This couple was made by a prisoner in Huntsville, Texas. He used kleenix as paper mache.

folk art

I love the feel of a good folk art piece. Soulfully made or someone's treasured past toy, it is a very intimate expression.

acrylic paint

Back in Texas, with the tiny tender leaves beginning. I have had time to think about the problem with oil paints and solvents. I believe they are the root cause of my many bouts with bronchitis.

So I have a pile of acrylic paint heading this way and I'm going to try to switch. I'm anticipating some trouble with it as I have stuck to oil for 35 years. It is a good time to mess about with the new medium and explore a bit.

It is imperative to be committed to your art, but not at the cost of health. Onward.

Congo tree lunches

Still in California, still sicko. What a great opportunity to see every documentary ever filmed.
Palo Alto has access to three......three !!! PBS stations...I'm in heaven. Marching across my mind are lowland gorillas of the Congo, baby elephants and creeping torantulas. There are historical sagas, unwed mothers, Obama and Hillary, school lunches, how to plant a tree and how to sew a seam.
I'm awash in information.

puny

I am in California. The idea was to help my mother, but I've come down with some bronchial thing and been wasted for the past 5 days. I was to fly home in the morning, but the idea of walking to the gateway seemed an immense undertaking, so I flopped back into bed and changed the ticket.

One little snag and everything tumbles. Cancel this postpone that. But if you feel wretched enough, getting out of things brings only relief. Painting will have to wait. I never could paint well in Calif anyway. The landscape is such a distraction.

fun in the dirt

Another day another idea. Copper. I've painted on metal before, but not for a very long time. I had this copper sheeting left over from a jewelry making idea (a trail not followed) just sitting around. So I cut some small pieces and painted. Fun. So nice to let some sparkly bits of copper shine through.

But today I watched my granddaughters while their mother was at work, and that was and always is a more sublime sort of fun. One will be 4 in May, the other turns 2 this month. The best part today was the almost 4 year old scraping a good section of dirt clear of pine needles, then flat on her back making "dirt angels". She'd seen the kids in snowy places making snow angels and proceeded in the only way a little Texan could....make do with dirt. And her favorite word is "poop". I love it.

a monday

While the winds are tossing the bamboo and the trees and it is warm one day and very cold the next, there are birds back in the birdbath! White tailed doves, cardinals, some regular doves and some little twittering things. The blue jays, who normally rule the garden, are not around yet.

So I've been pulling up "weeds" and fighting back the firecracker plants. Stabbed by the roses and finally cut by my own clipper, I gave it up and headed for the studio. And there, I found a new series to start. Still using the square panel, but this time making a faux frame enclosing a small, intimate painting. I did this years ago and now I return to it. I'm happy with it and while it may not be the total new direction, it is pleasing and enticing to me. You just have to keep going to the studio, something happens eventually.