Self-portrait of the artist as a witch 2010

my annual SP as a witch.

HAPPY HALLOWEEEN from us!

Nyah-hah ha hah!

Hope you have a good one!!!!  :-D

May you have all good treats and only good tricks!

Walking today (From a letter)

101030J  October 30, 2010

 

I am walking from Rolandale tower the hospital on my first walk of the day.  The sun is shining weakly through thin clods.  The clouds are ribbed and scaled like. Dead fish lying on the beach.  The sidewalk, lawns, and streets are littered with fallen leaves, some golden yellow, some red, some brown and crumpled.  The wall by the hospital parking garage is covered with ivy and grapevines that are red scarlet, salmon, orange and yellow.  All the trees are painted in brilliant hues.  There are pink chrysanthemums flowering in a yard I pass.

 

I am not feeling very well.  Not terrible, but unwell.  Achy, sore.

 

I have been working hard today, all day.  I carried down, washed and folded two loads of laundry and there's another in the dryer, partly folded.  I called about the meter replacement, but did not get fr with that.  I did my exercises, worked a little in the yards at both Rolandale and Moran, watered plants at both houses, etc.  And so on.

 

Boring, right?  Well, that's my day.

 

I am wearing my Dodge Poetry Festival shirt, though, sadly, I missed the festival this year.

 

What you can't see, among other things, is that I am writing while walking on my iPad.  Wait!  I am not walking on the iPad, I am writing on the iPad while walking.  But it is too heavy, and bulky to do this with any comfort, it hurts my wrists and back. 

 

I have walked over to Radio Shack and Ritz on Mack, not because I want to go there, but because that's where this particular walking loop goes.  There are lots of places I want and need to go, but those are not among them.

 

I turn back into the hoods.  A dog barks frantically at me.  I pass a young couple grinning foolishly at each other--ah young love.    I pass the lovely leaves of Liquidambar styraciflua--sweet gum, and a red bud tree with single heart-shaped leaves still clinging to it.  I pass a large handprints in cement and that same moony young couple who must have circled around another way.  I pass pumpkins and scarecrows and holiday decorations.  I do not like the plastic ones.

 

Soon, I will be back to the retreat and studio house and my walk will be over, though I will walk again, God willing and the creeks don't rise, in a little while.  The studio house is about to lurch into view.  There it is and my car in front of it.  I have to moth the African violets and go back to Moran.  I walked 34 minutes, a little slow because of writing.

 

I worked really hard today--on chores and necessities.  What I did NOT do was work hard on my writing or my art.  :-(

 

Quick Random lists, writers, artists

The Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen authors (poets included) who've influenced you and that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. Tag at least fifteen friends, including me, because I'm interested in seeing what authors my friends choose. (To do this, go to your Notes tab on your profile page, paste rules in a new note, cast your fifteen picks, and tag people in the note.)

Annie Dillard

Barbara Kingsolver

Shakespeare

Mary Oliver

Patrick Lawler

Marion Zimmer Bradley

Charles Dickens

Jane Austen

Jim Kjelgaard

Hemingway

Blake

Steinbeck

Alice Walker,

Mark Twain

Harper Lee

(kind of quick and random)

ANother quick random one with various kinds of artists:

Annie Dillard

Van Gogh

Kahlo

Barbara Kingsolver

Sylvia Plath

Robert Frost

Emily Dickinson

Phillip LeVine

Escher

DaVinci

Dali

Margaret Atwood

Denise Levertov

Mozart

Beethoven

Your turn

Self-portrait of the Artist with Andy Warhol

Self portrait if the Artist with Andy Warhol, Digitally painted photo
composit, by Mary Stebbins Taitt. See original photo here.

Blog Action Day! WATER!

Water is everywhere. It sustains life. It makes our planet livable.



We drink it, we cook with it, we swim in it, we sail on it.



But water is endangered! We threaten our own lives, our children and grandchildren, by polluting our water.

Yet there is HOPE!



Five facts about water:

1. Unsafe drinking water and lack of sanitation kills more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Unclean drinking water can incubate some pretty scary diseases, like E. coli, salmonella, cholera and hepatitis A. Given that bouquet of bacteria, it's no surprise that water, or rather lack thereof, causes 42,000 deaths each week.
2. More people have access to a cell phone than to a toilet. Today, 2.5 billion people lack access to toilets. This means that sewage spills into rivers and streams, contaminating drinking water and causing disease.
3. Every day, women and children in Africa walk a combined total of 109 million hours to get water. They do this while carrying cisterns weighing around 40 pounds when filled in order to gather water that, in many cases, is still polluted. Aside from putting a great deal of strain on their bodies, walking such long distances keeps children out of school and women away from other endeavors that can help improve the quality of life in their communities.
4. It takes 6.3 gallons of water to produce just one hamburger. That 6.3 gallons covers everything from watering the wheat for the bun and providing water for the cow to cooking the patty and baking the bun. And that's just one meal! It would take over 184 billion gallons of water to make just one hamburger for every person in the United States.
5. The average American uses 159 gallons of water every day – more than 15 times the average person in the developing world. From showering and washing our hands to watering our lawns and washing our cars, Americans use a lot of water. To put things into perspective, the average five-minute shower will use about 10 gallons of water. Now imagine using that same amount to bathe, wash your clothes, cook your meals and quench your thirst.

Blog Action Day 2010: Water from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

Change.org|Start Petition

New Mole Art

Hennie Mavis has added some wonderful art to my mole from the first round. I visited her the day before yesterday, and on the way home today, with ballpoint in the round one mole, I drew this picture of BB driving, then colored it with colored pencils, and then painted over it with Windsor Newton mini-pan watercolors. I was fascinated by the way I could see his chin through his beard in the brilliant light coming in the window of the car. The original pictures in this mole were from May of 2008! The Mole still has a few blank pages.

This was all done going about 80 miles an hour on the interstate highway and I had trouble with bumps and sways etc. I used the watercolors full strength and they acted a lot like gouache. I wanted the beard to be white and not the yellow color of the paper. Below is a photo of the original sketch in ballpoint. Do click on the my mole link above to see Hennie's Hermit Thrush, if you haven't already seen it! It's great!

Walking in the Rain!!!

:-D

Walking in the Rain

Monday, October 4, 2010

It's raining—cold, wet and miserable. If you like to walk daily to keep in shape and breathe fresh air, you have several choices: walk at the mall, do laps or treadmill at the gym, run up and down the stairs at a local high-rise or parking... Read more »