January 29 Daily Art Journal Curiosity

I drew with paint using my non-dominant hand. I've done this before but this page was more frustrating than previously, probably because I was hemmed by page, by multi-tasking (tv and crackers baking) and fact that tree was outside and my back was turned from window. Hate it when I multi-task but persist.
Drawing with non-dominant hand is very useful for drawing organic subjects: trees, limbs, flowers, crowded gardens, etc., anything that requires a loose line that might have to take off on its own suddenly. I am always curious to see what happens with that other hand.

the little photo was ripped from a Corbis stock book. It strikes me that while this image could illustrate joy or some form of exultation, to me it just kept saying work. Good work, where work is experimental and thoughtful. The figure here is working out ways to walk on his hands. He's been at it for hours maybe and in between times, he's thinking. He is curious.

January 28 Daily Art Journal Sane

I've quit more than one therapist, always pleasantly and with no regrets. While I've rarely met my "goals and objectives" (finish novel, find self), I've always been calmed when necessary and eventually learned to listen. Once I quit when I discovered I had better things to do with my money. "You're cured," said the shrink. The last one was easy. "I know everything I need to know," I said. "I've been trying to tell you that for five years."

Had it been five years??? That's what too much insurance will do to you.

Art is the only legitimate therapy. Art, gardening, dance, acting, writing, yoga. The answer to neurosis is activity in the moment. Make that mindful activity in the moment.

Oatmeal for breakfast helps as well.

So today, while enjoying another productive day writing about whatever it is I wrote about (oh yeah, service level agreements and billing methods, fascinating stuff) and sifting about the place manifesting ideas, I gathered the couch and then the bag...baggage...get it?

I crack myself up somedays, I really do.

January 25 Daily Art Page Shapes: Triangle

Symbol of aspirations, dreams and ambitions.

I went to a acupuncturist for treatment of a chronic facial tic that had grown quite painful.

He said my problem was due to (or caused by) unfulfilled longings. I thought, aren't all longings unfulfilled by definition? 

I took a job with a good bit more money and the twitch diminished considerably.

But it is not yet cured.

I shall have to create a page (or even a book) of longings, fulfilled, unfulfilled and othewise.

January 23 Daily Art Page Inspired by: Henry Miller

My favorite bit of advice about painting comes from an artist better know for his writing.

Henry Miller painted impulsively, continually --- and in his bathrobe.

"Paint As You Like and Die Happy," he said. What else is left to say?

January 20 Daily Art Challenge - Word

Revealed. 

That's means I needed two jpgs. Because nothing can be revealed that has not previously been hidden.

January 18 Daily Art Page Pink

Pink. Frankly, I've always liked the color if not the connotations. But then, I'm a pale brunette. It's one of "my colors" so that's no surprise.

Back at the 3Day I heard a lot of women talking about how much they hated it. This opinion was held by my sister-in-law, a blonde who is better suited to turquoise and green. Her hatred of the color seemed tinged somehow with politics and I had the feeling the other pink-haters did too.

There's no fighting pink though. Not on the 3Day and so by Day 3, all the 3Day virgins are pretty inured to it and have collected so many strings of beads, feather boas and shoelaces that pink has gotten under our skin.

We really love it though when, after the finish line has been crossed and our coveted white shirts are on our backs, we look up and see all those other women in pink shirts. In the cult of the 3Day, nothing packs more of a wallop than the sight of so many women, especially those you've walked with, talked with, bitched with and blistered with, in pink. 

At this moment the political connotation of pink changes forever: not pink collar, no pink undies, nothing little girl and fragile about these girls. Pink, here, is the strongest color of all.

My page is a bit of disappointment to me because I could not execute on the idea, based on two memories: the one described above from just a few months ago, to another from 1961 when I took my first faint, in church. Not a religious experience but an interesting prelude to what would become a real talent for the unconscious. And in a pink dress my aunt had made, all skirt and sash and oversized collar. A real confection of dotted swiss.  

January 17 Daily Art Page Yellow

The cowardice of memory

January 16 Daily Art Page - Red

Red all over. I really wanted to paint today. To just feel the color soak into the raw paper and then, as the glazes built up, feel it skate. Golden liquids on the same fat, manufactured paper I've been using all month. 

Not thrilled. Making art? well, no. I was playing and listening to my instruments while relaxing after a long week. Hardly the religious experience it can sometimes be, but still a pleasure.

Meant to go out but it's tooooooo cold.