Blue Boxes

CircleDoodleBox

Found and Foraged

Circles have been showing up in my doodles...and elsewhere.

Gray Blocks

They Can Be. Itself the Author of Selves.

5-29-11 The Only Thing New

Two things I remember about yesterday that I want to share with you:

I'm listening to Sound Opinions on WBEZ on Saturday at 11 am, the 2 hosts are interviewing a rock musician from a punk band called the Minutemen and the rocker said something which I think is really insightful re: Creativity.

THE ONLY THING NEW IS YOU FINDING OUT ABOUT IT.

It struck me as a creator of piles of words or images or ideas for new things which I think will be the next NEW thing, that there is nothing new under the sun. It felt like a Life Lesson.

The second thing I remember is Lady Gaga. I watched her 2 hour special on HBO, on demand. She thinks she's new but she's not. She is the illustration for my chapter:

TAKE WHAT THEY CRITICIZE YOU FOR AND PERFECT IT.

In the special, she talked about how kids bullied her in high school for being 'strange and unique'. When she was becoming famous, people always laughed at her for continually changing her hair and makeup and costumes. So she did it Bigger. In other words, she perfected it.

So I made a poster in markers about the Only Thing is New...and it illustrates this blog. Note I am in the center of the "O" of You.

5-28-11 Dream and Potential Mandala

In my sketchbook / journal, where I write and draw this blog, I have a crude sketch for a mandala, that will probably never get done.

But I will describe my dream, my life today and you will get the idea.

(This is when I wish I had a worker-bee to do the idea of the drawing part of this blog)

Woke up late to turn on Good Morning America at 8:30 am and there was the Lady Gaga concert in Central Park. Thousands of peeps shoulder to shoulder and LG in the usual black costumes.

Lady Gaga is the upper left part of the mandala from 9 to 12.

In my dream this morning, I'm coming home from O'Hare in a taxi. I notice on the outbound side, there is a 20 car pileup. I tell my taxi driver to slow down; he's bumper to bumper with some truck in front of us.

Then we move quickly into the city and it's the day after a big snowstorm and it feels dangerous to ride in this cab. I hop out and get on a bike with skinny wheels, not a thick wheeled mountain bike that I should use to navigate in this snow. I ride through an alley in the icy valleys left by the cars. I panic that I've left my luggage in the taxi. But I calm myself down saying he will be in front of my house when I get there. He's not there.

Meanwhile, 2 hillbilly kind of men come up to me with a waterbowl and an empty bowl. They say they've been feeding a cat and was it mine? I say that I live 5 buildings from the end and the cats live in the 3rd building from the end.

Then I realize I may have to track down the cab to get my luggage back. But then the nagging thought comes to me--did I really have luggage? I don't remember in the dream placing luggage in the trunk of the taxi. But I was consoled by the fact that I'd be able to track my cab because I do remember that on the side door was the name of the cab company "Sexpert"!

So, from 12 to 3 in the mandala is me riding on the bike in the snow. From 3 to 6 is the cab Sexpert, and from 6 to 9 is the 20 car pileup.

That's the potential mandala, which is here in words...

5-27-11 Caladiums with Garbage Bag Blankets

Worked on the garden all day. Although the temperature was in the 50's, the sky was blue and inviting. I never should have planted the caladiums. Articles on the Internet say the soil has to be in the 70's to plant these bulb-based creatures and the soil today was cold and dripping wet from yesterday's rain. But I was too eager and I planted them anyway. So before I quit for the day, I placed a thick plastic black garbage bag over the pots, like a blanket. My back was too sore to drag in these heavy pots into the house.

Between jobs, a friend worked in a nursery. She found out that in order to harden a plant, you need to give it sunlight and water and food and warmth and then stop that for a few days, until the soil is dry and the plant is wilting a bit. Then you go back to the nurturing, food, water, warmth for a few more days and then take it away again. Do this at regular intervals until the plant develops a hardy root system.

This seems cruel to me, but how often does Life do this to us? And how is this like YOUR life?

