The Occurrence and Development of Events by Chance in a Happy or Beneficial Way

Two years ago in November I started a bookmark. A day or two later I added the finished piece to my growing collection.

I never know, as I make bookmarks, when one of them will pair perfectly with the jacket of a book I've borrowed from my local library.

Two days ago, in the dizzying swirl of an unusually busy day, with mind and body moving in one direction and another and another, I fell into the grace of inner stillness and deep satisfaction at the serendipity of having a two-year-old bookmark be exquisitely just the right partner for the book that was next in the stack on my nightstand.

Like having all my chakras lined up.

And fun!

book and bookmark hanging out together

Crossin' the Mason-Dixon Line

By the time you read this post I will have crossed the Mason-Dixon Line for one of my favorite vacations of the year.

Dave and I have headed south to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We'll enjoy five days and nights at a West Virginia State Park—replete with simple cabin built in the 1930's, big ol' stone fireplace, all the firewood we could want, and miles and miles of trails to hike—way out in the middle of nowhere. Bookending our time in the wilderness we'll hang out with our daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughters in Virginia. Doesnt get any better than that!

I've packed a travel art kit but, as was the case last time I vacationed, I don't know what shape these vacation days will take—will I paint? what will my wifi situation be? will I post online?

Once again, heading to Don't Know!

Below, a placeholder until I return.

color study on unstretched canvas
2014

Q&Q Cut-Up #8

I am in medias res, in the middle of—and I mean really right in the confounding mucky impenetrable middle of—an ongoing cyber snafu I have yet to resolve. Anxiety, or worry, or frustration, or whatever the heck the feeling is, crowds my mind like something physical—something dark and weighty lodged in my head.

But I laughed out loud a short while ago, knowing I'd found a title for today's painting when I saw the words I did have a trouble or two on my mind in a novel I was reading!

I Did Have a Trouble or Two on My Mind 
4x5"; pencil, ink, acrylic, latex, and pastels on unstretched canvas
abstract
2017
[gift]

A Day in November / Q&Q Cut-Up #6

I am grateful today—not for the first time—for the deep pleasure of creating art, for the direct give and take of my hands and eyes and canvas and glue and paint and ink and inner and outer universes.

Can't say the same for certain cyber circumstances and snafus but, hey!, look where that ugly-painting-day piece from Thursday took itself.

They Sat Drinking Hot Cider
4x5"; pencil, ink, acrylic, and collage on unstretched canvas,
mounted on card stock
abstract
2017
[gift]

Surrender

I didn't offer (much) resistance to the outcome of my studio time yesterday.

I didn't like the outcome—definite ugly painting day, to my way of thinking—but I both valued it and allowed it to be yesterday's self-expression.

Because, really, what else could it be, anyway?

Today: movement.

Same piece of canvas, "same" person painting. But, movement in a new direction. I love the torn edges of the collage.

work in progress
4x5"; unstretched canvas
working title: q&q cut-up #6

Outer Eye, Inner Eye

My outer eye says, What on earth is that? Total fail.

My inner eye says, Oh. My. Gosh. You nailed it! You have painted a perfect representation of who you are right here and right now. There you are, in paint, on paper. 

---

Alrighty then. Glad I got that out of my system.

work in progress
4x5"; unstretched canvas
working title: q&q cut-up #6

I Wonder / Q&Q Cut-Up #5

Where does art come from?

I hold the question in wonder.

But I don't need an answer.

Wasn't here two days ago.

Is here today.

Happens over and over again.

A Happenso Bookmark
1.5x6" bookmark; acrylic, pencil, ink, collage, and oil pastel on unstretched canvas,
mounted on heavy card stock
abstract
2017

Scrappy

I work on another bookmark today, a scrappy little one.

I scissored Quick & Quixotic into 10 pieces in October, and this morning the second of two narrow cut-ups pushes itself into my field of vision, as does a bunch of rectilinear scraps that had become paper 'tiles' in the service of an entirely different studio undertaking.

