All Over The Place

Posted on by Sandy Webster

This morning was a nice foggy walk to the gym. The sun trying to make its way through a haze of fog and perhaps smoke from burns.

For the past few days I have been working out how to meet the demands of self-publishing. Of course designing the cover is so much more fun for a visual artist. I found this black and white photo from under graduate school. I was taking a photography class while working on an installation about men leaving home. When asked, most men told me it was a lack of nourishment of one kind or another. This image made in black and white back then seemed perfect for a book of poetry.

But unfortunately, too low a resolution. I know I have the original somewhere so could just scan it to start over but then I thought, just photograph it again, because I still have the work. So now I have another photo of it sitting on rocks outside my front door on the walk with no background distractions. Then I decided to locate and alter other images that would make good book covers for my writings…and got completely sidetracked with the memories of the pieces of sculpture. Now I have plenty to choose from.

Speaking of books and poetry, Andie, a most thoughtful and intuitive friend from Australia, sent me a book of poetry that takes fifty poems and discusses their purpose and meaning. Just what I needed as the poetry group seems only to get together to read and not answer my way too many questions. Thanks so much Andie.

Also I have ordered Cressida Campbell’s book from the exhibition at the National Gallery in Canberra.

I think it was bothering me to not see her work up close and this is the next best thing.

My studio is a mess of felt, threads, pins and needles as I attempt to put the most contemptuous of the Republican Party in pincushion form. Today I completed DeSantis and the representative Santos, known for his lack of ability to tell anything but lies, and has a flair for dressing up. Here they are dancing together. DeSantis is sporting a Mickey Mouse hat and his too long Trump tie. And Santos’s nose increases in length as he tells more whoppers in his dress up heels.

They will get well-deserved pins before joining their peers.

That all was yesterday. I got sidetracked with filling a request to make a drawing of what the “common ground” area could look like here in the subdivision.

And this morning I decided that I should not put off getting my car inspected and a new license tag. As soon as the inspection was over, I shoved all relevant paperwork in my glove compartment and came home. Once here I realized that I was still registered in my former county. So decided to go the thee tag office and try to sort it out. Reaching into the glove compartment, I found that the necessary document I just received from the inspector had completely disappeared! I found former inspection sheets and car repair records from over ten years ago, but not the paper I needed. I went back to ask the man for another ( which he gave me ).  Then off to the tag office to correct my county information and pay the state for the new tag.

A woman busy working on her biscuit waved me over. I heard all about her indigestion from the night before and her unwillingness to forego sloppy joe sandwiches, as she worked diligently to sort me out. The cost was ten dollars cheaper in this county and she complimented me on my wrinkly linen pants as I went out the door. I won’t see her for another year but am already looking forward to it.

And as soon as I got home and opened the now cleaned out glove compartment to put the new papers in, my inspection paper from earlier fell out the back.

Seems I should show a picture of the old un-nourishing bowl in the new photograph.

I need to stop messing about with photos and memories and get busy stitching the four worst Supreme Court members.

More later…..

 

Where Did The Time Go?

Posted on by Sandy Webster

I saw this in the meadow on my way back home from the gym the other morning.

It reminded me of those campy body snatcher movies of the fifties. I think I remember a housewife in an apron (of course) heading into her garden to get some vegetables and being met by aliens looking rather sneaky and aggressive. Then a man came along and rescued her. These plants growing along the edge looked like them. I like it. The picture and what it conjures up.

There was no man around to save me if they got closer.

Sunrises are beautiful.

A walk to the river the other day with a view through a favorite tree.

And more subjects to draw in the Meadow Book.

The cats and I have been enjoying the porch.

My yard man installed the next to last bamboo fence yesterday. One more taller one for the left end of the garden.

It is nice sitting on the porch and listening to the water going into the pond.

I have spent a considerable amount of time sorting out poetry and essays for two books I would like to publish before the summer ends. Yes, S. Webster has been busy. I think Sandy Webster will publish The Burke and Wills Story. I have made choices for cover images. This whole thing is not an easy process but encouragement from family, friends and some in the poetry group has got me working toward finished products. More on that as it progresses.

And then because the felt arrived and the desire to make more pincushions is getting intense with every bit of news, this morning I cut out the really conservative and appalling Supreme Court Justices sitting shoulder to shoulder.

left to right, Clarence Thomas with his wife, Ginny, whispering her deluded wishes in his ear (might have to stick some bills in his pocket as well). Then Justice Alito who is overly influenced by his Catholic faith. Next is Justice Kavanaugh and his beer. And finally Coney-Barret proudly wearing her Handmaid’s Hat. Stitching, stuffing and pins to go.

After that who can resist a wrestling (what else) match between Ted Cruz and Jim Jordan for most obnoxious in their party. I think I will attach them at hands and feet so I can flip them over every once in awhile to see who is on top. And of course Margery Taylor Greene with mouth open, all muscles gripping her weapon of choice. Lindsay Graham in a boot-licking position and DeSantis in a Mickey Mouse hat dancing with Santos in heels. When you think of it, the GOP has slipped way lower than anyone could have imagined.

Tomorrow is the annual Car-B-Q in town.  The square is lined with parked old cars and proud owners raising hoods for closer inspection.

I might just wander up for a look.

More later…..

