Slow Seeing

 The idea here is to find something that feels so good to look at that I don't want to rush through the drawing.  These fresh-picked red okra are velvety to the touch and this morning they even had a few raindrops sparkling on them from last night's shower.

Around 2:00 I had to go get my car inspected and the oil changed.  There were several emergencies at the car place, so I had to wait an hour to get this half hour job done.  I remembered a wonderful drawing that my friend Donna did a couple of years ago while she was in a mechanic's shop, and that moved me to see what I could enjoy seeing from the waiting room windows.  On the left I started with the chimney at top left and gradually crawled around the scene with my pen following my eyes until I had even included a few cars.  I never look at cars!  I can't even find my husband's car in a parking lot half the time.  I have a kind of car blindness that grows out of complete boredom with most cars.  But today I noticed that the sky was reflecting on the windshield and even on the roof of a car right in front of the shop.

On the right I had looked down the street and noticed that I could actually see my friends' loft down at the end of the street, without wearing any glasses, and it was great fun to start with their building and gradually build the streetscape, ending with a fine fat dumpster at the edge of the car place lot.