This winter I’m offering a six week course, sharing what I’ve learned over the past 10 years as professional artist and designer through visual note-taking and graphic recording. This will be presented online in a small-group setting via Zoom each Wednesday evening from 6-8 PM EST, January 19th through February 23, 2022, with some private coaching sessions outside of group included.
In addition to reviewing five skills of perception, and the elements of art and design, this program focuses on developing three main skills:
~Drawing and sketching recognizable, specific objects, people, and words.
~Breaking down information and synthesizing important points and the hierarchy between them.
~Imagination! Choosing and developing visually strong metaphors for abstract concepts.
We will be exploring ideas for visual formats, thematic templates, pattern templates representing functions, and several basic tips on how-to draw out notes in a journal OR stand up and draw on a wall.
Visual Note-taking and Graphic recording, 6 Weekly Wednesday meetings, Jan. 19th through February 23, 6-8 pm, $200.00 for 6 sessions, plus 1-2 individual coaching sessions.
To register by December 31st, email contact: penny(a)tpennyokart(dot)com
You will learn a line-language and have fun. Here’s what a few folks have said about the Drawing and Illustration classes they participated in:
“A refreshing, mindful, and encouraging way to engage with mama nature (and other friends) through drawing practice! ” ~K. Srdjak
“Above all things, Penny’s class was, to me, an invitation: a no-judgement, encouraging holding-open of the door into seeing the world more actively and being present with what is. At first, you might learn to feel and hear your pencil on paper as it connects you to a space with no expectations that nonetheless surprises and reciprocates. You might find yourself unlearning what you assume about the world around you and yourself. You will see the work of every artist differently and be gently reminded that the world is not about your ego. All this with the wise, kind, gentle patience of Penny, who finds something to appreciate in every attempt and who will have liberating advice for you. If you are “not an artist” or if you are, Penny’s class will encourage you to explore what it’s like to notice what’s alive for you in the world, and to be brave enough to reach out a hand and build new connections with your environment and yourself.” ~L. Wayne
“Penny is a wonderful teacher who really helps awaken our creativity in a very supportive atmosphere.” ~Starhawk
Drawing and Illustration Fundamentals
For Older Youth and Adult age folks Mondays, Beginning January 10, 17, 24, 31st 6 pm to 8 pm $125.00, 4-classes, per person
Here’s a brief overview of the focus/lessons: Experimenting and doodling with new tools and supplies…Understanding perception of contour lines…Seeing the shape of an object and relationships…Understanding the perception of positive and negative….Looking at 1-2-3 dimension, horizon lines and overlapping in landscape…Perspective in portraits–understanding 3/4, front and profile view…Experimenting with texture, technique, light and shadow
A few of the many ways we may draw and illustrate: Sketching, doodling, brainstorming, learning line families and techniques, storyboarding, comics and caricatures, graphic recording and….
Materials and supplies we will experiment and practice with: Pencils! HB, 4B, 2B, Non-toxic markers, Colored pencils, Watercolors, Tracing paper, Drawing paper, Kneaded eraser,
What we will be drawing and illustrating: Everyday things, stories, people–portraits and caricatures, places–landscapes, things–still-life, and more…What do you want to draw and illustrate? Bring your ideas and inspirations.
These 4-week classes will continue, expanding on fundamentals, technique and subject matter… February 7, 14, 21, 28, March 7, 14, 21, 28
Sign up for all three, four-week sessions at a discounted rate: Adults: $300.00
Once you register for the class, I’ll send you instructions for how to join the class via Zoom, plus a weekly session outline. Each session will be recorded and made available for the student’s private use.
It’s been a busy and productive garden growing, plant and human tending summer and as the days shorten I’m cleaning and organizing my studio back into a classroom and illustrating/production space—-from a garlic storage, seed sorting and garden farm office. I hope to be able to keep the Zoom class experiences and gathering space going and make good on facilitating and hosting creative making spaces through the fall and wintertime. With the continued concerns of our health and wellbeing and also utilizing the skills of techno land I’ve decided to stay put in my home place and continue the drawing and illustrating adventures.
