Day 296

It's early morning. Soon the light will come sliding down the backyard fence. The autumn weather of last week is gone. This week reminds us that the desert is still in charge. For now.

I'm working, working, working. Little time to manage other things. I'm grateful for the help of friends.

October is here. I hear her whisper, just softly. Perhaps she knows I'm tired and in need of more sleep than I'm getting. I'll need it too, because soon enough she'll not be whispering, she'll be yelling. She'll want me to run with her and I know I will, to wherever she takes me.

I've been thinking a lot about early humans. Their lives were very different from ours, but there's every reason to believe they felt the change of seasons, laughed at each other, played with toys. Possibly I'm trying to find a connection from there to the human connected to its devices. Possibly I'm sensing that the definition of what it is to be human is going to change, sooner than later.

That wouldn't be so off the mark. Artists throughout history have predicted things to come. I could write pages and pages on that. But I'll leave that work to Leonard Shlain and others. My work is to make art.

I've begun to put art up on Ebay and new pieces for October in the Etsy store. POPPETSLIKEBRAINS is the coupon code. I have to find homes for this work and funds so I can keep doing what I do. Please pass this on to anyone you think might be interested. I'll take all help offered. I thank all of you who adopt poppets and art. What would I do without you? I don't even want to think about that one.

That said. Go outside today. What do you see? Is it rolling hills, a city street? Look way back to what it was before. Look way forward to what it might be in the future. Who will we be? What will we be? And around again, to where we came from. Primitive human was intelligent, inventive and as real as you and me. If I see creatures in bones, you can bet they did too.

Think about it. It's like time travel. It can be full of inspiration for your day, which I hope is a good one.

Day 82

Oh where, oh where is 81? It was yesterday.


Today Orion turned nine. We've spent the sort of day he asked for, with swimming, cake, pizza, Rango and games.

After dinner, we may camp on cushions for a round of pure silliness, including singing about things like greasy gopher guts.
I imagine that poppets enjoy this sort of silliness best.

I could be wrong. Poppets can be difficult to read. They volunteer information only in the smallest bits. These sometimes float free, only half-understood until they're connected to other bits.
It's Orion's birthday. Above all, he did/is/will spend quite a lot of it laughing.



Silliness is a ringing bell today. We shout over it occasionally. Only when it's necessary, like when dinner is ready.

I'm glad we saw Rango. I think it's good stuff. I read the reviews and prepped the kids for a couple of PG things. They're there, but none seemed inappropriate to my group and I'm pretty darned parental. The smoking was in the background in a saloon, the swear words are 'inappropriate' for kids in this house. A markedly higher number of usage and spelling errors were found in negative comments. I tend to agree with people who make an effort, so this factor is helpful.
And, it's good to count things sometimes.

I may have missed the answer to my question and I'd be happier if it's a guess. Is the modern city a metaphor or is Dirt? Or both, or neither?

I'm off to put eyeglasses on things in the most ridiculous way possible.

Happy Birthday Orion!

g'night











Of to play some silly games.

Day 27

So. What've I got for you today? Right. I still feel like crap. The things that I don't like about my life are pestering me to no end. I remind myself that pain and sadness are a natural part of life. After all, there's always something. That fucking something.
Then, really, what would we do without it? Silly humans.
The only sane thing to do is to get over it and move on.


I walked past Orion's room a few minutes ago. They're in there now, four humans, each playing together, separately, on integrated DSI.

It is the present I see. And the past. They might, at a glance, seem to be separated, but then they yell in unison, laughing and shouting challenges at each other. They could just as easily be four kids playing with sticks and bones.
But they just had Cookie Crisp. Over- priced and over -sugared mini cookies that are really just one more form of corn.

And the best way to eat corn is in moderation.

I pause. This is worth saying again. The best way to eat corn is in moderation. All of us.

