Earth Day!

(This post was going up yesterday but some ghost in the machine wouldn't let me add pictures!)

Happy Earth Day! I guess our present to the Earth has been diminished travel by airplane and car and decreased factory production leading to an all around cleaner environment. Something good had to come out of COVID 19! We're all breathing better if we've been fortunate enough to NOT contract Corona Virus.
But Earth Day dawned majorly cold and windy so quick strolls sufficed for any outdoor celebration. My one big effort yesterday was mixing organic Holly Tone with a wheelbarrow full of compost and applying this to the rhododendrons. I hope they enjoy as they're covered in buds and need nourishment! But I also had to yell (yes, YELL!!) at "the dog" (otherwise known as Robin the Good (ha!) who liked the smell of the Holly Tone and wanted to try and eat it. I hate to yell at (or otherwise reprimand Robin- who can generally do no wrong) but I was so afraid she'd get sick.
So here are pictures of all the lovely white daffodils, surrounded by vinca:

 

I couldn't be happier with my Spring Garden! The lilacs are all budded- even the small ones. Even in the midst of pandemics (you will notice that I haven't mentioned that mess) I am trying to be upbeat, happy and yes! "positive" in this time of plague and pestilence. Again, I stress how lucky Bob and I are that we have a yard and an outside to run around in.

Also, I continue to acknowledge how lucky we are that we both have studios. I've been creating up a storm... well, a few of my new works allude to  the COVID 19 pandemic and how fucked up things are in general...Here's a quick view of two pieces in progress in Atelier Rita:

This one is tacked/pinned together as I arrange the words and get the spacing right. I wanted the text to read as sort of Philip Guston-inspired*(1) lumpy, exhausted schlumpy words. Bob astutely noticed that some of the letters resembled poop emojis *(2). Hahahahaha! I like that as a reference! Remember when "Our Fair Leader" (otherwise known as "The Orange Menace") said that we'd be "so tired of winning"?  Well, somebody better tell him that I am!
And I'm also playing with this beauty:

Yes, "Thoughts and Prayers", another one of those ineffectual "sounds nice but does nothing" hollow sentiments that needs to be retired fast. I actually think they may have stopped intoning this after every mass shooting as that became insulting pretty fucking quickly! I'm working white on white because I felt that summed up the "hard to see how this makes a difference" theme visually. I'm going to be spending the next three weeks of my life embellishing this with equally white beads. Keeps me out of trouble! *(3) *(4)


*(1) A "typical Philip Guston looking Philip Guston.
 

  *(2) In case you missed poop emojis somewhere along the line.

 

*(3) Boy do I like foot-noting my blog posts!
*(4) And why did my formatting go hay wire?!??!

Checking In During Quarantine

More precious than gold... rarer than emeralds... more in demand that contemporary art! Toilet paper! the stuff of dreams!! A friend dropped two rolls in our mailbox; it was like Xmas. In fact, I confided to Bob that despite it's being on our toilet paper dispenser, I've been afraid to use it. I feel like I should save it for a special occasion. *1.)
Anyone else suddenly sick and tired of COVID 19? It's sort of like the Donald Trump of pandemics. Every time you turn on the news or look at the Internet... or decide it would be a nice afternoon to visit a museum or go shopping, there it is, being awful and you wonder what did we ever do to deserve this!!?!?!?
And it's been a boring slog having to wade through unemployment applications on line, arranging for simple shopping trips that used to be a cinch. Wanting to go some place else, but having no place to go as most destinations are shut down. And going to the store is scary stuff: everyone masked or now wearing those plastic face shields*2.) and furtively eyeing each others carts to see who got that last roll of toilet paper. Some odd price gouging going on: ice cream (for which I've had a hankering) is over $5 a pint (fuggedaboudit!!) and eggs are over-priced and tiny. But gas is ridiculously cheap! I marveled at a sign advertising $1.89 a gallon and then saw another station offering gas for $1.79. Those cynical rethuglicans again. There's some price was going on in OPEC and we have no where to go so our prices come down. We're no doubt bailing out EXXON and Shell...
Bob and I finally got around to cleaning (a few parts of) the house today. I keep reading about people who claimed to have immediately set to cleaning their apartments once the quarantine was announced. I kept feeling like I had better things to do, but today- maybe in advance of the holiday to which no one can come, we cleaned.
So tomorrow is Easter, a good pagan holiday of earth reawakening and fertility. It will be quiet and I miss my family members not coming. Hell, I miss everyone right about now. Talking on the phone is one thing but I wish friends and family could see how nice our gardens look. (I promise to post pretty flower pictures next time.)

