June 30, 2005

"Peaceful Getaway"
12:17am

I felt in the mood to play with color and form, so this 'automatic' drawing resulted:

July 2, 2005

"Artful Forms"
9:26am

Feeling mildly glum, I found myself pleasantly distracted by observing the delicate form of Julia's favorite teapot:

This fascination led to an attempt to draw it:

However, I'm not sure how to convey the design upon the pot, so the photograph remains to display that.

I find this quote interesting:

"All my life I've looked at words as though I were seeing them for the first time." --Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), U.S. author. Letter, 9 April 1945 (published in Selected Letters, ed. by Carlos Baker, 1981)

I could just as well say, "All my life I've looked at the world around me as though I were seeing it for the first time." Color and form fascinate me, and I never grow tired of my visual impressions.

I like this phrase from Old Grey Poet:

"Small canvas or not, I used my big brushes, and a pallette knife, looking for the freedom of a loose, smack-it-on approach as a counter to the heads-down delicacy of the miniatures. It's a long, long time since I took this approach and, while strange, I found the whole thing enormously liberating."

"SMACK IT ON!" I say.

My mood has improved considerably.

When I think about the two quotes, as the one originally about writing can be transformed to one about visual art making, so can the one about tactile art making be turned into one about writing. The blank page can also be viewed as a canvas, and as we form our ideas upon it, we can sketch broadly, slapping the words on, smacking them on with lively mental strokes.

July 3, 2005

"Used"
7:52am

The Photo Friday weekly challenge is "USED". Right off the top of my head, all I could think of were this morning's used tea leaves:

Julia said, "Make sure you mention that's DARJEELING leaves!"

They made a decent tasting tea, which I'm sipping as I type. Other commemorated USED stuff comes to mind. There are my sad sunglasses which did manage to last fifteen years:

But my favorite image is a drawing of my old sandal, with its broken strap:

These things have served me, and served well.

July 4, 2005

"Staying Cool"
5:34pm

I've spent the Fourth entirely inside, except for when I did the laundry early this morning. It's just too hot )109°F /43°C)! Too hot! Yesterday Julia and I did emerge to see "War of the Worlds". Quite intense it was, I screamed more than once. And just when I thought people were about to become nothing but alien-food...

...I'll just say we won.

I am so happy to report that I got the Met Museum gallery done. I thought about making thumbnails for each of the photos, but no, I think I'll pass this time. This evening I will relax and try to be far from the computer. As a matter of fact, I think I'll cut this entry short. Have a Happy Fourth, have a happy fifth, have a happy NOW!

Think it's time to put away some CDs?