And the list goes on, and on...

Here's my list of Bookmarked Blogs. They're mostly on illustration, so if you're not the gallery hopping type...
Please add links you'd like to share to my list. Njoy! :)

MY ILLUSTRATIONS
This is my own flickr account. :) I've started adding some sketchbook thumbnails and will be adding a couple of photographs soon that you might enjoy. Please let me know what you think!

KAREN LITTLE
Ms Little is a med student from Pretoria. This link is to her exceptionally written and very funny blog. From there you can also link to Milf's Anatomy, her medical blog - also excellent. So good, in fact, that is was recommended by the NHS BLOGDOC himself.

BEWUSSYNSTROOM
GM se blog is in 'n pragtige Afrikaans. Hy is 'n student van Stellenbosch. Sy foto's is, onder andere, besonders goed... En natuurlik wys hy wie's baas onder journaliste.

ARCADIA
Arcadia is in Pretoria for most of the year; though she's been traveling to Cape Town and elsewhere to film her very own documentary. We can't wait to hear about the subject matter - she's being very secretive. In the meantime her excellent writing will suffice.

EMMIE SEES ...
...the most wonderful things. Treat yourself to a squiz through her archives.

KERRI SMITH
An acclaimed illustrator from the USA. She's written a couple of books too. I found her advice on starting out as an illustrator (and other topics) quite helpful.

You might have heard of DRAWN!. It was rated by TIME magazine as on of the top 50 websites. Of course, I've been supporting them all along! :)

I've run out of time, but there are a few more I'd like to share with you... So, keep watching this space.

Have fun this weekend!

Lists

In an effort to give Underway better structure, I've decided to dedicate a theme to each month of the year. My first theme (for the remainder of September) will be Lists.

I'm a list person. I make lists of everything. I have to-do lists, grocery lists, I list my goals (short-term, middle-term, long-term)... When things are written down, in a orderly fashion, it gives me sense of control. It's there, it's noted, I know I'll get around to it. When I don't write things down, they aimlessly float around in my head. And they interfere with my other thoughts. And I hate it when that happens. (Read in Meredith Grey - from Grey's Anatomy, of course - tone of voice.)

The Interpreter was on television last Sunday evening. In the movie Silvia Broome's brother, Simon, keeps lists of all the names of people who died - often in brutality - during political struggles. By naming each individual, and their cause of death, he lets them rest with dignity.

Lists give their items meaning, and noteworthiness. (Of course, I'm by no means comparing items on my to-do list to people who died for a cause.)

Do you keep lists?

(I've created a Flickr account too. So, instead of showing my sketchbook here, I'll be posting it here. There are only 2 little illustrations up at the moment, but there's lots more to come!)

Underway

As of tomorrow, my blog name will not longer be Where to Begin, but Underway. I think Allistar McGrath sums it up nicely for me:

Many have found the awesome sight of the star-studded heavens evoke a sense of wonder, an awareness of transcendence, that is charged with spiritual significance. Yet the distant shimmering of stars does not itself create this sense of longing; it merely exposes what is already there. They are catalysts for our spiritual insights, revealing our emptiness and compelling us to ask whether or how this void might be filled.

Might our true origins and destiny somehow lie beyond those stars? Might there not be a homeland, from which we are presently exiled and to which we secretly long to return? Might not our accumulation of discontentment and disillusionment with our present existence be a pointer to another land where our true destiny lies and which is able to make its presence felt now in this haunting way?

Suppose that this is not where we are meant to be but that a better land is at hand? We don't belong here. We have somehow lost our way. Would not this make our present existence both strange and splendid? Strange, because it is not where our true destiny lies; splendid, because it points ahead to where that real hope might be found. The beauty of the night sky or a glorious sunset are important pointers to the origins and the ultimate fulfillment of our heart's deepest desires. But if we mistake the signpost for what is sign-posted, we will attach our hopes and longings to lesser goals, which cannot finally quench our thirst for meaning.

Friday afternoon diary

Here are to unrelated, but noteworthy events.

Firstly, for those in the area: My artist friend, Ian, told me that Tamsin Really will be the guest speaker for SWAG (an art group) at the Somerset West public library tomorrow (Saturday, the 9th) at 14.00 pm. She is a visual artist, illustrator and photographer.



And secondly, young Suri's passionate parents have finally decided to let the rest of us see her through the eyes of Vanity Fair. I wonder if she will jump (on couches) before she walks? They DO make a very pretty family.

A few random thoughts

Just a quick post while I steal a moment at work...

This is a quick illustration I did last night. I think she looks a bit like me, so she'll be my new profile snapshot.

Next week I'll post some thumbnails from my sketchbook.

Thank you to everyone who's been visiting, commenting and emailing about my infant blog.

Finding faith

...when we came over the rise where the sea and land opened up to us, I stood in stunned silence and then slowly walked toward the waves. Words cannot capture the view that confronted me. I saw space and light and texture and color and power ... that seemed hardly of this earth. Gradually there crept into my mind the realization that God sees this all the time. He sees it, experiences it, knows it from every possible point of view, this and billions of other scenes like and unlike it, in this and billions of other worlds. Great tidal waves of joy must constantly wash through his being. It is perhaps strange to say, but suddenly I was extremely happy for God and thought I had some sense of what an infinitely joyous consciousness he is and of what it might have meant for him to look at his creation and find it "very good" ... he is simply one great inexhaustible and eternal experience of all that is good and true and beautiful and right. This is what we must think of when we hear theologians and philosophers speak of him as a perfect being. This is his life.

Dallas Willard, the Divine Conspiracy

My second post

I'm dedicating my second post to the endorsement of my BLOG name.

At 24, I'm close to embracing my quarter life crisis and in anticipation of this event, I have resorted to feeling overwhelmed at times with thoughts like: "Where am I on my way to?!"

Heading somewhere, implies a STARTING somewhere. Hence the concept: Help M find her way. (Think of a maze in a children's activity book - the aim to reunite the mouse with it's cheese.) As a lover of maps, travelling, and blank canvasses, "BEGINNING" seems a very apt word. The idea is just to start. Start saving, start drawing, start thinking, just start.