Life drawing birds.

I flipped open my sketchbooks in the Paper app and found these drawings. It's bone-chilling freeze-your-face-off January outside so naturally my mind drifted easily back to summer when the sparrows were hanging out in the garden.

I liked to watch them in the trees and grapevines near the pergola.

Birds are always moving, so they're hard to capture. I suppose that's the point if you are a bird.

I wait until a sparrow hits a pose I like, and I let it imprint in my minds eye, holding it there for a few seconds while I lay down the drawing.

I guess I'm not so much drawing what I see, as drawing what I've just seen.

Sometimes I don't even look down at my drawing, even if the bird has flown away. I'm still staring at the picture in my head.

When I'm happy with the silhouette, I add the details. It's important not to spend too much time or it loses its spontaneous quality.

You'd be surprised at how few lines make a bird.

So I'm watching the sparrows.

But I think they're watching me too.

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7 Stolen moments.

None of these people knew I was drawing them, as I was drawing them.

A man sitting across from me in the waiting room of the doctor's office.

A young woman passing the time on her laptop in the airport departure lounge.

Betsy's hat flirted with me during a BlogHer session.

A girl answers her celphone on the streets of Chicago, probably on her lunch hour.

Megan's hair is thick and rich and I can't do it justice.

All our flights were delayed coming home from Chicago. This guy stared at his Blackberry for two hours, the sun streaming in behind him as it dropped lower in the sky.

This child caught my eye. When you are two, holding still is impossible (unless you are asleep). I had to be quick.

Who do these moments belong to?

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6 Moments of life.

This is Shelagh. Sometimes she talks me off the ledge.

My brother came to town. He was just sitting on the sofa unwinding and catching me up on his life in Toronto.

The 12 year old boy got his hair cut.

Our 15 year old daughter has copper locks. I was happy to find her without mascara.

I went to see The Huz playing bass in Carolyn Fe's Blues Collective at the House of Jazz. Carolyn always brings a fan onstage.

My friend Kayo at her going-away-dinner. She's leaving Montreal, returning to Japan. We didn't spend enough time together while she was here and it makes me sad.

These are moments of life.

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The Kiss.

Do you know The Kiss, by Rodin? Locked in luminous white marble for all eternity, these lovers seem not to mind.

Au contraire! They're completely absorbed in their embrace, oblivious to onlookers. I almost felt like a voyeur as I drew them.

You might say that drawing statues is not strictly 'life drawing', but with Rodin, they do feel alive to me.

It's helpful that statues don't move around too much.

But you never know with Rodin.

I went to the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia with my mom. It's a collection of many of his sculptures mainly in bronze and marble. I loved it there; I loved the tranquility, the thoughtful balance between aggression and tenderness in every gesture. Go see it.

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