When I make no plans, good things happen
All about my seed catalog sketchbook
At some point in that no-man’s-land between Christmas and New Year’s, my sister and I spent an overnight at an Airbnb in Louisville, where we ate many good meals and hung out and, honestly, napped (it was just as great as it sounds). Before we left, I went to my favorite art supply store, Arts and Craftsmen Supply. I picked out 6 neocolor crayons, along with three new markers, and some notebooks.
When I came home from our micro-getaway, a seed catalog had arrived in the mail, like that unexpected and unasked for gift. At various times in my gardening life, I have signed up for what feels like every single seed catalog in existence. Some of them stopped coming, but others still find their way to me every winter.
Anyway, you know how that weird week at the end of the year goes. The new art supplies sat on the dining room table. Then I moved them to the table beside our couch kitchen (yes, we have a kitchen in our couch and I highly recommend it). The bag of art supplies were in the paper bag they’d come in. At some point, my husband put the seed catalog on the same table, mostly just to get it out of the way.
I eat my breakfast every day sitting on this kitchen couch and I work hard at not looking at my phone while I’m eating. In the past, I’ve read something first—something inspirational like Ross Gay’s Book of Delights or Nishant Jain’s Make Sneaky Art.
In that liminal holiday space, I noticed the bag of art supplies, next to the seed catalog. I opened up the seed catalog. I pulled out a pen. Made a square on the page of a sketchbook about the same size as the square in the seed catalog and began to draw some tomatoes. Mortgage lifter tomatoes, specifically (I’ve always loved that name).
Then I made another box and drew a red onion. Then green onions. Then a cantaloupe. Since then, I have not stopped. I’ve drawn at least one box with a fruit or flower of vegetable in it every day. Most days, I draw more than one.
I had no grand plans to become the artist-in-residence of seed catalogs this year (as suggested by the brilliant Amy Stewart). I did want to try to make some art every day. I didn’t know exactly how that would happen. I fell into this practice, but as the days have gone by, I’ve come to some realizations about why it works and what I love about it and what I’m learning as I go.
- Volume really matters. I knew this, of course, but still found it hard to create that volume. By volume I’m not talking about productivity. In fact, I’m talking about the opposite of productivity. I’m talking about the way in which you have to make a lot of mistakes in order to get good at anything. My drawing of a particular type of lettuce looks sort of like a blob. When I showed my husband my tomatoes, he wasn’t sure what they were. But the only way to get better is to keep messing up. The only way to get better is to draw unrecognizable tomatoes.
- Limits are good. This seems to contradict what I just said, but by limits, I’m talking about only using six crowns, three markers, one pen and one pencil. That’s all I have in the bag next to me and laziness prevents me from going upstairs to where my office full of more art supplies are waiting to be used. Upstairs, there’s a whole new gouache kit that my husband got me for Christmas, in fact. Some moments I think to myself, “A different shade of red would be better here.” This morning, I had to make skin color with yellow and orange and brown. Not perfect, but I made it work. I do not go in search of that better red. I make do with what I have. Six crayons, two markers, a pen, and a pencil. I don’t get overwhelmed by all the choices because they’ve already been made for me. This is a good thing.
- Frames are very helpful. Each photograph in the seed catalog comes in its own ready-made frame. I don’t have to decide what to include in each drawing and what to leave out. The lovely seed catalog photographer has already made that decision for me. This is such a relief and makes life so much easier, even if sometimes I raise my eyebrows at the artistic decisions. I mean, they are trying to sell squash after all, not create an artistic masterpiece.
- Analog drawing is SO NICE. I find I spend more time than I’d like to drawing images off my camera roll. This isn’t a bad thing, but, also, I really hate my phone and would like to spend as little time as possible engaged with it. When I’m drawing off the camera roll, the temptation to just peek at IG or whatever is so strong. The seed catalog is a perfect alternative in that it provides many, many subjects to draw without ever picking up my phone.
- I like drawing small things. I was so delighted re-creating little miniature versions of famous Van Gogh paintings for the letter to a dead artist I did for Kelcey Ervick’s newsletter. When I was little, I would draw small maps or makeshift architectural diagrams on graph paper. I like small. This is okay. Each seed catalog drawing is maybe 2 inches by 2 inches. I love this size, which is an interesting thing to realize about myself.
- I might not like drawing in my office/studio. I have a whole room in our house set aside for writing and arguably art-making. It is a very lovely space. I write there every morning. I seem to find it a bit harder sometimes to make art there. Maybe it’s the time of year—the room isn’t the brightest and the dark is hard in winter. Maybe it’s the time of day—in the mornings when I write, I’m totally okay being alone, but in the afternoons, I’d rather be closer to my husband or the cats. I’m not sure what’s going on there, but the simple act of giving myself the permission and the ability to make little art in a different room of the house has made all the difference.
- There really doesn’t have to be any point. Why am I drawing images out of the seed catalog? Is this part of some larger project? Will it become a book or a newsletter or, you know, a THING? I have no idea. I really, really like drawing pictures out of the seed catalog. I am transported into a whole other dimension when I’m working on one of these. I am completely and totally absorbed. That, for me, is enough of a point to keep doing it.
I will add that the seed catalog journey has suggested all kinds of spin-off adventures. Next, I might start drawing birds out of a birding guide. Then maybe I’ll buy a book of landscape photos. Maybe I’ll order actual clothes catalogs in order to draw people. Or pet catalogs! The possibilities are endless!
What strange thing have you found you like to draw? What discoveries have you made about where or when or how you like to make are? Do you also find some limits can be good?
Have you read SEX OF THE MIDWEST? Is your book club readings SEX OF THE MIDWEST this year? I mean, NPR said it was the perfect book club pick—short and ever so mildly sexy. If you are reading SEX OF THE MIDWEST for your book club, I have a reading guide for you. Hit me up. I’m also willing to come talk to your book club on Zoom. Again, hit me up in the comments or reply to this email.
I loved this. I've never been drawn (yet-who knows, there's always tomorrow) to doing art or crafty activities. However, I recognized the joy of discovering how starting out with no particular goal, but just doing, can lead to very satisfying ends. It reminded me of how this year, quite by accident in my attempt to come up with something new to write in my daily substack post, I started writing a few sentences about a Daddy Long Legs I named Edgar who had taken up residence in my downstairs bathroom. No grand plan, initially a one-off, but over time my little paragraphs about Edgar and subsequently his friends evolved into an on-going saga that I eventually called As the Web Turns. I had such fun writing these little bits in my posts, and many readers seemed to have enjoy reading these pieces. And while winter seems to have ended these visits, This post you wrote helped me see that a lot of what made the whole thing so enjoyable was that it happened organic, with no particular goal in mind, and with very low stakes. As usually, thanks for these posts that always add something to my day.
Love this one. So cool to use the seed catalogue.