The June Meeting of the MCBA Visual Journal Collective: Molly Anthony on Lost and Found

Left: Molly beginning her talk at MCBA. There are additional recipe boxes she has since rescued also on display. (The desserts she brought for us are out of the picture on two other tables.) The sign on the front of the table is the one I attached to a stool and placed in the nearest spot to the bindery door—so that she and her mom and her husband wouldn’t have long trips to carry things in. (Pam, her mom, thought that was pretty funny.) Click on an image to view an enlargement.

A group of 25 journal keepers (of all different skill levels and approaches) showed up to hear local artist and writer Molly Anthony talk about her found recipe box project.

We got an in-depth look at the origins of Molly’s project and the implications for her own creative life. She is doing what she loves—researching and writing—and she has reconnected with organic chemistry (a college course that showed her the pursuit of science was not for her—but which is now useful again when coping with the likes of boiled icing!).

What Molly knows for sure about the keeper of the recipe box is that she was a Minnesotan (too many Minnesota product recipes. And the woman liked desserts: sixty percent of the recipes are desserts. And she loved to entertain: there is a recipe for turkey stuffing that calls for 19 loaves of bread.

Despite her brilliantly detailed recipe log, made at the start of the project so that she could keep track of it, Molly’s approach to the recipes is loose and open. She wants to keep cooking and writing and not have a time line on the project. She is also open to the little side trips the recipe box has sent her research on. She enjoys brainstorming additional projects—like how to manage a booklet of 48 pies (she hopes people will join in and help her bake them as a donation, or to be sold as a donation to some cause yet to be identified).

Right: The dessert buffet with Molly's husband Ryan standing nearby. Molly never had a cake carrier until she started this project. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

What’s obvious is that the recipe box has caused Molly to look at the connections in her life and discover a theme of lost and found that she has been looking at for the last several years without naming it. She has been letting go of perfect and discovering how to tell her story in the process. I encourage you to go to The Found Recipe Box and check out Molly's adventure in her own words. You will be inspired to look at your own passions and find ways to bring them back into your life.

Molly and her mother Pam, who was visiting from Chicago, made five desserts to share with us—two of which were chocolate cakes. There was a cherry torte, blueberry muffins (for the non-sweet-toothed) and some shortbread cookie things with a jam on them that were out of this world (and I’m not the only chocolate lover who thought so).

For her project Molly keeps photographs of her desserts and so while she photographed, some of us cut and served, and distributed little plates of dessert about the room so that people could sketch.

NOTE: If you were present at Monday’s meeting and have the capability of scanning your sketch would you please send a jpg to Molly at her blog? When we were packing up last night she mentioned that it was the one thing she wished she’d been able to do—take photos of people’s sketches. 

Left: My sketch of the cherry torte and blueberry muffin. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I worked quickly to finish my sketch, because I knew I had two (thin) slices of chocolate cakes (not a typo—two cakes) waiting for me. Remember, we were all sketching with the delightful aroma of baked goods filling the air. Laura sat next to me and continued carefully painting her sketch while I smacked my lips and talked about the cake. She begged me to stop! Just in time a newcomer Jan, came by to show me her sketch and ask for some drawing tips. I did a demo drawing for her on a napkin. I liked it much better than my original sketch.

Left: My second sketch, of the same subject, is on a napkin. I ended up saving this in my journal too (gluing the edges down with decorative paper—you can’t really glue napkins down because they are made of several light layers of paper that peel apart; trust me, I know about saving napkins). I like the bolder line that comes from the absorbency of the napkin. Also I was warmed up. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

The Collective had a lot of business to conduct last night in addition to the talk and the desserts. We had a drawing, won my Marsha Micek, for a 9 x 12 inch Stonehenge journal. 

And then there was the matter of the Strathmore journals…I'll tell you more about the journals tomorrow.

Above: the “witness-relocation” version of a new test group for the Strathmore Mixed Media Journals. More about this new journal line tomorrow. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Comments

[Dori Christian]

Hi Roz -Thanks for letting everyone know about the new blog, The Found Recipe Box. It touches me in a deep way. Also, since subscribing to your blog a few months ago, I think of your blog as "dessert", my favorite part of a meal. Also, you refer to "cake" now and again and it always makes me smile. Before too much more time passes, I plan on having my own blog where I'll mention, among other things, dessert. Thanks for spending the time to creative such a constantly fabulous blog. Dori

[Roz Stendahl]

Dori, I'm so glad that you are enjoying the Found Recipe Box blog! And I'm honored to rank as "dessert" in your reading.

I do love cake!

I hope that your plans for a blog (mentioning cake of course) come to fruition in a way that is exciting and satisfying to you—like good cake.

Thanks for reading.

[Carole Kokinis]

Roz, I have never yet managed to read the latest post, without following another link and another and another............! Keeping the cookery analogy, you're a gourmet four course meal. Thanks.

Carole
UK
PS today I tried to draw swifts and a sparrow.

[Roz Stendahl]

Carole I have to laugh. You are describing the one problem I have with the LinkWithin. It's bad enough that I put so many other links in a post (typically) but this LinkWithin feature (which I actually love) catches me, when I look something up, and then I'm off to look at something else with a little bit of surprise, "Oh, Yeah, I remember writing about that."

I'm glad you're enjoying the links and it's like a gourmet four course meal—many thanks. It makes me smile.

And I smile even more broadly when I read you are drawing swifts and a sparrow today! Fabulous. Aren't they marvelous? I hope that went well and you had a wonderful time capturing them in your journal!

[Wendi]

Hi Roz,
What a great blog: The Found Recipe Box. Thank you so much for sharing it. Also, I can not wait to read your review of the Strathmore Mixed Media Visual Journal! Thank you thank youu!

[Roz Stendahl]

Wendi, glad you have been enjoying Molly's blog! The Strathmore Mixed Media Visual Journal review went up today (Thursday), so you can check it out.
http://rozwoundup.typepad.com/roz_wound_up/2010/06/strathmores-new-mixed-media-visual-journals.html
Hope you find it helpful.

[velma]

roz--i think i want to live next door to mcba! i'd do way more journaling, especially if it involved chocolate!

[Roz Stendahl]

Velma, we'd of course love to have you at our meetings if you're ever in town, but you can also just pack a couple pieces of chocolate in your purse or backpack before you head out to sketch in your environment! In fact I think it is essential to have a couple pieces of chocolate on hand!

[velma]

it gets sooo gooy. is that how you spell it? but chocolate and oranges when skiing in corn snow into the woods to draw and look...now THAT'S heaven.

[Roz Stendahl]

I'm mystified Velma. Is the word you're looking for goy? as in gentile? I don't think there is anything unkosher about chocolate and oranges. And for me god does definitely reside in the snow-filled woods, though I would rather be stomping about in snowshoes. (I always fall when I cross country ski!)

I hope you get out this winter and sketch a lot in the woods! (With chocolate.)