"NO ART" Blog

The holidays are over and I can truthfully say that I don't think things in my life have slowed down at all. I got through Christmas at the Post Office pretty well, no serious complaints that I know of. After the holiday, I took some days off for my birthday. Even before I could celebrate my birthday, my grandson, Taylor, arrived. He was now on his own since he couldn't maintain a decent attitude or schedule at his parents' house. Where can a homeless grandson go other than his Nanny's?

Tonight is his first night, alone, at his apartment. His parents found him a studio apartment to rent for a reasonable price. They were generous in putting up the money for the security and first month's rent. Kess and I paid for his car repairs so that he could get back and forth to work and school more easily. For the first week here, the "NannyMobile" was delivering him to work either at 4:00AM, or during rush hour, and picking him up at 10:30PM. We had some very good talks during those drives and may have even settled a bit of the (our) world's problems.

With all of the family pulling together and pooling our resources, Taylor has moved into a relatively comfortable, extremely clean, well-stocked little place. My partner worked with him to figure out his "financial picture" and a basic grocery list. Seeing the money and expenses on paper was a shock for him since he had been living in the magical world of "bank card fantasy." After all, you just use the card and the things get paid for. Should I mention here that he is driving an antique Mercedes that takes only premium grade gas?

I suppose I could whine about our lives being turned sideways by having a boy/man in our home once again. Seems like only yesterday that he spent last year's school holidays living in my art studio. Gee, I guess I should have mentioned that earlier - a studio occupied by a guest makes it hard to do art. To be honest, I have been trying to organize the studio so I could work in it for over seven years, but having holiday company, and then a grandson living in it, does discourage me from even considering organizing it.

I have hit the "no excuses" wall now. Cathy Johnson's watercolor pencil class starts very soon and I signed up to take it. I really do need to be able to use my studio. It doesn't work too well for me to try to draw while sitting in the recliner. Not only is the light bad, but the elderly cat (whose picture is on this blog site) walks through the still life set ups. She also likes to lie down directly under my chin which prevents me from seeing the paper, the pen, or anything else, including the TV. She only sits still for about five minutes at a time and then she stands up, turns around, and lies down to face the other direction. Arthritis, kidney failure, and hyperthyroid problems make balancing comfortably on top of my senior citizen's breasts hard for her to do. She slips often enough to make watercolor painting a hazard. If I can work in the studio, I can put a gate up at the door to keep her out.

Oops...I forgot...there are also three daschunds that sit in my lap when I am in the chair. They wiggle into their favorite spots and stay there comfortably...until there is a sound outside. That sends them rushing off my lap, jumping to the floor and slipping and sliding to the door. In our yard we have heavy-footed squirrels that walk noisily about, and birds that rustle the leaves as they fly by. The doxies are never completely still since they dream, push against one another, and snuggle closer and closer in my lap. Working with pen and ink isn't very satisfying when my art has extra trails of ink through it caused by the constant churning of canines.

You see, I have very good reasons for my "NO ART" blog, don't I? NO watercolor, NO pen and ink, NO studio, NO ART! What about pencil you ask? Is "the dog ate my eraser" a good excuse? I promise there will be art next time I write. I do have to do my homework for Kate's class!

....THE NOT TOO PRETTY - part 2

I was having trouble with uploading my "ugly art" earlier and my blog went out without any drawing or painting. Here is part two. It was supposed to be the conclusion but I still can't seem to upload the second image. Perhaps it is just too awful to post. We'll see...I won't let it get the best of me!

This lone orchid sat on top of the television for nearly one month before I attempted to sketch it. That is exactly the way it looked from across the room - quiet, a bit lonely, pale, but obviously full of life. You can tell by the way the bloom holds it head up. It looks straight at you and the leaves beneath it seem to curl away to form an opening for its display. The two outside leaves point slightly inward as if to say, "look, she is right here in the center of the frame we have made, how lovely!" You can easily guess, that not only do I talk to my plants, they talk back to me!

I usually sketch in graphite for the EDM challenges. If I want to add color, I transfer, or copy, the outline onto watercolor paper and paint it. There was something about this sketch that indicated I should stop at this point (before I ruined it by overworking a watercolor). Even though it is "not too pretty", it doesn't quite qualify as ugly.

This one in color, however, may be the "not so prettiest" I have ever painted. I can tell you all the qualities it lacks as a painting, and there are many. Instead, I'll say that "at least I had the guts to post the picture on the blog." It demonstrates that I am working on my skills and not giving up in spite of attempts that don't thrill me.

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE NOT SO PRETTY

We live at the end of a private lane, unpaved, surrounded by very old trees. Many of them are live oaks and are in need of either, radical trimming, or removal. To be truthful, when the wind blows more than 20 mph, the house is in danger of being eradicated by trees at least 75 feet tall and 100 years old. It's quiet here though, if you don't count the hum of the road nearby, the chatter of the squirrels, or the barking of my dogs. Since our neighbors moved to rural Alabama, there is one less annoyance because their very tiny, but loud, dogs have left the scene.

Something new is on the horizon here at Anchor Lane. Actually it is not the horizon, but the other end of the lane. What used to be a large empty lot filled with old trees - pine, oak, palm - is now bare land, scoured by bulldozers and cranes. The trees have become a large pile of mulch, which I hope they will use to landscape when they are finished building.


We have heard that the property is to be a cluster of high end apartments, perhaps for senior citizens. That would be nice, would increase our property value, and provide a place for us to move in a few years. It would also increase the clientele of the Publix (Supermarket) that most of us from this area, use. One potential, and very real, problem that will affect our daily life, is the traffic that the development of the property will create. I wonder where the entrances and exits for the new construction will be. There is only a short left turn lane leading to my street and it requires crossing two lanes of a very busy thoroughfare. During rush hour, it is only by the good will of a few drivers that I get across those lanes alive. It won't work to have several hundred cars trying to make that life or death crossing with me.


The trees are gone, the vines that hugged them are no more, the wildflowers and colorful weeds have been plowed under or shoved into piles to be removed. It is just plain ugly at the other end of the lane. Lest you should think that today's blog is only words, I have some ugly art to add.