Thursday, Watoga

a dry-leaf shower

weaves whispers of color to

blanket the earth's spine

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Wish I'd taken some process shots so I had a record of how abortively ugly this was, until suddenly it wasn't!

The Path Shrilled with Insects
4x5"; acrylic, latex, and collage on paper
abstract
2017

Tuesday, Watoga

Greenbrier River
Trail, Lake Trail, Honeymoon Trail,
ascent, ridge, descent.

work in progress
tuesday, watoga

Monday, Watoga

Flames dance in fireplace,
owls toss hoots to each other,
paint graces cardstock.

work in progress
monday, watoga

Left Foot Left Foot

Years ago at Takodah one of the guys working during family camp used to do a great vocal routine with a few other staff members called Left Foot Left Foot.

Person one chanted:

Left foot, left foot 
Left foot, left foot 
Left foot, left foot 
(long pause) 
Left foot, left foot 
Left foot, left foot 
Left foot, left foot

and then person two punctuated that sequence by adding

Right right foot.

The routine went on from there, with entertaining repetitions and additions as well as a terrific, catchy beat.

That's the background ditty playing through my mind as I work on this painting, except the words transpose to

Left brain, left brain
Left brain, left brain 
Left brain, left brain 
(long pause) 
Left brain, left brain 
Left brain, left brain 
Left brain, left brain

Right right brain!

I've given my more logical, analytical, and objective left brain instructions to hang out other than in my studio, and I'm encouraging my more intuitive, thoughtful, and subjective right brain to play to her heart's content without supervision.

Left brain forgets periodically, showing up and interrupting, but I send her off again.

free canvas #1
16x20"
work in progress

detail

detail

detail

 

From Stillness

Something has shifted. Something is calling. I don't exactly know what, and I don't need to. I don't need to analyze or interpret or ponder or figure out. Or use my brain at all.

I just need to pay attention. To return to beginner's mind. To be in wonder. To paint from deep inside, from the inside out, from stillness.

Today I picked up a start from several weeks ago—as long ago as May perhaps?—and let myself be present to it. The non-striving was delicious. I have no preconceived destination with this piece; I will go wherever we travel together.

Here's where we landed today.

work in progress;
working title: inner july landscape

Here I Am, Day 5 (and final)

How did I get here?

Not at all where I thought I might land.

But …

Here. I. Am.

Christina's Café
3x4"; acrylic, ink, pencil, collage, and oil pastel on paper,
mounted on card stock
abstract
2017
[gift]

Here I Am, Day Four

About twenty-five years ago, when my kids were still in my nest, I said hello to a neighborhood mom on an exceedingly hot September day, and I grumbled about the heat. No grumbles from her—she replied, "I LOVE a day like this—we have ice cream for dinner!"

Shook me right out of my curmudgeonliness!

We didn't follow suit that day but I pledged to myself and my kids that the following summer, on the first day when temps were 90 degrees or higher, ice cream for dinner.

The next year, there was not one single day when the temps rose that high.

Not one.

What the heck?!

This year, we've already had a heat wave, i.e. three consecutive days with temps higher than 90 degrees. During the third week of May!

Summer!

In spring!

I love painting on summer days, in part, I think, because my first season ever of painting was summer, three years ago. Last week, on the last day of our heat wave, I cut Here I Am, Day Three in half and kept playing.

work in progress, 4.5x6"
working title: here i am
day 4

MDF Again

Another painting is spiffed up and ready to strut its stuff, this one a favorite of mine that I painted in December 2015. I covered MDF with a medium gloss, soft, buttery, yellow house paint that picks up on highlights in the painting and speaks to the sunlight in the accompanying haiku.

Mighty Darn Fine, if I do say so myself.

Hanging Out Together
5 x 7 x 3/4"; acrylic, ink, collage, and pastels on paper, mounted on panel
landscape
2015
[SOLD]
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They hold hands under-
ground while, up above, sunlight
kisses their wild hair.

Hanging Out Together, detail

Hanging Out Together, detail