Some Very Nice Four Days Just Went By

Posted on by Sandy Webster

I was missing the Riverwalk in Murphy so took off Saturday early after I started the laundry. It was cloudy but very nice to be back there. I did not go down stream (my favorite part) because two dog training people were there giving commands. And that sort of spoils the mood. So off up stream I went and only saw a fisherman. He was hanging onto his bright orange rod, so I asked if he caught anything. He said he was “just fooling around”. I took that as a “no”. So here are the images from upstream.

The river was really high.

And at the far end near a street lamp were these remains of a cecropia moth. The bats swoop in and only take the body while the wings fly off to the ground. Such beautiful things, those moths. I resisted going closer to under the lamp and see other wings left behind.

And then on the way back…

I don’t know how these trees do not just give up when the river has soaked their roots so deeply with rushing water. This one barely clings to the shore as it lays out into the river.

And at the end of the bridge near the car park is this drama of green on black.

From there I went to my favorite coffee shop only to see it was closed for the day due to their daughter’s graduation.  So I went to the new iteration of Lee and my favorite Sunday morning breakfast place that gave rise to all those napkin wrapper character books. The food was not as good but it was nice just pulling into the parking lot.

Next I spent the weekend working on my Meadow Book. Buttercups and daisies.

Field asters and a starling. Not an easy bird to draw!

Bluebird and dogwood.

The meadow is filled with cobwebs.

Heal all and blue eyed grass.

Today I baked those way too delicious Ree Drummond Brown sugar oatmeal cookies. I have plenty for the freezer, a bag to share Thursday when most of the men come in for coffee, another bag for one of my favorite old fellows and another bag for a friend who is taking me shopping at that town we went to for Mother’s Day. We are headed there tomorrow.

In other news, my social skills are returning. Yesterday  was at a special luncheon for an old friend who lives here now. She was turning ninety and her daughter put on a lovely affair at a local restaurant. I only knew two people there and when I realized we were to stay for lunch and tables were filling up with people who knew each other, I asked a man I had just been introduced to if he would join me at a table for two.  He said he’d be happy to. It resulted in an hour and a half of wonderful conversation. He was a host on the old Eastern Airlines for fifteen years and then went on to the next twenty-five years of driving cross country fourteen wheelers….very large semi trucks. We talked about world travel, art, his home state of Florida and its pathetic politics in power.

I want to add here that I did not ask a woman to join me because women tend to stay in groups and I knew from experience that if I asked one she would have gone to great lengths to inform me that she needed to stay with her group.  I find men more willing to step away from the “expected”.

I went to shake his hand in good bye but he said a hug would be better. We both hoped to have more conversations when he returns to visit the birthday girl with his partner.

Then my neighbor, who wants to teach tai chi, and I recommended she try the senior center in town, will be starting her classes in late June or July. I agreed to join her class with some of the other women from the neighborhood. I quit doing my own tai chi several years ago and because she is so nice, and so are the women going to her class, I said I would also go.

And finally, Thursday lunch is with a group of women artists…only one is known to me and arranged this get together to meet other artists. And that evening is a party here in the neighborhood for a woman turning eighty. I will be taking champagne and a nifty appetizer that looks fun to make.

So social skills are coming back.

That is all for now now.

More later….

 

 

Strawberries and Colored Pencils

Posted on by Sandy Webster

One over-filled gallon box of fresh-picked-that-morning strawberries. And the field is only about a quarter mile from me. They are beautiful, sweet and so many big ones!

Now most of them are in the freezer packaged up in servings for one.

The last few mornings have been frosty walking to and from the gym.

And now back in the studio and the struggles with the dragon scale book illustration. I tried, I really did, to get the right colors and mood with the colored pencil collection that I have, And when I put the guide drawing up to follow for the next section of several half inch exposed fore edges, I realized the plain graphite was better…somehow better….

So I took my kneaded eraser and daubed at the pencil drawing of the first full page over and over again to take the color back, way back.

The softness of the image seems to go with the softness of the paper. It felt more “comfortable” for me. Odd choice of words but if I have to spend so much time sitting over a project I set up for myself, I might as well be comfortable with it.

Putting color in only to take it back out was driving me to think the whole idea was beyond where my capabilities now lie. But for right now I am going to blame the colored pencils. Some just have too much pigment in them and you don’t realize how much until the mark is made. The whole bunch will be put away as soon as I see this through.

Then I went back in with the oh-so-much-better graphite pencils and finished it up. Anyway, I think finished. But on this side only.

It is a dreamlike image of the river flowing by. BUT what goes on the back side when I flip all the folios back to the left? The larger page will be on the right…opposite the way we “read” left to right.  Should there be something on each page if they were turned individually like a normal book? Seems like a dumb idea for this binding designed for continual movement.

I thought of making the “backside” a long image of what is under the water. Decided not to. Too much drawing! So maybe, just maybe the large exposed full page when flipped to the left will be a poem about the river. That appeals to me if done in cursive, using a graphite pencil.

Now, how to present it? I will likely do what it was intended to do in the first place, and make it into a scroll. And if I only have the poem on the back side, having another long image expected to lay flat will not be an issue.

But best of all, when I finally finish this I will have learned the following:

  1.  Pick your challenges carefully.
  2.  Keep your limitations in mind when you make the decision in the first place.
  3.  And never, never quit until it is seen through.

I will write the poem over the weekend and roll it all up with a tie to hold in place. Then I will get my table space back to work on something new and SMALL.

Til later…