What day is it?  No one knows.  Oh, my computer knows–4.12.20

The shelter in place has been extended, the Plough has a go-fund-me site, and raised $30,000 to keep from going under.

I secured a slightly-used sketchbook Art had as a travel journal while on tour with Those Darn Accordions, and then abandoned.  The art stores are closed, and I have not ventured out to the one possible stationers that might be open, and I do not like to shop online if there are Options.  So, drawing over partial pages, then writing, writing, writing.

Parks and beaches and campgrounds are also closed, so there goes my spring camping trip.

Trying not to get caught up in the madness, making polenta and stews on the woodstove, sitting for hours with a warm cat on my lap, reading.

Moving art supplies back and forth, I am getting an idea of where things work.  I am firmly established in the Roofing House, since two incidents where it was made known to locals that it is my art studio–particularly the day the tree fell while I was there, and Ian happened by with a chainsaw and cut it all away.

Art and I ventured out to Joanie’s house in Richmond for music and food and an artichoke plant, and an avocado tree, seedlings from her childhood home in Hayward.  We are working up some tunes of hers with me singing lead.  We also stopped at Annie’s Annuals, I got two blueberry bushes, peppers, onions, to plant in Canyon.

The novelty has worn off–we would have been at the end of this strange confinement by now, which has been extended  .  .  .  The Plough is in danger of not reopening.  Caffe Chiave- most small businesses and venues are closed indefinitely.  Honestly, I am ambivalent, but like, YAY!  I don’t ever need to go back to the Lost Hippy Hour, or some of these gardening jobs..  Schedules!  I’m done!  Shopping is disturbing, people are rattled, clerks feel endangered, the protocol is curious, confusing, changes daily, and from store to store.

Just before it all closed down, Art had suggested we go to a movie.  The next day, I drove by the Shattuck Theater to see the marquee blank.  We have taken to watching Youtube videos of black and white movies at night, usually with buttered popcorn.  Life is good.

3.24.20

A week ago the world changed- we are on lockdown, or as it is called “social distancing” a speedy upgrade from the pre- St. Patrick’s Day weekend when it was suggested people “self isolate” and bars were asked to consider closing to stop the spread of a virus.

When I heard the news on March 16 that bars and restaurants were ordered closed, and all my gigs were cancelled until April, I grabbed two orders of corned beef and cabbage (and a last beer at the bar), withdrew $300 cash, filled my gas tank and drove straight to Canyon.  Art and I since ventured out once, on March 21st, to get groceries.  A minor ordeal with gloves, masks, strange new practices of standing six feet apart in lines to enter or check out at the grocery store.   There was an early, insane run on toilet paper ??

I also ordered a replacement pair of Crave boots online, on sale because of the color, “brunette”. Gorgeous-  and they match my kerchief- required anytime one goes out in public.  Spending more time here in the redwoods, or braving the wilds of Moraga Safeway, I will need good, strong boots.

On the return trip from the music festival in Nebraska– I painted a glorious full moon over the Rockies.  The best part-  other than the train ride itself- was two days we extended our trip to visit people who turned out to be unavailable.  We goofed off in Omaha, burgers, beer, $2 movies, thrift stores, antique malls, hikes around the lake.  We returned home to the famous random N. Cal power shutdown fiasco.

So quiet here in Canyon this holiday with everybody mostly gone.  Art and I played the Plough happy hour gig, then back for a nonexistent party.

I have been using two or three different brushes constantly this year, particularly a 1″ flat Princeton and a #4 round Raphael travel brush, with Winsor Newton, Sennelier and Pelikan watercolors.

3×4″ watercolor sketch in moleskine journal

Lettering and random brush strokes is a thing right now.  Yes, two things can be a thing.  A stained chair cover spontaneously updated with sume-i ink straight and diluted, and a first iteration of the “$1,000, FINE FOR LETTERING” sign are examples.

I went haywire with some house paint and the 1″ flat in the roofing house, painting a plywood wall panel and putting together a small matching panel and another newsprint-collage-on-tiny-stretched-canvas piece.   Deeply meaningful transformative story of discovery I will not subject you to, about family and creativity and home and how I became an artist at a young age.  I took some shots with my iPad of the interior and small paintings, I will post them later.

Junish, 2019

Not sure where little canvasses came from.  A gift? A free box?  An actual store? Scraps of recycling, Sunday newspaper, the Pink Section of the San Francisco Chronicle, matte medium, gold paint, pondering, serendipity.

Charlie Chaplin collage

When I was a child I recall a moment when I was sitting on the front porch- memory has it I was 7, with another child or two present.  I had drawn almost this exact image, a human with no clothes on hanging laundry.  A freakish square head, in pencil.  My mother flipped out when she saw it, did she tear it up?  It was a traumatic art-critic moment, the first of many to twist my tiny mind.  Who knew I was emulating a famous artist, and tuning into a current painting.  LOL mom was into Chaplin, too.

David Park collage

Like the elementary school teacher who forbid us to use erasers.  I now collect them, use them love them.  

taken a day apart

travel journal, march 2017, painted may 2019

evening shadows, May 21, 2019

Back to Howe- my garage studio is getting a lot of use lately.  A kind of a miracle when the owner moved away and took the dog that had chosen me as her personal project, barking furiously and frantically at my presence.  In the move and subsequent upgrade of the back of the house, the electricity to the garage was disconnected-  Incredibly freeing once I removed all the various electrical devices: lamps, water boiler, heater, projector, a tuner and turntable and crate of LP’s I had just moved in.  All this STUFF was in the way of my practice.

First the chaos, then slowly putting things back together, leaner, not meaner.  Much more room now, and a big reorganization of frames, canvases, materials.  Lucky I am for the enormous south facing window, and knowing how to dress and work in the weather.

The owner left many cans of house paint for me to recycle, and I have been painting everything white- a step stool I found on the street and repaired.  I painted the dingy wall, and put nails up and down the studs in a grid to hang frames on.  I repaired and repainted the five frames I had built from scrap house trim for my apple illustrations– so fresh and excellent.  

whitey wall

repairs before paint

stuffed brementown musicians

krop-otkin

I am doing a lot of brush practice, and bought a Portable Palette, and a couple of new colors to add to my Winsor Newton collection.  Sennelier Serpentine Genuine, M. Graham Magnesium blue, plus later I added a chrome green.  I realized after I loaded them all that the wells without the cups would be just as workable, once I get the colors decided.  I am mostly using them to highlight and color passages in my written journal, brushwork, slowly moving to sketchbook pages.  I have so many! nearly empty sketchbooks to fill, and so little motivation, ideas, gumption, whatever.

Somehow became fascinated with the practice of drawing kolam- although I am using a Uniball signo white pen rather than rice flour.  Here are a few.

12.8.18

I posted the result in July. Here is the process.

Winsor Yellow, M. Graham Quinacridone Red, French Ultramarine, on the diagonal. Initial and secondary mixes.

The upper mixes are 75/25%, predominately the upper primary. The lower, 25/75%. The larger chart follows the same formula.

From these mixes, the subsequent chart yielded 144 hues from a 3-color palette.

Alternately, Winsor Yellow, Permanent Rose, Winsor Blue, oddly less saturated, pastel results. Lovely.