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Category Archives: Musings
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Today’s inspiration
"To live content with small means;
to seek elegance rather than luxury,
and refinement rather than fashion;
to be worthy, not respectable,
and wealthy, not rich;
to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart;
to study hard;
to think quietly,
act frankly,
talk gently,
await occasions,
hurry never;
in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common.
This is my symphony."
-- William Henry Channing
Dopa-me
The brilliance of the movie lay in the parallel drawn between the "insane" and the sane -- and the contrast between appreciation and complacency. It leaves me to question who is really sick here: the patients who, upon awakening, marvel at every little miracle that graces every single one of each of our days...or the rest of us, who take it all for granted. Sure, every now and then we all wake up and realize how wonderful life really is -- but it seems we all go to sleep again, becoming oblivious to the miracle of common things.
Toward the film's end, the doctor addresses his colleagues:
"What we do know is that, as the chemical window closed, another awakening took place; that the human spirit is more powerful than any drug -- and THAT is what needs to be nourished: with work, play, friendship, family. THESE are the things that matter. This is what we'd forgotten -- the simplest things."
I've been feeling dreary lately, and I think maybe I need to wake up again.
Gender error?
So I signed up for free haircare samples from Sunsilk, but not without a glitch.
After I clicked "submit," I got the following message:
Please correct the following error:
Click here to correct any errors.
I wonder what errors they can correct? This must be good stuff.
After I clicked "submit," I got the following message:
Please correct the following error:
| - Invalid Gender |
Click here to correct any errors.
I wonder what errors they can correct? This must be good stuff.
Kimberly, almost finished
She is still a work in progress (aren't we all?), but my portrait of her is almost done...
Life in a sensory deprivation tank
True, a fresh winter snow -- the puffy kind that's impossibly light and sparkles blue under the streetlights -- is among the most beautiful gifts nature bestows.
But we get too much of a good thing up here.
And that pristine sparkle always melts into a semi-solid mass of mush, mottled with a color best described as gray-brown, that builds up behind a car's mudflaps and soaks through the thickest boots.
So most of winter is a collage of gray: gray in the sky, gray on the ground, gray on the cars, gray in the brain. No wonder that this time of year, I crave a different kind of natural beauty.
Color. (Tulips. Erratic dandelions. Bright green of springtime leaves.)
Smell. (Freshly mown grass. Unlikely, happily stubborn hyacinths.)
Sound. (Birds! Crickets! Children playing kickball.)
No wonder an art class is such a good idea (particularly) at this time of year. Even just my amateurish sketches help break the bleak spell. And it gets me out into the gray long enough to enjoy time with a friend.
And, of course, friendship is a kind of beauty, too. Teacup and eggs
I got up the nerve to mess with a little color. The paper's white, but I took the photo in incandescent light, which my dying camera reads as even more yellow than you see here (oh, and love the little shadow in the upper right corner on all my photos...)
Winter distraction
I'm distracted, unable to focus. Many deadlines this week, but I don't feel like writing. Odd...I only have a couple of things left to write today but I'm stuck in the mud.
Some days, I wonder what I would like to be when I grow up.
Other days, I see that I'm doing exactly what I like.
And come to think of it, not many jobs offer the freedom and space to be stuck, and to wonder, beagle on lap and no commute.
Blah blah blah, who cares?
Okay, perspective check complete. I think I'll go work now ;-).
Some days, I wonder what I would like to be when I grow up.
Other days, I see that I'm doing exactly what I like.
And come to think of it, not many jobs offer the freedom and space to be stuck, and to wonder, beagle on lap and no commute.
Blah blah blah, who cares?
Okay, perspective check complete. I think I'll go work now ;-).
But couldn’t I just stand on my head?
In my voracious (and distracting-from-work) reading about all things sketchy and brushy lately, I caught what sounds like a cool hint:Draw something upside down.
No, don't flip over, pencil in hand.
Turn a photo or drawing you want to sketch upside down, and draw what you see. The idea is that you will see the forms that are really there -- the way you used to see as a child, before logic muddied things up. It's drawing without assuming the forms add up to anything you've learned to recognize.
I think I will try this this weekend.
The New Mona Lisa
Did you know it took DaVinci 10 years to paint her lips? and she is missing a feature on her face. Can you see what it is?