upbeat

October is blastingly hot this year, with rare and spotty rain days.  It is normal to have Indian Summer in October here in the Bay, but the unrelenting heat is something new, i think, and the drought is deepening.   I have made a couple of trips to the Framing Garage, not sure what to call it.  Last week I spent most of Thursday afternoon, an hour or so indoors, an hour trimming the roses and clearing dead wood out of the hedge, then back in for an hour or so.  This is a good procedure, so I get some fresh air.  The subtle stink and dust are still limiting the amount of time I can spend there,  with or without a face mask.  Ew. 

Visually, though, it is a lovely space, and with the sun moving southward, the light is intense through the big window.  There is a paper-bark Eucalyptus trunk right out the window, which I find meditative.  I got quite a lot done, and really have a new approach–I have a select array of supportive audio clips, KPFA archives and New Dimensions shows, to keep my monkey mind distracted.  I am listening to an interview with Elizabeth Gilbert and Caroline Casey on creativity, and it has finally made a dent in my woe-is-me routine.

Painting is a communication, writing is a magic spell.  Ugly paintings are healing, revealing places where work needs to be done.  I know all this, but I still approached these crates of frames and glass and scraps of paper as an outsider, as to a foreign language.  Today I realize it is a collaboration, and began by pulling out a crate to SEE WHAT IS THERE.  Some cut glass, some frames with glass, some frames without glass.  I added a few more sheets of small cut glass I found in other boxes, and marked the sizes on them.  I pulled out frames in odd formats.  Labels on the drawers of hooks, pens, small nails, tags, etc.  I sorted two boxes of clippings, paper, drawings, prints, so that one has original art and archival paper, another has 8.5×11 copies and prints.  All sorts of clippings and articles are filed into folders, stacks of magazines sorted, and a sheaf of recipes! well, they go back home, to the kitchen.  The last thing I did was to put work-in-progress into a large drawer with sketchbook and supplies, so when I return I can pull them out and continue that project.