Strange Deskfellows
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see who won
There are two word games I play daily on the Internet. One is Words With Friends 2, a fancier version of the Scrabble-derived Words With Friends, and the other is Boggle. I play Words With Friends mostly with a handful of people I know in real life. Boggle I play in tournaments and with individuals, and I play anyone, which can be downright humbling when up against a player far better than I am. WWF2 and Boggle are made by the same game-maker, and one of the similarities is that at the end of a game a player is invited to “See who won!”
See Who Won turns out to be a perfect triple-acrostic spine, so I gave it a whirl. It’s really hard to read the acrostic poem in the image above, so here is a transcription, lightly edited for clarity.
see who won
sissy fuss is how we grow
enterprise and march and go
endocrines ahoy — c’est bon
For fifteen and a half words, there is a lot to unpack. “Sissy fuss” is a bad pun of Sisyphus, the poor guy of Greek myth who is condemned to eternally roll a burdensome stone up a hill. “Resistance training” found in many gyms and fitness centers is downright Sisyphean. You push and pull and climb and run a treadmill and never get anywhere. Even so, you gain muscle mass and you make more efficient use of oxygen. So going nowhere gets you somewhere, and if you’re blessed with good biomechanics and work ethic, you may find yourself in competitions. And some of the biggest Sissy Fusses ever made are at competitions. One such just occurred at Wimbledon, and two players were fined.
It takes enterprise to succeed. Inherited wealth is not success. Making the world a better place is, and it makes you a better person to boot. If you have life goals, it helps to march toward them resolutely.
As for endocrines, here’s a quotation for hopkinsmedicine dot org: “The endocrine system is a complex network of glands and organs. It uses hormones to control and coordinate your body’s metabolism, energy level, reproduction, growth and development, and response to injury, stress, and mood.” No one succeeds without a contribution from their endocrine system. “C’est bon” is French for “This is good.”
My drawing is meant to be a mysterious metaphor for winning and winners. I apologize for the murk–I both underworked and overworked my penciling. I imposed a deadline for myself of today, and got a little too ambitious with the implied planets and archetypical competitors and pseudo-calligraphy and such. But if you look carefully you’ll find a niftily drawn cat, and the clear message that felines are born winners.
I can’t think of a better way to be a winner than by practicing the wisdom imparted by George Carlin as Rufus in the Bill & Ted movies. “Be Excellent To Each Other,” Friends! 🙂
Life as a Series of Erasures
Here is an oddness: This is the final version of a drawing which by definition is unfinished. Titled “Life as a Series of Erasures,” the drawing itself has been extensively erased., redrawn, erased again. The roots of this approach may be thought by some to have been planted by Robert Rauschenberg, who erased a Willem de Kooning drawing to make a point about the Ephemeral (my guess as to what he was up to, anyway), but centuries previous Rembrandt had taken an etching of his which had an extensively-drawn crowd scene, and taken his scraper to completely eliminate his hours and hours of drawing. Prints of both states still exist. Was Robert R riffing on Rembrandt? He’s not around to answer.
There are four acrostic poems-in-the-making in this drawing. They are all double acrostics, with spines/titles “Denude/Bemoan,: “Resist/Desist,” “Derail/Detain,” “Repeat/Defeat.” Note that on the drawing the third title appears to be “Detail/Detain.” “Derail” is better. ERasure and redrawing would be done, were this drawing not finished.
Derail/Detain
Deride the Women; Hand the Maid
Ensconce the sex in marmalade
Release the Kraken mon petit
And have another cup of sea
I wish for Love and get mere Sin–I
Lost my will to re-begi
This poem is a protest against the recent US Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. “Release the Kraken” was a command issued by Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, as part of the events surrounding the January 6, 2021 insurrection. There’s a tip of the hat to Margaret Atwood and her The Handmaid’s Tale. There’s also an implicit nod to now-deceased Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who has been roundly betrayed by certain recently-appointed Supreme Court Justices, as well as by Justice Thomas, who is itching to turn back the clock further with more reversals. Two-thirds of the Supreme Court is politically hacking for the Repulican Party now. This is what we have come to.
On the positive side, outraged women across the country are protesting, and the pendulum may well swing again in my lifetime. I hope so. The little I can do to further that swing of the pendulum is right here, and you are reading and seeing it, Friends.
Life IS a series of erasures. At its best it erases Injustice and redraws Betterment. Let us strive to choose our erasures in the favor of honesty, decency, and lovingkindness.
