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As a loyal son of Glendale, Arizona, I’ve entered their annual juried art show whenever I’ve been able. I started in 1975, with two entries. My acrylic painting didn’t get in but my watercolor self-portrait did. And since then I’ve managed to get some acceptances in each of the five decades I’ve been entering. The best I’ve done is a second-place for sculpture/3D, in a show juried by Brady Roberts, then Curator of the Modern Art sector of the Phoenix Art Museum. The worst I’ve done is total rejection of three entries. Usually, as with this year, it’s in between, with both the Thrill of Acceptance and the Agony of Rejection.

So, dear readers and friends, if you don’t have anything better to do this Friday evening, and you’re in the neighborhood of Sahuaro Ranch Park in north Glendale, and you are willing to trade $25 for topflight hors d’oeuvres, wonderful soft music, white and red wine, and the best artwork Arizona has to offer–see you there!

Here are some more self-rejected pages of mine. Ironically, there are yet more pages that I am yet again self-rejecting. The ones that don’t make the cut either are not visually engaging enough or are repetitive of themes or motifs previously presented.

Once upon a time the Phoenix Art Museum had a show of some of the stuff Claude Monet did at Giverny that was still unfinished at the time he died. Of the dozen-and-a-half canvases presented, there was only one that was worth looking at as a painting and not as a clue of Monet’s creative process; and “sketch and then fill in” about summed up his creative process on individual canvases. It was thin soup indeed, and if it hadn’t been Monet doing it the museum would never have shown it. Consequently, in the (I hope) far future when I start to get a glimmer of that Tunnel with the Bright Light, I hope I will have tagged those sketch-musings of mine that are not worthy of a viewer’s attention, that they may be consigned to the flames. (See Harlan Ellison’s ALL THE LIES THAT ARE MY LIFE for a more extensive discussion of this philosophy.)

Onward:

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Popefullness

Must’ve done this around the time the latest Francis tried on his funny hat.

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Struggle/Pinnacle/Afterwar

Comic book writer Steve Gerber, whose Howard the Duck made a great comic book but a horribly Uncanny Valley movie that misused Lea Thompson and Jeffrey Jones, once said something like “You know what there is at the top of the ladder? Another ladder.” And that’s where you Kick It Up A Notch or more aptly Take It To The Next Level. More irony: I wasn’t able to do that with this one; I realized it would take about five times the effort a ‘normal’ page requires.

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Involvements

Here’s one that would be easy to finish. I vote it Most Likely To See Completion amongst these Salon entries.

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Skeleton/Key

Gee, I just love bone configurations, especially if they hang together…

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Logarithm

Logarithm, I got music. I got Readers; who could ask for anything more? (See also Algorithm…)

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Collide O Hadrons

I’m sure this was done around the time scientists confirmed the existence of the Higgs boson, the misnamed “God Particle.” I guess “Make-the-Universe-Possible Particle” is too much of a mouthful.

There you have them, for now. There may be a Part Three, but I’ll do a few posts prior even if there is one.