The Loft

It has been 2 years this week since I first walked in the door to the loft in the Old City of Montréal... Everything about it was perfect. The location was perfect. The gate and the walk to the exterior door were perfect. As hostess, there to meet and greet me, Ginger was perfect. And the loft was absolutely perfect...

Copyright © 2011, Scotti Vaccaro

from Mon Journal de Montréal

sketchbook journal entry dated 12/09/11

It had a superbly outfitted kitchen, was decorated with just the right country chic touches and had both a working fireplace and a tin pail full of firewood. Mother Nature cooperated by giving me just enough cold and snow flurries to give me an excuse to have a fire. Nothing could have been better than what the Universe delivered!

Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity.

Baby... It's Cold Outside!

I was going through some spam email today and came across an ad for a pet catalog. When I saw it, I couldn't stop laughing and I knew that until I memorialized it, I wasn't going to be satisfied. So, I decided to preserve it in the only way I knew, which was to stop right there and draw it from my computer screen... Really, sometimes, things are just too good to let go and this was one of them!

Copyright © 2011, Scotti Vaccaro

from Every Day Matters,

sketchbook journal entry dated 12/2/11 (derivative work)

I don't know who the photographer was, or even the stylist, but I think the image is wonderful!

(And by the way, it's amazing what our dogs are willing to tolerate from us!)

The Third and Fourth Thursdays

“Le Beaujolais nouveau est arrivé!”

Every year since the mid-19th century, French vineyards have celebrated the harvest by producing Beaujolais nouveau as the first wine from the season's crop. It is a young wine made from the Gamay grape and is meant to be consumed during the holidays -- up until New Year's Day. Beginning around the early 1950's, the release date was moved from early December (but only in France) to the third Thursday of November, throughout the world.

So last week was the third Thursday of November...

Copyright © 2011, Scotti Vaccaro

from Every Day Matters,

sketchbook journal entry dated 11/24/11

and today is the fourth Thursday... Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.

Mon Journal de Montréal

I recently began a brand new journal... and chose this scene for my title page. I have always thought the lines of the bridge were absolutely elegant and the view is one of the best of the center city core.

Montréal Skyline from Lachine Canal,

Copyright © 2011, Scotti Vaccaro

I was working from a photograph I took about 18 months ago; I have been told that the city removes this bridge to allow larger boats to move in and out of the canal during the summer and replaces it in the fall and winter. I prefer to work on-site as much as I can, but in this case I am grateful that I took the photo because I was completely unaware that it moves around!

At Last...

Belize City, Belize

Copyright © 2005, Scotti Briggs

Costa Maya (Mahahual), Mexico

Copyright © 2005, Scotti Briggs

I finally did keep my promise. I said, literally years ago, that I would publish my sketches of Belize and Cozumel, which were on the same trip as the Cayman Islands that are somewhere down below this post. Whether I just forgot about it or got side-tracked, I couldn't tell you. And wouldn't -- because it might be something I'd rather forget...

A Fresh Start

I have recently become re-inspired to keep my blog posts more current. I thought that it might motivate me to greater productivity in my artist's journals if I was committed to posting some of my journal pages on a regular basis. Anyone who knows the joys and agonies of periodic artist's block knows how that one goes and usually, it only takes a small commitment at the sketchbook to get the rhythm flowing once more.

In my case, I always have more than one journal that I am working on. I have my "everyday" journal that contains bits and pieces of my life as I experience it, but I also have my travel journals: Western Europe; The Caribbean Islands; and most recently, Montréal. I am also seriously considering doing a journal for the International Fake Journal Month next April. There is an artist named Roz Stendahl who issues the call to action on that one.

Bottom line... I love my journals! Sometimes, the only art commitment that I can make is a short, temporary commitment. It's gratifying to be able to sit down and put something on paper, no matter how brief the time...

September 11th

The best thing any one of us can do is to remember...

[Budweiser ran this commercial only one time, immediately after 9/11. It was never shown again.]