This Wild Summons

I didn't at all expect Lyanda Lynn Haupt's Mozart's Starling—a book characterized by Goodreads as "part natural history, part story, [that] will delight readers as they learn about language, music, and the secret world of starlings,"—to tap into my creative life the way it has.

But here Haupt is again, cheerleading me as I paint:

And what is this wild summons? What art is asked of us? The gift offered is different for each but all are equal in grandeur. To paint, draw, dance, compose. To write songs, poems, letters, diaries, prayers. To set a violet on the sill; stitch a quilt; bake bread; plant marigolds, beans, apple trees. To follow the track of the forest elk, the neighborhood coyote, the cupboard mouse. To open the windows, air the beds, sweep clean the corners. To hold the child's hand, listen to the vagrant's story, paint the elder friend's fingernails a delightful shade of pink while wrapped in a blanket she knit with the deft young fingers of her past. To wander paths, nibble purslane, notice spiders. To be rained upon. To listen with changed ears and sing back what we hear.

And here I am again, listening with changed ears and singing back what I hear.

newest patch

new patch in the big picture
work in progress
working title: Core Values

The Tiniest Neurons

Quoting Lyanda Lynn Haupt again:

We create from … the song just beneath our typical hearing, the murmuration that calls the tiniest neurons of our brains into flight.

Today, another undeveloped patch in Core Values catches my attention. This bit of real estate holds some collage from the very first day I put anything on this big ol' piece of foam core three months ago, as well as paint I've wiped off my brush at various junctures since then.

I've been wanting to reacquint myself with Golden Hi-Flow acrylics and also curious to see if I could mix up some taupe from regular Liquitex paints in my studio. Those are the murmurations that call a few of the tiniest neurons of my brain into flight. I do a little on-canvas journaling first, and then get going with paint.

Currently in the messy middle somewhere.

black paint-marker journaling,
then hi-flow acrylic,
then scribbles with a stylus in wet paint

homegrown acrylic taupe mix,
more stylus scribbles in wet paint;
work in progress
working title: Core Values