Monday, October 29, 2007

Glad to be wrong...

I did in fact have a picture hidden away in my wedding pictures from July, and I am TOTALLY okay with being mistaken. A few months late getting to the post (she was born in June, RIGHT before the wedding), but she's still a total cutie. The most recent addition to my side of the family, Ms. Devin. 'Bout the same size as Li'l Green. Cute, girlie & precious.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Speaking of works of art...

The latest addition to my heartstrings, Lilliana Green, or as I'm calling her, Li'l Green, held in the arms of a beaming mother Mattie. Have you seen those little baby dolls at Wally World- the ones that are supposed to look like newborns, with their closed eyes and soft features? That's EXACTLY what Li'l Green looks like.

My sister in Houston also recently had a baby- li'l Devin- but as I still have no pictures of her, I can't brag on her via my blog. Hint hint...

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Latest painting


Progress on my most recent painting. I'm really, really liking this one. It's the oil pastel picture done in acrylics, and I'm liking this version much better.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Sycamore

11 October 2007, 8:14 AM

It hurts an awful lot, and howls,
when the wind picks up and the bark
grows thick; the bite, sharp.
It’s hard to feel much through the layers
of dead brown, pealing away. One has to trust
the next layer will be closer to sage-
otherwise (or even so) there’s suffering to be had,
and tears, with age. Wisdom comes thus.

She keeps on,

though at times she thinks she’d be grateful
if some wood-wanderer would finally
fell her so she wouldn’t have to fight anymore
to reveal her skin, wouldn’t have to struggle so
to see the inward rage- separate the present
from the past; gentle rain from pelting fires of hell.
She’d failed to hope they could not last forever.

Monday, October 08, 2007

Front Door


Now and again, creativity spikes, and given the proper context, the artist thrives. It seems my dip into oil pastels has inspired another bout of creative activity. Behold, the Front Door.

It's not yet complete (I say that about every painting, and then I hang it on the wall- or in the hole in the front of my house...), but I'm very happy with how it's coming along. The original design is straight from my Beloved's brain, using my imagery and throwing in some new symbols that are particularly meaningful to us both.

Friday, October 05, 2007

Sigh

16 October 2006, 11:05 PM
Found this in a document on my computer and realized I'd never posted it. Did you answer honestly the last time someone asked you how you were doing?

A sigh, a smile, a sigh
again- subtle- so subtle
one might miss

the smile displayed to ward away
curiosity, concern, callousness.

The smile gives credence
to the lie, paying homage
to subtle insincerities contained
in daily scripts every human being knows
regardless of the language of his heart-
self-defeating, foolish art.

Sidewalk Chalk

5 October 2007, 9:12 AM
"As in all sweetest music, a tinge of sadness was in every note. Nor do we know how much of the pleasures even of life we owe to the intermingled sorrows. Joy cannot unfold the deepest truths, although deepest truth must be deepest joy. Cometh white-robed Sorrow, stooping and wan, and flingeth wide the doors she may not enter. Almost we linger with Sorrow for very love." George MacDonald, Phantastes

Rain falls softly, washing
the concrete as efficiently
as a pounding storm. Sidewalk chalk
is a messy medium- crumbles and smears
skin and clothing with little or no pressure
or provocation. But the rain,

the wild and wonderful rain sends colors
running like tears down the driveway.
I watch them go, lingering with Sorrow
for very love.

Language, Music & the Enigma of the Mind

I read an article comparing syntax and memorized word meanings to harmonic rules and memorized melodies. The author, reporting findings from a scientific experiment, was excited about the research, as the findings imply a link between brain activity required to process syntax and harmonic rules (concrete thought) and brain activity required to process language memorization and melody memorization (abstract thought). He went on further to state his interest in how those findings relate to the idea of abstract vs. concrete gender difference theory. Fascinating.

The link between language and music is fascinating to me, and I think it exists. I wonder also if the same applies (actually- I think it does apply) to color theory and its application to artistic creativity. Our brains have a plethora of communication possibilities from which to choose, and it validates my experience over the last few years to see someone draw a link between linguistic communication and musical expression, so that I can now extrapolate out and see the same truth applying to the creative work I've been doing.

What really fascinates me is how some people, completely untrained, can intuit the abstract side of whatever communicative medium in which they tend to express themselves, sometimes without a lick of concrete, explicit training or understanding of the theory involved, and they can create profoundly meaningful and beautiful works of art. I knew a man once who couldn't read music at all, but he could sit down at the piano and improvise as if the piano were an extension of himself. What does that mean? The mind is such a fascinating enigma.

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Yet another medium...


I learned tonight why one might prefer oil pastels to soft pastels- my WORD, soft pastels are HARD to work with. But I enjoyed myself. This one's a bit redundant, though, being basically the same idea as the last oil pastel. But I like it, and wanted to post it, since my Beloved seems to be the poet in the family these days- he just uploaded a book of poems at lulu this evening. Take a look.

Another oil pastel, the message of which is much the same as the last one, though more abstract. But I guess it's all so ambiguous to someone on the outside looking in, one can insert one's own meaning. That's one of the reasons I love art and poetry so much- the ability to communicate self, and at the same time allow another self to find him/herself in the same image, if the reader is open to the experience.

Monday, October 01, 2007

New Medium



Update: I took a digital shot of this with my Beloved's camera, and now it is displayed in its correct orientation.

I'm learning something about oil pastels, and reliving childhood cutting and pasting with Elmer's glue. The tear, the sun, the sun rays, and the baseball bat are all separate drawings, cut and glued onto the background. I'm not done with this one yet, but I'm really liking it.

Sketch



Well, the image is reversed, which probably means the oil pastel one will be too. I took both pictures on my Mac, and it takes a mirror image. So imagine, if you will, the image above *flipped*. I know you can do it.

George MacDonald

"Home is ever so far away in the palm of your hand, and how to get there it is of no use to tell you. But you will get there; you must get there; you have to get there. Everybody who is not at home, has to go home."

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