Like some weekly magazines that only publish 46 issues a year, this was the month I obviously needed to skip. Something about this time ( we refer to it here as Sucktember ) with perpetual eyes on the weather map and two hurricanes behind us that dashed the opportunities to set up serious painting. A quick half hour oil study below:
It’s been a tri-fecta of family diversions ( elder mom complications ), endless clean-up after two major storms, and much as I hate to allow it in, the wing-nut lunacy of the political bazaar that has become so offensive to me, I can’t listen to or read about it anymore.
Watercolor doodles to prevent atrophy….
But I possess the American Medical Associations’ FDA approved remedy for ennui which can only be found at the foot of my bed:
Cloud and Angel, clearly disregarding MSNBC, CNN and Time Magazine.
Three quarters of the menagerie showing humans how it should be done.
I shall now channel Cher in Moonstruck and demand of myself that I ” SNAP OUT OF IT !”
Tags: A month without blogging, Cloud and Angel, Cloud puppy, Ennui, Hurricanes, Mercury Retrograde, Summer's Over
Asheville: The North West of The South East 
October 3, 2010 at 1:38 am |
Hmmm … September is usually my best and most favorite month – but I agree; this year it was truly sucky. I won’t elaborate, but I should have skipped it completely.
Ah, well… I think I shall follow the examples of Cloud and Angel and take myself off to bed with a good Reginald Hill mystery. There I shall be joined by my own menagerie of kitty kitties and Freda the watch (but not guard) dog…
Best wishes for an October recovery…
October 3, 2010 at 1:23 pm |
Thanks Patrice- it’s not that I need anyone else to feel misery, but knowing that other people felt derailed makes it feel less singular for me.
Now you’ve intrigued me to check on Reginald Hill. I like mysteries.
Let’s skip into October with a lively gait!
October 3, 2010 at 1:39 am |
PS…
The artwork is wonderful!
October 3, 2010 at 2:36 am |
Beyond the realm of cute. A new planet. Cute like we’ve never seen before cute. a cute that vibrates on a higher level. A cute that only dogs can hear it’s so cute.
October 3, 2010 at 1:43 pm |
Ted, you mean cute like YOU?
October 3, 2010 at 4:41 am |
Follow the animals . I miss mine.
September was miserable weather wise and politically on the national and local levels.
Follow the animals. They got it made.
October 3, 2010 at 1:45 pm |
Sylvie- I detect a fellow dog/cat sympathizer in your comments. Politics, if it was reverted to governing, might be more palatable. It’s sickening here and the mainland.
Such is the pull of power.
Nothing beats the pull of animals. I will indeed follow them.
October 3, 2010 at 11:29 am |
Certain electromagnetic wave lengths can permeate your being down to the cellular level…beware! If my spouse were not such a football fanatic, the satellite subscription would have been canceled long ago.
October 3, 2010 at 1:46 pm |
I believe, Sharon. But like a kidney stone, this too shall pass, right?
Also if Michael didn’t support you in everything you do and register as your number one fan and president of your fan club, you might have….
October 3, 2010 at 3:43 pm |
Life does have a way of blindsiding us, doesn’t it?… Perhaps it is a way to help us remember to appreciate the good times … the good places … the good memories.
I hope your mom is better and I know you do enjoy all of your moments… as well as ALL of those companions you live with down there in your island home!
Love your thoughts, your drawings and paintings and your photos!!
October 3, 2010 at 9:20 pm |
Marian- thank you for the empathetic re-set of my emotional tick tock.
You’ve done some of this yourself the past few months and I always admire what it appears your ability is to smile, persevere and paint.
Your encouragement means a lot and is contagiously accepted.
October 3, 2010 at 9:07 pm |
It’s so wonderful to see you back! I’m right there with you, sista’. What to do when everything seems to happen at once and it’s mostly annoying, troubling, interruptive, distracting and demanding? Stop. Rest. Don’t press yourself to do anything unnecessary.
I see that your work shows that you cannot be diminished by taking a rest! Your work is just as strong and engaging. I love your color choices.
P. S. I know just what you mean about bizarre political mayhem. We must turn away more often, knowing that we have a voice when we vote, write letters, make calls, speak up locally where it matters. We can be proud of that.
October 3, 2010 at 9:24 pm |
Oooh, Melinda- I know you ARE. Right here. I know it’s a discipline to get down to the canvas, at least for me. While I may glance at Cloud and think, ” that pup needs belly kisses, I can’t say I look at a blank canvas with the same enthusiasm.
Maybe that will change when i get back into the rhythm. It’s like running or tennis- the more you don’t do it, the harder it is.
I do give myself days without listening to the news. I not only despise the content, but the extreme decibel level that is thought to be required to get a point across, is too jarring to my head.
Thank you so much for your ever guiding words.
October 3, 2010 at 10:36 pm |
I’m sorry about Sucktember and hope that it will be followed by Rocktober!
Sometimes one just needs a break. Your 1/2 hour study and watercolor doodles are better than most people’s work. Certainly better than mine. Keep the faith, turn off those talking heads who make me sick too, and give yourself whatever it is you need to make things better. Just one look at those pets of yours make me want to smile.
October 4, 2010 at 1:52 am |
Carol- Rocktober sounds imminently better. We should be finished with storm watching, ( hope hope hope ).
Thanks for the encouraging get out of jail cards- don’t we all try to keep doing more, doing faster, doing for others, and some days, I’m just too darn done.
I can always muster up some critter love.
