Guest Artist, Roz Stendahl

I have a treat for everyone...I picked up the book "Creative Time and Space: Making Room for Making Art" by Rice Freeman-Zachary a while back while I was still stuck on the couch nursing the busted ankle. In it, there were a bunch of contributing artists that were interviewed on how they made time for their art.

I checked out their sites, and one that I gravitated toward, because her site and posts were fun, was Roz Stendahl. Roz is a member of the Twin Cities Urban Sketchers, her blog posts are amazing and very informative. She is also the creator of the button on our sidebar for the International Fake Journal Month. Her links are under our links section to the right...

I asked her if she wouldn't mind telling us about herself and why she sketches:

Here's Roz:

Why I sketch:
Well I sketch because I love to observe things and always have, so I'm always looking and writing and drawing. It's just like breathing to me. Getting something down on the page is more important to me than getting something perfect on the page.

The act of drawing is a bit like falling in love-noticing every nuance-whether it makes it into your drawing or not. (In drawing some bits you edit out and some you don't include because you don't yet have the skills to do so.) I find that if I keep looking and try to work out the visual puzzle then more and more unfolds. I love the aha moments of that discovery. "Oh, that's how this bird's beak attaches."

Another reason I draw and keep a visual journal is because it brings me into the present moment. It's something I can jump right into to observe-and I can still talk and share with people around me. Drawing doesn't take me out of the moment-or outside of the moment the way photography does for me. (I have friends for whom photography brings them into a moment, so I'm not against photography-it's just not immediate for me; it doesn't draw me in as closely as drawing does; I don't notice as much about something when I only photograph it.)

Also sketching and journaling brings an intimacy with the moment that I see lost to people who twitter-something I'm seeing more and more of thanks to the new phones everyone has-they are so engaged with their technology (and random people who may or may not be reading at a given moment) that they are taken away from their surroundings . They miss a lot. They don't seem to settle into the surroundings in the same way. When I sketch I get to still be in my surroundings, alert to those surroundings, responsive to friends in those surroundings, and of course, intimately involved with what has attracted my attention. The added benefit is that I now have a hard-copy version of my experience. I can return to it for resource material when painting (and again, have more details than my poor photos). I can also look back on it, which I don't do much. I really only look at a volume while I'm working on it. If I do go back to it after a volume is completed then it's because I'm looking for information and resources material.

But while the volume is active those earlier pages help give a structure to my sense of days, and that leads me to one of my most important reasons for sketching and keeping a visual journal-gratitude.

Drawing allows me to instantly touch my gratitude about life-my wonder at living in such a miraculous world. The more I touch that the more wonder and gratitude I want. And the less important my disruptions, distractions, disappointments, frustrations in life become to me. Drawing helps me put everything in life in perspective. It grounds me in my life and gives me the tools to change my life-to change my attitude, my state of mind in a way that productivity is possible to a higher degree. It focuses me.

I write about such things on my blog a lot, but I did write one specific post, "Why Journal." (http://rozwoundup.typepad.com/roz_wound_up/2010/05/why-journal.html) In that post I quoted from a much longer post on my International Fake Journal Month blog (http://officialinternationalfakejournalblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/international-fake-journal-month-ends.html), something I feel very strongly about the journal:

"You hold in your hands a document which says "I allowed myself to create; I allowed myself to take risks." I think creative risks are like loose rocks on a hillside. We scramble over them, slipping at times, at other times finding sure footing, so that we can get to the top of the hill and have a better view.

I think having a better view (of ourselves, our creative process, our place in the world, the larger world, the people in our world) is what regular journaling is all about."

So it is important to me to understand my creative process. All additional reasons I sketch and keep a visual journal.

I think it is important to understand the process of sketching and visual journaling will be different to each individual because it will reflect that person's individuality.

I sketch quickly because I want to use all my moments productively and my life can be a juggle of many jobs at once-I take time wherever I find it. For other sketchers working on a single page spread for an hour might be the way to move into this state of "observation-gratitude-wonder-being present" that I'm describing. I'm all for that, as long as they don't fall into the trap of "I can't start this drawing because I don't have time." Or the equally dangerous trap,"I don't have time to get this drawing right [or perfect]."

I'm always encouraging people to realize that there is all sorts of time in their lives, just waiting to be filled with connection. And often, the act of drawing will begin that connection-lead to more understanding of a subject, start a conversation, engender wonder, or alter an attitude so you can turn with new understanding to the people in your life. People often don't realize that there are times when I spend hours and hours on a drawing, or a finished painting, typically something very detailed. It's a different mindset for me-satisfying in a different way. I encourage everyone to have two modes of working because both are valuable. My first goal of course, is to get people drawing, at whatever level or mode they are currently at. And because of that I tend, when teaching journaling, to stress what can be accomplished in a short period of time. If that seed can get planted I know the rest will weed itself out and the individual will find his own working level that will sustain him.

Which I guess leads to the penultimate reason I sketch-the teacher in me. I believe we can all be models of behavior for others, showing them the usefulness of certain behaviors by example. Sketching in public becomes a social and political act-What do we want our society to be like? How can we keep questioning things?

When I sketch at the zoo, for instance, I know that I am modeling a behavior kids might not otherwise see-it gives them options for how to explore their creativity and the way they connect with their own curiosity and wonder. It also allows them to frame "adult" in a broader way. There are many things society will push us to give up as we grow older. Our sense of wonder is constantly under attack by the stresses of adult life. The loss of wonder weakens the connection to empathy with the world around us (animals, people, the environment). I know sketching is one way to carry these elements forward in life, to show that it isn't about "perfect" but about doing and being focused and engaged. I believe you can change someone's life in a positive way, by giving him a glimpse of what else is possible.

OK, and the final reason I sketch, it's where I started-it's habit, it's like breathing, it's fun. Why deny myself so much joy? Even a sketch that doesn't work out quite the way I had hoped is one sketch closer to that sketch that does work, and that is so tremendously exciting that frankly I want to go sketch right this minute.

THANK YOU ROZ for sharing with us!!!!