I decide to run with what's calling out to me.

I puzzle over how to bring a skinny, muted, kinda blah strip of unstretched painted canvas together with slick black & white tiles from a printed postcard that had featured strong graphic design.

blah strip of canvas

I fiddle with glazing medium and a catalyst tool to add texture to the canvas. I add color with a matte knife.

work in progress
1.5x6"; unstretched canvas
working title: q&q cut-up #5

I snip, arrange, and reconfigure the bold black & white tiles. Then I push all the tiles aside. 

I set everything on a tray and opt to let the gathered elements percolate overnight.

Start Where You Stand / Q&Q Cut-Up #4

Napoleon Hill's directive is to start where you stand.

Gotcha.

Here's where I stood, where I started:

Here's where I stand now, with a bookmark and a gift tag:

A Rug of Hooked Fabric Scraps, Rose and Green and Purple
1.5x6" bookmark; acrylic, pencil, ink, collage, and oil pastel on unstretched canvas,
mounted on heavy card stock
abstract
2017
[gift]

1.75x1.75" gift tag

Haiku inscribed on back of bookmark:

Start where you stand, on

a rug of hooked fabric scraps,

dance the live-long day.

Do Not Wait

In 1937, early American self-help writer Napoleon Hill published Think and Grow Rich. Much of the book's content focuses on increased income, but what caught my ear when I learned about the book in a segment on NPR, and what Hill himself insisted was a philosophy that could help people succeed in any line of work, and do and be anything they could imagine, was his saying:

Do not wait: the time will never be 'just right.' Start where you stand, and work whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.

That's my art life! I start where I stand in any given moment and work with whatever I've got.

I have to say, though, I hope to find 'better tools' tomorrow! Today I started playing with another one of my quick and quixotic cut-ups and just could not get into a groove.

Work in progress, work in progress.

work in progress
4x5"; unstretched canvas
working title: q&q cut-up #4

Q&Q Cut-Up #3

A quotation caught my eye at the library today, something 'prodigiously talented and successful musician' Leonard Bernstein evidently once said:

To achieve great things, two things are needed: 

a plan and not quite enough time.

My plan is to show up every day in my studio … and I never have quite enough time.

Perfect!

Way, way, way back on September 22, I started scribbling on a piece of 16x20" unstretched canvas with a PaperMate pencil, a grease pencil, pastel pencils, and a graphite crayon.

Working a few minutes at a time over the course of many of the days between then and now, I eventually cut the work in progress into eight pieces, one of which became the 'starting' point—so to speak—of today's completed painting.

Sleeping in the Room with the Drying Herbs
4x5"; pencil, pastel pencil, ink, and acrylic on unstretched canvas
abstract
2017

I love the softnesses and breathing space in this piece.

Unexpected, and as Expected

My day took an unexpected turn first thing this afternoon and I felt discombobulated, unfocused. I was off kilter internally and didn't feel sure I'd go to my studio.

Ha, ha!

Of course I went to my studio. What was I thinking? When did feeling sure ever have anything to do with studio time?

Pulled a third cut-up from my collection and ran with impulse and intuition.

Till tomorrow:

work in progress
4x5"; unstretched canvas
working title: q&q cut-up #3

Instead Of, 10/21/2017

Someone curious about my life as an artist might ask, You haven't always painted and blogged every day, have you?

Dotty: Nope.

Curious: So, that must take considerable time. There must be a whole bunch of ways you used to fill your time that you now don't?

Dotty: Ya got that right. Let me count the ways!

---

Holy mackerel. There are so many things I don't do that I might if I weren't painting.

Today (post written 10/21), for example, instead of vacuuming our lemon-drop-yellow room for guests, I fiddle around with a second q&q cut-up.

Instead of writing lesson plans, I rummage through accumulated paper to explore a collage idea.

