Day to Day
“Then see something else!“
The best art I have ever seen is not a copy of something real. It is a vision unique to the artist. A vision I couldn’t see until the artist shared it with me. There is no way to criticize an original painting. There’s nothing to compare it to. You can decide if it appeals to you or not that is your own opinion and does not add or subtract from the merits of the Artist’s work. The most extraordinary feeling is looking at the clean, blank sheet of paper with no preconceived idea of what you are going to draw, yet you can see something beyond the page just waiting to be revealed. Then by a few lines and curves, a shape here, some color there a brand-new vision is born.
A vision truly unique to me.
That’s Art! Anyone can copy!#
I have to love Crows.
7 crows just flew over.
All of them were cawing loudly and creating a ruckus.
When suddenly, one broke from the flock and dive-bombed my birdfeeder scattering the smaller, feeding birds away in terror!
Then he calmly flew back up to rejoin the flock. Hooligans!
That’s what they are.
Fun-loving, feathered Hooligans.
A Colorful Escape
I used to work at a leather shop in downtown Newburyport MA. During the Holidays and most any, beautiful, summer day we were mobbed with eager shoppers. The busy days happily floated by.
Then there were those interminable, November shop hours. On the outside, the cold, wind-swept sleet had made slick the historic brick sidewalks and most shoppers were hunkered down at home trying to adjust to the early darkness of Daylight Savings Time.
Then there was the February doldrums when the once fluffy, winter snowflakes had become dirty, frozen, jagged spikes lining each side of the narrow city streets and the frozen wind howled around each corner. Walking was treacherous (and I knew the danger of a slipped step since I lived close enough to easily walk to work each day.)
On those surely to be dull days, I would take out my sketchbook and ziplock full of cheery, colored pencils and would sit at the empty counter (after I had done the vacuuming and daily shopkeeper chores.) and stare out the large display window (my bored face reflected in the long icicles of frozen rain.)
That’s when the sketch pad and pencils came out. Each drawing was finished in a day. As I daydreamed I thought about what I would like to be doing instead of sitting there bored. My doodles became my visions placing me in other more pleasant surroundings. You can see the pictures are viewed from my perspective. I am looking into the drawing. I even dressed in the clothes I had worn to the shop that day!
This image shows me on an (Autumny day) looking down my imaginary path toward the Crystal Shop across the street. I just couldn’t close the shop down (again!) and go visit the rocks. I was stuck!. Apparently, I was well aware of that because I have drawn myself no legs. #
Here I am daydreaming about the Holiday Birthday Party I was going to after work. This day I seem to think that Newburyport is somewhere way across the Merrimack River. Funny because (The Leather Shop was in the exact center of town.) There is the rainbow crystal I hung in the shop’s front window. To the left is depicted my extremely, rare, very early, perfect Roseville jardiniere holding a potted Norfolk pine that is as old as my middle-aged kids.
I remember getting that Norfolk pine tree when it was a tiny, impulse, holiday buy from the market.
It was complete with tiny, tacky, Styrofoam ornaments. I put it on my drawing board (at the Newburyport Daily News.) I figured it would add a merry, seasonal touch then would turn brown and I could toss it out in January. But the dang thing didn’t die! So I took it home and it is still thriving 45 years later!#
Who Says I Ain’t Cultured?
Here’s another Leather Shop daydream. I must have been reading about Neolithic art and
maybe some Shakespeare that day.
“Though she be but little, she is fierce!” ― William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
I always took random books to the shop to entertain me on slow days.
