Celebrating the sun

The Sun Rises In The West

Week before last, I felt a painting wanting to come out in between gardening sessions, so on a damp day I sat down in front of a blank sheet of paper. I freshened my liquid acrylics, which had been sitting there for quite a while, and started just making graphic strokes. When I had some lines down I felt really good and happy about it, but couldn't figure out why because it looked awkward, uneven and inexplicable. I did like the colors though, so I kept playing with it, overpainting and eventually drawing shapes on it. After another day it took on the feel of a sunrise. I still was really having fun with it, and I realized it made something in my mind feel really good about the combination of well-defined simple shapes and the rough texture of the layering of the thin paints. I came up against a wall after that, but it was warming up so I went back to work in the garden and let it sit for a few more days. Today, after two long days of weeding, I wanted to work on it again, and ended up finishing.

I think it owes a lot to the time I spent looking at Richard Diebenkorn's work last year, but it also seems linked to the at-long-last arrival of temperatures hitting 70, and having the sun be out when I got up in the morning.

I took my car in for an oil change this week and the manager said "We're going to have summer from July 28th to August 4th." Well, I'll be ready.

I said NO to coal

This morning, after watching Robert Kennedy Jr. on tv,  I watched the seven minute trailer for "The Last Mountain". I then logged onto the Portland General Electric website and switched my power sources to 100% renewable energy, and NO COAL. There's nothing perfect about what choices I have at this time and on a fixed income to get the power I need to run my home and do my art. But there's nothing acceptable to me about the mining, processing or burning of coal to get that power. I figured out that it will cost me an extra $150 or less a year to get my power from all renewable sources, and even though pennies are hard to come by in these times, I'm willing to pay that to help eliminate coal as a source of death, illness, pollution and environmental destruction in America. For my part at least, my artwork will henceforth be COAL-FREE. I know I and my plants will breathe more freely.