Instead of loading the dishwasher, I get out matte medium and a brush.

Instead of rounding up supplies to make a photo display for Jay and Christine's wedding celebration, I now sit on my front porch in warm October afternoon sunlight writing this post, while a dozen wild turkeys walk from our neighbor's yard into ours.

Here's the cut-up I selected:

Here's a tease of my exploration with collage:

OK, off to the lemon-drop room.

Q&Q Cut-Up #1

On a deliciously warm sunny October day, I sneak a little studio time to bring my first quick & quixotic cut-up to completion.

When first extracted from the 16x20" whole, as a 4x5" part, it looked like this:

Now it looks like this:

Surface, Sky, Whirlpool, Wave
4x5", acrylic, ink, collage, and oil pastel on canvas,
mounted on manila card stock
abstract
2017
[gift]

Liar, Liar!

Confession: after I posted yesterday, I did pick up a brush and play for a short while after all.

Started fiddling around with one of my quick & quixotic cut-ups.

I see potential in two orientations.

work in progress
4x5"; unstretched canvas
working title: q&q cut-up #1

work in progress
4x5"; unstretched canvas
working title: q&q cut-up #1
opposite end up

Not only that, but also … you will recall all the horizontal surfaces that were cleared off yesterday. Today they're covered with everything entailed in my mounting photos on matte board for a display at J&C's wedding celebration on Saturday. Paper trimmer, matte board, backing paper, scissors, ruler, pens, pencil, matte medium, brushes, photos, scraps, boxes: you name it, it's taken up residence.

Quick & Quixotic 8

I haven't strayed at all from the quick, capricious, unpredictable, only-have-few-minutes-to-paint modus operandi that has characterized the unfolding of this current work in progress from day #1 back in late September. 

And, in keeping with that modus operandi, looky what took place in my studio today as I followed an impulse and made a split-second decision …

work in progress
8 4x5" and 2 2x8" pieces of unstretched canvas
working title: quick & quixotic cut-ups

Quick & Quixotic 7

Have I mentioned that Jay and Christine's wedding celebration is taking place in ten days?

So exciting—such a happy, busy time for this mother of the groom!

Again today, I grab just a few minutes to paint. I'm so glad for those few quick minutes of capricious unpredictable adventuring in a day otherwise filled mostly with tasks requiring the services of my left brain.

Love the transformation that took place on my bit of unstretched canvas!

work in progress
12x16"; unstretched canvas
working title: quick & quixotic 7

A few spectacular detail photos—look at these volunteer compositions:

Quick & Quixotic 6

Yesterday, at the top of my list of intentions for today, I wrote this: decide early in day what my focus will be during afternoon studio time.

Bright and early this morning I saw that note to myself and went into my studio to look at Quick & Quixotic to see where I might want to go with it this afternoon.

Twenty or so minutes later, I wiped off my paint brush, screwed the lid back on my matte medium, and surveyed where I did go with that work in progress … first thing in the morning!

work in progress
12x16"; unstretched canvas
working title: Quick and Quixotic 6

---

Memory refresher—Q&Q last seen 11 days ago looking like this:

Quick & Quixotic 5

Did I know I was anywhere near a shore?

Did I have any inkling I might be shoved out to sea?

Well, nothing for it but to float, to yield to the gift of buoyancy.

work in progress
12x16"; unstretched canvas
working title: Quick and Quixotic 5

---

Dave and I are off to Virginia and West Virginia for the coming week to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Quick & Quixotic will not be joining us on this holiday.

I will bring a tiny art kit, and I do plan to paint. Won't know about wifi and blogging till I'm in situ.

Quick & Quixotic 4

Ground cover is holding steady, but I've traveled the byways away from town. Telephone poles become a fading mental image as I approach open skyscape.



The limitless great beyond lightens as day advances.

work in progress
12x16"; unstretched canvas
working title: Quick and Quixotic 4