One of Those Days

moar funny pictures


I have a book I think is called George.



I decided to begin selling books again on eBay instead of selling them in banana boxes for near pennies. I've been a book collector since I was a kid. Selling books gave me an excuse to buy more....from about 100 books to well over a thousand. I sold a 7 boxes a couple of years ago for twenty bucks. Never again. I still cringe to think what I virtually gave away.

As in a very good condition with dust jacket first edition of, The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg. I gave that one away over 3 years ago before the film was even in production. sigh

Today I pressed myself to just grab the books closest to me, take pictures, upload picture, inspect the book, research, write up the description, upload pix to a photo host, and list the book.

Not.

Books don't always turn out to be as easy you thought they would be.

Over two hours running around looking at this and that finding other things that needed tending/updating, I finally asked a question on the eBay Booksellers Board.

I'm going to clean up the mess I made, have a late lunch and sort through the paintings that need to be finished. I'm done with the books for today.

Oh well...looks like the late lunch will be later than expected.
Turning on the oven helps

Autumn....What Color is air?

An Autumn cloudy sky creates thoughts of Eric Sloan,
but before that the green foliage underneath the sky has to change.

Into golds, rusts, reds, yellows....

All that green goes, forest, hills and hedgerows of moss, fern, viridian, lime greens....all deciduous greens going away.

I recall a painting I did in the 1980s of a white barn surrounded by trees. I titled it, "The Green Barn" because you couldn't look at it without thinking, "Green Barn." I don't know where it is now. I think it shed me on one of my many moves.

The shedding of Summer into Autumn becomes a passing of leaf to empty space.
Where leaves use to be there is air. What color is air? Is there a lime air? A moss air? A fern air? A viridian air?

There are many natural ways an imagination can be stretch, exercised, transformed. How to look at an object differently is by thinking of that object in relation to its surroundings, its history, and then out of its surroundings.
Will the outcome of that exercise always be abstract in some way?
No
Unless you want to always paint the object in the abstract.
Thinking teaches.
Learning creates confidence.
The better you know a leaf, the better you will paint or draw a leaf, even without a model leaf posing for you.

"I can't draw. I wish I could draw." the passerbyer sadly tells the artist painting in the park.
"Here." the artists tells the passerbyer while handing him a leaf, "Draw this a a hundred times every day."
A hundred days past before the passerbyer returned looking for the artist in the park. He found him near the pond.
"Here are my drawings." the passerbyer smiled.
"Cool." the artist beamed as he open the portfolio.

The color of air is attitude.

Blogger Anonymity

Sad reading in the news that bloggers may not be able to maintain their anonymity.

I prefer being a pseudonymed blog because that provides the reader a more quiet read.

Make Room for Inspiration

When you need help being uplifted, being inspired,

there are only so many times you can access favorite tunes or photos or foods before they become, well, flat.

Inspiration I think of as being a biological process I can encourage, not control.

Pure inspiration arrives on its own, the mood factor.

Moods swings are on tremendous resource, riding up inspiration like knit shorts on a hot day walking to the bus stop. If you grab that concentrated moment of creativity just when its about to pounce on some cookie dough ice cream, then you may be able to use it to create, paint, draw, write or clean out your supply cabinet.

Seriously.........well organized art supplies is like being a kid rummaging through a cleaned out toy box screaming with glee like its the best birthday ever because there are all those New! toys to play with. I think I use to prolong cleaning out my son's toy box just to increase their joy.

(about age 4, they catch on = no fun city for Mom)

Clean out your supply area

Keep it organized

Separate all the toxic materials to store properly

Keep inventory written down

Every time you open the cabinet or drawer seeing things neat and well organized,

inspiration will have more space to devote to You.

Original Distractions

Ever pick up a mug to bring to the kitchen and set it down to tend something else; and then arrive in the kitchen without the mug, empty handed standing there trying to figure out what it is in the kitchen you are so keen on doing there?

While you are thinking about that you pick up mail to put on your desk. Along the way you find the mug, pick it up, and go to your desk. You sit down, and begin to tidy things up. After that, you and mug are on the way to the kitchen when you see newspapers spread on the floor by your favorite chair. You set the mug down, and begin to clean up the newspapers to bring to the recycle bin in the kitchen. Before that, because the dust under the chair bothers you so much, you take the vacuum out of the closet and end up vacuuming the entire living room.

Mail, desk and vacuum are an original distractions the way I see it because they are along the path to the kitchen.
The exception is finding the mug with coffee still in it that has green mold floating on top. In that case you rush that little mug fuzzy into the nearest sink, the bathroom. Since you are there, you put the rinsed out mug down, and use the facilities. Hands washed, you are out the door to the last place you were or to whatever place you thought of next.

