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Monthly Archives: January 2013

Birdness

January 11, 2013
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Today’s journal page is based on a photo of two of my ceramic birds, which in turn were based on vessels I threw on the potter’s wheel. There is something meta-ish about doing a drawing of a sculpture, but I also found it exciting to be intimately familiar with the forms I was drawing, having sculpted them: I could ignore the visual and enhance the tactile, and it would not ring false. I KNEW these birds.

Here is the page:

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And here is the photo it derives from, of my two bird sculptures:

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It’s plain to see I took great liberties with the image. I might have felt less free to do so were the sculptures someone else’s creation.

Music to the Dance, and Vice Versa

January 9, 2013
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At Glendale High School, in Glendale, Arizona, the band of choice for the Friday dance was The Factory, Their drum kit was painted psychedelicately, and looked great under black light. Their cover of “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” (Vanilla Fudge style, not Supremes style) was, no lie, EPIC.

And it still is, more than forty years later! Listening to them at the Glendale 100-year reunion, in December of 2011, was like a trip in the Way-Back Machine.

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Brighten Someone’s Darkness (Bright on Dark)

January 7, 2013
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My latest journal page is topped with “NOTE: If you can figure out what the letters stand for, this page may make sense.” Below that is a series of panels, each with a set of letters and something the letters are illustrating; and below that, in acrostic array, are these words:

Bees sting; scars form — it’s sad
Be strong they say — too bad
Right wrong/go stop/cop plea
Ruled out/on task/at sea
It’s tough to mend w/cheer
In times of melting fear
Gethsemane was stark
Gardena leaves a mark
How we best cope is known
Here ’tis: DON’T roll your own
Take givens in their stride
Toss acorns Far & Wide
Empathic ENTITIES
Need need’s array — it frees

One other word in square brackets, [also], is there.

Below the acrostic is my signature and date.

I so hope someone in the Blogoverse figures out what the letters stand for!

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Twofer: Bar-Tailed Godwit AND Wares Caught Unawares

January 6, 2013
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Ten minutes ago it was Yesterday, when I did a journal page on the Bar-Tailed Godwit, a bird with an incredible non-stop migratory range. Here is the page:

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Earlier, my lovely and lively Girlfriend, Denise, and I stopped by the Village Gallery, where my work is on display. I dusted, rearranged, and added a bowl and an odd tiny relief sculpture of a warped clothespin. Here I am standing beside my humble rack of wares, dustcloth in hand:Image

It was a good, restful day. Hope yours is the same!

 

Scrabble (Property of Hasbro) Solitaire

January 5, 2013
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My path to acrostic poetry began when I was twelve years old, and a Dell Crossword Puzzles book cost thirty-five cents. The book wasn’t all crossword puzzles. My favorite feature was Solicross, where they gave you a nine-by-nine grid and put a circle in one of the squares, blacked out three others, put point values on the rest, gave you a letter list, and let you go to town. It is quite similar to Scrabble, but a Scrabble grid is 15 by 15.

So here’s to Solicross (property of Dell), and to Scrabble (property of Hasbro). Long may they wave!

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Two James Baldwins

January 4, 2013
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Yesterday I attempted portraiture of Anne Hathaway and was not too successful, in my own estimation. As a portraitist I have my good days and not so muches. But “try, try again” I shall, just as I did with James Baldwin on two way back when occasions:

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Anne Hath a Way

January 3, 2013
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For over a week, ever since I saw Les Misérables, Anne Hathaway has been singing “I Dreamed a Dream” OVER and OVER in my head. Yesterday I got desperate and decided on exorcism via journal-page. It didn’t work. The page is done, but she’s STILL singing in my head. Somehow this proves that she will win an Oscar for her stirring performance as Fantine.Image

 

FiniShed

January 2, 2013
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Last night in bed my acrostic subconscious tossed me the fact that Fini can mean “The End” and “Shed” can mean “Get rid of” and together they spell FINISHED. I then went to restless sleep. Up at 6am, I drew FINI on one side of the page and SHED on the other. Then I looked at the YouTube of the first hydrogen bomb testing, which was sixty years and two months ago, and scanned the YouTube comments, wishing I could read Arabic. Clicked the “Show more” and read “The new truly scary one is the thermobaric weapon. Could flatten a 400 mile radius.”

Some old Jackson Browne lyrics came to mind, from his “The Road and the Sky”:

Now can you see those dark clouds gathering up ahead?
They’re going to wash this planet clean like the Bible said
Now you can hold on steady and try to be ready
But everybody’s gonna get wet
Don’t think it won’t happen just because it hasn’t happened yet.

Then I FiniShed my page.Image