Artwork title: Winter Solstice No. 2 (test). Colored pencil and charcoal

I’ve been living much more of a life in my sketchbook these days. It’s great way to test how the colors I want to use may blend together along with seeing my concepts before committing to a large format. I think this works conceptually. I’m going to try it again using pastels to get a fuller color blend. I like the sketchiness of the pencil, and the charcoal is lovely, but I think pastels will give me what I’m looking for in the final. This is s companion to my poem Winter Solstice, but that needs its own post.

This poem changed everything for me. I wrote it about 3 weeks ago when I started thinking about the coming winter and how we relate to the darkness. Many of us celebrate that longest night by focusing on the subsequent lengthening of the days. This is a celebration of the day of the solstice and everyday the darkness seems to be too much, which is why I saved this poem to close my Life During Wartime poem cycle. The numbers are how long the day will be on December 21 this year. I say it changed everything for me because I fall in love with it every time I read it. I’ve never done that with anything I’ve written before. I hope you enjoy it.