Another round of Monday evening drawing classes will begin on October for BIG folks– and— on Monday morning OR Wednesday late afternoon for the little people with all levels and abilities welcomed. We are exercising our creative intelligence in these classes and they are serious and fun. So stay tuned for details, I’ll be sharing that info and posting real soon!
Our Traverse City based CSA Cooperative grows fresh, organic vegetables, medicinal herbs and flowers on neighborhood gardens and offers both a Spring and Summer share. In addition to good, nutritious garden fresh produce we also include lovely flower bouquets and artwork and garden crafts.
We are doing everything we can to contribute to our community and make sure you can get good fresh, organic food this growing season. In addition to our regular Spring and Summer share offerings, we will begin sharing seeds in April and seedlings in May at our Second Street location. We want to encourage people to grow their own food and contribute to our neighborhood garden-farming and food-shed efforts to feed the people nutritious, healthy organic food.
We had a tough year last year adjusting to the pandemic constraints and missed our in-person connections and potlucks, but we persevered and shared our garden goods throughout the season. We look forward to doing the same this year, following careful protocols to keep our families and garden-farmers healthy and safe. We are also taking into consideration that the times continue to be tough economically, and so offering our shares at a discount from last year and well below average cost of organically grown vegetables and food.
We invite you to join our wonderful Traverse City O’k CSA Cooperative. Become a 2021 share member! Online registration and payment is easy.
SPRING Greens up until Solstice! (7 weeks, Start-up will be at the end of April, beginning of May-June)
Includes: salad mix, spinach, cooking greens, herbs, wild greens, Spring flower bouquets (Swiss chard, kale, bok choy, asian & mustard greens) spring herbs, tea blends and art-cards/prints
Spring Greens Membership Fee: $100
SUMMER Share (Begins the week after Solstice, lasts through end of September)
Includes Salad mix and greens, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, beets, cucumbers, summer and winter squash, potatoes, radish, green, yellow and soup beans, turnips, scallions, onions, garlic, basil a plethora of herbs, flower bouquets, specialty garden-farm tea-mixes and occasional artwork!
Full Summer Share (Family size, 4 People) Fee: $300
Half Summer Share (2 People) Fee: $175
Sign-up for both and receive a thank you tin of our hand-crafted “Stay Calm and Heal Tea”. This particular tea was specially crafted to help aid our respiratory health in these pandemic times, and it’s a delicious warming blend, perfect for these chilly months of winter that will be with us for several weeks yet!
Interested in learning about permaculture and garden-farm design in 2021? Ask me about upcoming with 4-week classes focusing on growing your food while combining perennials in your annual gardens with polyculture design. Interested in delving deeper? Consider taking an on-line Online Double-Certificate Permaculture Design Course, that I will be co-teaching in a Working with Children and Youth module.
HELLO—and from a place in the big wide, full-moon world here in Michigan, we are enjoying a very sunny Saturday afternoon. Any of you bigger humans wish to join a very O’k drawing and illustration class through the Month of March?
FOR the BIG people, we will begin meeting Monday March 1st, 6-7 PM EST, including some follow-up video lessons, interesting articles, photos and maybe a few pages from my drawing journal. You will receive a weekly email, with Zoom link info, the class content—which is subject to being tweaked, as I get into the groove and also understand more about where you are with your interest/goals/skill-levels.
Each week will follow this schedule: Intro and Welcome, Review and reconnect/share any work, Lesson + Warm-up, Practice & Q+A.
Week #1 will delve deeper into a focus on Patterns in Nature and specifically this first week: Supplies and Material demo/practice, Intro to 5 Perception Skills and Elements of Art + Design, Line Language + Contour Drawing
You’ll be asked to create a daily drawing practice and keep a drawing journal (for drawing/sketching and note-taking to your dear self). To support you, I will offer up some in-between drawing exercises, design thinking and perception challenges for you to try out.
We hope to inspire you and get you drawing every day and to keep you excited and interested enough to keep at it throughout the weeks we are meeting and beyond….Our goal is to become practitioners of drawing and developing line languages that make meaning and sense to each of us. We will also have convos about and develop “seeing skills” or perceptual learning–skills routinely practiced: perceiving edges, spaces, relationships, light and shadow and what it is when “all of that becomes a whole”.
