Art Therapy

Last week, my cat subjected me to an experience that has left deep psychic damage.  (No, I'm not kidding.) Long story short, I arrived on the scene too late to save the adorable tiny mouse.  Percy had already had her way with it, and it looked highly unlikely that the little thing would make it, even if I did try to save it.  The thing that has etched itself on my memory is that the brave little critter stood on its hind legs and looked directly into Percy's uncompassionate eyes, and seemed to plead for its life--as if to say "aw c'mon man, give me a break".  I'm not kidding, that little thing summoned such bravery to stand up and confront her tormentor instead of run.  My heart exploded at once, and tears sprang out and I ran back into the house.  A few minutes later I went back out and sure enough, the deed was done.

I was upset for days afterwards, could not shake the image out of my head.  Or heart.  That "look" in the eyes of that tiny animal has haunted me, and I continue to ponder why it affected me so deeply.  Yesterday I went into the studio for some "art therapy", painting this experience from my tortured memory, and that is today's image.  It would be a 20-minuter, but it only took 12.

To end on a happier note, I am reminded of a book I ran across recently called Unlikely Friendships, by Jennifer S. Holland.  What a heart warmer; use the "look inside" on Amazon, I bet you'll enjoy it a lot more than what I have just described.

Moral of the story:  "Can't we all just get along?"

Ode to the artichoke.

I've been writing some poetry again, sometimes inspired by something I read, or a brief thought just mushrooms (or should I say "artichoke"s?!) into a longer treatise.  This is the second season for my artichoke plants, and they (supposedly) shouldn't have produced so many already, but boy are they delicious!   Well, this poem just popped out one morning; my ode to the artichoke.  And so today I thought to do an illustration to go with it.  Actually, I should have read the poem again, beforehand, because the painting is not nearly as sensuous as the poem.  But it will do for now; I'm including the preliminary value study sketch, because I think it helped this 20-minuter.
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The artichoke

The artichoke has thistles
That protect its sacred heart
But it still gives up its sweetness
When its simmering leaves part.

And now the summer stalks us
Like a lover in heat
Yearning to ripen every fruit
So that berry and lips can meet.

Put your zorries on, my love
I'll take you out to see
These stems of summer wonder
That stand erect and free.

The vines will part for us,
the ground beneath lies cool,
And your roots can sink
              for a long deep drink
from the earth's dark jewel.

m.k.e.  (poem started 6/24/12; finished 7/6/12)

Photoshop "gets it"!

I am not going to post all of the 20-min. paintings, and am reluctant to post this one, but it's the first one I've done since I commenced reading Charles Hawthorne's Hawthorne on Painting.  He talks about not thinking about drawing--rather to focus on putting one blob of color up against the next, and let the drawing take care of itself.  That if you get the color values right, the thing will draw itself (loosely paraphrased).  Well I used the paint leftovers from a class assignment to do this (which meant I was doomed at the start, 'cus I didn't have the right color values).  So that's the bottom pic.  Then I ran it through some P'shop filters, and liked one of those versions (top pic) much better.  Ha!  Now I want to paint the garage that color!!

My pricey collages... heh heh!

I have neglected to mention that I am trekking out to the Rock Creek campus again, for the summer session Color Theory class.  I doubt that I'll post much from this, since there's not much to see... just mixing up lots of paint to see if I can get my eyes to see color in terms of values.  Grey scale:  no problem (well, not much).  But what value is that color?  Beats the heck out of me!  Anyway, our first assignment was to do a couple of collages.  One was to focus on balance; the other on focal point.  (And already I forget what this had to do with color.)  I liked these efforts, and decided to post 'em after all, because....

I recently visited a gallery in which there were a number of collages, made out of cut out magazine pieces, for sale for about $1500. ea.  I like mine better, but hey--I'd part with them for that price!  lol

Texting in Paris

Feeling slow and uninspired to work on the AoB painting (for submission Thursday!), I thought I'd start with a 20-minuter.  Yes, this captured the components I'd prioritized in initial assessment.  Felt better, and also realized.... I don't have to be excited about what I'm working on now (i.e., whatever the main "actual" work-in-progress is)... I can get reinvigorated by where my work is headed.  If nothing else, it's good to have this speed-painting trick "in my back pocket".  Forever indebted to Prof. Andres.