October 4, 2010 at 1:02 am |
Hey! That looks like my bed, only the roommates look different, here. Hope it is close to time that the storms will leave you alone, Bonnie. Watercolors! Love your watercolors. Now I know why I don’t have atrophy! 🙂
October 4, 2010 at 1:53 am |
Leslie- the watercolor czarina! Ha! You too have a bed full of animals that allow you to sleep up there with them?
Aren’t we lucky!
October 4, 2010 at 8:07 pm |
You could have named this post “The September Trifect… a trifecta of personal distractions, a trifecta of lovely color sketches that will surely bear fruit — and then to round it out, those three loving animals who might, just might, allow you to share their bed.
Lots of distractions over here on this end, too…
Happy October! Happy painting!
October 5, 2010 at 1:27 pm |
Don, given the weather lately, the bed has become prime real estate. Kelly and I sat on two chairs last night while the ” family ” was laid out on the sofa.
Human ownership has it’s rewards.
Speaking of bearing fruit, I can hardly bear looking at your banana leaves in your latest post. They are luscious.
Really folks- take a look:
http://diddamsdigitalart.wordpress.com/2010/09/28/smooth-banana-and-a-barbed-wire-bath/
Hope your distractions are self imposed.
And yes, here’s to October- another month closer to not being September!
October 6, 2010 at 1:27 am |
Sucktember fortunately giving way now to ‘Tocktober (according to the Cute Overload site).
I like your oil study and doodles.
The animolecules are so wise. I really hope to come back in my next life as a pampered housecat. And if I’m my karma is particularly good, I’ll get a Cloud to kiss me too.
October 8, 2010 at 1:37 pm |
Jala- the best doodles are really Cheese and you’ve got the corner on animolecules on the mainland.
Don’t wait for karma- come to St. Croix and claim your Cloud kiss in THIS lifetime.
I know you’re running the globe to create our next most wearable clothing designs.
I’d like to pre-order and have you personally deliver them please…….
October 6, 2010 at 1:30 am |
P.S. Hope your mom is doing better now.
October 6, 2010 at 2:31 pm |
– I hope your Mother is better.
– Typhoons blow through Japan regularly, but when you live in the mountains … it’s like getting Tsunami warnings in Saskatchewan.
– I don’t know what the Government is doing over here, but they don’t what I’m doing either … so we are even. hee hee!
October 8, 2010 at 1:38 pm |
Hey Ross- thanks for the note. I like your odds even- you don’t see them and they don’t see you. Although at your height, how’s that possible?
October 7, 2010 at 2:53 pm |
This time lately has indeed been a wasteland. Many of us can relate, but let’s just say that there’s no wasteland like your own wasteland. Okay, I’d love to think of something as witty and funny as you often do, but sleep was… well, t’hell with the excuses…
There’s snow on the screen, and nothing is coming (hello, Earth to Sam) to me now. When the tinfoil on your rabbit ears is crumpled the wrong way and nothing comes over the airwaves but static, it might be time to change the channel. For now, I’m changing over to acrylics. Nothing’s permanent (‘cept for phthalocyanine), but I have great hope for the change of scenery.
October 8, 2010 at 1:41 pm |
Sam, somehow being in a wasteland of time with kindred creative souls makes me go lighter on myself.
Thanks.
Change-ups are not only a good idea but probably the only way to break out.
I’m off to re-crumple my tin-foil- I got that image loud and opaque.
October 8, 2010 at 9:59 am |
Ok. I give up. I love cloud. there, I’ve said it and if you refer to this post comment EVER, I’ll deny it.
Second, what a unusual color palette with your painting! i LOVE that thing you painters do. Take an ordinary moment in a person’s daily toil and see it in Lavender and Olive. Me wants to be a painter like Bon Bon and her friends!
Figured it was two of the three that had you this past month, but the wing-nuts was a surprise! Only because I, too, have been so dispirited by the very same. No word of a lie, I am tired of my own opinions never mind the wing nuts! I have gone out and bought converter and antennae for my bedroom TV to get the over the air free channels via an antennae! Yep, i get four channels now, not 150. But, not one of them has a talking head 24/7 nor is trying to sell me a heifer cow.. As of November, I am cable free. Perhaps, the depression shall lift?
If not, I’m going to try
October 8, 2010 at 1:48 pm |
Pat-shhhhhhhhh, I won’t tell anyone and the people who read this won’t tell anyone and don’t worry- no one will ever know that you’ve been snookered into falling for a most beguiling, expressive cross between a lamb, a piglet, an arctic fox and an enchantress.
You two would look irresistible walking together, by the way.
I’m on a news moratorium. It’s beyond ridiculous and makes me feel as though I’ve bought into the suckers’ game. I’d sooner watch ” How It’s Made” and learn about the manufacturing of fluorescent bulbs than hear one more opinion from a meathead loudmouth moron.
I’m with you all the way.
A hundred and fifty channels means nothing if it all sucks. It’s like the all you can eat buffet. Really? Why would anyone want to? Especially if it’s all generically awful.
October 8, 2010 at 5:47 pm |
So, before either you or Pappy get into bed there are already 16 legs present?
October 15, 2010 at 8:39 am |
I’ve just arrived from Marian Fortunati’s blog and love your work.
The expression of your dog in the second photo is so cute and hope it works to lift you up. Sorry to read about the troubles you’ve had in September.
October 18, 2010 at 8:05 pm |
Sue- thank you for the kind words and apologies for the late response. Been battling ant invasions – all consuming.
So nice to share these links with favorite artists- Marian’s just great. I looked at yours as well- lovely, fluid drawings on there.
Thanks for dropping by.
October 25, 2010 at 1:22 am |
I want to be reincarnated as one of your dogs.
October 25, 2010 at 10:17 pm |
Right Jay- and so do I!