Friday, January 30, 2009

Easter Gift From a Dead Mother, Take 2

Easter Gift From a Dead Mother

I lift them from the floor, two crisp dollar bills
folded in half as they came from the card
twenty years ago. Cadbury Creme Eggs
from my mother because that year, like so many,
I was dieting. I had not yet learned I was allergic
to chocolate. The dollars were meant, like candy,
to be as fleeting as the words, "Hello, I love you!
Delightful to see you. Here's a little Easter treat." Yum
yum, gobble, gobble. But somehow, the paper eggs
never got eaten. I, who pride myself on imagination,
could think of no small treat both safe for a dieting palette
(or mind) and sufficient to honor my mother's boundless
love. She meant only to include me and would laugh or cry
at such agonizing deliberations over twenty years.
This morning, I knocked the precious dollars
from their perch beside my bed—perhaps to remind me
that when I pass on, no one will know the value
of this money. Maybe someone will stick them
in a wallet and spend them with ordinary money
for gas, dry cleaning or a soda for my son.
May that soda explode in rainbow flavors
and free the burden and glory of two
generations of love (hallelujah!) onto
that cherished and unsuspecting tongue.

Mary Stebbins Taitt
090130-0942-1e; 090130, 1st
(hated the illo, had to do it over!)

Easter Gift from a Dead Mother (and a bit of silliness)

Easter Gift From a Dead Mother

I lift them from the floor, two crisp dollar bills
folded in half as they came from the card
twenty years ago. Cadbury Creme Eggs
from my mother because that year, like so many,
I was dieting. I had not yet learned I was allergic
to chocolate. The dollars were meant, like candy,
to be as fleeting as the words, "Hello, I love you!
Delightful to see you. Here's a little Easter treat." Yum
yum, gobble, gobble. But somehow, the paper eggs
never got eaten. I, who pride myself on imagination,
could think of no small treat both safe for a dieting palette
(or mind) and sufficient to honor my mother's boundless
love. She meant only to include me and would laugh or cry
at such agonizing deliberations over twenty years.
This morning, I knocked the precious dollars
from their perch beside my bed—perhaps to remind me
that when I pass on, no one will know the value
of this money. Maybe someone will stick them
in a wallet and spend them with ordinary money
for gas, dry cleaning or a soda for my son.
May that soda explode in rainbow flavors
and free the burden and glory of two
generations of love (hallelujah!) onto
that cherished and unsuspecting tongue.

Mary Stebbins Taitt
090130-0942-1e; 090130, 1st

With a silly collage illo! :-D Brand new poem this morning! I may
make a new illo for this, as this illo is kind of foolish for the
poem!

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Camouphlage Detail

Camouflage Detail, from Camouflage, by Mary Stebbins Taitt. Done today in water media and for a couple hours when I got home. 6 x 8.5. See original full picture at Imagik. CED!

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Fruit, Jug and Mug

Fruit, Jug and Mug, by Mary Stebbins Taitt. Detail from sketch
completed tonight--had fun playing with this--it was an old sketch I
didn't like and I "fixed it up" somewhat. See full sketch at Imagik.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Discovering Spring, A Dream Collage

Discovering Spring, A Dream Collage, by Mary Stebbins Taitt. If
interested, you can see the full image and read about the dream. for
CED!

Monday, January 26, 2009

25 MORE random things (yet again)

I was tagged again by Aurora and was amazed at how many things on her list I have in common with her.

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you.

I am going to leave Aurora's list and add something new in parentheses if I'm different, but if I'm the same, leave it as it is.

