Lines on a Page

One way I relax is to draw lines on pages. One page at any given time. But, over the years, many pages. Many sketchbooks of pages, in fact.

I like sketchbooks. I like drawing lines in them. They get full. The End.
Let's be clear: I do not do this as ART, art, or art, and I don't even do it as art. It is not a statement about anything.

Except that I like colo(u)rs. I like doing something with my hands. I like to do repetitive tasks when I need to relax, focus, or daydream.


It's fun for me. Colo(u)red pens and what people here call "pencil crayons" add to the fun. Some lines I make are official Zentangles (TM) (go to the link to see what it's all about) but (I love to follow rules, but also, I don't) most aren't.

I have even filled at least one sketchbook with straight lines in different widths and colo(u)rs, when I was first playing with a particular set of felt-tip pens. (Crayola, okay? I'm telling you, I'm not a serious artist.) I've chosen not to save those in my Really Useful Box (TM) of sketchbooks and instead have used those pages in other of my non-art projects.

For example, I still participate in a summer creative challenge called "Index Card-A-Day" or ICAD, as I did in 2014. (Quick version: from June 1 through July 31, you decorate an index card in some way.) In fact, I've done some version of this project every summer (thanks, Tammy!) though I still don't participate in the official groups because writing is enough pressure, and I enjoy doing something that's not for public consumption.

(Full disclosure--for the past two years I haven't even been using an index card, which is about the ONLY rule Tammy insists on. Which is another reason I don't share--I don't want to clog her Instagram feed or Facebook group with non-actual-ICAD posts. Instead, I've been using those small envelopes that my father used to call "personal" envelopes. Not the ones that bills [and sometimes cheques or checks] arrive in. For some reason we have hundreds of those small envelopes, some many decades old, and we NEVER use them. So, daily during ICAD season, I've been doing something with the outside of an envelope and then slide in some sort of detritus from my day--a leaf from my walk, a receipt from a supper out, the grocery list, the stir-stick from my coffee, a bit of paper reminding me of sometime I'm grateful for.)

I bring this up because art-ish (near-art, art-esque, art-adjacent) projects are fun for me. And sometimes, while I'm drawing lines on a page, I think about what some of my characters might be doing. As in, what idiotic thing is Martin up to now? But mostly, I just draw lines on a page. And it's fun.