Poem: Ticking

TICKING
2019071401 - c2019 wlc

There was no clock like that in sight
Despite the ticking in the night
I ran away from the way you smiled
You were reviling and reviled

You used to read me bedtime stories
Finger moving on the page
With sight and sound of orange cups
I heard your voice subdued in rage

Ghosts had haunted you and I
Sometimes it was kinda funny
Hypocrisy... its embers glowed around us
Even when the days were sunny

It doesn't matter how much time goes by
We cannot seem to let our demons die
You were always Mum to me
You were all that you could be
And even death can't take that away
I still feel you every day
At times I feel you're even more
Than you could have been before

Now I carry all our ghosts
Sometimes I swear you're by my side
I hear myself and think of you
Understand the need to hide

For days, I seethed in raging tears
So many times life made us weep
I sat there reading bedtime stories
As you tried to go to sleep

But as you left, the way you smiled
Hatred for us both, exiled
I watched as the clock stopped right
Before the early morning light

Happy Harmonies,

-Whitney

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Bloom and Washi tape

Hardly post on here anymore, but let's see if I change that with my more newfound interest (art).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet-on-wet

I think it's safe to say this "wet on wet" method has been my primary for many, many paintings, even when I was doing acrylic before watercolour - it was not until this year that I finally looked up the difference, in fact, and had to try watercolour for myself.  Anywho.  More recently, I've begun to allow things to dry because of the "bloom" mentioned under Techniques:  "In the medium of watercolors, wet-on-wet painting requires a certain finesse in embracing unpredictability. Highly translucent and prone to accidents, watercolor paint will bloom in unpredictable ways that, depending on the artist's frame of mind, can be a boon or a burden."  You're telling me!  I tend to work betwixt the two when I'm trying to do something specific.  For example, sky... I'm not particular about it usually, because skies are skies to me.  They're hard to mess up.  So unless I want the sky a very specific way, the colours can mix in there however they want and I'll blend them out once everything is on there.  Detailed objects such as trees or critters, on the other hand, require more paint from me and I tend to paint them more directly.  So I may allow some drying as I mix the paint thick and then slop it on there.  It really depends on what I'm looking for, I suppose... but to be fair, simply experimenting and knowing what materials react in which ways and whether you can use it to your advantage or not is just another tool in the toolbox.  Unpredictable or not.

Kirsty Partridge's youtube channel (Kirsty Partridge Art, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSl51TSNCxLQJqLTQp0B6Cg) explained how to keep washi tape from ripping the paper when you pull it off.  Well, I never thought of using it for painting before, so suddenly I got clued in... instead of covering the entire canvas (paper), or having uneven paint lines, washi to the rescue!!  Then one day I was painting inside the washi lines and Dale goes, "Oh, nice frame."  I stepped back and looked.  Washi tape DOES make a very nice frame, especially when it was selected with the resulting painting in mind.  I always used it in my planner as a border... why did I never think to use it as a frame for a painting?  Now I use it for multiple scenarios.  Also, that's a reminder of how beauty is in the eye of the beholder... and how subjective art can be.  He didn't know the technique and he didn't care nor did he need to.  He was appreciating it the way he saw and understood it.  What seemed to him on purpose was advanced planning on my part to do something entirely different.  In the end, I kept the tape on the paper and wiped off the excess paint with a wet rag.  Now it looks intentional (except it's hanging off the edge of the page, but whtaever).

The thing that is so inspiring about art is the same thing that is so inspiring about computers, languages, history, maps, music, legos, and pretty much any other specialty:  It has its own set of terms, tools, and a countless array of ideas.  It's versatile.  It's interpretive.  It's creative.  And it offers an excellent learning curve that can be utilized by young and old, novice and expert alike.  It does not discriminate.  Most people love some kind of art whether they create it or not.  It's one of our most human qualities, this need to express, create, and appreciate.  Yet despite how basic it can be, you can get so deeply into it that one day you're sitting there going, "If only I had a piece of compressed brown chalk, or white charcoal, this would be so easy to accomplish without leaving xyz and working around it."  Or:  "They should make charcoal with pigment /in/ it so I don't have to keep adding coloured pencil to the-- HEY!  They DO make that!  That sucker's going on my wish list!"  Or:  "Ohhhh...THAT's why they have such a selection of papers!!"  lol

Art.  Gotta love it.  This one is from yesterday.  Note the washi "frame" as a border.  :)  Also note the "bloom" that's so notable in the ground and mountains near the bottom (there is some in the sky also, but this worked to the effect I desired - I wanted it to look rough and stormy, and that's exactly how it bloomed for me).  The only thing in this painting I had not anticipated was in the sky.  Sometimes, I'm finding that this 140lb paper, applied with watercolour paint of just the right consistency, will result in an odd textured crackleature once dried.  If the paint is heavier, it dries smooth; if wetter, it looks watercolourish.  Have yet to recognise the precise moment when the paint is of such a consistency that it will dry that way.  Is that bloom?  I may ask an artist friend of mine that is studying this stuff.  She may know...

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It is... A new year.

Guess I had nothing interesting to say.  Just felt like playing with the Staedtler Triliners and the need quickly moved toward Tombow ABT brush markers.  I always find it fascinating how one medium can literally take five minutes to morph into a scene while another takes about two hours to morph into something like this.  Maybe once I'm more acclimated to the brush markers' blending capabilities, I'll learn a few shortcuts to make it look more seasoned with less work.  In other news, I really like the neon aspect of this particular Staedtler triliner colour.  Wow is it... well, neon!

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zentangle

In Junior High, Mum had noticed that I often wrote words on paper and would then trace around them over and over (spacing in between lines) until they overlapped.  Sometimes I'd add shapes in there to add additional visual interest.  Usually it was in black ink, but sometimes I'd do colours.  Or paints.  Or whatever.  Anywho, she watched me at one point and commented that I must be subconsciously keeping myself from going crazy.  Her opinion was that I was reorganizing my brain by doing that tedious work over and over like that and it was a sign of how much of a mental disorder I must have.

At the time I just shrugged that off as whatever you say, I'm busy enjoying myself over here.  But now, I took out the nice new box of Staedtler triliners (thank you K&F and N&J!) and thought huh, I wonder how zentangle got its name?  Because, I remember zentangle from when Mary took some class and showed me the elements of it... and also remember thinking of how similar it is to my previous line-workings of years past... which I occasionally still do.

Zentangle.com's explanation was of interest.  It's basically meditation using repetitious shapes and "tangling" them together.  While there, I found an interesting design and decided to copy it, and as I did so to some extent, remembered all of the above and found it ironic.  Mum said I was crazy and drawing this way was a symptom of that.  Meanwhile, people everywhere are doing zentangles as a way to simply relax and meditate, often to better cope with the stresses of their worlds.

I guess Mum was right about one thing:  Such repetitious work does indeed allow the brain to reorganize itself.

Oh, and today's zentangle.  :)

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