  

1.) This is what has been starring as toilet paper at our house. My sister Beatrice asked if it was "septic safe". How the hell should I know??! It's what we have. But it's time to admit that I've always suspected I'm either a bit on the Asperger's scale or mildly OCD. Even as a child, I searched for patterns where there should have been patterns (like on kitchen tiles or ceilings.) I found it alarming when none was discernible and kept looking, hoping I'd missed the pattern somehow. Well, as an adult, this behavior still dogs me. The damned pattern on the side of this particular kleenex box is driving me bonkers. Every time I look at it, I insist there must be a reason they blocked in the deep orange and paler orange and beige in the way they did...


*2.)But there are a few cavalier, no-doubt-rethuglicans striding through the stores with no protection of any kind, wearing a disdainful "look at the bunch" of pussies expression. They make me so angry, but their fearless Orange leader has decried he will wear no mask!

Day Something Something Something: Bad Sci Fi

At least I'm hard at work in my studio. Above, "Medal of Freedom" (Feminazi)  honoring a brutal portmanteau from none other than recent Medal of Freedom recipient Rush Limbaugh. I proudly clutch onto that title and make it my own. It's in process but it looks good so far. And that's not the only piece I have fermenting in my studio...
Other than us working in our studios, Bob and I seem to be holding up just fine. We've been working out doors, still cleaning up from that crazy tornado from two years ago. We're hauling off piles of brush and opening up new areas- it'll look great once we're done. But it's been chilly so I haven't really begun to garden; I need to transplant some things and move a few other things and clear yet more leaves (a refined detail clean-up. I already did the rough clean!) We have plenty of time so it'll all get done. Today is sunny so far but very windy so forgot those leaves!
But this is all seeming a tad like one of those cheesy sci-fi movies; surreal images of people shopping in masks and gloves and tractor trailers being turned into morgues. The quiet continues on our road and in the sky over our house, except for our returning ducks quacking up a storm. Our neighbors are not to be seen; not sure why they're not all outside enjoying the sunny weather. I start picturing them all turning into zombies or vampires inside their houses. Probably not a good mental image to have!

So here's the other piece I have going on in my studio. That's actually an earlier state as I've begun sewing little beaded COVIDs onto it:

 (Note the bacterial/petri dish delight back round material! I've been saving that for ages, waiting for just the right piece to use it in. The  back round also alludes nicely to modern painting with the sort of smeary, painterly fields running together- maybe a hint of Jasper Johns? See below*).
Here's a funny coincidence: A friend Facebook messaged me a funny song about "Staying the Fuck Home" (thanks Bill!!) and I kiddingly said, "Sounds like a new piece for me!". He responded with a thumbs up and then I got to thinking, why (the fuck) not? I also went to work on this as I was solicited to be in an on-line art show of work created while quarantined and what could be more appropriate? (I'm hoping to finish this piece this morning if I could only get off the computer and get some real work done!!) And then we turn on the Jimmy Kimmel show and he's talking to Samuel L. Jackson who reads from the new book, "Stay the Fuck Home"! Talk about synchronicity!!!
So take that advice- Stay the Fuck Home!!!
 
*See? Same sort of painterly impulse. Thank you Mr. Johns!