Bernard

Parents going away for a long weekend
taking doggie-sister Bianca with them
"Will you stop in to give Bernard some love
while we're away?"

I creak open the door
paws bound over the wood floor
to greet me

I turn on a couple of lamps
and take my seat on the sofa
with no cat small talk
Bernard hops up to join me

He doesn't really like to be held
doesn't like to sit on my lap
but he does like to be near enough
to have his head always within reach of my hand

I hold my hand near his head and he
"tells" me what to do

Rub the top now
behind my ears now
scratch the middle part of my nose now
under my chin now
at the tippy tip tip under my chin

Enough of that for a moment

Bernard paces back and forth a couple of times
walking over my lap on each pass
modestly gurgling purrs soak in the attention

We repeat the rubbing and scratching
a few more times then up from the sofa I go
check on the food and water

Good to go for today, buddy

I head for the door and receive a fast
kitty tackle around my calf
claws protruding enough to make his presence felt
but not hurt

The door creaks open
we share a look of goodbye
and I close the door behind me where
love was shown
both ways

May 26 2011 Dancers Dancing

Watching the new season of So You Think You Can Dance and I'm scribbling 20 second drawings of the dancers auditioning.

Some of them are really good.

One girl's dance was so beautiful and controlled yet poetic and abandoned made me weep.

I love that when Art with a capital A opens my heart like that.

In my next lifetime, I want to be a dancer! Really!

May 25 2011 Caladiums and American Idol

Sitting on the couch watching the American Idol Finale. Scotty or Lauren?

I don't really care--I liked our Chicago gal, Haley Reinhart, but she came in third.

(In the distance, sitting on the window sill, inside my apartment are my Caladiums--is the plural Caladia??)

So I am sitting here, during commercials with the Mute Button on, looking at the 6 Caladium which cannot be planted yet because it is too cold. If they had a voice, they'd be singing in a minor key "I wanna go outside and get my feet planted."

And I sing back at them, "you'll have to wait until this weekend, when it's in the 80's".

May 24 2011 Seed Pods Everywhere

Millions of seed pods blew off the trees on Sunday and Monday. And I do mean millions.

There are piles of them all over from the elm trees in front of my house.

They aren't like snow, they won't melt. Each one, as it roots in the ground or in my carefully planted flower pots, becomes an incipient elm tree which needs to be pulled out. I pull them out everywhere because if I don't they will suck the lifeblood out of the flowers I've planted.

The seeds on my lot alone could re-populate the Rain Forest.

Time to sweep and then get a Fed-Ex package ready to send to Brazil.

Lightness

Diddily daddily
biddily baddily
bounce we go

Giddily gaddily
fiddily faddily
tap your toe

Sashay and sway
toward the goal

Diddily daddily
biddily baddily
away we go

To De-Construct is To Create Too!

Focus on De-Construction for beginning week 3 of Cultivating a Daily Creative Practice ~

and here's my piece of scrap paper, torn to a square, folded, and punched with a large needle repeatedly to create a geometric pattern of triangles (which harkens back to my chosen universal shape from week 1, done unconsciously of course!).

Hopefully you'll get to see others' results of de-construction soon...

and here's the triangle shape I had selected and expressed in 20 minutes during our first meeting. hmmm

May 22, 2011 Here Comes the Sun

I'm tired today, no energy. But it's gonna be in the 80's finally and maybe drawing a Sun will transform me to someone who is perky and energetic.

May 21 2011 Impatiens

Excitement! Went flower shopping and bought $86 worth. Then I went to another place and bought about $57 worth. Some people decorate for Christmas. I decorate for summer.

I drew the impatiens with markers that smelled like cherry (red), mint (green) and root beer (brown). Gotta go plant!

May 19 2011 Flower Catalog

Finally it's warmer! And I found a helper-bee for the yard and porches. Yay!!

I went shopping for all my flowers and plants today at the Old Town Flower place in the Menard's lot. I will be planting all the stuff that's in this collage for the next coupla weeks.

