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Monthly Archives: October 2019

At last I am again spinning mud into shape on the potter’s wheel. Here is a wheel’s full of bisqued clay:

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I spent this evening’s class session applying glazes to these pieces. The glaze buckets were marked Turquoise Matte, Turq, Dk Green, and Black. You can tell which ones I glazed black, but not so much the others.

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I helped instructor Jon Higuchi load glaze and bisque kilns, and then I cleaned up the mess I had made in the glaze room. Then it was time to go. No wheel-throwing today, but I’ll make up for it next week. It’s nice to be One With Clay yet again!

Father

My father was improbable. ° He was frightfully young–seventeen–when ° He and my not-yet mother ° Succumbed to that irresistible ° Primal Urge and got my ° Older brother started. Not-yet-Dad ° Was reluctant to step up ° (And I don’t blame him–he ° Was told he had nothing to fear ° And he knew what a Fork ° In the road Marriage ° And Parenthood were.)

But he did step up, ° Leaving some dreams in dust ° And realizing others ° He had not had before.

That is why I exist. And having learned ° Of my improbable origin ° I resolved that any child I conceived ° Would be wanted ever so much.

And the dream I had ° Was realized. I am a father. My daughter ° Is a Miracle. The improbability ° A beneficent Universe grants ° Fulfilled the most important ° Destiny of my life.

My daughter wants no children. ° She dreams her own dreams. ° She has my approval, and applause.

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“Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints.” Motto of the Baltimore Grotto, a Maryland caving club founded in 1952

Tread Marks

Toes press macadam
Rabbit tracks weave amongst the flora
EXIT signs illumine dusty footprints on the floor
And Every One of us has left our mark
Defining a path through Darkness

Rest in peace, Harold Price Bowers, Sr.
1 9 3 3   –   1 9 8 3

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Inktober prompt: “Sling.” There are many types of Slings. Slings might support a broken arm or enable the hoisting of an air conditioner or, as with David the shepherd, smite and slay an enemy. I found in my research, though, that the sling slung over Michelangelo’s David’s shoulder didn’t look like any of the weaponry slings found in my Internet search.nor does my drawn slingshot much resemble anything being marketed online.

I was tempted to draw the “Sling of David” anti-missile and -drone weaponry created by Raytheon for the State of Israel, but there’s too much deadly force on this page as it is.

 

Here’s a look at the megapage my subpage is on. If I did it well, there is three-part harmony here.

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Peace/Salaam/Shalom be unto you, Friends.

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The prompt for today is Wild, so the drawing style is scribbly and there’s a full moon. Shadowy, stealthy stuff is happening. The artist didn’t stay within the lines. The Beast.

Wild Life

We oft leave Comfort for Thrill

Itch to grow claws & folliculi

Long for Jehovah teed off

Deliver us an Evil Spree

First off, apologies to John Legend. I was sketching you, John, but the unforgiving ink snuck in a generous portion of Steve Harvey. This is a misfire, John. You don’t look like this. I will do a better portrait of you, John, when I go back to pencil.

The three-liner of an acrostic poem includes an inside joke that only one person on Earth will “get.” And we will keep it that way.

Leg/End

Legend: Airy Vivienne

Entered–Gary said amen

Got a Fairy Tale? Hit Send

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Long ago, in a century adjacent to our own, I put food on the table of my tiny family by creating, enhancing, and updating Excel spreadsheets for a hospital system known then as Samaritan Health Services. They paid me about three times what I am making now, and in more-potent 20th-century dollars. Nevertheless, I sleep better at night now than I did then. Part of that insomnia was due to Imposter Syndrome, part was Breadwinner’s Burden, and part was the inability to forget about the job in my off-hours. But now I think of that time as vital and productive, and I’m grateful for the insight it gave me into the labyrinthine workings of the financial side of “healthcare.” I did this page with a generous dose of nostalgia.

Spread Sheets

Suspend a disbelief the Moo-cow moos • Present a spirit willing in the flesh • Repeal the laws that make us always lose • Encapsulate a Babe & build a creche • And THEN you’ll pass this arbitrary test • Designed to turn your whole notes into rests