September 20, 2011

I was so impressed with my selection of unmentionables today that I had to mention them

Something about wearing my Bulwark coveralls all day prompted me to go for plaid and chartreuse underneath, proving once again, it's what on the inside that counts.


I worked at the home studio today, out in the garage, since it wasn't flooding, sweltering or freezing. My only moment of distraction happened at the very beginning when I thought about swapping the boring but very functional Bombay Company desk in my office, for the antique writing table that's been haphazardly stored frozen in time for the last 60 years. I didn't get very far with the swap. I opened the drawer to find it untouched from 1940 something. I won't bore you with a list of all the contents, but sheet music, typing ribbon tins, a newspaper headlining a flood, and an elegant brochure and dinner menu from some fancy-pants aviation dinner event my grandfather had attended were a few things I found.



I thumbed through the contents and set them aside and then started painting. I thought about how nicely illustrated things were back them. I thought more about this and decided that photography not only attempted to kill painting, but that it was responsible for the demise of a cultured society as well. The desk needs a little TLC. Since it's a writing desk it only has two drawers. I'm not sure if that will work for me in the office, so I also considered making it a paint table by adding another 4 inches and some casters. Either way, it was too much work for a studio day. The garage is dusty. I had to scrape down the palette on my existing paint table. I found myself getting irritated with the dog hair and lint that I was inadvertently dragging around the paintings and I'm not OCD, not really. Not much. Maybe sometimes. It was a good and productive studio day.

7 comments:

Kathy Hodge said...

I think puttering is an essential warm up to painting, especially if you've been out of the studio for awhile. I love ephemera from the past, and have inherited a lot from my family, but what to do with it?

Nomi Lubin said...

I hope your coveralls were accidentally unbuttoned enough to see underneath.

The found things are great.

Carla said...

Unbutton to waist and then go to Lowes.

It would be hard to resist the constant pull of all that history.

M.A.H. said...

Today's floor show brought to you by Home Depot, Victoria's Secret, and Gamblin.

Elaine Mari said...

I feel I should share this on fb with the comment, "Mary's underwear, nice". But no, I don't think I will.

Anonymous said...

Disclaimer: Not my undies; M. Thackston is a cross-dresser.

Elaine Mari said...

M. Thackston is my kinda guy.

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.