The top picture was a corner of my front porch from 2010, last summer.

May 18 2011 Landslide Autotune

Heard Stevie Nicks sing "Landslide" last night on Dancing with the Stars. She sang it so off-key that I thought out loud 'get that girl some autotune'.

But you can't autotune life. what if you could take back that word or phrase that you said, tweak them so it all sounded better.

Here's a collagey doodle of words from that song:

Time makes you bolder

I'm getting older too.

A picture from 1971, contrasted with one taken in April 2011. 40 years ago.

Auto Tune Me.

May 17, 2011 Full Moon and Algol

The Full Moon of May 16 was spectacular! The Moon was in deep dark Scorpio opposite the Taurus Sun (Full Moons are always oppositions).

What is really interesting astrologically and so full of symbolism is the Sun at 26 degrees Taurus is conjunct the most evil, malevolent, dangerous malefic star in the heavens--Algol. It is the eye in the Head of Medusa, held by Perseus.

Algol has always represented a fall from grace, usually by someone very powerful whose evil/wrong-doing is found out. On the 2 days touching the Full Moon day, I though it was interesting that not only was the Frenchman who is head of the IMF, tossed into jail for raping a hotel maid in NYC but also, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former "Governator" admitted to fathering a child with his housekeeper over 10 years ago.

This is the stuff of Algol.

May 16, 2011 In Class: Anagram of Name

This is an anagram of my complete name: first, middle and last.

Myra Heard Canny Slut.

I used each letter only once. If you go to my website link you will see my name.

Hint: Mary is middle name.

May 16 2011 Bleeding Hearts

Besides tulips, the one perennial I enjoy this time of year is Bleeding Hearts. There's one planted that blooms every year whether it's cold, rainy or warm. It always Shows Up. And isn't that the first rule of Life?

I love the obviousness of this plant: Hearts Bleed. They Withstand Cold and Hot.

May 15, 2011 Past Lives

The silver circle in the middle is my original shiny soul. I've decided that i am pretty much the same circle or variations on it each lifetime. This collage are some of the lifetimes I remember.

Some of them are sparkly. That's when I was famous. Some of them are dull or don't stand out too much. Those are the lifetimes I was a maid.

May 14 2011 Legs Up with Icepacks

Every morning I sit with my feet up on a striped footstool. My bionic replaced knees are wrapped in icepacks. I take 2 Tramadol and find relief.

My contour drawing skills are not up to par but I love the curve of the arch-heels-space between legs.

May 13 2011 Vague Plant Forms

My garden this year is vague, so today I am drawing vague plant forms. Who will help me? I need a worker - bee to lift and bend and weed.

May 12, 2011 Waiting at the Car Dealer

Kept this background from a sheet of stamps from the Post Office. The whole sheet was so cool with a picture of an underground barrier reef that I hated to use it. I kept the background to use as one big sticker someday.

They say the ocean is undiscovered space. Jung would probably call it the Great Unconscious. The negative spaces where the stamps were reminds me of a picture frame. This (former) stamp footprint is a perfectly framed picture of all the things that are now "under the surface" for me now in my life.

Last Rehab Session May 11 2011

Today I was declared "healed" in my last rehab session. Two replaced knees in 2010 and 2011 and I'm not healed. This redbud tree in my yard was planted in June 1992. It's half dead and half flowering. I'm sad I will have to cut it down. Maybe next year...

May 10 2011

Coming home on May 9, the 1st class, heard this song on Delilah. It moved me. Thank God for YouTube--35 million views of "Fallin' to Pieces" by the Script. The lyrics I connected with are:

"I'm still alive but I'm barely breathin' / Cuz when a heart breaks, no it don't break even / I'm fallin' to pieces". Note how it turned into a Cross format (what I was avoiding)...

One good thing—May 16-21, 2011

Monday, May 16, 2011.
Anagram. After the initial resistance, this was really quite fun!









Tuesday, May 17, 2011.
Another anagram. These are so much fun, I had to do another.