1) I'm scared of spiders (I'm not)
2) I was scared of the dark until I was about 24 (me too, until I was about 19 or 20?)
3) I can navigate a boat ---with radar and charts (Nope, I cannot.  But I am good with a map and compass on solid ground)
4) I like to bake bread (me too!)
5) I learned to knit from my Grandma at about age 6 (me too!)
6) My ancestors (on my maternal side) settled Long island and built the first Quaker Meetinghouse on Long island (My ancestors on my Mom's side came to Massachusetts in one of the earliest landings.)
7) My Great Grandfather (paternal side) immigrated to America from Alsace Lorraine to escape the Prussian draft (My paternal grandparents came from Italy.  One of their grandparents was a pirate on the high seas.)
8) I am also partly of Scottish heritage (me, too, and Irish)
9) I once was close enough to a (wild) brown bear to smell its rotten breath (I've been very close to black bears a number of times, and once was directly above a grizzly on a cliff, alone in the wilderness.)
10) I lived "off the grid" without public utility electricity for 18 years (I loved without water or power for extended periods several times in my life)
11) I like to pick berries and make home made jam (me too--used to do it a lot, but less so now that I'm not supposed to have sugar).
12) I used to be a handweaver and I once wove all the curtains for our house (nope--I've sewn all my curtains on a sewing machine, but never learned to weave)
13) I wrote a small book on natural dyes in Southeast Alaska (I wrote a small book on science activities for children)
14) I participated in Judy Chicago's THE BIRTH PROJECT as a needleworker (I took a gang of 22 children, including one who spoke only french and one who was blind, across a hundred acre swamp in a terrible wind and lightning stom with trees falling around is and trees underwater and leeches and snapping turtles)
15) I had my second daughter at home (a home birth) (My children were born naturally in birthing centers).
16) I was on the down hill ski team in high school (me too)
17) I once caught--with a friend--a 350 pound halibut (I once caught enough pumpkinseeds in an hour-long session to feed three families--lol!  Can't think of anything like that halibut!))
18) I can gut, skin, and butcher a deer or moose (I've done a deer once.) ( But have skinned, guttened and butchered many other animals.  I lived on road kill as a student.)
19) I didn't learn to read until 3rd grade--but then once I "got it" I could read about 8th grade level
20) As a child, I used to read in bed with a flashlight--after "lights out" (me too!--or by the light of my aquariums at the end of my bed)
21) I can recognize and "grade" all species of salmon (I can age deer by jaws, trees by rings, and various other animals--although I'm getting rusty.  I once learned how to count herds of animals or flocks of birds by scatter diagrams and got relatively good at it.)
22) I can cook a decent meal on a boat at sea--no matter how much the boat is rolling and pitching (I can cook a decent meal while winter camping in a snowstorm on a fire or one-burner back-packing stove)
23) I love good poetry read aloud (me too!)
24) I have to spend a certain amount of time each year in the wilderness to stay sane (me too!)
25) I am a grandmother! (me too!)

I am tagging you if you want to play along!  (AGAIN?)  But since I've already tagged everyone more than once, I won't specifically name anyone.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Play

Does this look like play?

My play in the car while Biker Buddy is driving is to draw and this is what I drew as he drove.

I never understand people who get bored. How can one be bored when there are so many fun ways to play.

See the whole sketch here.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Dawn D's Sketchbook

A painting I made, supposedly of myself, and a skull from Cranbrook,
in Dawn D's sketchbook for the sketchbook exchange program. The skull
is for Jim D.

Frog Play

Frog Play with color explosion kit, in Dawn D's sketchbook.

These didn't come out that great, but it was fun to play and experiment.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

"Hey, Get your finger out of my Eye!"

"Hey, Get your finger out of my Eye!"

for CED. I thought since we were being playful, I'd do a few silly
children's illos for fun!

This is Garryd Knudson, from one of my Y.A. novels. Click to view larger.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Self Portrait with Hawk Skull Detail

Self Portrait with Hawk Skull Detail, by Mary Stebbins Taitt. This is a "large detail" from a 5 x 7 water color "painting" that I did tonight for my water media class. You can see the whole painting at Imagik if interested. It's supposed to be a self-portrait, but it doesn't really look like me. (I like it anyway, in spite of its flaws.) (The little red spots are from pomegranate at supper! Aiee!)

The Lobster Floats revisted

Well, I signed the painting because I thought it was done, but I am
not really sure that it is.

This isn't the whole painting. I can't fit the whole painting on the
scanner and it's too dark to take a picture. I'm cogitating on it,
trying to decide what if anything still needs to be done to it.

If you have any gentle but helpful feedback, let me know. This is for
my painting class.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

The Frog Meister (Detail)

The Frog Meister (Detail)--an attempt at Sissy, from Frog Haven. See
full sketch here. In Dawn D's sketchbook, for Sketchbook exchange.

Polenta Revisited

I make polenta nearly every Friday. I put 1/3 c dried ground corn in
1 cup of water, boil and stir occasionally for 5-6 minutes, and pour
into a mold (or leave it in the pan it's in if I don't need that pan.)
I do this in the morning, but it can be done th night before. It
sets up in a few hours.

Then at dinner time, I fry it in olive oil (or you could use butter)
with garlic or garlic powder and often black olives. Or with marinara
sauce (heated and added afterward). The polenta should be started
first, before you make other stuff. It takes a while. If cooked on
medium high (on my stove), it only needs to be turned once after maybe
10-15 minutes, then 10-15 on the other side.

