HONESTY

 

HONESTY

Removing a coat when the temperature climbs

Unhooking a tight brassiere,

Erasing a smudge from a bifocaled lens

Openly looking at fear.

Lifting a rug to discover the source

Of a smell or a lump or a creak,

Spotting a bird through a tangle of leaves,

Regarding the words that we speak.

 -Tuesday 7.10.2012

 

Dearest Readers,

 My tendency when blogging is to stretch and embellish the storytelling...not a lot, but just a smidge in the interest of keeping the reader interested. Drama can distort, and simplicities ignore ambiguities and complexities. I’ve been thinking a lot about honesty this year. It’s not just telling the truth vs telling lies. Honesty gets tangled up in being nice and wording a sentence for the least amount of conflict. I’ve been working at presenting my self in public as I would to my own mirror at home. I’ve got a habit of being perky when the situation just calls for straightforward, unencumbered being. It’s hard even recognizing when I do it. Little white dishonesties happen in my painting and writing too. Slowing down helps. I’ve revised two more of my “test” drawings to get deeper into what I’m feeling. 

BEFORE:

Untitled Threshold Wings #1

 AFTER:

Untitled Threshold Wings #1 Revised ©2012-35" x 39"

Acrylic and charcoal on kraft paper

BEFORE:

Untitled Threshold Wings #2

 AFTER:

Untitled Threshold Wings #2-Revised ©2012-35" x 39"

Acrylic oil stick and charcoal on kraft paper

I’m diving into the open figure drawing group that meets ever Thursday evening at the Chaffee Art Center nearby, letting it rip, showing all the line-work, even the corrections on the paper.

I’m still awed by the skyscapes here in Vermont. These were shot in E. Dummerston in the south western side of the state at my friends' rural home.

I continue to document more summer plants from childhood memories...

Buttercups

Crabapples

Goldenrod

Lamb's Quarters or perhaps Jewel Weed

Sugar Maples with sap tubing for maple syrup

Tall dark droopy pine

Some sort of variegated leafy ground cover

I visited artists and friends this week who live in out-of-the-way rural havens. Here's artist Paedra Peter Bramhall's bronze sculpture pool in Bridgewater Corners Vermont at the top of a mountain,

and Michael Beale, below left, with Paedra in Paedra's studio with his large digital photo collages and glass sculptures. 

And these are my dear friends Gordon and Eleanora Faison at home in E. Dummerston, VT who are on the board of the Brattleboro Museum of Art.

My dog Etta runs free now off leash when we visit these beautiful places. She exhausts herself chasing down smells or a red tail hawk screeching overhead. Saturday night in E. Dummerston the blue-black night sky was studded with countless stars. It took my breath away.

I leave you my friends with this week's feeling self-portrait entitled "Content", 

#89-Content 10 x 19-charcoal and pastel on paper

and "Helpful", the latest quilting of my vintage hankie portraits– here displayed outdoors in my lap.

#87-Helpful