I've been thinking a lot lately about the idea of boring and being bored. One definition of boring I came across described it as "the state of feeling weary because one is unoccupied." [OED] That kind of weariness is something I've rarely experienced in my adulthood....
musings from the studio and beyond ~
dawn chandler’s reflections on art and life. . . .
Dawn Chandler
drawing: “no good, no bad, no judgement”
Below — pages from my 2023 sketchbook. I began this on a road trip last June to the Oregon coast. In years previous when we made that trip (the last being in 2017) I didn’t draw much, if at all. Rather, I was still on [READ: addicted to] social media, so I spent more...
storm on the desert
Yesterday I went alone to see Oppenheimer. After leaving theaters some weeks ago, our theater brought it back along with some of the other Oscar nominees. I was grateful to see it finally, and on a big screen. As I watched it, I was struck — once again — by how much...
what are your delights?
A friend once told me that "delight" is a word that she associates with me, because she doesn't know many other people who use the word, yet I use it a lot, especially in my writing and my TuesdayDawnings musings. Well. That delighted me. It seems (thanks to the...
making space for grace
Hold space and invite grace is the opening passage of Chip Conley's A Year of Wisdom. He speaks of creating spaces of time and environment in your life for magic to happen. For me, my best time to achieve glimmers of grace is in the early morning. This is why silence...
go ahead, walk through it
Thirty minutes ago I emerged from the mall where my PO box is. I had just dumped my massive annual springtime greeting card mailing at the post office and was feeling a bit jubilant. Thirty minutes before that, an all-day soaking spring rain (a rarity out here)...
eagle nest gold
It's become a cherished late August ritual for me: Driving the Enchanted Circle through Northern New Mexico.I started the tradition two years ago…. it was the last drive my sweet pup and I did together before she died.As a tribute to her I made the journey again last...
6 x 3 x 60 = peace
I stepped outside, crouched on the pavement and sat down on my dusty front door stoop. In my nine years living here, I don’t think I’d ever sat on the stoop. Maybe because the view from that angle is mostly pavement, concrete, stuccoed wall and taillights. This...
unphotographable* ~ a bosque blessing
We arrived an hour before sunrise. 14°. Too cold to simply park and wait. Usually we don’t have so much time to spare. Usually we go park by the Observation Deck where always other cars are parked. There we stand by water’s edge, our hands thrust deep in our pockets,...
my greatest joy today
You would have thought my greatest joy today was spending 3+ hours in my studio painting. Especially doing so while listening to a conversation with a wholly inspiring mastermind of creativity. Or signing my name, finally, to a painting I’ve been working on for weeks....