This four-week session, will inspire returning students from our winter drawing session, to bring into our design and composition skill set the fine art of visual recording that I use as a graphic recorder and storyteller. Each class builds upon the previous and leads into new drawing and illustrating adventures!
I’ll share a few stories, including that I consider myself a beginner on a search and find, who’s wandered into becoming a life-long draw-er, and believe we can all develop drawing and art-making skills.
Here’s a brief list of what supplies you can start rounding up: Pencils! HB, 4B, 2B, Drawing Pens–various nib sizes (I like: .25mm, .35mm, and .45mm)Non-toxic markers, Colored pencils, Watercolors, brushesTracing paper, Drawing paper, Pink Pearl and Kneaded erasersDrawing journal: I use a small 5.5 x 8.5 made by Grumbacher w. medium texture for both wet and dry media.Also, a stack of copy paper and a tracing paper pad may be useful.
Who wants to join a drawing class for the Month of March? This one is for kiddos.…Next sessions begin on Monday morning, March 1st at 10 AM. We’ll be picking up where we left off, practicing observation, awareness and perception along with building our visual skills of drawing and composition.These four weeks we will be drawing from life, looking in the mirror at our facial features and expressions, taking a “stick-man” and bringing him to life, checking out the skeleton and anatomy of humans and other animals, and continuing to draw from nature to make real scenes from our real-time adventures in the outside world!We’ll explore how to set up a simple storyboard and if interested we will head into the beginnings of how-to make comics–single panels and strip cartoons.
February Self-Care + Love SPECIAL! Become one of our 2021 CSA Cooperative SPRING + SUMMER share members (by February 19th) and receive a Early Bird lovely collection of home remedies and goods with your membership. This is what is in our special welcome gift:
Stay Calm and Heal Tea, 1 ounce tin and tea bags…This is an immunity building tea blend especially for strengthening, healing and protecting the lungs. Herbs: Stinging Nettle, Mullein, Lemon Balm, Echinacea Root, Astragalus Root, Ginger Root, Spearmint, Apple-mint, Elderberry and Elder Blossom with fresh ground Cinnamon Bark
Protection Healing Salve, 4 ounce tin…Protection Healing Salve is made with Michigan Beeswax, Organic Virgin Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Sweet Almond Oil , and Shea Nut Oils; and is lightly scented with a special blend of essential oils CINNAMON BARK, CLOVE BUD, LEMON, ROSEMARY, EUCALYPTUS, & FRANKINCENSE. This is a soothing balm that will protect and repair your skin, without the chemicals that are found in many skin care products.
PLUS, a Packet of Mixed Annual and Perennial flower seeds…Zinnias, Calendula, Straw Flowers and Echinacea, all from our O’k CSA Cooperative gardens, with a special Birds and Blooms gift card.
We are doing everything we can to creatively contribute to our community and make sure our friends and neighbors can get good fresh, organic food this growing season. In addition to our regular Spring and Summer share offerings, we will begin sharing seeds in April and seedlings in May at our Second Street location. We want to encourage people to grow their own food and contribute to our neighborhood garden-farming and food-shed efforts to feed the people nutritious, healthy organic food.
We had a tough year last year adjusting to the pandemic constraints and missed our in-person connections and potlucks, but we persevered and shared our garden goods throughout the season. We look forward to doing the same this year, following careful protocols to keep our families and garden-farmers healthy and safe. We are also taking into consideration that the times continue to be tough economically, and so offering our shares at a discount from last year and well below average cost of organically grown vegetables and food.
We invite you to join our wonderful Traverse City O’k CSA Cooperative. Become a 2021 share member! Online registration and payment is easy.
Choose one, or both:
SPRING Greens Share, from Springtime to Summer Solstice! (7 weeks, Start-up will be at the end of April, through 3rd week of June)
Includes: salad mix, spinach, cooking greens, herbs, wild greens, Spring flower bouquets (Swiss chard, kale, bok choy, asian & mustard greens) spring herbs, tea blends and art-cards/prints
Spring Greens Membership Fee: $100
SUMMER Share (Begins the week after Solstice, lasts through end of September)
Includes Salad mix and greens, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, beets, cucumbers, summer and winter squash, potatoes, radish, green, yellow and soup beans, turnips, scallions, onions, garlic, basil a plethora of herbs, flower bouquets, specialty garden-farm tea-mixes and occasional artwork!
