Just in the Nick 2016-W08

Here on the last day of week 8, I managed to whip up a new work and get the blog posted with about five hours to spare. Booyah!  I craved a distraction from my grand work-in-progress — grand as in "large" — and this morning I saw today's subject for the second time.

Banshee VII (Robin Roy) is a rapt Trumpette, showing here a mix of ecstasy by and astonishment at the momentary touch of attention from himself the Donald. It's a wonder she didn't faint, and did she wail? I also wonder, does she number herself one of the 20% of Trumpians who believe Lincoln ought not to have freed the slaves? (Wow)

She is but one indicator that we live today in very interesting times, exposed to views that you could never imagine anyone could hold. In closing, if the Donald touched me I would have a very different reaction that he would not enjoy. With that said, you please enjoy today's latest banshee.

Banshee VII

Blah Humbug 2016-W07

Hi all. A bit of a ramble today, but at least it's a short form!

Don't quote me, but I seem to recall a weathercaster pointed out that the rate of increase in day length accelerates around mid-February. I know I've been waking up earlier, and these days night doesn't fall until sometime around 5:30 (even though my living room lights still come on at 4:30). We got tame little snowfall beginning yesterday afternoon, which should melt off in a day or two as our temperatures climb.

I'd say Spring is trying to spring forth.

Which is backed up by recent groundhog observations. Normally I feel like if I make it to Valentines Day, then I've won another round of David vs Winter. Consequently I should be a little more chipper lately but I can't seem to muster enthusiasm. I'm having a case of the blahs.

Only this weekend did I finally get back to my painting work-in-progress, and I didn't accomplish much. I can lay 20% of the blame on the terrible paper... it doesn't behave well when it gets very wet, which is fairly unavoidable when laying down a wash. Paint a little, wait a lot.

But mostly I think I feel paralyzed by a myriad of things competing for my attention.

Last week I unconsciously opted to ignore them all rather than pick something and move it forward. Not that I didn't have good intentions. Never short of those, and now that I think of it, I did accomplish some goals on the health and wellness frontier. I've gotten back to my workout regimen after nearly 9 months and definitely feel the benefits already. But on the whole, I squandered a lot of February so far.

So, once again, I begin a week with good intentions: trying to clear chores off my to-do list and working more earnestly on my job search. My hope is that the outcome will be like quitting smoking. Difficult, but every time you make a try, your odds for success increase. Wish me luck!

Super Borewl 2016-W06

Other than the nominally surprising (to me) outcome of Superbowl 50, the whole show left me wishing I'd opted instead to work on my in-progress painting. Or mop floors. Anything. Some people enjoy defense vs defense matches, though I imagine they are the minority. Along with the game itself, the sides were just as lackluster. Unimaginative (or creepy) commercials, blase halftime show. Snore. If nothing else, I guess the game did demonstrate that you can win a Superbowl without a quarterback.

As the hoopla slowly unfolded yesterday, I thought back to when the whole shebang was a lot less gaudy. Superbowl 1 is a vague memory; I only remember that my grandfather passed away 3 days later. Superbowl 2 day is clearer in my mind. My brother and I got dropped at the local theater to occupy us during game time, so we watched Doctor Doolittle and whatever else rounded out the double feature.

So I missed SB 1 & 2 — which is fine since Green Bay won both (boo hiss) — but who could forget Joe Namath in Superbowl 3? Which by the way was the first actual "Superbowl", the first two just being titled "AFL-NFL Championship Game". Since then, my relationship with the big game runs hot and cold. Occasionally I skip altogether and most years I head for home as soon as the halftime show begins.

Anyway, enough of me stalling by way of reminiscing... I had to dig back in the vault for a previously unseen painting, since there was no progress on the work-in-progress. My hope is to finish that painting by next week's post so that, unlike last night's SuperBore, it doesn't seem to drag on foreeeeever. Our subject today is an Old English breed rooster, which I named after another old English rooster. Enjoy!

The Duke of Edinburgh   (2010)

Get'ur Done — Within Reason 2016-W05

This week I elected to tackle a more involved painting and so I started but didn't finish. As expected. Here's a little teaser of the underpainting/highlights. There's a lot of fiddly bits in the area that still shows paper white, which informs on how I decided to call it a day.

Yet I am pleased to say that I did work on it both days this weekend. Though I haven't formed my 2016 resolutions yet, I plan to include "FINISH" as one of the points.

I'm excellent at starting and I often have the discipline to finish, but sometimes not — especially when it comes to artworks. So this year I am hoping to circle around to assorted artworks-in-progress and see about dragging them across the finish line.

I guess that's just enough words to qualify for this week's blog post. As for the teaser painting, I'd like to finish it up this weekend in time to post for Week 06:  (a) to get it done and (b) because I hate this paper and want to get one step closer to never using or buying it again!

And while I will be making good faith efforts to finish the painting, I'll also be keeping in mind another piece of old-fashioned wisdom:  Haste makes Waste...