Poking and Playing

More poking around and playing with what I posted yesterday.

Limited palette: turquoise green, oxide black, white gesso.

Limited tools: silicone shower scraper, fine line applicator.

I don't think I'm done yet.

more layers on 5.25 x 5.5" paper;
further exploring and learning

All in the Family

 Look at these brothers and sisters all together, wouldya?!

inspired-by-scribbles series

–––

Yammer, yammer, yammer! They're all asking for solo portraits. Okay, okay!

All Hands on Deck

I use my hands to create my art; I bring what is inside outside through the agency of my physical body, most specifically my hands.

Yesterday, when writing (also using my hands) my blog post, I noticed I used the expression at hand. I caught myself musing about the expression to hand, an expression I think is the British version of the same concept, i.e. to have something conveniently nearby. 

Similarly, if someone or something is on hand, they are nearby and able to be used if needed.

Then there's the word handy which gets rid of the above potpourri of prepositions altogether.

So, the opening sentence of yesterday's post started with these words:

    I continue to grab what's at hand.

I could have easily have said any of the following:

    I continue to grab what's to hand.

    I continue to grab what's on hand.

    I continue to grab what's handy. 

Or, I could have phrased my thought in the manner of my youngest sister, Marjorie, who as a child evidently subconsciously sorted out the existing options and created her own:

    I continue to grab what's on handy.

On handy! Top choice, hands down, and one that remains in my active personal lexicon.

---

I have moved my current neuroart experiment along since yesterday, and here's what I have on handy to share with you.

work in progress

Still Skittering

 Still having fun.

work in process, fourth pass

-----

partial history:

third pass

(Parenthetical Project) 2

Not until just recently did I take notice that the root of the words parentheses (noun, plural), parenthesis (noun, singular), and parenthetical (adjective) is thesis. 

Huh.

Nor did I really know the etymology of the word thesis—late Middle English via late Latin from Greek, literally 'placing, a proposition,' from the root of tithenai 'to place.'

Parenthesis means 'a putting in beside,' from para- 'beside' + en- 'in' + tithenai 'to put, to place.

Yup, I'm putting one project in beside another.

A close-up glimpse of two of my parenthetical pieces in progress—

Word(s) of the Day (7)

physical therapy

taupe

flow

journaling

work in progress
paint, paint markers, 'krink', 30 x 30" canvas

Neutrals (12)

Neutral-thinking exploration

• Change takes place whether I notice it or not.

• The open window beside me admits air spun with wren song and sunlight into the room with me.

• Test scores are test scores.

Painting-with-neutrals exploration

postcard start #10, resting

Neutrals (11)

Neutral-thinking exploration

• Yesterday I placed holds online for several library books; there's no interlibrary activity yet per covid-19 guidelines so I had to select from only those books available on the shelves at my local library.
• One of my nephews is now affianced to his sweetheart.
• I will start picking kale from our back-deck-railing flower box this week.


Painting-with-neutrals exploration

postcard start #9, resting

Neutrals (10)

Neutral-thinking exploration

• Air at the moment is dry, sky is blue, sun is shining, indoor temperature and outdoor temperature match at 71 degrees Fahrenheit.
• I have heard no news yet today.
• The gray file cabinet in the green closet holds far fewer items than four days ago.


Painting-with-neutrals exploration

postcard start #8, resting

Neutrals (9)

Neutral-thinking exploration

• My day started itself moving in one direction and then veered off in a totally different direction.
• Blue spruce, in my region of the country, is susceptible to a fungus.
• Spilled latex paint can be cleaned up fairly easily.


Painting-with-neutrals exploration

postcard start #7, resting

Neutrals (8)

Neutral-thinking exploration

• My tutoring table—and central command post for almost all my deskwork—is a 1950's kitchen table with green Formica laminate top, chrome metal edging around the tabletop, and chrome legs.
• This morning's high humidity gave way to an afternoon downpour.
• Today I set about drafting my post by intentionally not including any headings initially. I entered my first statement above, and Grammarly identified the tone as joyful. After entering the second statement, the post as a whole was optimistic, and it remained optimistic as I wrote this very sentence. I then began entering the heading for this section; the tone remained optimistic until I entered the word exploration, at which point Grammarly indicated: anxious.


