I won a book at Thoughts in progress!

I won a book at Thoughts in Progress. YAY! It's the third book I won. Triple YAY! And the time spent there is worthwhile because I learn about books, which is a favorite subject of mine. The posts there are very interesting.

Twenty Pounds!

I didn't want to post about it until I was sure it was real, but I've lost 20.5 pounds since I started my new new food plan. (Otherwise known as a diet, except this needs to be life-long).

I am not, however, sleeping well, still. I was hopeing the diet would help.

--
"A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth." Einstein, from a letter to a friend in 1901 when he was 22

"The fist is more than a sum of its fingers." Margaret Atwood

Mary

Blind drawing, painted

I did a blind drawing of BB last night and painted it with gouache,
following only the lines I'd drawn.

Lonely Street, 3 AM

"Lonely Street, 3 AM," is done in gouache on arches 140 lb watercolor paper. It's from the homeless series I'm working on. The paper is is bigger than the size of my scanner. so it's slightly blurred because it was lifted off the platen and also, slightly less purple than it really is. I don't know why the scanner didn't pick up the purple.

If you click on the painting, it will enlarge significantly.

I have been too busy to do any blogging lately, so sorry.

Howling

Some people can't tell where it hurts. They can't calm down, they can't ever stop howling." Margaret Atwood, the Blind Assassin

The Lake Shore Limited, by Sue Miller

When I saw this book at the library, I almost didn't pick it up. I was thinking some previous book by this author had left a bad taste in my mouth, but I couldn't remember which. I decided to get it anyway, and I am delighted that I did! It was one of the best books I've read in a long time. It is honest, thought provoking, human, difficult, unhappy and happy and realistic and good.

The entire book revolves around the play, The Lake Shore Limited, which is about a terrorist attack on a train in Chicago. The book examines the play and its effects from the point of view several sets of people, all of whose lives become intertwined. Leslie's brother Gus, the playwright's boyfriend, was killed in 911. Leslie introduces Sam to Billy, the playwright. Sam's wife died of cancer. Rafe, the lead actor in the play, has a wife dying of Lou Gherig's disease. Doesn't sound like the making of a very happy book, and indeed, it is not a happy book--and yet it is. It looks hard at tough choices and the aftermath of those choices. I liked it very much. The characters are well-defined with good and bad points, and all thoughtful people. They are not the horrible callous people so many current novels seem to feature.

I went back and looked at the list of books by Sue Miller and could not discover why I thought I didn't like her--I must have mixed her up with someone else. Now I am anxious to read more of her books.

My daughter just reminded me that I didn't like one with a woman remembering her days in a hippie house that ended with an awful murder and contemplating adultery in her current life, While I Was Gone. UGH! I knew I had a bad taste in my mouth! NOW I'm not sure if I want to read more or not. One excellent, one horrible. OH dear, who will I know whether to read more?

Persona Non Grata

I'm a closet writer--I do a lot of writing, but rarely send anything out (Although I do have a few things out at the moment.)

One time, I had written a story in the third person and decided that particular story might be served better by being written in the first person, so I started over in the first person, but the voice of that person was so alarming and disturbing I could not continue writing.

I hate books where the main character is obnoxious and unlikable, but that was just the the kind of voice that was coming out of ME! It frightened me, and I didn't want to think that that person lived inside me. Is that part of ME?

I like Dean Koontz and Childs and Preston's Pendergast because they seem to have HONORABLE characters, even if bad (horrid) things happen.

Now I am curious, though, what would happen if I continued writing that story I put aside? I'f I can locate it in the chaos of my life, I might experiment with it.

People have often said to me that I am nicer in correspondence than I am in person--but also, they've said the opposite--that if I am angry, they'd rather hear it from me in person that read about it in a letter or email.

Oddly, my poetry is quite dichotomous--it is often either very dark or very light. Same with my art. My prose tends to explore more of the grey areas.

Two very small quick sketches

In my personal small Moleskine

Redbirds

I am wearing a dress for the first time in months, and my hair is down and barretted with a fancy barrette and I am wearing jewelry and something other than jungle mocs (though not much fancier--just birks).  We're headed for the Opera, Mozart's Don Giovanni.  Outside the window, on the weeping branches of the American elm that the city gives shots to twice a year in opes of saving are two redbirds, twittering.  Mama and Papa cardinal.

Becoming Famous, LOL!

Hi. My name is Mary. I am eight and a half years old. I want to be
famous. Today I decide to be a famous artist. My Mom lets me use her
paints. I paint a picture of myself. I am looking at a picture my
father took of me, and I am wearing the same green and red bathrobe
over my Pajamas. But you can't see the color in the photo. My
painting doesn't look exactly like me. Mom says it's called "artistic
license." (Click image to view larger).