The Sweep

When I lived in the Netherlands, the folks in my neighborhood in the Hague swept their front paths and the sidewalk space in front of their homes regularly, with purpose and pride, keeping those walkways fresh, clean, and inviting.

So it is when I sleep. In the night, great sweeping takes place. The tracks of one day are swept away. I wake to the fresh, clean, inviting spaciousness of a new day and step into it.

Today, already—

a walk before dawn, 

rain pattering on my umbrella, 

a vast puddle, deeper than perceived, that only gets deeper as I aim to step out of it!,

nascent Japanese maple leaves kissing brand-new dogwood blossoms in Betty's shade garden,

the tying of red ribbon around a gift,

the sweet-tart pop of blueberries for breakfast.

We Are Going to Start Dealing With Feelings

by Deciding, Once and for All, To Just Do It

1.75 x 5" bookmark; acrylic, ink, and collage
abstract
2021

Psalm Sequitur

Look what falls into my lap while poking around a file for something else today:

“I once knew this little girl,” 

Father Barry was saying, 

“who had to do a reading in church. 

She’d memorized the Twenty-third Psalm. 

And she got up, 

all confidence, 

and she began, 

‘The Lord is my shepherd ...’ 

And she was stuck. 

She tried again. 

‘The Lord is my shepherd ...’ 

And she couldn’t remember another thing. 

And so she just looked out 

at the congregation 

and said, 

‘Well, that’s enough for now.’ 

And that, I think, 

is going to have to be the way 

we all approach this ...”

The words of that little excerpt from Jacquelyn Mitchard's A Theory of Relativity turn out to be just the right words for me, right here, right now.

bookmark

Mark Making

The Bible is a collection of religious texts sacred to Christians, Jews, and others. It contains 66 books, one of which is the book of Psalms. 

The book of Psalms contains 150 Psalms, one of which is Psalm 23.

Psalm 23 consists of six verses, the last of which rose to the surface of my mind several days ago in reference to my writing about mondegreens.

Yesterday, words from Psalm 23, line 5—my cup runneth over—came to my attention in a text message from my daughter.

Psalm 23 is thought to have been written some three thousand years ago (three thousand!), in Hebrew, by King David of Israel, though most of what is known of David comes from biblical literature, the historical authenticity of which is uncertain. There is little detail about David that is concrete and undisputed by historians.

But someone felt called to create, to put into form, and to share this sacred song, without knowing if or how making the marks of it would 'make a mark,' so to speak.

And so it is with all of us; we are called to create, called to make marks. 

I Shall Not Want
4.5 x 5.25" postcard; acrylic and ink on paper
abstract floral
2021

Where Would I Be?

Where would I be without books? 

Without marks? 

Without bookmarks? 

If You Listen, I'll Tell You a Story
1.75 x 5" bookmark; acrylic, latex, pencil, and collage
abstract
2021

Grow A Pansome

As a child my mom was admonished, through a school child's rhyme sung to the tune of Frère Jacques, to maintain a straight spine. The lyrics as she recalled them:

Perfect posture, perfect posture,

Do not slump, do not slack,

You must grow a pansome, you must grow up pretty,

Do not slump, watch your back.

Um … grow a pansome?

Indeed, grow up handsome!

This was my first exposure to what is referred to as a mondegreen, a misheard lyric or line of poetry for which the brain supplies a substitution, usually one that alters meaning or is nonsensical.

A broader term for misheard words or phrases, also filled in with substitutions but in this case usually applied to those that retain their original meanings, is the term eggcorn. A few examples, substitution on left, original language on right:

eggcorn/acorn,

doggy-dog/dog-eat-dog, and

hare's breath/hair's breadth.

I never tire of such language tom-foolery! I lost myself online today enjoying many belly laughs!

But surely good Mrs. Murphy* shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

For All Intensive Porpoises
1.75 x 6" bookmark; acrylic, ink, and collage
abstract
2021

* Surely goodness and mercy … (Psalm 23:6)

I Pick Up This Little

Even though I wake 

feeling hemmed in 

and crowded by 

the schedule of tasks 

enumerated for the day, 

I choose to lengthen my spine

and open my heart.

I pick up this little 

rectangle of paper, 

with its mark-making 

and light washes of color, 

place a paint pen in my hand,

begin to make new marks,

add more color,

and step completely out of 

time into 

grand spaciousness.

Be Joyful Though You Have Considered All the Facts
4.5 x 5.5" postcard; acrylic and ink on paper
abstract floral
2021

All By

Today I'm mindful of my older granddaughter Caroline's former oft-used toddler assertion of independence, all by! 

In cahoots, I think, with the same part of me that wanted to assert its independence yesterday, All-By yammers at me this morning. I go to my studio again with the idea of creating a multi-layered intuitive organic piece on paper from which I'll cut found compositions to use as postcards. My thought is to start with random mark-making.

All-By gets her own idea and wrests the paper from me insisting, all by! What emerges is of course not at all what I'd planned but I put up no resistance. All-By wanders from spot to spot in the house adding snippets of blind contour drawing and patches of doodles. Ends up with this:

work in progress,
9 x 12"; blind contour and doodles on paper

All-By looks at me; I look at All-By. 

All-By keeps the reins. No way is she going to add layers that cover the blind contour mark-making. Cut this into six rectangles, she states. Then go outdoors for a walk. I've got this.

Pulling Out a Slim Volume of Poetry
4 x 5.5" postcard; acrylic and ink on paper,
mounted on card stock
abstract floral
2021