Painting-with-neutrals exploration

postcard start #6, resting

Neutrals (7)

Neutral-thinking exploration

• When I stand still for more than a minute outdoors at 445a, a mosquito finds me.
• When I sit two hours later beside Bass River, I am chilled by strong breezes.
• Our back deck, where I usually eat lunch al fresco, is today occupied by house painters, drop cloths, ladders, scraping tools, electric sanders, and a boom box.


Painting-with-neutrals exploration

postcard start #5, resting

Neutrals (6)

Neutral-thinking exploration

• A painting crew is sanding the exterior walls of our home.
• I received payment for a painting yesterday.
• I have a phone appointment this afternoon with someone I've never met before.


Painting-with-neutrals exploration

postcard start #4, resting

Neutrals (5)

Neutral-thinking exploration

• Grammarly is a free online writing assistant app designed to improve word usage, spelling, punctuation, and the like.
• In addition to having word usage, spelling, and punctuation checkers, it has a tone checker.
• Grammarly has identified the tone in this post and its three predecessors as anxious*.


Painting-with-neutrals exploration

postcard start #3, resting

* !!!!! **
** And, yes, neutral is one of the tones Grammarly checks for.

Neutrals (4)

Neutral-thinking exploration

• My magic pants (Columbia® calls them something else) and walking shoes were comfortable for 51 degrees at 500a.
• I changed out of my magic pants four hours later in favor of a skirt and flip flops.
• A 5 x 6-foot closet can hold a significant number of items.


Painting-with-neutrals exploration

neutrals postcard start #2, resting

Neutrals (3)

Neutral-thinking exploration

• This afternoon I will burn a bag of outdated paperwork culled from a file cabinet upstairs.
• I discovered in a stack of stored folders a pad of lined paper with a company logo at the top of each page and have been unable to decide where to give it a home for future use.
• I don't have criteria yet for facilitating my decluttering of the green closet.


Painting-with-neutrals exploration

neutrals postcard start #1, resting

Intrepid

Here's what sculptor Henry Moore asserted when asked in an interview by writer Donald Hall, "What is the secret of life?"

The secret of life
is to have a task,
something you devote
your entire life to,
something you bring
everything to,
every minute of the day
for your whole life.
And the most important
thing is—
it must be
something
you cannot possibly do.


That is where I find myself: devoted to something I cannot possibly do, paintbrush in hand, pulled to reach for an ineffable something which I am not even able to name.

I feel intrepid at the moment, newly determined to push through my own kicking and screaming to become less fussy and deliberate, more experimental, more willing to walk with awkward, more able to tolerate that which is unpleasing to my eye.

Funk & Wagnalls Walk the Field Beside the Cottage
6 x 6"; acrylic, ink, oil pastel, graphite crayon, and collage on gessobord
abstract
2019

---
A partial history of this painting:

Singing at Singing, 2015

6 days ago

6 days ago

5 days ago

today!

Listening to Whispers

put on your hiking
shoes, could be mud. nourishing
unexpected walk.

Whispers of the Heart
12 x 12"; acrylic on masonite board
abstract
2019

And That Is All

As a youngster at Camp Takodah, my nephew Stuart, along with his fellow campers, had to produce a 'meal ticket' to get into the dining hall for Sunday evening dinner. Said ticket took the form of a stamped addressed envelope holding a personally handwritten letter home to parents. One of those sweet letters, delightfully well drafted by Stuart, ended with the words, And that is all I have to say.

Little did he know he was penning what would become a frequently-invoked and highly-valued stock family sentence for ending any kind of missive when one reaches the point, no matter how early in the game, where there is nothing else coming to mind.

And that is all I have to say.

I Can't Change Where I Come From
3.5 x 5" postcard; acrylic, pencil, collage, and pastel on watercolor paper
abstract
2019

An Afternoon in Early December

My insides feel crowded and frenetic. As though my mind got poked with pins, and my thoughts got loose and are now running roughshod throughout the entire all of me.

Well then.

Thank goodness my feet know to walk to my studio. It is no easy task to outrun thoughts but, while I paint? … inner stillness.

detail, work in progress