If you use regular cornmeal, it needs to be cooked a little longer in
the first stage. You can also buy polenta that is cooked in a tube
and they you just have to fry it--remember, it takes a while! Don't
slice it too thin unless you want it to taste more like corn chips
than polenta. Spicing it with salt, pepper, garlic, onions and/or
marinara or salsa is really important, as is frying it long enough for
it to become somewhat brown and crispy at least on the edges, and
preferably a little more than that.

Self Portrait with Dream I, Detail

Self Portrait with Dream I, Detail, by Mary Stebbins Taitt. This is a detail from a larger water color painting I did for a take home-assignment in my water media class. I'm not thrilled with it, but then again, I'm rarely thrilled with my work. So here it is. This detail is about 3 x 5. Click here to see the WHOLE painting. Click the image to see the detail larger.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Lottie Spady tagged you in a note on Facebook...

USING ONLY ONE WORD! It's not as easy as you might think! Copy and change the answers to suit you and pass it on. It's really hard to only use one word answers. Be sure to tag the person you received it from!

1. Where is your cell phone? pocket
2. Your significant other? BB
3. Your hair? braided
4. Your mother? dead
5. Your father? passed
6. Your favorite thing? dreaming
7. Your dream last night? eggs
8. Your favorite drink? water
9. Your dream/goal? serenity
10. What room you are in? study
11. Your hobby? photography
12. Your fear? deadlines
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? embraced
14. Where were you last night? bed
16. Muffins? enh
17. Wish list item? health
18. Where you grew up? country
19. Last thing you did? breathe
20. What are you wearing? jeans
21. Your TV? None
22. Your pets? cockatiel
23. Friends? distant
24. Your life? full
25. Your mood? confused
26. Missing some one? yes
27. Car? snowy
28. Something you're not wearing? shoes
29. Your favorite store? Borders
30. Your favorite color? black
33. When is the last time you laughed? morning
34. Last time you cried? yesterday
35. Who will resend this? some
36. One place that I go to over and over? subconscious
37. One person who emails me regularly? junk
38. My favorite place to eat? diningroom
39. Why you participated in this survey? foolish
40. What are you doing tonight? questioning

I hereby tag Blue Rose and Coffeypot (and YOU, if you're reading this), if'n y'all have time and energy.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Maybe Someday

I am taking my second-ever Water Media Class and the first session met today and I worked on this unfinished piece. I worked hard on it, but blown up like this in this crop, I can see a hundred mistakes. I may yet learn to paint. Am am slowly improving. The teacher (Charlie
Myers) said so and I can see it myself. To see more from this series, visit "Half-formed." For CED.

I did have fun playing with this, so if I set aside my expectations or hopes for good results, and just "play," that could be okay.

(I do wish to be able to paint well, though.)

I spent the whole day at this and the whole day Tuesday (?) writing a poem, and sometimes I feel guilty and wonder if I should be doing something more important. I want to explore this sometime. If I ever have time.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The Bluebird of Happiness

The Bluebird of Happiness, by Mary Stebbins Taitt. After Steve Emery. A crop from a small water-color sketch in a sketchbook exchange book. This portion is about 2 x 3. You can see the whole sketch (and discussion) here, at Imagik. For CED.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Fruit and Wine by Night Window

Fruit and Wine by Night Window, by Mary Stebbins Taitt

A Water-color quick sketch in a sketchbook exchange book. For Creative every day.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Four New Sketches

Four New Sketches, by Mary Stebbins Taitt--in my sketchbook Exchange groups' sketchbooks. These are crops. You can see the full sketches at Imagik.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

BB on the couch variant

BB on the Couch variant, by Mary Stebbins Taitt. My third attempt to do a from-scratch painting on my new Cintiq tablet. I haven't quite got the hang of it yet. (The original is on Imagik).

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Puttenesca a la Marie

This is what I made for dinner last night--a form of Puttenesca a la me. It was part of my creative every day, LOL!

The main thing is fresh tomatoes (or you can use canned if haven't any fresh), garlic, olives, capers. Leave anything out you don't like. I served mine over "designer" pasta ("Mother-in-law's tongue"). I added mushrooms, veggies, wine, and pork. (Also salt, pepper, basil, parsley.) You could add an alternate protein source, or none. But although it was utterly wonderful and seems fancy (cause it's soemthing I've never made before quite like this), it didn't take long.

I dipped the fresh tomatoes in the same water I was boiling for pasta, each for 45 seconds, slid off the skins and chopped them up--the tomatoes, not the skins. Saute the garlic (onions if you like them--I can't eat onions) in olive oil, add any extras (meat, veggies, mushrooms). When they are nearly cooked, if you add them, add the tomatoes, wine, capers, olives, cook a couple minutes and serve over the pasta you've been preparing, YUM YUM! (I fried up a couple pieces of polenta to serve on the side.)

