I just finished Lisa Congdon’s 30-day challenge “Developing Your Visual Vocabulary: A Daily Practice in Mark Making” on CreativeBug.
She dropped a lot of big wisdom throughout the course.
This wisdom can inform mark making with colored pencils, watercolor, thread, or words on a page: the importance of practice, the acceptance (or even cultivation) of wonkiness (she used the word “wonky” a LOT and it made me love her even more every time), and the development of your own particular VOICE.
Throughout the course, I’ve often copied her lesson and then “riffed” on it by trying it with watercolor instead of colored pencil, or by combining lessons when I didn’t have the energy for a whole-page design.
Last night, I pulled out my watercolors and doodled. It was blobs of color with a stack of brush marks down the center. It was a journal entry of random “thoughts” made with marks rather than words. I knew I could do more with it, but I set it aside, as I often do with the entries in my writer’s notebook.
This morning, in Lisa’s final lesson, she invited us to “go big” on the biggest piece of paper we had using all the marks she had taught us. She modeled how she would set up her paper for an arial-view landscape, and then in time lapse, we watched her fill the whole page, first with watercolor in each section, and then with marks.
I opened my sketchbook to my blobs of watercolor from last night, and suddenly I could see a village in a valley across the road from mountains with wheat fields and high pastures tucked in between. Without looking back at any of the previous lessons, I chose my colors and made my marks.
There are such beautiful echoes between what happens in my writer’s notebook, my sketchbook, and the scraps of cloth where I test different threads and stitches — my “scrappy stitch book.” I’m glad I’ve taken the opportunity to slow down and listen to my own voice.
A(nother) Year of Reading 
Mary Lee, ever since The Wonky Donkey, I realize how much I’ve underestimated the power of wonky and how words can draw us to others. We hear a word like that, and suddenly, we know. We get it. We connect. The power of these marks and this vocabulary challenge sound like something well worth time and creative energy of that course. Thank you for sharing this information, and for including your pictures. Beautiful! And I can only imagine how it frees the mind and soul to work in this world of color and design.
LikeLike
Thank you for sharing. It is nice to slow down and reflect and enjoy the moments.
LikeLike
So glad I stopped by this morning. I love your art and definitely see the connection to your stitching. I’d love to get more comfortable with my very limited art skills – maybe this is a good place to start. Thanks, Mary Lee.
LikeLike
This inspires!! I love the way you are bravely giving voice to the beauty in you.
LikeLike
ooooooh! I love these pages. Well done. Wisdom? Yes, please.
LikeLike
Wow! This is an awesome post. I found myself nodding along as I read the quotes you shared and then wowed again by how you pulled it all together in your final piece. There’s such a beautiful trust and freedom in all of this. If I haven’t said it before, thanks for always sharing your creative journeys. They are truly inspiring!
LikeLike
I love watching how you are daring and being bravely creative and sharing it! I love that you are taking the time and giving yourself permission. Someday…
LikeLike
Mary Lee, what fun. I love all the magic you make with your artwork. This is such a beautiful post. I especially like the quotes and the marks you made in the first images. “No one makes lines like you do” — Such a great sentiment and helps to make a place “listen to my own voice”
LikeLike
Mary Lee, I am glad that I backtracked to your slice. It is interesting work that you are doing. Have fun.
LikeLike