with completely filled ones. I prefer the 3.5 x 5.5 black "oilskin" cahiers with or without lines/grids. The paper covered ones worry me.
I use the little books to work out ideas for future paintings, sketch ideas from museums, take notes on color and more recently, make small collages. I usually have a few cut magazine images tucked into the unused pages – just in case. Working on tiny collages gives me a relatively simple way for my relatively simple mind to ponder on compositional applications of the golden mean.Last, but not least, when I travel I find that jotting down a map of only the streets & intersections I need each day is
a convenient way of finding my way home again.
Wendy Keith-Ott
Bellsme
View her works on FLICKR
Discover and join our Moleskine communities on LiveJournal, MySpace, Moleskinerie FLICKR and Meal Moles.
————————————————————-
- Featured Artist: Robin Neudorfer
- Blue Crayon
- Diary captures pivotal moment in Australian history
- Pilot BegreeN Pens
Today on Notebookism
Get out! Have a life – and write about it. Be back on Monday. 
Dear Wendy,
I have a large watercolor of yours from the mid-1980′s, showing two women standing before a burning town that looks Italian. One woman is missing two fingers. Would love to know more about your career. –Beauchamp Carr, 404 733 4201, bc@woodruffcenter.org