Unexpected

Yesterday's churning seas tossed up unexpected bounty.

I set out to layer, layer, layer.

Got the beginnings of one layer in place, stepped back.

Spied a lobster.

Wasn't expecting that.

Let some rapid-fire short-lived intuitive oil pastel-play express itself.

Stopped.

No Carry-on Luggage Allowed
7x9"; acrylic, pencil, and oil pastel on a book page
abstract
2020

Staying Awake

First, I have to vent my frustration at how impossible it is sometimes to get a photograph that feels true to what I see in front of me.

Grrrr.

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I set out today with a loose idea in mind to slap a variegated monochromatic background onto a new patch in Core Values, add a bunch of layers and bright chaotic playful 'flowers' of color, carve a lush bouquet out of all of the above by painting negative space.

Bouquet?

Never got past the variegated monochromatic background.

I liked staying awake enough as I painted to stop there.

New patch: done.

hooker's green acrylic on top of layer of gloss medium;
marks from a texture sheet and catalyst tool

scribbles from four different green paint markers

four more greens brushed and fingerpainted into place,
scribbles made with metal stylus
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newest patch

new patch in bigger picture;
working title: Core Values

What?

I stop here, resting in I-don't-know.

newest patch

detail from patch

newest patch, in the bigger picture
working title: Core Values

Arthur's Weed Patch

I was living in the Netherlands when I first connected with Miss Peach comic strips. The reason I remember the character named Arthur and, more particularly, his weed patch* is that my youngest sister was born while we lived in the Netherlands and had hair that stood straight up from her head as an infant, hair that my parents referred to—with great affection—as Arthur's weed patch.

It was during those same two years of living in the Netherlands that a school friend and I, sixth graders at the time, spent a bunch of happy hours playing across the street from her house at a construction site after hours. As I've played with my current Core Values patch yesterday and today, memories have surfaced of the engaging pleasure of making something out of 'nothing' at that building site—arranging and rearranging cinder blocks, scraps of wood, bits of metal, and other stuff lying around in the gravel and weeds.

Here I am doing the same thing all these many years later.

added white shapes, scratched through layers

pasted tissue collage, extended color, added veiling

new patch, with final tweaks

detail

new patch in the bigger picture;
working title: core values

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* I kinda shrugged off my homework yesterday, not persisting in searching for online evidence of Arthur's weed patch, but look what my friend Carolyn found:

Miss Peach is a really sweet and kind teacher but, still, I hope she doesn't find out Carolyn did my homework for me.

Crossing a Bridge

For me, one of the fun parts of crossing the bridge from 2017 to 2018 has been prepping one of my paintings to leave my home so it can take up residence in the home of a collector.

Probably Out of Earshot is excited as it puts its best foot forward to step into a wider world.

Originally painted on paper, it is now mounted on a block of wood painted with a black satin finish. The black paint 'frames' the image on the front of the wood block and provides a backdrop on the other side for a haiku I composed, along with info about the painting.

Very satisfying.