Never a dull moment

ART: I’ve lost track of time. I postponed my departure date by 2 days and would have kept postponing it except I had to get back to clean my studio space for a visit with a class from the Skirball Museum next Wednesday. Twenty people. My 4-person show opens at Brand in two weeks. I install next weekend. Right now as I’m precomposing this on an airplane, on my way back from Nashville.

LIFE: The flood was surreal. It just kept pouring down rain. No sudden earthquake, No tornado coming in and out, though there were a few watches and warnings- just torrential rains that did not stop for 2 days. There was a small reprieve of maybe an hour or so between storms. My mom was in the hospital during the deluge, so I went to see her during the day. It was totally trippy to see brown water cascading through the neighborhoods on my way over. They said it was a 500-year flood. Epic. 13 inches of rainfall in 2 days. Four counties in middle Tennessee were declared as a disaster area. I have no idea  the extent of it. I didn't have power for a few days and the internet won't be ready until next week. At one point I considered firing up a candleabrum and reading a 1920's dictionary I found, but I had to muster through the clean-up, which in my special case was not flood-related.

No one I know had flood insurance. My mom’s house suffered only minor damage-a small part of the driveway was torn up a bit and the garage flooded from all the water being channeled through. I think that was the weirdest thing- seeing the water cut it's own path, and watching nature do its thing. The basement flooded, but it’s just a crawl space. I wouldn’t go in there with a ten-foot pole even on a good day. Inside the house, a few leaks,  the house is old and hasn’t been updated, so I feel fortunate that nothing major happened. The creepiest thing was seeing water fill up the large duct of the central ac unit. I got a little paranoid that it would keep filling up and something would swim in the house in the middle of the night, but it receded after a couple of days.  So did the pool. I saw something swimming in the pool. I couldn't tell what it was. My first guess was a miniature loch ness monster- it had a little head that resembled what I imagine a loch ness monster head would look like. but then I went on to either snake or turtle. Mom suggested a chipmunk. If that was the case, I don't think he made it. I absent-mindedly poured myself two cups of coffee one day. I walked palindrome dog in the rain and cleared out a bunch of junk that had been saved over the years. I also saved a bunch of junk that had been saved over the years. Everybody needs an emergency packrat kit, no? It's genetic. I worry. I've sufficiently harassed every nurse and doctor I can to make sure my mom gets proper care. I felt a small sense of accomplishment today when the physician in charge of her case offered his cell phone number to me and said I could call him. I feel better.
I'm auctioning off my 11" x 14" paintings from the ITBICDT project and will donate 50% of all proceeds to The Community Foundation's Disaster Relief Fund to help victims recover from flood damage. http://tinyurl.com/BNAflood 

I added some more strokes to the painting from a few weeks ago. It's back to being a pool. It's still in progress. Obviously.