Full Summer Share (Family size, 4 People) Fee: $300
Half Summer Share (2 People) Fee: $175
REMEMBER, if you sign up by February 19th, for BOTH the Spring and Summer shares you will receive the Early Bird, lovely collection of home remedies and goods with your membership, which includes Stay Calm and Heal Tea + Tea Bags, Protection Healing Salve, Packet of Annual + Perennial flower seeds.
Sign-up for either the Spring or Summer share by March 1st, and receive a thank you tin of our hand-crafted “Stay Calm and Heal Tea”. This particular tea was specially crafted to help aid our respiratory health in these pandemic times, and it’s a delicious warming blend, perfect for these chilly months of winter that will be with us for several weeks yet!
THANKS to a combined effort of this, that and EVERYTHING, and with special thanks to my son, Zach who poured his focused, tech and web-page building energy into updating and creating this on-line shop for us. Thank you Zach!
We are ready to take your orders from the small-batch selection of goods and services that my sister Clarice and I can offer.
WOW—if I do say so myself, we have a great selection of practical, home-made items, as well as gift items and even an opportunity to join a drawing and illustration class in the New Year!
All orders will be packaged and shipped via USPS in no more than 2 days once we receive your order.
Our Hand-dipped Beeswax candles are already a favorite and we suggest if you live in the Lansing area to plan for a message from us to contact Clarice and arrange for pick-up of candles from of her front porch.
If you live in the Traverse City area, you can do the same sort of pick-up with candles and any of our other offerings from my porch.
AND–we don’t mind mailing/shipping to you USPS, whether you’re local or not—considering the pandemic that’s still all over the place and if you need to stay quarantined. I don’t mind masking up and hopping on my bike for a trip to the Traverse City P.O.
We’ll be sure to give you directions etc, privately for your pick-up location once your order is placed.
O’k, that’s all for now! Thanks for checking out our Crafty Sister’s Shop!
This year’s Crafty Sister Combo: Clarice and Penny, getting ready for winter that hasn’t quite arrived!
I’m offering a series of drawing and illustration classes, infused with inspiration from many of my early in life teachers and mentors, and recently with permaculture design and understanding ways to live well and sustainably on our planet home. I’m feeling confident that this will be a remarkable and worthwhile endeavor for me, and hopefully for anyone joining me on this creative adventure!
First session begins in January 2021, and will continue through May, with a few weeks off to wander and digest your experiences. I’ll post a few intro storytelling lessons for the rest of this cranky and challenging 2020 year—to begin to lean into a new kind of story and creation for the New Year!
Nature is our Teacher: Draw and share…
In permaculture design teachings, the principle of observing and replicating patterns in nature made sense and attracted my artist-made line language. This earth turtle drawing represents a pattern of packing and cracking–shapes of polygons and nets.
The purpose and function: Three-way joints with shared partitions minimize surface area required to enclose the same amount of volume. This shape saves space, material, energy, and creates the shortest path (besides a line); it also provides a rigid structure.
Examples in Nature, besides turtle shells: soap bubbles, ice crystals, honeycombs, corn kernels, snakeskin scales, basalt columns, cilia struts, bird bones, a network of veins in plants.
Associated mathematical terms: hexagon: 120-degree angles Examples in garden and permaculture design: hexagonal spacing of plants in Biodynamic systems: triangular spacing of seeds or plants; storage.
Here’s a brief overview of the focus/lessons: Experimenting and doodling with new tools and supplies…Understanding perception of contour lines…Seeing the shape of an object and relationships…Understanding the perception of positive and negative….Looking at 1-2-3 dimension, horizon lines and overlapping in landscape…Perspective in portraits–understanding 3/4, front and profile view…Experimenting with texture, technique, light and shadow….
A few of the many ways we may draw and illustrate: Sketching, doodling, brainstorming, learning line families and techniques, storyboarding, comics and caricatures, graphic recording and….
