Hello there - I hope you are doing well. After taking a week off to enjoy our Spring Break, here are a few things I thought were interesting and cool recently:
1. The Texas Coast
My family loves the beach - the waves, the sun and beachy weather. For Spring Break we spent a few days down in Galveston, TX - which is one of our favorite spots to get away and enjoy the surf. There is just something powerful about the beach, the waves, the water - it does something for the soul (I heard this is called “Blue Mind” - which I want to learn more about.)
Being early March, the weather was a bit chillier than we are used to, so we tried some other activities to keep us busy.
One of those activities was touring an old large sailing ship called the Elissa, which first launched in 1887. The tour was pretty interesting and left me wondering what it would be like to live for several months at a time aboard a sailing vessel like that.
Another one of my favorite things to do is try new BBQ restaurants. We had recently heard about Galveston’s “Queen’s BBQ” - so we checked it out. Good stuff. Inside the restaurant felt like taking a time machine to a vintage Western world.
2. Drawn to Life
I just finished reading volume one of Walt Stanchfield’s “Drawn to Life” books. The book series is a collection of “hand outs” that Walt would provide weekly for his drawing classes at the Disney animation studios.
Walt’s weekly “hand outs” were merely pieces of paper but were full of practical advice on the art of drawing, creative nuggets of wisdom and little gems on living a creative life. For example, one of Walt’s most famous lines was:
“We all have 10,000 bad drawings in us - the sooner we get them out, the better” - Walt Stanchfield
The book is also littered with tons of gestural drawings (quick, loose sketches) of Disney characters and figures to help teach how to animate them.
Here are a few more bits and pieces I collected from the book:
Drawing is like driving a car - you must pay attention to a lot of things.
“When you are walking, you are walking” - Zen saying
It’s okay to be wishy-washy - be flexible, be a learner, be open to new ideas.
Draw relentlessly.
Ideas are like fish, constantly swimming by - be ready to catch them.
3. Odds & Ends - just a few things on my mind recently…
“Worm Moon” - current full moon (as of March 19)
March Madness - college basketball and family bracket tournaments are fun
“Even a blind squirrel finds a nut” - advice given to me by a grocery store worker
Fender Bender - we (unfortunately) got rear-ended this past week, having not been in a car incident in decades, I am reminded how easily it is for car accidents to happen. Drive safe.
Pareidolia - The lock looked like a face with a big nose in our room in Galveston - (“pareidolia” - the tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern.)
Thanks for the reading and I hope you have a great week! Be on the look out for anything interesting in your life this week. See you next time.