Cloudy with Bursts of Sunshine

I am feeling befuddlingly off-stride, out-of-sync, disconnected, scattered, and unfocused.

I haven't even unpacked my art supplies in the five days since our trip away, a trip during which painting—to my surprise—didn't settle into my bones and heart.

Nor has painting jumped back into my bones and heart since our return.

However, here's a little piece I made just before we traveled that wants to show itself off.

I took one of my Monhegan Island watercolor paintings that felt decidedly awkward and clumsy in the creating.

And look! It turned into a dazzling accordion-fold pocket book! The pages are tucked into the pockets, where the excerpt copied onto them from a children's picture book becomes an exquisite little prose poem that reveals itself one line at a time.

Transposition

About a year ago I posted a rhythmic chant from camp days that periodically comes to mind:

Left foot, left foot,
Left foot, left foot,
Left foot, left foot,
        Right right foot!

As was the case a year ago, the words today transpose themselves, this time to the following:

Bookmark, bookmark,
Bookmark, bookmark,
Bookmark, bookmark,
          Post post card!

I'm feeling feelings today, yielding to many transpositions swirling around me.

Responding to intuition, to what I see in front of me, to what pops into mind.

Pushing Like a Storm Surge into Unexpected Places
4 x 5 "; acrylic, India ink, and transfer letters on drawing paper, mounted on cardstock
abstract
2018
[gift]

Time-Travel Tuesday

Here's a little piece of art I crafted sometime right around the turn of the century. Mind you, I still equate 'turn of the century' with 1900, but this piece came into being about thirteen years ago at the turn of a different century!

I used to have a small entrepreneurial business called art❤️warmers for seven years, but that is a story for another day.

Today's story is the fun of remembering the origins of the various layers of this piece, each layer of which is a larger fuller story in its own right, also for another day.

For now:

• the hearts were drawn into a styrofoam meat tray, inked up, and printed as part of a once-a-month get-together of yore called Round of Art at My Table with friends Anne, Joan, and Linda,

• the hearts were printed on paper that was from a stash of remnants from the printing business where the husband of a friend worked,

• the printed music came from a hymnal sold at a fundraiser yard sale,

• the black foam was scrap from the gasket company where my husband used to work, and

• the mat board was garnered from a frame business willing to donate its scraps.

Happy anniversary, B&K!

The Real Deal
4x4"; mixed media assemblage on matte board
[gift]

Twenty-Nine Years

Buildings could burn 

right next to us in the car, 

and 

if we were in the middle 

of a kiss 

we wouldn't notice. 

–Jane Hamilton, The Book of Ruth

Hey, L&J, buildings are burning! Right next to you!

Happy anniversary : )

In the Middle of a Kiss
4x5"; acrylic and oil pastel on paper, mounted on cardstock
abstract
2018
[gift]