A peaceful little start to the week.
I’m thinking of the week ahead and what needs to get off of my desk. I’ve been doing a lot of painting, both things that are already figured out and new designs where I’m playing with colours and shapes as I go, but am also eager to get back to some loose designing, and maybe trying some new things. I need some magic that can dump all the ideas in my head out onto canvas in a little bit faster way than I can.
I am happy getting back writing here, and last month we got the Pippin Studio Facebook page up and running. We’re still trying to figure out how to get Jill able to weigh in there, so she can throw in her two cents and balance out everything coming from just me, and make the pictures of my cats not stand out quite so much.
I also started a Pippin Instagram account at pippinstudio. Hopefully it will be full of quick shots, often sneak peeks from my desk.
I always overthink and as happy as I am to get those up (more ways to look at Pippin designs) all of these little windows sort of throw me, and make me stutter and stammer a little on wondering what people would like to see if they were kind enough to look Pippin up. I’m happy that the website is mostly in pretty good shape, Chantal has whipped it into a pretty, working, full-of-info beast. As much as I can keep up getting updates to her she is wonderful at getting them up. This blog is close to my heart and I feel cosy writing in it. Like anyone who finds their way here will also be looking for a peaceful little spot and maybe enjoy a little doodle or a look out my window at that view I’m so lucky to work in front of. I appreciate having a spot where I can cheekily make up words like ‘full-of-info’ when I know ‘informational’ would have worked instead. But to me ‘informational’ sounds like such a dry word, not meant for a place that is full of half drunk tea cups, and splotchy paint drips in yum colours, and has black cats wandering in and out and occasionally tiptoeing right across my work.
Last week a little hawk of some sort came and sat in the tree across from me.
I grabbed my bird book and looked for details that might stand out so I could text them to my more informed bird-studying friend. Long tail. Short beak. Sort of wavy lines down its chest. We’re still trying to track down what it was — after sitting there quite a while it snuck away while I had my head down in the book — but in my head I’ve decided it was a Merlin. Isn’t that a wonderful name for a bird? It sounds like a magician bird to me and it felt magical how he just was all of a sudden there, so if he chooses to come back that’s what I’ll call him. Hey Merlin. But mostly the visitors that really stun me out front are one time things. Just meant for fun I think. Once there was a teensy little owl who came through the mist and absolutely delighted me for a short while. I think he might have been staring at his own belly button in this shot, and I’m pretty good at that too, so we had a special connection.
Instagram is all about visuals, so I’m pretty comfortable over there. It’s a small group but I think it will grow. Both the blog posts and the instagram pictures also get sent along to our Facebook, and as I said they will be interspersed with things from Jill once we get that figured out. Facebook scares me a little and I’ve studiously avoided the personal account my eldest insisted I have a few years ago, but I think I’ll settle down and see that it isn’t quite the wild west I think of it as. It is such a good way for people to see what we’re working on, and what is being released, with a bit more of an immediacy than the website has maybe. But also, I’ll keep writing these posts thinking that I’m sitting here in my cosy little office, taking a break from drawing and painting and designing, and maybe someone who is reading them is taking a quiet little break from their busy day.