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Monday, March 28, 2016

Speed Demon

          Photo by Susan Makara

   To look at me, you wouldn't think Speed Demon, maybe Manatee.  But my body shape has little to do with my internal timing.  I have noted before on this blog about my propensity to paint without properly seeing.  Art teachers told me to slow down and look before applying paint.  I paint what I think I see, which is apparently wrong.  Just recently two artist friends also told me to put on the brakes.
   My mother had a stroke at 72.  When I started painting fifteen years ago, I remember thinking I had a lot of lost ground to cover, to paint all I could before I stroked out.   But, in truth, it started long before that.
  My father often cautioned me not to rush to judgement.
   I embrace delayed gratification daily but it is a struggle.
   I walk with urgency, as if the fate of the nation rested on my ability to reach the corner.
   I like to edit, cutting out chunks to get to a quicker resolution.
   Wounded by my artist friends comments,  I told another friend knows me well.  She laughed, confirming that I rushed through everything.  Not in my novels, I countered.   Judy demurred, adding that sex scenes in my novels were terse.  Over in less than a paragraph.
    That reminded me of another friend who said, after reading my book, 'if sex was like that, I'd never have it again.'
 

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Impediments

                        by    Bruce Eric Kaplan, in The New Yorker 2015

This is for my friends, the artists of the Torpedo Factory Artist Association.  We do "amazing work" but sadly the powers that be want the artists of the TFAA to cede to their superior judgement.  They would like us to 'dissolve' but luckily there are laws against that.  Instead, they will mute us.  They will decide who juries in and how long they can stay. The public is not alarmed because The Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, Va will remain an art center.  Possibly as a performing arts space with some visual art as well.  As one power said of our future, "oh, there will be artists there.  Maybe not these artists, but artists."
It is difficult to pursue your passion when powers that be believe you to be interchangeable.

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Grace Happens

                                         "Contemplation" ©2014 cindypackardrichmond


I am not a Pollyanna by nature, but I do like the bumper sticker, "Grace Happens."  On the bottom there is a quote from Albert Einstein, "How I wish somewhere there existed an island for those who are wise and of good will."