Rubber Tree: The gift that keeps on giving

I just needed to sketch something, anything, yesterday, and this rubber tree plant outside my studio window was glowing in the sun. My son Robin gave it to me as a housewarming gift 10 years ago when I bought my combo home/studio (a duplex; one unit is my house, one is my studio).

I wanted a rubber tree because of that catchy old song about an ant who believes he can move a rubber tree plant ; buying my own house was a dream about as big as that little ant’s and I did it. (Sinatra sings the song below, but be warned, you won’t be able to get it out of your head after you listen.)

The plant got too big for the living room so I cut half off half and stuck that in the ground. I took the other half to my office. The plant in my downtown Oakland office is sorely abused but just keeps on growing anyway.

I spent most of the day yesterday working on rebuilding my website which seemed like a very indoor thing to be doing on such a sunny day. But after sketching outdoors for half an hour I realized how deceptive that sunshine was: it was cold out there! And then I was happy to be indoors.

Yesterday I signed up for Bookbinding I on January 9-10 at the San Francisco Center for the Book. Maybe when I can bind my own sketchbooks I’ll be able to make one that fits on my scanner and doesn’t leave a big blurry section in the middle. While I love the Fabriano Venezia sketchbooks I’ve been using the past 6 months or so, they’re just half an inch too big to fit.