Oil Pastel & Watercolor – a little ballet with some smudgy color

This is a mixed media work of mine, created with oil pastel and water colors on paper. I think I may have posted it before - if so, I will add a link to that post. This photo is taken through the glass of the frame, so it looks a bit subdued.

DRAWING: Fingers of the Sun

This is a pen and ink from quite a few decades ago. It's first life was black and white only. Then I got the itch to alter and out came the crayons. I like the sense that everything is in motion, very busy, frantic motion. I think life felt like that to me back then.

Bruce Gray’s wild kinectic sculpture – gravity with sound effects!

A Kinetic Sculpture by Los Angeles sculptor Bruce Gray, titled "Califormia Dreamin"

One of things I am always excited about in a work of art - is a sense of motion. But with kinetic sulpture - you have the immediate delight of motion in three dimensions rather than motion hinted at on a flat plain. This sculpture also has sureal sound effects, even though it doesn't seem like the Califormia Dreamin of that era.. Another thing I like about it is the idea of alternate routes that all lead to the same destination and the juxtaposition of natural force (gravity) and man-arranged force which lifts the iron ball to the top for another cycle.

I found this video featured on a blog called DenverArtsyGal - she has a fantastic blog and twitter feed so take a look.

Healthcare thoughts and a book: The Treatment Trap

Sometimes an office visit for a medical complaint seems more like a marriage than a date.  You not only get  your doctor, but all the relatives - a flock of specialists to look after each body part separately.

I have watched strange goings on as a patient advocate for an elder relative for the last ten years. A kidney is atrophied, for instance, according to some test or other by one kidney doctor, then a stent is put in by a sub-specialist kidney doc who does stents, then immediattely there is a question as to which kidney was damaged, as both appear to be fine....

Or when in the hospital for a fall, the hospitalist says they are going to send a neurologist to evaluate her, and also a specialist to look at her sinuses since the scans of her head revealeved a tiny polyp that might be causing post nasal drip. BUT THE PATIENT HAS ALREADY BEEN FULLY EVALUATED and is under treatment by a NEUROLOGIST associated with that hospital.  She doesn't  care about her perennial post nasal drip and wants to go home. She is stable,  and IS SHARING A ROOM WITH SOMEONE INFECTIOUS.  So MRS X -  How about another CAT Scan or maybe we need another MRI, or five more specialists to consult on your case - If you have good insurance - they have some tests they would like to run..... Never mind that post nasal drip isn't exactly something to make you check into a hospital.

Did I mention that these days seniors go to a doctor for each part of their bodies? Besides her primary Doc, my relative has a doctor for her heart, one for her arteries, one for her kidneys, one for the colon, one for her nerves and another for her thyroid. Then several of them want to see her four times a year which always involves looking at the papers and having a chat. No hands on at all. SO Why not do the blood work and let the primary care guy decide if she needs to see them? No fee in that....

For more of the same foolishness and some outright larceny from all across the country - read the The Treatment Trap -  a book by Rosemary Gibson and Janardan Prasad Singh. It's available at the Danbury Library.  It's a sobering read.

Flash fluke - Cat with burning eyes

This is one of those accidental photos that I could never take on purpose, because as a point-and-click photog, I just don't have the skill.  Miet walked right up to the camera and got caught in the flash closeup..  The photo was taken at night, and the lamp in the background has one of those new fangled energy-saving bulbs

Sculpture in clay, from a live model

This is a larger sculpture f(or me I mean) - about 14 or 15 inches high. I made it during a class at Wooster Community Art Center quite a few years ago,. The instructor was Janice Mauro who does a lot of cool work with figures in enclosures, and with patinas that have an incredible depth.  We had a live model for the class. I had previously sketched a live model before but working in three dimensions was quite different.  This has some cracks in it now. The back of the base is broken, as is one hand. I still like the lines though.

I also took a class at Wooster with Alex Shundi, but in that class we worked with terra cotta clay. Shundi is another great instructor. I have fond memories of both of the classes I took at Wooster. I wish the center was still open.

Polymer Face – Sad-Eyed Man

I used the vignette function in iPhoto to focus on the face of this sad=eyed fellow with his doubtful look. The sculpture is polymer, mounted on a stone tile. It's one of dozens of polymer faces I created around the year 2000. Each is different.  I signed the photo in Picnick on Picasso.