Wednesday, May 18, 2011.
Great new website—www.wordle.net. It lets you enter words and generates a "word cloud" in customizable styles. This is a re-do of our word-cloud.








Thursday, May 19, 2011.
More tablet drawing. I wish my fingers were tinier!






Friday, May 20, 2011.
A condensation-free glass. It's going to be a good summer!








Saturday, May 21, 2011.
Don't you just love finding things?













Sunday, May 22, 2011.
Bought another new app. While it purports to be "educational," it's fun!

One good thing—May 15, 2011

Thought it might be fun to see where I'm at every so often. Self portrait in a tiny purse mirror.

Bard Aces the Lit

Bard Aces The Lit by TisaSounds

Fog

The thick low clouds
roll in off the lake
leaving the skin on my face
cold and damp

At the end of the pier
I look out onto the water
my sight goes only a few feet as
sea gulls disappear into the thick haze

Turning toward shore
I can make out the vague forms of trees,
and the dulled street lights
lead me back home

Baby's Momma

In years past
she was his friend
then his lover

Never legitimized
their union produced a son
and soon they fell out of favor

He doesn't speak her name
refers to her as his BM--
baby's momma

Sitting With Mary

Sitting in a narrow Pilsen courtyard
between the mottled brick walls of two buildings

Birds chirp overhead
in leafy branches and
on electrical wires swagging
gently in the breeze

Bells clang on the
ice cream push-cart as
local women greet one another,
their chattering punctuated by
cackling laughter

The Sears (now Willis) Tower soars
above the more modest ambitions
of this south-side neighborhood
where a woman tends the flowers
on her balcony

Young teen girls scatter
attired in their white dresses, some with veils but
all newly married brides of Christ

The Mother of the Groom stands
at the edge of the courtyard
keeping a watchful eye on it all

Active but still
Still but active

In limbo
be
wait
notice

Like her

Squaredance(Unblock)

Lush

It's mid-May
air still quite cool
walking down the sidewalk toward home
leafy trees with full boughs
some with limbs weighed down by cherry blossoms

Green grass so high it sways in the breeze while
tulips stand guard like miniature sentinels

A million and one places on earth I could be right now
but I am here
now
in this place

and it is lush

Eye of the Soul

beauty is in the eye of the soul                                       
      

                                                                                                      the eye of the soul is in the beauty

                                                        
beauty is in the soul of the eyes

It was fun to take photos looking into the depth of paperweights.  Took some practice to upload but I got it done.

Blog, Blog, Blog

I never thought I'd write a blog
Because I feel so much in a smog
About blogs.

But hope is here and the fog
Is no longer grog
Since I am trying out this blog. 

Ten Cheaty Zins

The ten bottles of wine
sat on the shelf
awaiting their victims

Dick and Jane strode
down the aisles of Binny's
looking for the perfect
wine for their upcoming soiree

How 'bout a case of merlot, Jane?

Too dry, Dick.

Hmmph.

How 'bout a case of pinot noir, Dick?

Too smokey, Jane.

Hmmph.

They came upon the case of 7 Deadly Zins

Purrrrrfect, they said in unison.

Back home, just before their guests arrived
they popped open the case of wine
and were horrified to find not twelve
but only ten bottles

Ten cheaty zins if you ask me, said Dick.

Jane agreed.

(So what would you come up with using all the letters from shane tytenicz!?!)

Anagram Art

...from my name!

This one's titled "A Tot Pot"

If you're lucky you'll get to see all the Anagram Art created from our names which we illustrated in the second meeting of the Cultivating a Daily Creative Practice workshop!

Answered Prayer

So I says to myself, I says,
"Georgie, you can be anyting you wanna be."
And I got tuh tinkin, maybe I uhs right.
I don't have tuh be uh plummah.
Aftah all, I uhs miserable.
Downright mis-ah-ra-ble.
Den Manny tells me, "Maybe you could be a cahpentah."
Like Jesus or somethin.
And I tink, yeah, I like wood.
So that night I say a prayuh.
"Deah Jesus, I don't wanna be in pipes no moah.
I wanna be in wood, like you was."
Well, that Jesus is a funny guy.
Wohks in mysterious ways.
But I gotta say, I ain't nevah been happiah.

