January 24, 2011

New Works. The Watercolors of 2011. Tentatively titled, "Blades of Grass."

No idea how many will be in this series. Range of size may vary. There is no horizon line. They are neither intentionally landscape nor decidedly portrait. They are an attempt at meditative abstraction, unfettered by the constraints of the secular world. They are clusters, maybe explosions, maybe implosions. They contain no narrative other than a record of their own making. They might be lies. I was going to title the suite, Blades of Grass, because the phrase popped into my head just as I was thinking about how titling them would be like naming individual blades of grass. I also want them to be elusive. Once I finish painting them, it's the viewer's turn. 

I was even move convinced Blades of Grass would be the title of the suite later that evening after my I-Ching reading was, Chun/Difficulty at the Beginning. The literal translation of "chun" is "a blade of grass pushing against an obstacle as it sprouts out of the earth." Quite apropos. These are the small acts of timing that make me think there might be some kind of order to my universe. I still might end up titling them, secretly, just for my own amusement, but on the other hand, I want to pretend I am the viewer too. 


^ Though not part of the series, it was the icebreaker. 

* * *

Introducing the new suite of watercolors.............












More to come.

January 22, 2011

Briefly,

An anonymous person left this on my door, which rather creeped me out. It's a piece of Jehovah's Witness literature, but from someone with only adequate cutting and folding skills. 



I had a small appliance fire this evening. For no reason, a table lamp burst into flames and then extinguished itself. Both the socket and the bulb base were charred. It still smells funny. 

January 21, 2011

Choo Choo Choose Me.






Today was the preliminary look through and meeting. Got keys, parking pass and building pass. Counting the bathroom compartment, I think there's a total of 4 or 5 compartments. One of the most gut-wrenching decisions I have to make will be whether to take the coffee or espresso machine. Assuming there's wi-fi, I have a feeling community video coffee break will be back under a new and improved name of course. It was a good meeting. I'm looking forward to this.

The revelations, they just keep coming.

Art stuff first.
I'm most definitely working on a new series of watercolors and gouache. They're gelling. Abstract, beautiful, beautiful, abstract. And by beautiful, I mean relatively pure conceptually. There is no horizon line, no landscape or portrait. They are clusters, maybe explosions, maybe implosions. Titling my watercolors has always felt a bit wrong, like I'd be wasting a perfectly good title on a painting that needs no title. It would be like naming blades of grass, which just now reminded me of Whitman's Leaves of Grass, so perhaps my series will be titled Blades of Grass.  Plus the title factory gets irritable when they feel pressured to perform just for the sake of appearances. With few exceptions I've never titled a series prior to actually making the work, probably because I never consider myself to work serially, but for now, I'm going with Blades of Grass.

Someone noticed a similarity in my watercolors and the watercolors of Ann Ropp, which when I first hit the link, was like looking into a mirror, especially for some of my 2003 wc's. You, can tell by the washes that our initial process is similar. It's a response to the paper and the pigment. That's why watercolor is so meditative for me. It's the fluidity of movement, along with the subtle perception of pigment meeting paper and water that I find so engaging. And by engaging, I mean obsessively sucking me into a void where I cancel out the rest of the world. The materials lead me. The decisions I make aren't really mine. I follow along, following cues. It's all very poetic stuff until I get to the gouache stage. At that point, I begin navigating deeper more troubled waters and eventually wander off-road, so to speak.

Moving onto things in the life category. I am officially single. The news was confirmed in an email last night. Perhaps you may be thinking this is way too personal to be blogging about at large, especially for an art blog, but it's all about connections. Since I wasn't going to pop open a bottle of champers, I thought FB would be a simple and benign way to mark the occasion. For the most part it was, save for a RL friend who noted that it was sad news, but at least it was over. That hit me like a brick. The last 2 years were weighted with sadness, and I was looking at the news of my official singleness as being a ray of sunshine on what had been a rather bleak landscape.

I then realized that perhaps the psychic I went to in my early twenties had it just about right, though she was off by one marriage. I don't remember much of what she told me, but I do remember quite distinctly that she said my first marriage ended in death. Then without missing a beat, she went on to say a thing or two about my second marriage. I was so relieved to know that at least I had made it to another marriage, that I never asked details about the death. I informed my first husband of this ominous tale during our very brief partnership, which I suppose for good reason always had him a bit freaked out. We divorced, he lived, and I assume he's still going strong some 15 years later. But the second marriage did indeed end in death: first his parents, then my mom, and as I found out a few weeks ago, my lawyer's mother, as well. All in all, four deaths during the course of a 2-year divorce. So yes, I'm pretty happy to be single again and feel as though the news of my singleness is most definitely a cause for celebration for all parties involved.

