Getting Art and About.

Whenever I stay with Teesha, we start each day at the coffee shop. We Journal, laugh a little, sip on great coffee.

I love journaling on the beach. I take my magical turquoise umbrella, my freezer bag full of journals and supplies, a beach chair and set up a little studio. My dogs dig in the sand next to me while Angus surfs. It’s very, very pleasant!

Creating  ’outside’ is a great way to stretch your boundaries, coax you into inventive use of your supplies and builds up your creative confidence muscles. I cannot recommend it highly enough!

Q and A with Teesha on getting Art and about!

Q: Why you love journaling at the coffee shop?

A: We have always loved journaling at the coffee shop because it’s an awesome way to start the day. Coffee makes you happy and so does journaling and then when you get to see all your favorite smiling baristas who are also cheery….it’s just awesome. It also gives Tracy and I a chance to talk before the day begins. It’s kinda like a mini little vacation….each day.

Q: What are your tips for creating art out in public?

A: I like to sit in the corner and not be noticed if I can help it. I am WAY more self conscious about it than Tracy is. Tracy loves using it as a tool to connect with people since we always have folks wandering by, asking questions. I don’t want them to think I am out there making art in public to show off. I just want to be in my own private world, getting into the zone if I can.

It’s interesting to create in different surroundings….outside, at a park, coffee shop, a quiet library or bookstore, etc. These are mostly my doodling times. I do the stuff that benefits from no thought at all. It helps to just put your headphones on…plus people are less apt to strike up a conversation with you. If you are like me, you just want to bring a few pens and your journal. Make as little of a scene as you need to. This is really not the place to get out a table full of supplies (although Tracy used to do that all the time…).

Q: What supplies do you take and how do you carry them?

A: I just take pens, a small baggie of them. Usually some paint pens, gel pens, a pencil, maybe 3 colored pencils in colors I feel like that day. and I ALWAYS have an extra fine line white and black sharpie poster paint pen on me. I use those the most.

A fun touch would be telling us the recipe for your special coffee drink.

I love coffee and love the ritual of going to get it. But I have just given it up again (I do this every year or so) in the interest of health and saving money. We are currently engrossed in the “Clean Gut” program by Alejandro Junger and trying to stick to the plan which doesn’t include coffee. This is the first successful time I have managed to get Tracy to quit coffee (he drank way too much every day), so we really need to stay away from the coffee shop right now.

Yes, the journaling definitely suffers from it. Tracy and I keep saying that we can still journal at home at our desks each morning. Do we? no. We get caught up in all the activity of the day without that pause. We have been trying to sit and journal after dinner at our desks but it’s just not the same…and I rarely feel in the mood to do so. I know we can still go to the coffee shop and not have coffee but…it’s just not the same….and it’s too tempting.

My drink was 1/2″ breve, 2 ristretto shots, then ice. and it had to be in that order, and it had to be awesome coffee beans (love Stumptown). I was highly particular but my barista’s had it down…in fact they would watch for me to pull in and start making it before I even walked in the door. They are awesome. If Tracy and I have to resort to starbucks or any other mediocre coffeeshop, we’d rather not have coffee. Yes, we are classic Seattle coffee snobs. Both our daughters have worked as barista’s so we know what we like.

 

This weekend, why not accept the challenge of creating out- and-about?