A Painting Challenge, Oxford, an Art History Read, and a Jane Austen Blackout Poem.
Here's what I've finished and what's on my TBR this week...
The Pantone Postcard Challenge:
I found this challenge on TikTok. It involves buying this 100-pack of Pantone-themed postcards and painting a picture on each postcard.
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I’ve gotten out of the habit of painting in the last few years and I’m really feeling like I need to get back to it in 2023. A big reason why I stopped was a lack of confidence in my skills. When I was an art school student, I didn’t feel like my paintings competed with my fellow student’s paintings.
I also didn’t like the pressure of having to be a working artist — of having to sell my art. It made painting go from something therapeutic and enjoyable to feeling like homework — which made it feel like pulling teeth.
This Pantone Postcard Challenge is the perfect way to push me back into painting regularly. I’ve created two so far and I’m loving them! I’m excited to see at the end of the challenge what parts of my own personal style shine through.
Another Black Out Poem:
I’m really enjoying this exercise! This really pretty edition of Pride and Prejudice has been sitting neglected on my shelves for years - here’s what I did with it this week:
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suddenly fancying that
slight observation on
taciturn disposition,
we expect to say something that will amaze
and be handed down to posterity
— You think it a faithful
answer,
they were again silent
Read this week:
I’m pretty sure I’ll finish two books this week. Go me!
One Day in December by Josie Silver
The first was one I was already halfway finished with - my designated road trip audiobook. I had to take a there and back 8-hour drive on Thursday and it was just enough to finish listening to One Day in December by Josie Silver.
A little late for a Christmas read, but this one wasn’t too holiday heavy, so I dubbed it more of a winter read.
One Day in December tells the story of Laurie and Jack, who see each other for the first time fleetingly at a bus station. It’s an instant connection, but Laurie’s bus pulls away before anything can be done about it.
Laurie spends the next year looking for Jack at that same stop with no luck. And then she meets her best friend’s new boyfriend…Jack.
This book spans the 10 years it takes for Laurie and Jack to finally get together.
It was an easy and enjoyable listen, perfect for a road trip!
I have a goal this year of reading all of my Book of the Month Club books before I stick them on my bookshelf.
Babel was my December book and it’s a hefty one. It’s taken me a bit longer to read, due to the length and nature of the story, but I think it may be one of the most impactful books I’ve ever read.
I’ve got about 100 pages left in it, so this is a little bit of a premature announcement. However, I am that reader who reads the ends of the book by the time she gets a quarter in. SO…I’ve already read a quarter of those last hundred pages.
Babel is set in mid-1800s Oxford at the Royal Institue of Translation (known as Babel) - a prestigious and mysterious college known for being the world’s center for translation and the magical art of silver working - which harnasses words lost in translation through silver bars. The British Empire profited greatly from these silver bars, making Britain the pinnacle of power and luxury.
Robin Swift lost his family at a young age due to a cholera outbreak in his home in Canton. Professor Lovell (of Babel) takes him under his guardianship and trains him for the day when he’ll go to Babel himself.
This book has a strong ensemble cast but is told largely from Robin’s point of view as he struggles with whether or not institutional greed and racism can be changed from within and at what cost he’s willing to sacrifice to see that change.
Babel is a fictional story told in a historical backdrop with real-world situations. It’s littered with footnotes from the author that tie both Babel and the characters into the history of a British Empire that is knee-deep in colonization efforts.
It’s a slow read but a beautifully heartbreaking and important one.
What I’m reading next:
I’ve started and restarted this book a few times now and I’m determined to get past the first book based on all the good things I’ve heard of the rest of the books in the series! This month will be the month that I finish it.
A Court of Thorns and Roses is a high fantasy retelling of The Beauty and the Beast filled with Fae and an unotherworldly setting.
I’m super excited about this add on to my Book of the Month Club pick! We won’t talk about how I DEFINITELY shouldn’t be ordering extra BoTM Club books until I’m consistently reading the one I choose.
But, I had to grab this one.
The Cloisters tells the story of Ann Stilwell, a curitorial assitant at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art who is assigned to the famed Cloisters — a gothic museum and garden known for their medieval art. She finds a mysterious 15th century tarot card deck and that mixed with the art history topic was enough to make me instantly add it to my cart.