Final note: under the word Defeat in the lower right-hand corner is a question mark, and underneath that, the answer “NO!!” NEVER give up, Friends. Ever. 🙂
Victory as Variable
In this image I exploit the checkerboard-patterning connotation of Victory (a checkered flag is waved when the first automobile crosses the finish line in certain international races) and I fill some of the whitespace with certain considerations. One less obvious consideration is the basic function-notation of algebraic variable x, conventionally rendered “f(x)” and pronounced “eff uv ecks.” It is a shorthand way of saying that a variable is being put through a process, perhaps, but not necessarily, describing something happening in the physical world.
field of scenes (ttmorl)
field of scenes
(to the memory of ray liotta)
(to the memory of ray liotta)
rest in performance
ray liotta
shoeless joe
and pesci’s con
in memoriam
next year’s oscars
will be saddest
when you’re on
you were un
believably believable
sleazy stalker
sweetheart friend
when that curtain falls
it’s tragic
fade to void but
love won’t end.
something to look at, take iii
Since “Abstract Expressionism” is too history-laden and just doesn’t seem like a good fit, I’ve come to call my not-quite-representational drawings and paintings my Something To Look Ats. They are visual experiences, celebrations of what art supplies can be compelled to do.
With that in mind, O Viewer, see what you want to see and don’t worry about what you are supposed to see. If it reminds you of something, that’s natural, and also unique to you. Another person will be reminded of something else.
bullet in
Part of love of country includes acknoledgment and ownership of its failings. My country, the United States of America, has a shameful record of gun violence against schoolchildren. It goes back decades. And every time a fresh incident heartbreakingly occurs, the sellers and fanatical owners of guns trot out the same arguments, including “Guns don’t kill people–people do.”
Well, that’s nonsense. Guns literally WEAPONIZE people, enabling the evil and deranged to do far more grievous bodily harm than with just about anything. The gun makers strive to make the guns effective, and that includes ease of use, kill capacity, and, thanks to gun lobbyists, convenient to obtain.
The drawing I made today isn’t pretty. It is meant to not be pretty. This is an ugly side of my beloved country, and I do not wish to prettify it.
Our lawmakers have been more driven by profit motive and campaign chances than by common sense and true care for constituency. I have no money, no political influence, nothing but a voice and the heartbreak that drives it now. So this post is the utmost I can do. Readers, please, if you have the ear of lawmakers, please urge them to do the right thing and not the sleazy, money-grubbing thing.
Wake (TIME) Rest
Wake (TIME) Rest
“I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow…” Roethke
What a restless Night!!! Oh, dear
Ah, well–we will persevere
Keep the fate and make the mess
Ever hoping ever blest
Afterword: What does it mean to keep the Fate and not the Faith? Adam Clayton Powell, long ago, said “Keep the faith, Baby…and spread it gently.” My late, great Outlaw Uncle, Paul, sent me a condolence note in 1983 after my father died, and he hand-wrote “Keep the faith Gary” in it. Keeping the Fate is as close as I can get: keeping vertical, plugging away for betterment, trying to enjoy and engage and become to create the best Fate I can. Here’s hoping you also do joyful Fate-Keeping, Friends.
sumta ii
Faithful readers will recognize this drawing as a different stage from the one I presented in the post “sumta loogat.” It is not exactly a later stage of the same drawing, since the drwing you saw earlier was an exploration based on a copy of a yet-earlier stage of the drawing, as this is, but this drawing is as if I had never made such changes, but instead made similar but different ones, and some not similar. Which is thoroughly confusing, but serves the purpose of trying things, reverting to previous, and trying again.
But this is the original grafitic. The OG, if you don’t mind a bit of cultural appropriation from American Gang lingo. I have come far enough along, though STILL far from finished, to want to make any more experimental copies.
There is something deeply gratifying about taking a long time on a single drawing, though the wild creation horses inside me are rarin’ to finish and move on. A mellowness and depth is starting to get real with this one. Since I don’t avoid flesh-contact with the paper, a slight tome buids as my left pam-thumb-subsection skates around. Despite skin oils, the tone is easily removed, and re-removed, with simple erasure. And the drawing benefits with a buildup of non-erased surface–see, for instance, the ribbonlike shap at top center, which now looks like a light source is highlighting its middle. The drawing is maturing.
It is still an adolescent, though. Adulthood, here we come! 🙂
Studio Signup
Today I spent about a hundred US dollars for one month’s use of studio space and materials, including these three canvases and the acrylic paint that is on them, at Brightside Studios in uptown Phoenix, Arizona.
In less than a month I’ll find out if it’s a good fit, and either let the monthly payment automatically renew, or send them written notice of termination. Meanwhile, I feel like I had a really good first day.
Signing up was a painless 10- minute process. And unlike the classes I’d been taking, I set my own schedule, as long as it’s their business hours.
Now, it’s absolutely true that I have drawing table and supplies at my apartment. But I am happier and more productive when I’m among people who are also stuck with the Gotta-Make-Stuff impulse. And one sweet feature of this place is No Cleanup! Just put brushes and other stuff on designated trays, and you’re out the door!
My mom left me a modest inheritance when she died, and while I have frittered away some of it, and needed some other of it to maintain a certain quality of life that Social Security cannot cover, I am happy when I am 100% sure that an expenditure of mine would meet with her approval. This one qualifies, big time! 🙂
One with Clay, Image and Text 