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Les Fleurs Incomplet

Les Fleurs Incomplet, by Mary Stebbins Taitt, for CED. IThis is the
second from-scratch painting I did on my new Cintiq. The learning
curve for me is steep. This is a crop from the original.

Titty brought the parrot on deck after a time to enjoy the sunshine and have a real look at the sea.

Rules:
* Pick up the nearest book. Right now.
* Go to page 56.
* Find the 5th sentence.
* Write that sentence in your Title.
* Copy these instructions as a comment on your Title.
* Don't get your favourite book or the best one, but the closest to you right now.

January 3, 1982


January 3, 1982, 3:45 PM

This book frightens me. It is too perfect. Already, I have made an error. My writings are too hesitant, too awkward, too groping to be put into such a beautiful book.

I am sitting in a secluded spot overlooking Osprey Bay and Osprey Point from the shore of Second Home Lake. The lake is frozen and snowclad. There is about four inches of snow beneath my feet. I am sitting on a log, on my old red ski parka. I hear chickadees and nuthatches. The have come to feast at our feeders, nearby.

I have three dogs with me, Shiloh, Buffy and Charlie. I had wanted to come alone, but they need to go out, too. Shiloh has proceeded to defecate, urinate and roll. He is distracting my attention by jumping in my lap. He also tried to run away. Sassy is in heat . . . he wants to visit her. Charlie is already gone. Buffy is hanging around.

Shiloh hears a very loud chickadee and tries to locate it in the hemlock. I see two there now . . . one dives down through the branches with amazing agility. Shiloh I crunching snow, chewing it audibly, loudly, to get the water from it, I assume.

I hear a sort of high-pitched warbling tweet—a single drawn-out yet short note, followed by a lot of soft twitterings. It may be the chickadee, but I don't recognize it.




I seem to be in a very wild place. From where I sit, I see no signs of man. If I strain myself, I can see our house through the trees, or far off, see Henderson's house through the trees across the lake. Neither of these is easy to see and I could be in a vast uncharted wilderness, but for the car sounds.

It is a dull late afternoon. The sky is monochromatic pale grey, almost white. The trees are also grey—dull, darker grey, the snow grey-white. Only the hemlocks and pines are green, a dull grey-green. There is no wind, no movement save the dogs. I can no longer see or hear any birds. The place seems desolate. It is cold, but not bitter. The air is fresh, damp, and slightly woody. Several large oaks rise behind me, their bases covered up to about 5 feet with patches of dull dark green moss. The large sugar maple beside me has no moss, just a small creeping poison ivy vine starting up at its base.

There are a number of dead Norway Spruces of varying sizes around me, and behind me, to the West, the plantation of spruces and pines marches up the slope.

Shiloh has tried twice more to sneak off. He tried to dig up a small log. Buffy is yapping. Charlie, who has returned, is dancing around. They want me to play with them. Almost directly before me, near the shore of the lake, is a bittersweet nightshade with red berries. In this light, they are dull, almost black.

I'd better go back home and work on supper.



1-15-82 Yesterday, I snowshoed down the canoe trail to the lake, carefully avoiding a fresh fox trail in the snow. I followed beside the fox prints, watching where the fox climbed up beside several trees and up only a beaver Lodge. I was careful not to harm the trail.

Today, I returned on skis. A light snow had fallen. All that remained of the fox trail were tiny, almost invisible indentations in the snow. If I didn't see it yesterday, I would not know what it was today. No one else had come this way to see the trail.

- - -

These journal entries were written in a gorgeous hardbound journal decorated with lovely paintings of birds. I prefer to do my journaling in a beat-up spiral notebook where I can cross off and start over without defacing the book. Other than one poem, there was nothing else in the book except all the bird paintings. The book had been in the basement flood and is ruined and I am going to throw it away now. I believe I have already typed up the poem (may years ago). I feel sad throwing away what was once a beautiful journal. Over the years, people have given me many beautiful journals and most of them, like this one, have an entry or two—or none at all. I feel as if I should scan some of the bird paintings so they don't go to waste, but they are prints anyway, and more such journals were manufactured, and people who like that sort of thing must have enjoyed them. I am sure I enjoyed looking at them when they were given to me.

All photos are of art from the journal these entries were written in. I could not find the name of the artist, and I have now thrown away the journal.