Materials and supplies we will experiment and practice with: Pencils! HB, 4B, 2B, Non-toxic markers, Colored pencils, Watercolors, Tracing paper, Drawing paper, Kneaded eraser…
What we will be drawing and illustrating: Everyday things, stories, people–portraits and caricatures, places–landscapes, things–still-life, and more…What do you want to draw and illustrate? Bring your ideas and inspirations.
I’m going to offer a series of on-line drawing and illustration classes, beginning in January 2021 for two age levels: Kiddos—6 years and older and Not Kiddos—as in taller, adult age folks. The class size will be limited to just a few people until I get the hang of doing this kind of online mentoring, and feel confident I’m meeting the needs of the participants.
Registration is OPEN for the first on-line O’k Drawing class of 2021, beginning on Monday, January 18th, for Kiddos the class will take place from 10 am until 11 am, with a warm-up and cool-down time included; and for Not Kiddos we will be meeting in the evening from 6:00 pm until 7:00 pm. Each will run as a 4-week session, that you can continue to take, in session-intervals that continue over a period of time in 2021.
I will have all of the lessons recorded and also provide session outlines and pdf’s to follow along. You can take the class for just one or two 4-week sessions, or pop in and out over the year. There will always be a 2-3 week break between sessions, and you won’t miss anything if you are in and out over time.
You are very welcome to come to this class as a new or returning drawing student. You don’t need to have taken a drawing class anywhere else before. I expect I will always have some brand new students in these 4-week sessions, and the classes will always have students with all levels of drawing skills.
I’m including a bunch of different kinds of drawings and ideas, made with a variety pens, pencils, watercolor, ink, colored pencil– that I’ve created so you can see some of the everyday things, stories, people and places that happen when I turn to my art language as a conversation.
I’ll be using skills and techniques I’ve gathered from practicing sloppy-quick-sketching, more detailed pen and ink illustration, graphic recording and storyboarding and even ideas for daily journaling and creating our own comics and caricatures.
I hope this class will bring a little skill-building and a little fun into our wintertime and I’m looking forward to exploring and sharing.
After taking a reorganization pause last year, O’k CSA Cooperative 2020 Shares for Spring and Summer are back! We invite you to consider becoming a 2020 share member. You can click this link for registration. We are keeping our membership much smaller than some of the other CSA’s in the area. PLUS, when you select both the Spring and Summer shares, you can take $25 off the total cost.
We are doing everything we can to contribute to our community and make sure you can get good fresh, organic food this growing season. PLUS we are sharing seeds–NOW, see seed share link here. And we will begin sharing seedlings– on May 22nd. We are also taking into consideration that the times are tough, and so offering our shares at a below average cost with options for shareholders to help in the gardens.
Please help us spread the word and invite a few more friends and families to join our food growing and garden-farming cooperative. I’m also willing to consult and help people plan, design and begin growing their own food in their yards here in Traverse City.
BEGINNING SOONER THAN YOU THINK! We invite you to join our wonderful Traverse City O’k CSA Cooperative. Become a 2020 share member, by clicking this link for registration.
Choose one, or both:
SPRING Greens up until Solstice! (7 weeks, May 8th -June 20th) $125-200 Sliding scale for season. Includes: salad mix, spinach, cooking greens, herbs, wild greens, Spring flower bouquets (Swiss chard, kale, bok choi, asian & mustard greens, spring herbs and flowers)
SUMMER Share (10 weeks, June 29th – September 4th) $400-450 Sliding Scale, Family size, 4 people $275-325 Sliding Scale, Half share, 2 people
Includes Salad mix and greens, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, beets, cucumbers, summer and winter squash, potatoes, radish, green, yellow and soup beans, turnips, scallions, onions, garlic, basil a plethora of herbs, flower bouquets, specialty garden-farm tea-mixes and occasional artwork!
Sign-up for both now, and take $25 off the total cost!
You can read more about us on this Facebook O’K CSA page where I will post weekly garden-farm news and photos, or at our website where we will soon offer online payment.
STOP BY and visit me at our DIG-it Peace Patch Garden-Farm, On-line payment will be up soon—or PM me for my mailing address.
Despite any challenges we are experiencing I hope you are able to enjoy the changing of the seasons!
