40 days

These are about 8 x 5 foot each, originally painted darker for the 40 days of Lent for a church sanctuary, then brightened up for Easter. Probably the biggest canvases I've done yet.  I've been pondering new 8 x 5 ' ideas so the analogue days for these pictures are numbered.  

Invisible

   Today I was thinking that writing a blog is like having an imaginary friend.  And why do people...ok, mostly kids...invent these anyway?  My first born was an only child for 8 plus years, and she had Junie, who was quiet but game for anything.  There were other friends she could see, but for a few years these weren't enough.

   Invisible friends are like instant coffee but much better.  They are good listeners. They are interested in everything we are. And they have unlimited attention spans. Kind of like...blogs...

   To wrap up the imaginary friends topic, below are two cartoons I've had on my fridge for years. They still make me laugh.

                             "Can Jennifer's imaginary friend come out and play?"

                     "At some point, the invisible friend thing spun out of control."

Rolling Stones Bob Dylan Special

    This week I've been reading the Rolling Stones magazine special edition on Bob Dylan (40 years of interviews) before I pass it on to an at least equally interested friend.  Realized today that my mother was born the same year as Bob.  Funny thing is, both my parents lived through the 60's, 70's, 80's...well, until now, without mentioning him or any popular artists of those decades to us kids.  Actually, there was one exception.  I remember our family driving in the Swiss Alps, listening to radio news when my Mother exclaimed in shock that Elvis Presley (whom I'd never heard of till then) had died.

     To me it's like there were other continents they never mentioned or the world being round but I had to find out 2 decades later than everyone else.  Baffling.  Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever catch up.

A Cure for Gravity

I found this book randomly at the library and am a third of the way through.  Not offering opinions on Joe Jackson's music because I haven't consciously heard it, but I'm searching for worthy adjectives for his writing.

The back of the book says,"Honest, funny, wise and inspiring; tells you more about music and the love of music than a shelf-full of textbooks." Still not adequate.

For me it's a feast for my funny bone and my word bone if I have one.

From my reading so far here are some quotes:

pg. 75 "This pub not only had a piano but..a 1902 Blechstein...which had lain dormant, like a volcano, for many years."

pg. 81 "My Mother was fixated on the idea that I should become a music teacher....I told her I'd rather be boiled in oil."

pg. 108  "...none of us could cook.  Jude tried; she battled tragically with the kitchen."

pg. 114  "The Big Time..was a place where you might become more, rather than less, vulnerable."

pg. 114, 115  "Music was more than just a hobby and more than just a job.  I was in this for keeps, no matter how vulnerable I might feel..."

pg. 115 "Critics...one thing we cannot afford to let a critic be is a guiding light.  An artist who lets critics make his decisions for him is doomed."

Grunewald Guild

Grunewald is an Arts Guild in Washington state which hosts retreats and courses.  I just got to spend a few days there. The property has studios for pottery, weaving, glass arts, print arts and more.  Art is everywhere on campus.  Volunteers can help out on the property in exchange for taking classes.  Permanent staff fill multiple roles and guest artisans and teachers join them from time to time.  

Above is the buffet counter in the communal dining area with a thickly textured plaster wall.  Below is facing the kitchen and self serve hot beverage area.  Each post was painted.  Behind the closest post is a small coffee table with a mosaic top.  Dining tables were covered in colorful fabrics and guests picked one of a kind cloth serviettes for their meals.  Many cups and bowls had been made on site in the pottery studio. Meals were hearty, earthy and delicious.

Below is the central meeting area surrounded by shelves full of art books and created things.  Lofts above either side were piled with over sized cushions. The guild's core value is hospitality and is modeled after the Benedictine monastic order.  For group sessions candles covered most surfaces and the wood stove burned in the evenings.

A view over the dormant garden to the library building in the trees. Nice bit of architectural salvage in the fence.

The back wall of the central building with more architectural salvage from an old church and pottery chimes hanging over the back porch on long cords.

 The guild library with stained glass windows.  One wall of books was devoted to spirituality.  A medium sized section held fiction and the rest was overflowing with books on creativity and art.

A very large painting in the stairwell of the building where I stayed.  Interesting dripped paint effect.

                              These stained glass windows were in bathrooms/restrooms.

      A large window in the central lounge/meeting area, sometimes obscured by a power point screen when art images were being shown.

The people we met on staff and at the retreat were as varied as the artwork everywhere, as were their philosophies of life.  An inspiring but also mentally and spiritually challenging stay.

Ron Findley: Guerrila Gardener

                   Ron says gardening is his graffiti and his art.   His inner city gardens transform the lives of neighbors on multiple levels.  "Food is the problem and the solution."  "If kids plant kale, they eat kale."

Outdoor painting experiment

           So, I thought I'd try painting outdoors like people in books or movies about artists.  Had 5 canvases to fill for a children's classroom.  The nice thing about being outside was catching some rare late February sunshine and not worrying about dripping paint.  Less appealing was discovering how many bugs like wet paint.  Especially black for some reason.  Camouflage?