Since childhood I just loved stationary shops.
I felt really grown-up when I bought my first gold-writing felt-tip pen for what was a small fortune to me. You had to shake the pen and press the point a few times for the ink to start flowing....but carefully, or you'll end up with blotches of gold paint splattered all over!
My special pens today still remind me of the smell and excitement of that first golden acquisition, and I imagine that writing has a better quality when produced with a special pen.
Just this morning I rediscovered an old favourite fountain pen, filled it with black Indian ink and with the sharp smell of the first lines immediately got transferred back to that place where I'm keen to write carefully and reverently, not scribble like the many everyday scriptural tasks- like updating a grocery list or filling out a school form, require.
I got to love some people in my life a bit better just for the sake of their unique handwriting: I would always be spellbound watching my mother write- practical, though tidy and creative letters; my  grandmother's beloved writing, a decade after her death still left on cards and letters everywhere in the books and boxes of my life; my mom's best friend with her artistically scrolled alphabetical digits; my daughter's tall, typewriter-perfect script, and even my husband for the almost illegibly light pencil of our love letters.
Some women love handbags, other clothes. Me, I like a stationary shop and a good pen.

Welcome to my blog!

This is a bit of a documentation of my creative process in specific and as a consequence, my life in general.
Since it was my 20 year George reunion (SA Army Womens' College) when I wrote this, it is more than a little symbolic to be getting back to basics, the traditional term for the tough, first months of military training. 

Getting back to the fundamentals of drawing makes me thankful to have had this basic skill developed almost unconsciously during my formative years, with the care and nurturing of some personal creative champions. I have learned that the creative process will always be ongoing, as will my development as an artist, so there will not necessarily be a final arrival (rather a series of resting places, picnic spots along the way, landmarks), but there will always be the journey. And I love travelling!

You may ask what the military has to do with the often delicate processes of art or a creative blog, but the answer is just that: we cannot put creativity, or our lives for that matter, in a box. We cannot label and limit ourselves to a set of rules. We are all too preciously complex to be narrowed down to a few lines of descriptive grammar. It is such a fascinating process to stop analysing and just observe the complexness and contradictions of our existence. The world is such a vastly interesting place. It is no wonder that we can be passionate about art and the military, about friendship and seclution, about activity and meditation, all in the same breath. Having a hippy heart and also being a responsible parent, running long distances and taking time to notice the minute details of  nature, being a blacksmith and playing the piano, loving languages and setting apart silent days...loving the safety and secrets of a rainforest, but also yearning for the exposed, harsh desert...all happily co-exist when we let it, when allow ourselves to simply be the we that we are. Experiencing the world in all its diverse richness it to me one of the greatest treasures of life.

My goal with sharing here what I love and experience  is to encourage others on the creative journey, to explore and discover the hidden wonders of their own. There have been many creative beings that helped me along the way by sharing freely their love and belief in the creative process. I have a deep gratitude to them all and hope to be a channel to inspire the same in others!