Tis the season…
“Once you taste the living truth, you are never again fooled by the imitation drink in the carton.”
–Karen Maezen Miller
From My Backyard
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Indivisible: Resisting Trump
This is making the rounds.
Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda
We wrote this guide because we believe that the coming years will see an unprecedented movement of Americans rising up across the country to protect our values and our neighbors. Our goal is to provide practical understanding of how your MoCs think, and how you can demonstrate to them the depth and power of the opposition to Donald Trump and Republican congressional overreach. This is not a panacea, nor is it intended to stand alone. We strongly urge you to marry the strategy in this guide with a broader commitment to creating a more just society, building local power, and addressing systemic injustice and racism.
Water Form
The latest.
New Work
The last painting had a water theme. This one ended up feeling like what an experience in a desert would be if one were on very hallucinatory drugs.
Born of Water
If you see only a square, click the image to see the entire painting.
There are two Aphrodites. In one version, she is born of Zeus and Dione, and is known as Aphrodite Urania. This goddess was considered more spiritual, more celestial or heavenly, or pure. The other goddess is Aphrodite Pandemos (of the people). She was associated with sensual pleasure of the body. She was born when Cronus cut off Uranus’s genitals and threw them into the sea, and she arose from the sea foam (aphros). She was also worshipped as a being uniting all the inhabitants of a country into one social or political body.
So love, erotic energy, desire arise from a place of chaos and violence. This feels fitting to me in light of the recent presidential election.
Dot to Dot
Playing with dot painting lately.
The Plan Behind the Safety Pin
While the idea of wearing a safety pin as a symbol to the marginalized that one is a safe person, it’s more than a symbol. This article provides excellent guidance about the intention behind it and how to act. Such as:
- Are you willing to help all marginalized groups? You don’t get to pick and choose.
- Do you have a plan? Who will engage with people, and who will film what’s happening?
- Do you know how to de-escalate situations?
- Are you willing to be beaten defending another person?
- If you have children with you, are you willing to risk their safety?
The author says, “…the safety pin is a good idea but if you are going to wear it, you need to know that it is more than an idea. It is a visible, tangible announcement of your commitment to defend the rights and dignity of your fellow human. If you are not willing to follow that announcement up with action, rethink making the announcement.”
Grief
Everything I tried to create this morning went wrong. I couldn’t step into flow. I was agitated and disgusted with election results. A couple of snarky comments on my Facebook feed by two “friends” didn’t help. Their candidate won, and they showed no attempt to understand why I took the loss so deeply. I try to rise above base reactions, but at the end of the day, I decided to “unfriend” them. I took care of my heart.
After I left the failed attempts to make art this morning, I returned in the afternoon. I managed to get a little something made, and it was good to find the flow and lose myself in it.
I Cannot Believe
This is not the United States I thought I lived in. I am ASHAMED of this country.
What I learned on #ElectionNight: Being a racist, bigoted, prejudiced, lying sexual predator is still more acceptable than being a woman.
-Allen Clifton
What’s even more demoralizing is knowing how hard Hillary’s worked and how qualified she is, and yet… And every woman knows this feeling.
-Anne T. Donahue
A perfect ending to the tale that asks how averse is America to being led by a woman who they don’t want to fuck.
-Paula Pell
More Autumn Fun
In this piece I was experimenting with new materials: gel medium, collage, iridescent paint. I was aiming for a feeling of layering and translucence. It was difficult to create and to photograph! Something didn’t feel right about it, and still doesn’t. But it came through me, and whether I like it or not, someone else might.
Greens
I love green, but I find it challenging to work with. So I played this weekend.
Available for purchase: $30-$50 (+ shipping if out of area)
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I Like Squares
I am really enjoying the 10″ x 10″ canvases I’ve been working on. Here is the latest.
Available for purchase: $40-$80 (+ shipping if out of area)
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The National Park Service Rocks
Some years ago, Bean received a Junior Ranger Night Explorer booklet. I think it was at Bryce Canyon. She didn’t have a chance to complete it during our camping trip, so we brought it home.
A couple of years later, while at Glacier National Park, she completed the booklet. However, they didn’t have any on hand. So I began a search to find someone, someplace at the NPS to help us. I tried a few phone calls and emails to people I was referred to at the NPS directory, but no answer came.
Then one day I read someone’s blog that described getting one at Badlands National Park. So I called the office and spoke to the ranger. She told me to send the booklet to her attention and after review, it would be sent back with the patch. I mailed it off August 17, 2016.
Nothing came. Time passed. Still, nothing. September flew through our lives. We entered October. I gave it up as lost. I figured by now the park has closed for the season, so the earliest we’d ever see anything was in spring, if ever. Today, I came home to this in the mail:
We did a happy dance! Bean opened the envelope:
The booklet and my letter were enclosed. At first we thought that was it. Nothing else was in the envelope. Then the patch slipped out from the pages of the booklet. Happiness!
We give props to the staff at Badlands National Park for helping us!
Almost All Squared
Two of the last three paintings have been done on 10″ x 10″ canvas. Very different energies. One painting started one way and took an entirely different direction. The other unveiled itself entirely at the beginning. The third painting is tiny, and it too was conceived whole. All are available for purchase.
Available for purchase: $40-$80 (+ shipping if out of area)
Buy It Now
Available for purchase: $40-$80 (+ shipping if out of area)
Buy It Now
Available for purchase: $10-$20 (+ shipping if out of area)
Buy It Now
I Am a Nasty Woman
Donald Trump called Hillary Clinton “such a nasty woman” in the last debate, and with that, women rose up to embrace what he meant as an insult. In fact, calling her a “nasty woman” is just a shade cleaner and more acceptable than saying what he probably thought: cunt. When men feel viscerally threatened and rendered powerless by a woman they often resort to dismissing her by reducing her to that one body part.
If having agency over her life, speaking up, insisting on the right to take up space and be heard, asserting her rights as an equal, deciding that only she can make decisions about her health and body, and refusing to be defined by men’s expectations makes a woman nasty, then count me in. I am a nasty woman too.
I finished this painting just before the last debate. I called it The Alchemy of Feminine Wisdom. It is available for purchase. Just inquire.
