I am delighted to have an exhibition of twenty watercolor and ink drawing from my Drawing a Day for Goodproject on display at the UWM at Waukesha library in collaboration with poet Margaret Rozga in an exhibition of art and poetry entitled Reflective Drawings / Responsive Poems. 

Since January 1, 2024  I have been drawing almost every day as a visual meditation aimed at inducing a sense of ‘flow’. I draw into small (approximately 6×9 inch), watercolor paintings created as teaching samplers for my watercolor workshops. I have been teaching watercolor workshops for over 25 years using the methods that result in small expressive and experimental watercolors to show my students how to use the medium well.

The paintings were unfinished and not quite ready for display. They are too beautiful to discard but needed more work to finish them. Later last December I started drawing into the small samplers with ink as an evening meditation.  By January 1st I decided I would turn them into my newest art project called  A Drawing A Day For Good.

It has become a daily process for me most days to sit down to draw into the existing watercolor samplers with inks. I shuffle through the pile of unfinished paintings.   I select a piece to work on based on my mood and start drawing into it.  I look at the (often) abstract watercolor samplers, imagining an image in them that means something to me.  

Doing these meditative drawing every day has been a helpful way for me to try to counter the effects of the news we all hear every day. 

Since the first of the year, I have offered my unframed watercolor and ink artworks for sale daily at the price of $100 apiece.  I have sold over a third of the artworks and donated the profits to good causes and efforts that I choose.

I was honored when Margaret told me she had been using some of my posted images as prompts for some of her poems.  Margaret Rozga is a UWM at Waukesha Professor of English Emerita, who served as the 2019-2020 Wisconsin Poet.  She became aware of the ‘Drawing A Day for Good’ project in early 2024.  Having recently completed work on the manuscript of her  book Restoring Prairie and waiting for its publication in May, she was looking for a new project. She saw one of my  drawings on Facebook,  and was inspired to write a short response, or ekphrastic, poem, one that reflected on the ”action” of the artwork, amplifying and expanding on its meaning. Additional drawings prompted more poems. Margaret shared her wonderful poems with me and together we decided to share the work collaboratively.

The Reflective Drawings / Responsive Poems exhibition will be on display in the library of the UW-Waukesha campus until December 19, 2024.

Originally, I committed to create and post works for 30 days.  January came and went, and I found I did not want to stop.  I posted drawing number 320 last night. I am going to try to continue to post a work for sale each day at least through the rest of 2024

Let me know if one of these drawings are meant to be yours. Any works remaining in my inventory when I complete this project will have their price increased to reflect their real market value.

If you would like to see all the  300+ works you can go here see the Drawing A Day For Good Collection!  Or on Instagram at #drawingadayforgood

© 2024 Helen R. Klebesadel