Monday, January 05, 2009

Posing Nude in the Snow ( a poem)

oops, I revised it: Here's the new version, older one underneath:


Posing Nude in the Snow

I hold a plate of eyeballs the size of fish eyes.
Round. They stare in every direction, with irises
olive drab. I tip the plate toward my mouth
and pour them in. They smush on my tongue
like capers, salty, sour and sharp. Some escape
to look inside my mouth and belly. Perhaps
they will see my heart: a burned out cinder. A hunk
of graphite. Stone masons attack at it with hammers
and chisels, trying to recarve stone into a facsimile
of love, but the eyeballs all know better.

Mary Stebbins Taitt
For Jim Doran, Bagelboy and Mike Kline
And for Lottie, Rhonda, Dawn and Janine
090105-1950-1c
(Now you know why I don’t have any friends, LOL!)


Posing Nude in the Snow


I hold a plate of eyeballs about the size of fish eyes.


Round. They stare in every direction, with irises


olive drab. I tip the plate toward my mouth


and pour them in. They smush on my tongue


precisely like capers, salty, sour and sharp.


Some escape to look inside my mouth and belly. Perhaps


they will see my heart: a burned out cinder. A hunk


of graphite. The stone masons carve at it with hammers


and chisels, trying to remake stone into a facsimile


of love but the eyeballs all know better.



Mary Stebbins Taitt

For Jim Doran and Mike Kline

And for Lottie, Rhonda, Dawn and Janine

090105

(Now you know why I don't have any friends, LOL!)


--
I am certain of nothing but the Heart's affections and the truth of the Imagination- John Keats
Mary

Peter Duck

Peter Duck: A Treasure Hunt in the Caribbees (Godine Storyteller) Peter Duck: A Treasure Hunt in the Caribbees by Arthur Ransome


My review


This is a currently reading book for me. I'm on page 142. I love Arthur Ransome, and so far, this book lives up to my expectations--it's a great read for those who, like me, love children's lit. Looking for a good book for a child--start with Swallows and Amazons.


View all my reviews.
*Moon in a Mason Jar* and *What My Father Believed*: POEMS *Moon in a Mason Jar* and *What My Father Believed*: POEMS by Robert Wrigley


My review


rating: 4 of 5 stars
The first poem in this book blew me away. I read it about 5 times. I loved the second poem. And many of the others. I have now finished the book and mostly I loved it. I wish the scale was ZERO to Ten to give more latitude. I would give it a nine or a 4.5. Most of the poems were very good some were great, and some were a bit duddy. Overall--it is highly worth reading and I loved it. The poems are evocative with wonderful images and turns of phrase. Many of the poems are delightfully understated and delicious.


View all my reviews.

Sunday, January 04, 2009

More Creative Every Day

I love it when I learn to do something new. And today I am really
happy because I discovered all by myself how to make multiple colored
brush strokes in photoshop. So far, I have been making flowers. Then
fooling around in photoshop to make them into a digital painting that
pleases me. This is my most recent one. I have made a number of
them. I deleted some of them, not becasue they were necessarily bad
or anything, but because I was just playing, learning a new technique.
Fun. I think I may, if I have time, explain how at Half-formed. I
am not sure if this technique will be useful for anything else, but it
is fun to play with.

16 Beans

Rules: Once you've been tagged you are suppose to write a note with 16 random things,facts,habits or goals about you. At the end choose 16 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you it's because I want to know more about you. Unfortunately as I can only tag so many people, if you see this and decide you want to go for it, go for it.  I was tagged by Rhonda Walsh

Rhonda Welsh's Notes



  1. I have a REAL friend named She-she or Sheesh, she's on-line on Facebook and I dunno if she knows Sha-sha, but I doubt it.
  2. I have the same birthday as Bob Dylan and Walt Whitman.
  3. I have over 5,000 unpublished poems.
  4. I have multiple novels in progress.
  5. I had raspberry beer for dinner.  Belgium Frambroise Lambic. 
  6. Tonight I walked out on the pier and looked at the ice which was laid sideways by the waves and was so pretty.
  7. I got a Cintiq Tablet for Christmas but don't know how to use it yet.
  8. I am a Gemini and though I don't believe in astrology per se, I have the many interests (but not the skills) of a Renaissance Mind.
  9. My husband and I were willing to pose nude in the snow for another blogger, but she decided it was too cold.
  10. Tonight, I went to Staples and bought new notebooks for 2009 for my journal, my poems for 2009, my dreams, and my health issues.
  11. I belong to a sketchbook exchange group.  No, wait, two of them.
  12. I like Mozart and I like Opera.
  13. I also like Bluegrass.
  14. I have no close friends in the Detroit area that I see regularly (often) and I am sad.
  15. I am a terrible housekeeper.
  16. We never finished decorating our Christmas tree this year and all the boxes of ornaments are still sitting around the tree.
OK, I tag Coffeypot and Blue Rose and you.