January 20, 2011

Yet, another revelation

For the most part, I consider myself fairly normal. I have a few minor eccentricities, but I'm not the kind who flips out if I don't open the blinds before I make the bed or visaversa. Since moving back here though, I've developed one glaring obsession: I listen to my NOAA clock radio (it was already a fixture in the house) weather report incessantly every morning, after which I move on to check the weather report online, scanning the forecast for the hourly conditions. I began doing this as soon as the temps dropped below 25. I believe my legitimate concern was to figure out what time of day would be the warmest time of day to run, especially when the temps dropped below 20. Then it just became an obsession. But now, NOW, I give you a reason for hope....I discovered the forecast page where I can see the future. I can handle this winter thing, knowing there's an end in sight.

This is February: It doesn't look so bad. Check it. One month from now, it might be 67 degrees. I can already imagine my giddiness when that day arrives.


SundayMondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFridaySaturday

Jan 31

Actual Temp

38° Lo 10°

Hist. Avg

47° Lo 28°

Feb 1

Actual Temp

43° Lo 17°

Hist. Avg

48° Lo 29°

2

Actual Temp

47° Lo 34°

Hist. Avg

48° Lo 29°

3

Actual Temp

46° Lo 34°

Hist. Avg

48° Lo 29°

4

Actual Temp

43° Lo 32°

Hist. Avg

48° Lo 29°

5

Actual Temp

45° Lo 39°

Hist. Avg

49° Lo 29°

6

Actual Temp

39° Lo 30°

Hist. Avg

49° Lo 29°

7

Actual Temp

34° Lo 22°

Hist. Avg

49° Lo 29°

8

Actual Temp

35° Lo 22°

Hist. Avg

49° Lo 30°

9

Actual Temp

35° Lo 21°

Hist. Avg

50° Lo 30°

10

Actual Temp

35° Lo 21°

Hist. Avg

50° Lo 30°

11

Actual Temp

37° Lo 20°

Hist. Avg

50° Lo 30°

12

Actual Temp

35° Lo 24°

Hist. Avg

51° Lo 30°

13

Actual Temp

36° Lo 28°

Hist. Avg

51° Lo 31°

14

Actual Temp

38° Lo 31°

Hist. Avg

51° Lo 31°

15

Actual Temp

37° Lo 22°

Hist. Avg

51° Lo 31°

16

Actual Temp

30° Lo 22°

Hist. Avg

52° Lo 31°

17

Actual Temp

39° Lo 23°

Hist. Avg

52° Lo 32°

18

Actual Temp

49° Lo 24°

Hist. Avg

52° Lo 32°

19

Actual Temp

52° Lo 23°

Hist. Avg

53° Lo 32°

20

Actual Temp

62° Lo 27°

Hist. Avg

53° Lo 32°

21

Actual Temp

67° Lo 34°

Hist. Avg

53° Lo 33°

22

Actual Temp

51° Lo 37°

Hist. Avg

54° Lo 33°

23

Actual Temp

37° Lo 33°

Hist. Avg

54° Lo 33°

24

Actual Temp

36° Lo 24°

Hist. Avg

54° Lo 33°

25

Actual Temp

39° Lo 21°

Hist. Avg

55° Lo 34°

26

Actual Temp

45° Lo 20°

Hist. Avg

55° Lo 34°

27

Actual Temp

49° Lo 26°

Hist. Avg

55° Lo 34°

28

Actual Temp

45° Lo 32°

Hist. Avg

55° Lo 35°

Mar 1

Actual Temp

45° Lo 29°

Hist. Avg

56° Lo 35°

2

Actual Temp

43° Lo 34°

Hist. Avg

56° Lo 35°

3

Actual Temp

36° Lo 31°

Hist. Avg

57° Lo 36°

4

Actual Temp

51° Lo 30°

Hist. Avg

57° Lo 36°

5

Actual Temp

51° Lo 24°

Hist. Avg

57° Lo 36°

6

Actual Temp

56° Lo 23°

Hist. Avg

58° Lo 37°

It's over.

Nov 7, 2020. Tears of joy and relief. It's been unreal and I'm ready to get back to a sense of normalcy. The desert has been tough.