Re-deaux

Oh, I hope I am not showing my crassness by mis-spelling the title! I am posting this quickly as it is a thought and so therefore becomes a quick blog, no picture, no special title or what... Late on a Sunday evening when I DO have to get ready for work tomorrow.... ugh... IS there such a thing as a "quick" blog? Or is that a "twitter" these days????

Today, I went into my blog template and reset some of the parameters so the type could go wider on screen space and there was not such a large margin around it. I loved the colors of the template I chose here at blogspot, but it was too narrow. It made for intensive scrolling which I personally hate. So, I had to dig up my OLD html skills from way back when and see the details in this template to re-arrange things.

So, I see I got that solved and now the paragraphs all run together! There is no real leading to this blog. Or, the new term: paragraph spacing. Am I being TOO much of a desktop publisher? Is a blog not supposed to be decent type layout? Or is it that you have to go pay for a special website blog to get decent layout? Hmmmm, no comment. I am actually putting two hard returns between each para in this entry to see what it does... I guess that is the "re dueax" part in the title ;-) Still glad I have like two followers and no one really sees this.

Did read in Keri Smiths' blog today, she has young children now and it is wearing on what she feels is her ability to social network. HA! Almost glad to hear that. Now I know what has been "wrong" with me for the last 30 years ;-)

I NEVER have been good a social networking and all that. I think that is why I have had a regular job all these years, in design, publishing, layout, all that - but still, always FOR someone else. But then when I had kids, it was really a good excuse to use for not "networking" or being a REAL artist - had to support the kids. Interesting to read another perspective....

OK, onward to see what this post looks like! Took some pics of outside terrace today and the cat, as normal, but not to be published here as yet.

Tenacity in Art

Had an experience with geese this weekend. Started me thinking about my own artistic tenacity. There is a four lane highway at my end of the Bay and it cuts through a large acreage of swamp land, home to all kinds of wildlife. The road has a speed limit of 40mph but that just means most go 60. I know people who won't drive it at all due to it being a "death alley". The one side, next to the more expansive water, is a gathering place for birds. If you have seen my web album, you know this already. I have pictures of the birds seen there. I love riding down this road every day and night - most of the time. It is also a dugway between two hills and the view as you go down either side of the Bay is lovely.
This time of year, there are many gaggles of Canadian geese hanging out. They can not fly now but concentrate on eating and getting strong for their soon to be fall flights outta here. They raise their young and are rather friendly as people stop alongside the road and feed them.
In the spring I had already experienced a bunch of them trying to cross the road to the swampy side early in the morning and had come home that night to see two females dead in the road. Most people could care less the geese can't fly and this is their land more than ours. They are busy going to work or play. I do care so it all becomes an emotional issue for me.Anyhow, this Sunday morning, on my way to visit a friend, there were these two male geese with several "teen" babies, right alongside the road about to cross. It was not early morning and was very busy. The babies were oblivious, eating voraciously along the side - the two younger, first time parents, males (probably mates of those females killed in the spring) were walking up and down alongside the road -about to head out across it. My senses went on overdrive.
I went past them to top of hill and turned around, came back down, turned around to their side again and pulled over as far as I could out of traffic, put my blinkers on. Picked up the bag of popcorn, I just happened to have, got out of car and went towards them. The babies came right up and were just as pleased as punch to see me. I tossed popcorn over the railing down towards the water and shore which they willingly went after. The two adults, no. Well one thought about it but the other was not about to let me change his mind. He was hissing at me and coming at me and then as the babies ran back to me again for more (man, they eat like power shovels!!!) he was going to lead them right over me across the road if he had too. I was amazed and even got back in car moving slowly alongside the road honking the horn, thinking that would get them to move off road. But noooooo, not that one. He came toward the front of my car and looked as if to fight that!
I won't go into whole story of it. I will say I was very glad when I came home later in the afternoon, there were no squashed geese seen there. If you want to hear the whole story go to my web album. You can see the brave goose that taught me what tenacity and determination is in his worlld. Made me think about it a lot and realize, "I need to be that determined in my own creativity and art. I need to not let the popcorn of life and the creative monsters that seem to attack me AND the road blocks that seem to be in my path, not deter me from what I know I need to do and where I need to go." I have never seen such a stubborn animal in my life and that is what I need to be in my creative goals...

75 Ways to Draw Your Life

An artist friend of mine and one of my most inspiring associates, has a Flicker site (linked in title above) to one of his latest projects. I am glad to see Michael Nobbs is getting a nice crowd following him and his art teachings. He deserves it.
This post is about what I did with this one day at work when I really needed a break. As usual, my resources are limited in the realm of printers and electronic tools, both at home and at work. (even though my work IS electronic publishing for the corporate world) Therefore, I could not follow his directions as given. The first time I went to his site, when I realized I could not do as he said there, I left and figured, "Oh well." Went onto something else.
This week I actually had a little downtime at work and was cleaning out email. Found the link to this project again and went back. Got a little frustrated at the process of downloading the files and knew I could not do the booklet in color or the size he made it. But decided I NEEDED the process right then of an Artist Date and making this my own.
Got the pics, re-sized, and made grayscale in Photoshop. Printed each one to it's own paper since we can not print double sided there. Made an extra copy for a friend.
Took the prints back to desk and proceeded to assemble (which was not so easy with my dyslexic brain and not having double sided prints!)
Then tried to staple and realized could not even do that. My little desk stapler, 15 years old, would not reach to center of booklet. UGH...
Not to be daunted, I figured to leave the back blanks in there and the tops and bottoms he says to trim off, figuring would fill that in with drawing too. THEN would figure out how to staple the pages into a book.
However, in the end, after sitting with the booklets overnight, I realized I wanted to have it as he designed it. His piece, even if in black ink only. So trimmed them up.
Finally it dawned on me - being an altered book artist that I could SEW the pages together. DUH. Which I did and then glue-sticked the backs and now I have two of Michael's small inspirations with which to play on and share with a friend.
Thanks Michael! I love having you in my creative life ;-)

The Art of Making Yogurt

Sometimes I think the most difficult thing about blogging is thinking of the Title for the post. Ugh. Almost as bad as writing an Artist's Statement...
This morning I finally got to where I could make my own yogurt for the first time in about 35 years. Used to do it, while living in a communal house, for thirteen people, by wrapping the quart glass bottles in towels and keeping in the gas oven with no temperature on. The heat from gas pilot was enough to make the yogurt. That went away with leaving communal living, having kids and getting a "real job"....
Here we are so many years past when I ever thought I would even live to, and I am making my own yogurt again. It was a practice, a process, an art then and today. I now have 8 hours to wait to see if it really worked, but even that is part of the practice/art. When I had my own garden I would wait months to see if a planted area would turn out - so I think I can handle this.
Even though I am using an electric yogurt maker as I have no more gas stoves or pilot lights to do the magic, the feelings of creativity are still there. Getting fresh, organic, REAL milk, measuring the amount into pan, and stirring, stirring, while heating. Inserting the thermometer to make sure it gets to the correct temperature, stirring in the culture and then pouring into the jars. It is all an art....
And then the pleasure of seeing the grid again - me and my grids in artwork! Would like to take this pic and using Photoshop turn it into one of those mystic paintings of worlds nestled next to each other with none knowing the other existed.