Or, we can just keep eating nothing but corn and doing all the things we're doing now and change only when things get so dire we have no choice. Which is what is most likely to happen, as this is the approach to change practiced by humanity for all time.

It's gambling, for sure, because if things get dire enough, we run the risk of not getting the opportunity to change. This has happened countless times in the story of this planet. Species come and go. Life is short, everything is eventual and nothing lasts forever.
But then, that's not my problem or yours. Because we cannot control what the species does. We can only control what we do. I can only control what I do. And even then, only within the constraints of my situation. But the impact of changes I can make could be profound for me, and those immediately connected to me. Same for you. Same for all of us.
So, in a nutshell: We're sort of fucked. It's not my fault. I'm not completely powerless.

I can make a list of all the things I want to change--like eating and buying less corn products--but I won't. Lists don't work for me. What works for me is simply to develop my vision to be mindful. If I want to change, I must look at everything through that filter and pay attention. That will affect every decision I make. Maintaining that mindfulness requires effort, but gets easier with practice.
Another round of yelling. They could be four kids playing at shells and sticks. Thing is, there are four kids playing at shells and sticks somewhere else on this planet today, right now, who live lives so different from this one as to be alien, but who are every bit our human family.
More laughter, cheers, challenges from Orion's room. Maybe the things that should change will. Maybe the things we get right, like playing together, will stay. Silly humans.

weekend

Poppets are already traveling free. Your artist will be spending hours in her favorite corner of the sofa
in pajamas,
with tea,
writing.
Silly Humans!

g'night

well spent

I wanted to show you this underpainting technique. Very likely, painters use it all the time, but I thought you might like to see it applied to sculpture---in this case, this little wave-riding Poppet. I decided the imagined light would be coming from the front, so I underpainted warm lights everywhere the sun would touch, and cooler, lavender hightlights in the shadows. Since red is translucent, the final color is affected as if by external light. Suggesting an imaginary light source isn't for every piece, but the right application can be very effective.
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There are lots of billboards in town for McDonald's new line of gourmet coffees, McCafe.

Weren't we stupid enough for Starbucks? Now McDonald's is charging $2.50 for a cup of coffee worth about $.35. We really don't need coffee in the car as often we have it. And we don't need our coffee to be desert.

Sheesh. This is one bit of phoof I can do without. It's not that I'm giving up all phoof. Humans need a bit of phoof, after all.
But I'm certainly more aware of the 'invisible' sort.
And the ridiculous sort. If I want something with 900 calories, I'll go for a slice of cheesecake, enjoyed and savored, not a faux coffee full of syrup and fat absently gulped on the freeway.

I don't mean to harp on this one thing, but I'm a coffee drinker from way back and this crap is making us look bad.

Is it possible we've been taught to think we need an awful lot of things we don't?

I can make lists of 'em. Can you? What a bunch of sheep.

It's true, these last few months have made us more conscious about what we spend our money for. They've made me think about a great many things, not the least of which is what it means to be a professional artist.

For the last six months, it's meant being willing to work about twice as hard for less money, making some difficult decisions and becoming a lot more flexible about my views on business, success, balance and goals.

It's also meant learning to stay focused under pressure---not to lose sight of the work or the inspiration behind it.

The key word here is 'learning.' Sometimes I still panic. Sometimes I still don't want to get out of bed.



Oh yeah---sometimes I remember it's not about me at all.

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We finished a new bell jar, this one a sort of nursery for small brains. I like the idea of little brains creating chaos of the joyful abandon type.
Untrained ideas can be dangerous.


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I like the idea of having one's own little death in possession, sitting innocently as a vase of flowers on the dresser.



*****
And finally, there's a new "Cosmic" Poppet in our Etsy Store.


There are links in the sidebar, but I'm told that some of you get this blog via rss feeds and the sidebar doesn't show.

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It's the weekend. I'm going to do my best to be productive, but to take some time out too. Like money, it's probably a good idea to watch what we spend our time on. Maybe I'll dust off my thermos.