Wreckless > Reckless

I start refining the mayhem layers I created the past couple of days.

In no time I consider covering the whole mess with gesso.

But I tap into the notion that this painting is wreck-less, and that viewpoint nudges the needle away from fussy towards reckless.

I throw color onto the 'vase' and scribble all over the 'blossoms' with India ink.

Who knows where this will take me.

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

-------------

* 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.

Miss Peach

Did any of you ever read the Miss Peach comic strip? Do you remember Arthur? Arthur's weed patch?

To my surprise, I could find no link to Arthur's weed patch online.

No matter.

I think I wandered into Arthur's weed patch this afternoon. Either there or into a neighborhood vacant lot with a few scraggly weeds and some litter … which is to say, into the littered vacant lot of my mind.

Great place to play! I added discarded items from other sources into the lot and fiddled around with arrangements and rearrangements. Will return tomorrow.

playing in a new patch,
work in progress within a work in progress

Can't See the Flowers for the Vase

My time in the studio today is an inquiry.

All questions, no answers yet.

detail, work in progress;
working title: Making Messy #3

detail, handpainted collage paper

It's a Sunny Day

With a nod to Paul Simon:

[It's] a sunny day

Not a cloud [is] in the sky

Not a negative word [is] heard

From the people passing by.

He's got that right.

Like the birdies in the trees, I'm singing all my favorite melodies.

And painting. On my way from making messy to making not messy. At least I think I am. I know there's a vase full of flowers in here somewhere.

detail, work in progress;
working title: Making Messy #3

detail, work in progress;
working title: Making Messy #3

Making More Messy

I moved on to Making Messy #3 today, with the underlying idea of wanting to continue with the floral series I've started.

But I didn't want to get to the floral part yet. I wanted to make more messy, get some good enriched soil going first.

My original Big Messy, from my last morning in Canada, looked like this.

I cut it into quadrants, and Making Messy #3 looked like this when I picked it up this morning.

I stuck to the color palette from Canada and rolled with some freeplay.

work in progress;
working title: Making Messy #3