Weekend Mornings

The sun wakes me at around seven I blink then
realize I don’t have to be anywhere so
I roll over onto my side and
pull the covers up under my chin and

Drift back down into sleep but
not a deep sleep more
like a doze, in and out and
in and out ‘til

An hour or two later I finally come completely awake and
stretch and yawn eventually
throwing off the covers I place
my feet on the cold floor rising
stiff-legged I walk to the toilet to relieve myself

Ahhh

Washing my hands I look at the mirror staring
into my brown eyes and
see that they’re clear; I’m still alive so
I lower my head in satisfaction and

Walk to the laundry basket and
pull out a pair of dirty jeans and a wrinkled-up sweatshirt then
slip on my deck shoes
grab a jacket and some cash and my keys and

Go down the stairs and out onto the quiet sidewalk that
leads me a few blocks to the bakery where I
buy the fresh pastry and piping hot cup of joe which

I carry back to my place settling
into my favorite chair I
enjoy the sweet cinnamon twist and bitter coffee

waiting for the day to unfold

How Do I Draw Myself?

I took advantage of my birthday week to continue looking at myself -- literally! I've been working on three watercolor portraits, all develped from the same photograph. And then I"ve been sketching quick glances of myself in the mirror. I don't really look like any of these, yet I see myself in each one. The hardest challenge was getting past my vanity to see myself as a subject.

Asian Cabbie

Cab outside my building
Halsted and Armitage, please

Asian driver
looks straight ahead

No smile

Accelerating and braking
every few feet
lurching my stomach into
the front seat

It just doesn’t have to be this way

Hope I never ride with him again

Cab outside my building
Halsted and Armitage, please

Asian kamikaze driver

Dammit!

Looks straight ahead

No smile; me neither

Accelerating and braking
every few feet
lurching my stomach into
the front seat

Why does he have to drive like this!

I will never ride with him again!

Cab outside my building
Halsted and Armitage, please

Asian kamikaze driver

Oh, no no no!

I open the door
Step to the curb

And my stomach is soothed

Tough Tulips

A couple of hot days and
the jonquils are toast but
the tulips are hangin' tough and
so am I

And No Wave Goodbye

First day in Chi Town
just off the plane from O’Hare
from Brazil
water taxi from Madison Street to Michigan Avenue

Heavy set woman with perfect tan
solid black tank- top dress
long leopard-print scarf
tied around thick neck and
tastefully draped down front and back and dark
Jackie ‘O-bug-eyed glasses

Chatty and alone taking
pictures of buildings lining the river

Would you like me to take one of you?

Oh, would you?
with glee

Snap. How’s that one?

Oh, take more; don’t stop!

Snap snap…snap snap snap

Oh, I don’t usually have pictures with me in them!
Here’s my stop; the perfect place for a drink.

And no wave goodbye

You Lucky

The mom drags the little boy
by his shirt at the shoulder she
grasps a black leather belt
looped

ready to inflict

“Get cho ass in the house
boy
You lucky I didn’t push yo
mutha-fuckin’ ass out in
front of traffic.”

In the house
the tender flesh and
the tender heart

bruise and bleed

The hours
days
months
years
slowly pass by

Calluses form and become hard as
stone protecting the still-tender
heart that beats inside

and lives.

One good thing—May 13, 2011

Decided just the doing could be my one good thing. And it was! I got so engrossed, I had to keep going and do two.

One good thing—May 12, 2011

Got an unexpected "thank you"—a box of See's Truffles. And used my new metallic gel pen.

One good thing—May 11, 2011

Grapes. Besides the taste, they were one good thing I did for myself—chosing grapes instead of a sundae. Actually, two good things—enjoyed drawing them on my new app. No, one good thing, it crashed before I could save. No, make that two after all—I had a feeling it was going to crash and took a photo before I lost the sketch.