Website Remodeling and Update on Art Goals
Website Updates
Slowly but surely, I’ve been making some changes to the blog’s website.
First, I’ve mucked around in Canva for a while creating a very simple graphic for the homepage. Is it a wren? No, but it is a bird, which for all intents and purposes seems to be enough for most people.
Second, I’ve been having an internal debate about how I’d like interaction with the blog to occur. Not having any sort of way to interact, like an old-fashioned newsletter, did have some appeal. It was enticing to think I could air my thoughts without any worry of people Having a Problem with them. Previously I had inserted a link on a few of the pages that allowed you to send a message to the blog’s email address. I wasn’t the biggest fan of this. The times that I’ve done that with other blogs have simultaneously felt intimate and like I was shouting into the void. Plus, the dialogue between myself and other readers is one of my favorite aspects of blogging. I used to love reading comments on old Wordpress blogs. Maybe we can recapture some of that here.
Imagine how I felt when I discovered the Bear docs comments page - precisely what I’d been looking for. Comments have been enabled on the most recent blog posts (this one included). Additionally, if you’d like to receive email updates from the blog, you can visit The Wren Haus homepage, input your email address, and I’ll make sure to send out email updates when those come out.
Did this take me perhaps a bit longer than it should have to figure all this out? Potentially, but for whatever reason, I always have a certain level of resistance when it comes to learning new mediums like this.
2026 Art Goal Updates
The last website update highlights putting my artistic goals for the year front-and-center. The site’s navigation bar links to a recap of this year’s goals. So, some updates:
1: Take one art history course through a community college. Achieve at least a B.
Initially, I thought we were cooked here. My enrollment was completed, and it was time to add the class I wanted to take (Art History - Ancient to Medieval); however, everything was full. When the semester payment deadline came, though, fully 30% of each section was available again, and I was able to enroll without issue. Classes begin tomorrow.
I am a freak and loved college. Coursework is my jam. Over the past week, I’ve been checking Canvas daily to see if the course has opened up, and trust, when it does, ALL those dates are going into the Hobonichi planner. UPDATE at time of publishing: mama she's opened.
If all goes well, I’d like to round out everything by taking its sister course this summer, which encompasses art from the Renaissance until the beginning of the 20th century. Pending how doable I find the course I’m set to take this semester, I think it would be reasonable to take this subsequent class over a more abridged span of time (8 weeks versus 15). Again, I am a freak, I know, hold the tomatoes.
2: For the spring academic semester, enroll and complete two adult continuing education courses focusing on drawing skills.
I attending the first session of the Drawing Fundamentals class yesterday and had a phenomenal time. The class’s composition was mostly retirees and a few younger women. Only two participants were not women out of 20 or so.
As a side note - where are the men? Not just here, but in general. Are they all at home getting radicalized? I tend to find myself in very gendered spaces (Fiber arts, music, visual art), I know, but I don’t see or hear of similar experiences between men. Odd, and I hope I’m wrong about this.
The first two weeks are centered around doing a master’s study. From what I’ve been able to deduce (the works were not named), I am doing a Piazzetta sketch, though, I’ve been very much struggling to find a consistent artist listed for this, and Google Lens/Bing Reverse Image Search haven’t been helpful. If you know what this is - please let me know!
Like I said, still blocking in forms, finding relationships between angles, etc., but here is the current state: 
Great fun!
The current class is slated to run from yesterday (1/18) until 3/8. I’ve enrolled in a figure drawing class after that, which begins 3/15 and runs for another 8 weeks.
3: For the fall or summer academic semester, take a for-credit drawing class through a community college. Achieve at least a B.
The other goals dovetail together to help accomplish this goal. I don’t particularly feel comfortable taking this class right now. The school I attended as a kid in a very rural part of the country did not have an art program, nor did I take any sort of art classes throughout college. Everything I’ve learned has been self-taught and, again, I’m not particularly good even by that standard. BUT - my hope is that by having the other structures in place, I’ll feel more confident when enrollment comes.
The class’s timing is difficult for me. The two options I see are: take the class fully online, or meet once per week throughout the semester on Saturday mornings from 8am-1:50pm.
In-person classes suit me better. Plus, there is a blocked out, designated 6-hour per week chunk of time that is spent either learning how to draw or actually drawing. However, this directly conflicts with my Zen practice - retreats usually happen on Saturdays, and over 2 day retreats, Saturday is the day that is blocked off from morning until evening. If I took the in person class, which is what I’m most leaning to at the time, I’d have to figure out some alternative to emulating that prolonged Zen practice. I haven’t made up my mind, and I don’t figure I will have to until months from now. Assuming the world is still in one piece at that point.
For now, I sign up when it’s time to sign up, draw when it’s time to draw, and when drawing, just draw.