Things can change so suddenly

Thinks sure took a turn since April. Not with the program even yet though I guess I will eventually be okay.

In May, we found out Mom was at the end stage of one of her conditions. Only 19 days later, under the gentile  in home care of hospice, she died just the way she had wanted to go - at home. Not many get that wish. It was the hardest, saddest month of my life and June was a close second to it.

We didn't have a service right off. To accommodate various folks who wanted to attended but had some problems with timing, Mom's graveside memorial service wasn't for another month, finally held in the middle of June.  It was a service full of difficult poems, thoughtful metaphor, woven together by Master Integral Coach Reggie Marra who officiated. My cousin Jim did a really stellar job on the eulogy, commemorating Mom, not as she was most recently - but as she was in her hey day.  And then there was music by fellow poet and songwritter, Shijin member, former director of the CT Folk Festival - Alice Anne Harwood Sherill. Amazing Grace and Simple Gifts. I cried and cried.

I am doing okay. Finding out what I have to do. Frankly when nobody is around my face is still stuck in deadpan - even when I am not feeling badly - it seems to be the underlying condition for now. I take little steps. I carry little boxes. I breathe in. I breathe out. One foot follows the other. And so it goes.

Can't say enough good things about Regional Hospice and Home Care. I couldn't have lived through May without them. Hugs to everyone.

Words inspired by Susan Green's cool art

BLUE ORGANICS, PRIMORDIAL

A flotilla of single cells pressing together.

A splash of lifesavers and belt buckles 

or donuts with sprinkles here or there.

Pairs of chromosomes considering the future. 

A random collection of empty picture frames in storage.

The nested shells of whirling electrons.

A jumble of jellyfish or curly fries in colors.

Every planet or light switch in all the universes known or not,

as seen from an angle in a singularity, 

All converging to a single rectangle.  Tangle.

Everything.

                                                    - mad mar mistryel walker

This artwork called Pastel Wonder by artist Susan Green was displayed at ARC of Westchester Gallery 265 in Hawthorne in their Side by Side exhibition and is included in the show's booklet. I think it won some kind of award at the reception on April 19 2015.

The reception was quite a lot of fun with host Zork Allen, a bunch of poets, artists, ARC clients and their families and some wonderful art and a couple fun film shorts. Hope they do it again next year.

Sheridan & Klar perk at coffeehouse show

Cosy Sheridan at the Groovin in New Fairfield series coffeehouse at the town's senior center. This series offers some good music, good food on the cheap (from Brunos) and an attentive audience. Below is Jake Klar who opened the show with his trademark growls and grins along with some fine tunes. Then Cosy Sheridan came on -- I really loved the humor in Sheridan's songs. She's lived, she's thoughtful, does some clever writing with a sensor of humor too. That's aside from the music itself which had real nuance.  

Happy Openly Secular Day!

The work below is a recent SpinArt mandala. I like its bright colors and eccentric sort-of symmetry.

However, Nothing magical is involved in the mandala. Here on earth, as in the fictional realm of OZ - there is often a human "behind the curtain" of change, a human who is imagining things could be a bit different and manipulating, enhancing or wreaking havoc to make it so. Even so with the architectural beauties of a cathedral, a work of sacred music or art - behind the curtain is human imagining.
I believe in wonder which is really a form of imagination. Take a long look at trees waving their gorgeous limbs, clouds ever-changing, the sky or a puddle or stream or the ocean or the cat, or a work of art or some human being, smiling at the wild, random universe.. Those are the natural views that transport me, with nothing "supernatural" in the picture at all.

And so I am posting this picture and wishing you a happy "Openly Secular Day"

One View

The world is odd, expansive and beautiful; generous and mean. It kicks you, hugs you, is maple with bitters.
— mad (@FecklessFlea) March 25, 2015

SCAN demo with Rick Daskham

It never ceases to amaze me - how a roomful of people silently follows the artist's every move. You could hear a pin drop. SCAN members are a great audience.

Beginning 2 new paintings, then dropping the class

Started a painting class in January. I was full of hope and foolishness I guess, but I am a person of vague goals and missteps.  I lasted four classes followed by several weeks of being snowed out or in. During that time I started two large paintings which  are NOT finished and may look very different in years to come.

Once I got the second one going, it became obvious to me that getting two wet canvas back and forth twice a week in my little Fiesta was untenable. I can't leave them elsewhere because I am a slow painter and need to live with what I am working on.

So I withdrew. Heavy Sigh. I really like the old WCSU painting studio on White St. much better than the new one in the Visual and Performing Studio building which feels cramped and sterile. I do miss the advice of the instructor though Marjorie Portnow who is very helpful and I know I missed much by leaving. Besides the artistic feedback, she has a technical tips to offer. For example there is some use for Murphy's oil soap when brush cleaning, and that one tip has helped immensely.

The first canvas, at the right, is partially derivative from a portion of Seurat's The Circus, at least composition wise. I liked the grandstand lines and the bareback rider. It needed something so first there was a large clown to the right, then a ringmaster now a smaller running clown lower right which I really dislike as the body is awkwardly drawn for reasons of line rather than anatomy. And so the poor awkward clown may disappear.  (has disappeared and been replaced with a giant clown head) Again. Colors will change to, dots may reappear.

The second is above. It borrows the form of the grandstands but nothing else. Not sure where either is going. We shall see.