Inspired by the art of Gennine Zlatkis, I painted this bird in acrylic high-flow paint and inks on watercolor paper. Birds are really fun to draw and paint because their basic shape is easy to recreate but there is so much you can do to it in the way of colors and details. I’m sure I’ll move on to other subjects but there are so many birds around me to paint that I feel I need to get at least a few of them down on paper.
Something I’ve been doing more and more lately is abstract photography using intentional camera movement (ICM) and multiple
Light, amplified and stimulated
A cable’s length is emulated.
Vocal cords emit a monologueIts signal obviously analog.
But digitized it travels
And on the other side unravels.
A speaker re-assembles
A sound my voice resembles.
I’m not sure what this is but it was in the gutter in an industrial park. It looks to me like some sort of evil experiment gone wrong. Now the black slime has escaped its confines and is looking for a way to become mobile and take over the world. Or something.
Every year I try to grow at least a little bit of my food. Sometimes it’s just one or two things in pots and sometimes it’s a full blown garden. Last year I built a raised bed garden and went a little wild growing winter squash. This year, I’ve steered clear of squash and am focusing on some early cool weather vegetables like snap peas, radishes and brocolli.
The other day I saw the first sprouts of the year popping up through the soil. I’m sure a couple of months from now I’ll be grumbling about having to water and weed every day. But until then, I’ll be enjoying seeing the new life coming up and anticipating it growing into something I can use. Oh, and I’ll also be futilely trying to keep my dog from walking through the bed.
When I read a book, I’m often immediately drawn to that group of pages in the middle that have darker or lighter edges. They are usually made out of thicker, glossy material and bear photos, illustrations, or some important aside.
They are also sometimes the only part of the book worth looking at.
Sometimes I find myself paralyzed by indecision. I have so many things I want to do but I end up doing nothing. I think I fear not being able to finish something so I never start. The promise of what could be completed and the hope of that future completion is a powerful sedative. The dream becomes the goal rather than the realization of the dream. When you do nothing with your dreams, you risk nothing and you have no potential for failure.
But, at the same time, if you avoid risk and failure your whole life, then you risk failure of your life.
So what’s the solution? Is there a magic bullet that gets a person motivated and kicks them into gear? Yes and no. There are many motivators in the world but I don’t think there are any universal ones. I’ve found that the best solution and the one that comes closest to working for everyone is to just start moving.
Make a single brush stroke, write one line of code/poetry/your story, take a picture, get a person’s phone number out, or put one thing away. Each of these things is an accomplishment in itself and can then act as a springboard for doing more. Your brain will feel the pleasure of an accomplishment and will crave more. This craving will almost always be more powerful than the sedative of dreaming without doing.
