Moss Whispers

Doing this last page was a challenge. Not sure why but I have many ‘suspicions’….•finishing anything has a charge to it! (is it ‘enough’? what will I do next? I’ll miss this little project so might be hard to ‘let go’ and ‘move on’ •have I really reached the end? • painting what’s in her mind (PLUS what’s in MY mind!) gets complicated. • I need to stop and learn how to paint ‘firefly glow’ • I need to practice how to get her body moving right and figure out how to merge the different sizes and scales. • I’m wiped out from a bunch of woodworking I’ve been doing • I MUST procrastinate and take a break!

I guess I’m good at making such lists! Now finally here’s a rough last page!

Way to go ME! And way to go Martha Julia Agnes Adele! We’re all proud and relieved to have done what we’ve done and learned what we’ve learned!

Now comes the really fun part!!! Re-editing and re-editing everything from type-os to mistake-os! And rewriting the book, changing words, concepts, plot and all! For now, we’ll let you ‘Sit and rest a spell, Martha Julia Agnes Adele! Thanks for this adventure!

Something about this last page seems to be asking my imagination to pull together lots of pieces, to practice with pens, pencils, and paints, and maybe procrastinate a little in between each part? So here are a few pieces waiting to find their place in the last painting.

This page invited me over and over to rewrite, reread, re-edit, and spend days learning to draw. Each time I re positioned and redrew Martha Julia Agnes Adele, she grew up a tiny bit more! I KNOW she felt like she had learned and mastered something new, and probably DID feel a little older and smarter, yet I think she grew up a little too fast! Glad you’re realized you can tie your shoes tight and that you are feeling more confident, Martha, but I DO wish you could keep your baby face and chubby arms a little longer!

This old map of The Hillock was sketched a few years ago, and has morphed a bit by little hands in the neighborhood. Just as Neverland maps take on the shapes of children’s minds, so does the map of The Hillock. This morning I noticed that even a few houses had been moved to another Pebblestone Street! Perhaps this was the map that Slab carried in the pouch over his shoulder?

I’ve had trouble both creating a vision for today’s drawing that would go well with the, as well as learning the skills needed to paint it. It’s one of those days that I’d LOVE having some lessons un palette and technique ‘under my belt’! Guess it’s good for me to realize this. I want to learn how to paint a ‘luster’ and ‘twilight’ and many more things! Sofar, here’s the beginning of this day’s painting.

Added color to this page of Martha Julia Agnes Adele, even though it’s getting close to twilight and colors wouldn’t show as much.

Delight is a wonderful feeling to have! Had it tonight while we spent time with our wonderful granddaughters! It’s much harder for me to draw, especially when I’m yawning! Painting yet to come!

One thing I have learned about how my brain works is that it forgets many things that pass through it! Perhaps this is because SO MANY ideas go through it at lightning speed! and my brain storage system can’t possibly hold them all! nor does it know what storiess will need which ingredients. That’s where The Hillock comes in!! My sort of brain needs concrete, reminders to recall old images that have passed through it. The Hillock has provided a ‘container’ to hold magical ideas and artifacts that at some point can come alive as important ingredients for stories. Characters are also emerging faster than I can write them!

I’m so grateful for my walks with our dogs, even in times when my brain bubbles ideas that my body doesn’t have energy to carry forward! And also grateful for how time takes the ingredients of ideas & inklings and mixes them into a stew of stories! Years ago when I was dealing with intensely chronic pain from Lyme disease and other tick borne illnesses, I did a lot of walking and wandering… On hot, buggy days I’d end up at Goodwill just puttering and spending coin-amounts on little ‘idea relics’. Then over years a few would end up in my pocket on a walk with the dogs, invariably finding a place in The Hillock. This little metal owl and a roughly welded simulation of a nest of sticks, found a place in the fork of two branches of a large cedar, actually, the cedar that eventually became Potter’s tree!

And now, perhaps 7 or so years later, Old Cedar and the Wise Old Owl have become key characters in helping Martha Julia Agnes Adele find her shoe!

I just LOVE how Life leads me back and forth from Inklings of Intuitive…seemingly useless ‘pickups’ at Goodwill to Ideas that become Important Ingredients in Stories that I had no Idea would Evolve! HOW does this happen?

THESE are the moments when I’m so grateful for the crazy-nonstop wise brain that I have! (BeLIEVE me! There are also times when I wish I could STOP some of my off-the-wall, seemingly superfluous thoughts…and either REST or have a logical, normal one, for a change! Today, I’ll embrace GRATITUDE and all the benefits of creative connections that come with it!

This illustration was a little difficult for me! But hopefully it will help me remember the gist of things! I imagine a true illustrator could express this much more clearly.

This story about Martha was written about 6 years ago. Over the years I have revised and edited it along the way. It’s the illustrations that take me so long since drawing and painting are things I have had few lessons to help me! I mostly have a degree in trial and error for me! Sometimes I write planning notes for myself, like I did on this page. AND often some of the directions I give myself either would show up ‘off the page!’ or would need more expertise than I can muster with my little fingers! Here were my directions to myself:

Drawing tips: Martha is steadying Potter ‘on top of’? Slug as they ‘hobble’ towards Potter’s Tree, which is also not far from OLD CEDAR.

Potter has his hurt knee riding on Slug’s back and is hobbling with his other foot on the ground, assisted by Martha who is leaning to help but also hobbling herself.

Up high in the distance at OLD Cedar sits OWL, half awake, and half asleep, with one eye shut and one eye open. His head is turned to the side, and he’s ‘rubbing one eye?’ with his wing-tip.

As it turned out…only owl’s feet and wingtips made it into the picture, which makes it hard to see one eye open and the other almost asleep, or to see him tucked under his wing. Oh, well, Owl doesn’t really show up til the next page! So a sneak peek is okay with me for now!

More work to do on this painting. There were three fireflies, but somehow two flew away before they settled into the painting! There’s a lot going on in this scene. Also posted are some photographs of the real places in The Hillock. Lots of learning for me behind the scenes in this painting! Probably more learning going on for me than for Martha Julia Agnes Adele!