You could probably do a nice bit of analysis of my historic doodles. In high school I was forever illustrating my journals and notebooks with that hilly sort of vista that has a sunburst at the cleft of the furthest mountain. In college I doodled dahlias or some other many petaled blossom that I could make bigger and bigger. I illustrated a whole theater playbill like that. It was very pen and papery. I loved it. I think I was in the minority. I have gone through doodling hearts, single blossoms, squares in perspective, block letters. How about you?

Now I get urged by one of my heros- Paulus Berensohn to doodle. Look what he did for his pal Mary Oliver’s book cover. That gorgeous leaf and emanating design is Paulus’ doodle! Get out our pen and let yourself doodle while you are on the phone. My friend makes the most amazing doodles when she is on the phone. She uses her intricate drawings with words in her collages. Doodling is a very gentle way of letting your inner artist play for a while. Doodling is noodling- really healthy brain time while your awareness is elsewhere. A phone is not required to doodle. Take a leap and just doodle. No agenda, just time with you and your paper. For me, doing it while I am on the phone takes the weight off. Otherwise if I have a pen and paper I must be drawing.

Last September I was with Paulus for an artist’s retreat on the Cape. He talked about the value of letting your self go with doodling, just to see what happens. Lately, while I am on the phone and resisting dusting or folding wash, I let my subconscious have a ride on my pen. The page below is the result of a weekly call I do on Wednesdays. I am intrigued now to see how all those spirals fit together.

Pix of Paulus

http://www.flickr.com/photos/louis_z_bickett_ii/sets/72157606697343733/

Interview with Paulus

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=520614

Last weekend in Michigan I had my Moleskin Travel Journal with me.

My friend Paige Orloff from “The Sister Project” www.paigeorloff.com asked this morning how we collect images and ideas. Here is how I do is these days.

I have stacks of small sketchbooks that I have carried in my purse for years. They started with little lined notebooks, switched over to plain small drawing pads for my kids to doodle in during church or for me to quickly sketch something that caught my eye and now- I have a Travel Sketchbook, a pad in my purse for us all to use and a pile of other artist journals for various reasons.

I am a different sort of documentary maker.

“Like a beachcomber, a collector, or a scavenger wandering among ruins, the assembler discovers order as well as materials by accident.”

this is from the book Assemblage Wm. Chapin Seitz published in 1961

Here is a little slide show XO S