A week later, you notice the mug behind your collection of hair conditioners (you thought were shampoo when you bought them).

That is what painting without pre-sketching and planning can be like.

Pre-sketching, and planning provide the discipline to stay with the original direction in order for the distractions to enhance the creating art process. There will be days when I know not to work on a painting or drawing as there are times when I know I am ready to continue or begin a project. I have to allow my art to rest while I step back to look, think, and, evaluate what I see in relation to what I want to accomplish. In the end, I also need to know when it is time to set my creativity mug down, and say a painting is finished.

Abstracts have original distractions as part of the process.
The closer to Realism you are, the fewer distractions.

If your phone was in the kitchen and ringing when you are on the way there with the mug, then the mug would make it there straight away.
Mean while your mail is still piled on the counter; the desk is still in chaos; and the dust under you favorite chair is growing larger and larger.

Inspiration to create art is wonderful, and can sometimes be a phone ringing, an idea in your mind so large it brings to you to your goal straight away.

Increase your inspiration value by planning and sketching when you are able.
Keep a sketch book for drawings and writing
When you are working on a painting that's giving you distractions that aren't original, writing your thoughts down might help clear the path ahead.

Never find yourself putting your paint brush in a mug fuzzy

Painting Block

Writers have writers block. Artist have Painting Block.

Everything I have read about writing and being an artist says to set a few hours mandatory a day to create as if at work. Discipline, establishing a Routine is a way of fending off blocks of both kinds.

In my artist business plan I include four hours a week viewing, reading or writing about art to grease the creative wheels, and, to keep me up to speed with the art world. Looking at art is refreshing. For sure viewing art is tops. I believe that. Yet, during an Artist Block episode over viewing can transform the enthusiastic "I can do that" into,
"I can't do that" or "I'll never be that good." You can begin to feel more down about not being productive. You might find yourself flowing on a paint-less pity path.

So you write things down to keep focused. Only your art inspiration journal begins to sound like a list of excuses why you aren't more productive. You begin to realize you're checking off your weekly art viewing with watching the interior design, craft and gardening channels on television.

What's the cure? The Answer?? The How to unblock Artist Block!?

Simple....Do what you aren't doing.............Create.
Make a bird feeder from a milk bottle.
Doodle on an old pair of jeans.
Anything that you can possibly do that is creative.

My favorite is to cut out magazine pictures for a reference folder or to place in my design book, (a large D-ring loose leaf). I take care to write the magazine information on the cut out.
Every artist should have a reference file or book of documented pictures. If you don't have magazines, then check your library for a book sale or a thrift shop or buy new and let them stack up.

Even tumbleweeds take advantage of the wind
The wind that makes an artist move is creativity........keep moving.

Clotheslines

A lot of my youth was surrounded by washing clothes.

At every apartment there had to be a clothesline.
It was one of the first and most urgent moving in tasks.
Two poles or one, it didn't matter as long as there was a good
working clothesline.
My favorite is the line strung pulley to pulley from
a tall pole to the porch on the third floor of a triple decker.

Closer to the ground, I have a wash drying in the
sun on a breezy day, fabrics being scented with the priceless
perfume of fresh air.

One day I'd like to have a washing machine with a round tub
and a wringer on the side to wash my clothes in.
And a nice long clothesline that stretches across the yard.
I'd hang out white sheets just to see them billow in the wind,
wash day performance art.

The Creation of Frozencove

A few years ago in the dark hours of night,
I was up late brainstorming for a new ID.
I wanted a comfortable name that reflects things I like,
woods, ocean, saltwater, clouds, winter landscapes.
I wanted the name to be a two word song, a dance, a poem.

Creating a new ID can be fun or torture.
It is torture when you love a name and find out it is taken.
The first name I created was perfect, but taken.
Heartbroken, I returned to brainstorming for a word to go with frozen,
(winter landscape woodsy element).
Cove is perfect because it has meaning from my youth,
(winter landscape woodsy element plus mittens, snow suits, and boots).
I searched the internet for anyone using that ID or name as one word or was using it as a business or well known nickname.

Clear to go, I became Frozencove for the first time in 2004.
I felt all spiffy with the many possibilities swirling around, including having this blog.
A weird name, I think, that serves me well on more than one site because it is solid and unusual, and best of all, I haven't grown tired of it.

The real life me is recyicled into Frozencove.

I'll be bloggin once a week.

Next week.......library book pockets