I Throw My Hat Into the Ring

As it is reported that there is a lack of enthusiasm among likely Democratic voters and many potential voters are wavering and still undecided AND there are still umpteen Democratic candidates, I thought, "Why not? Why don't I declare my intention to run for president?" Certainly, while my qualifications may seem skimpy, I could do no worse than The Orange Menace. At least I have read the Constitution!*
I plan on spending most of my time in my studio anyway, so I'll carefully select experts and pundits and pros and sages to actually run things. I'm simply running on the all-encompassing platform of WTF. Let's face it, I already have the tee shirts available!
My platform is pretty straight forward. I promise to minimize conflicts and war by maximizing cultural exchange. Under my leadership, we will sing and dance and make art and plant gardens and effectively dismantle the war machinery. Think what we could spend all that money on!
Additionally, I promise the following:

1.) Free studio space to anyone who wants it.
2.) Universal health care for all.
3.) Free, unlimited red wine. (Or, if you insist, white wine).
4.) Legalized marijuana.
5.) Intelligent people of impeccable integrity and credentials will hold important positions.
6.) A Climate Crisis task force will immediately convene and we will re-join the Paris Accord. 
     Alternative energy sources will be implemented and  SUVs will be phased out, along with coal
     fired power plants, nuclear reactors and fossil fuels.
7.) No guns, period. Fuck your 2nd Amendment.
8.) Nasty old men will never again make decisions regarding women's bodies.
9.) Artists, teachers and farmers will be paid more than CEOs, lawyers and politicians.
10.) Animals will be given a bill of rights. (Robin the Good and Maggie will help write this.)
11.) Anyone involved in racist, sexist, homophobic or in any other ways hateful behavior will be sent
       to re-education programs and taught tolerance and be required to perform community service.
12.) All of the errors/mistakes/evil and stupidity of the last three years will be corrected.
13.) The pursuit of happiness will be our guiding principle.

This is just the beginning! I could keep thinking of issues to deal with all day long, as I'm sure you all could add your own wishes to this list. Please contact me with your concerns! See you on the campaign trail!

*And for god's sake! If that weird Lincoln Chaffee is seriously running as a fucking Libertarian?!?! Why not me run?!

Anticipation

I couldn't sleep (again) last night so I got up and did a computer drawing. Drawing on the computer is great! Totally unlike drawing with a pencil or crayons yet still physical- in some cyber way. I am just starting to learn about various tools and how to bend them to my nefarious will. Last night, I experimented with the gradient tool. That's how I made the back ground and the interiors of those sort of flower forms.
I think I partially couldn't sleep because I'm excited (in a good way!) about the impending beginning of work on my studio. So much will change when my studio is complete. The dynamic of the house, and our use of the spaces we have to move through and live in; hell, we'll have a living room! There has been nothing wrong with using the living room as my studio but this artist needs a separate, private space. (And a space to make a mess in.)
I am a realist. I know it will take a while for everything (like walls and a floor) to come together, but I'm patient! I watched my mother and father (aka Mommy and Daddy) build their house. It took years and honestly, they never did finish some parts of it. (Like the cupboards in the living room, flanking the fireplace. Or the bathroom wall. There was this weird gap where there were exposed two by fours and the backside of the hallway wall. How hard would it have been to close that off?) But the house was interesting (my siblings and others may disagree...) and who really cared that we never had a real basement door? Now it's starting to sound like we lived under a tarp in a construction site! It wasn't that bad, but parts of it were odd.  I guess I didn't think too much about it until I'd have a friend over who lived in a normal, suburban house that had things like closet doors or actual hardware on the front door. Then you kind of saw it through their eyes. Anyway, there is some preparation work although Bob and I cleaned most of the things that have lived under the carport for the past several years. I can't wait.

Another Kind of Eye Candy

As I mentioned, I have been making eyes and eye-obsessive work in my studio. (Thank god I making anything in my studio!!) Sewing and beading are (inexplicably) possible under my visually challenged circumstances; in fact I seem to be plowing ahead just fine. I have seven or eight pieces underway. They will be collated together into some sort of a book, as photocopies of fabric pieces work quite nicely. (I started researching photocopying directly onto fabric but it seems expensive. But the effect is nice).
I have to mention that being the subject of an upcoming fundraiser (to help defray some medically indicated financial obligations... like a hefty deductible) have made me feel awkward. Let's face it: I need the help (thanks to all who have donated thus far!) and as an artist, I love being the center of attention. But there is the peculiar sense of having been turned into one of "Jerry's kids". (Remember he of telethon fame? The one weird fact I know about Jerry Lewis is that he wears a new pair of socks everyday and donates his used ones. Whether washed or not, I can't say. And the French love him...) I really don't want to feel at a disadvantage or that the work I'm producing is entirely therapeutic.
On some level, the making of all these beaded eyes (beady eyes) is a way of working out my preoccupation with sight and that makes sense. I guess I hope that this whole experience makes me a "better" artist in that I'm more in tune with my vision (all kinds) and more fully able to express it in whatever means I have available. I am putting some of my work up, on display at the fundraiser as a way of gently reminding supporters that I have done a huge body of work over the years (some good, some odd and some down right weird!)
I sure hope that people will attend my benefit and have fun, first and foremost. I am really touched by all the work and effort that are being done on my behalf. Family and friends are very generous!

Hallucination #3 (How often do You think about Paul Bunyan?)

(Okay! You can skip this postng if you think other peopl'e s dreams are boring! But you're not stopping me. You have to indulge the wounded warrior! But I think drug/me inspired dreams are different.)
I dreamed thta I went to look at a studio for rent. The buiding itself wasn't any great shakes, but the studio was cheap and had clean sheet-rocked walls with windows up high. In short, it was okay and seemed private. I think there were three or four other spaces available in the same building.
So I went outside with the woman who was showing me the studio and althought it was night time (in my dream as well as "real" time) the sky was all sort of lit up and a funny yellowish color; the way it sometimes looks if it's going to snow and it was cold. We were standing in a space between the studio building and a two story colonial looking house.
I asked the woman, "Are there any spooks or ghosts in this building>" She said, "No but Paul Bunyan does hang out here often". I looked up past the roof of the house and there was a man- no doubt Paul Bunyan!- about sixty feet tal and leaning on the roof of the house. He was wearing a big plaid shirt and a gigantic dark blue knit hat. (He llooked like the guy on the "Brawny" paper towel package before they "redid" him.)
He looked friendly enough, sort of smiling and leaning on crossed forearms; I'm not sure if I rented the studio or not.

Studio Time

I am finally getting some time in my studio. What with moving and re-moving and not being able to locate anything (including both art materials and my art-making brain) there has been no time for Bob or me to actually make art. I suppose the irony here is that I've always maintained that if I never made another piece of art, I'd have plenty to show for the next hundred years. Ha! I had the opportunity to show four times this winter thereby proved my point... but it didn't make not producing any new work any easier. And exactly why is it that the very things we love to do and NEED to do (for mental and spiritual hygiene) are always the things that get shunted to the side in favor of questionable activities like paying bills and going to work?
So it is with trembling hands and twitching facial features (and what the hell! throw in the occasional bead of spittle flying from my lips) that I try and martial my spiritual forces, line all my muses up in a row and get to work. Looks awful, feels great.
How's that for an unappealing portrait of the artist as as middle-aged crank?