One Sentence: 10:08 P.M. January 7, 2011
Early morning, a caravan of geese barking overhead, the winter sky blinded with their electric wings, then late afternoon, a legion of strangely quiet crows fill the Suessian-like trees surrounding my property like dark sentinels.
This Moment: 7:41A.M. January 7, 2011
The insistent drone of a snow blower crows the morning awake. The first snowstorm arrived without introduction during the night. The trees are bent, laden with weight, as if burdened with a heavy secret. The multitudes of crows and geese that have harried the fields these past weeks will be forced south now. It is time for them to go. A lone car passes on the snow packed road. Other than the snow blower, the fire's crackle provides the only sound to break the silence. The old dog readjusts herself on her pillow. She looks like a pasha, forearms crossed, resting on tasseled green satin. The small dog stands at the foot of the bed, a low growl rumbling in his peasant throat, begging a fight. The neighbor across the street shovels his walk and drive as if the snow were a personal insult. In the spring he mows and trims his lawn daily, lying on his side, armed with scissors, cutting renegade blades. After I finally leave the warmth of my blankets, and fire, I will shovel a quick path, then pack the snow on my long gravel driveway. For now I will watch snow falling in muted showers from branches. The view outside my window is a tangle of white.
Occupy This: Because One Ring Should Not Rule Them All
Occupy MordorAdmit it. This is funny.
Click on the Occupy Mordor link above and have yourself a little Lord of the Rings geekout levity this weekend.
Occupy This: Where in the World Is Occupy?
Occupy Together jenX67.comStarting with the Arab Spring and then the OWS protests of September 17 to the present, the Occupy movement has spread all over the world.
Here's a map from The Guardian, which provides a list of places where Occupy protests are mapped around the world.
Take the interactive quiz to see which type of revolutionary you are. turns out I'm a champagne revolutionary. Hmmm.
Artist of the Day: One January Day - Kristina Davidson
One January Day Kristina Davidson TheQuirkyArtisan.etsy.comI have to credit etsy for pulling me out of my legion of woe is I funks and I'll never make the deadline freak outs. The site is my go to place when I only have a few minutes and need a way out or a way up.
This morning was full of woe. How can a morning be woeful? Seriously. Well, it was, until I found Massachusetts artist Kris Davidson, and her expressive paintings. If you head over to her site, there are only a few up for sale, but be sure to check out her sold work images, which go on for pages.
I finally chose this image because it captures the month's tone so well. January is the start of the new year, but also, the start of winter at it's most cruel. The snow has yet to fall, but the temperature if bone-chilling. And the light disappears at 5 pm sharp as if your mother came in and caught you reading under the covers with a tiny flashlight and confiscated it without letting you finish the sentence you were reading.
For me January is the introduction to Dante's Inferno. By February I've been to the ninth level and circled back to the beginning, but, March is out there on the horizon.
Even with this painting, I have just a little woe hanging on, so back to etsy. See you there.
Artist Bio:
Welcome to The Quirky Artisan. My name is Kris and I have been making art since I can remember. I create a wide range of paintings and mixed media work, some in galleries, some here on the site. My mission now is to make art accessible to all pocket books. Some call me quirky, but, I think it's important that original art be made available to all audiences. So, whoever you are, thanks for visiting I hope you enjoy yourself. When you visit, my wish is that you leave with a smile on your face and know you can buy art and still have something left over for dinner and a movie.
Artist of the Day: you are what you eat, so be nice to plants and bees and (therefore) your own self - Ashley Adair
you are what you eat, so be nice to plants and bees and (therefore) your own self Ashley Addair ashleyaddair.etsy.com & noroomforhipsters.comI love Knoxville, Tennessee artist Ashley Addair's life story as much as her art. After you read her bio, head over to noroomforhipsters: The Occupation of Ashley and Levon to check out Ashley's paintings and Levon's music (start with Grace I Know).
Artist Bio:
Born to a ballsy moto cross racer and a beautiful trailer park gypsy, each right out of high school, we lived in a van while following Dad’s race circuit until my brother was born. Upon his arrival we settled in a double wide nicknamed “the brown house” at the foot of my grandmother’s hill. For several years, and every childhood summer after we moved, my brother and I ran barefoot with a dozen or so cousins building forts, riding bikes, and catching crawdads in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
After our parents divorced, Mom, my brother, and I went to live in Virginia Beach. We moved at least once a year but we always stayed near the water. Brokenness hung around, but we grew and healed and smelled salt water.
We moved again, and I went to high school in a suburb of Chicago: white collar and wealthy. We stayed culture-shocked and cold for a full year but found our warmth in a few sturdy Midwesterners.
I decided to go to college in Lexington, Kentucky because I wanted to escape the fate of so many college women: to find a suitor and marry him happily ever after. I thought for certain I wouldn’t find that in central Kentucky.
That was the year I would meet Levon and drop out of college.
He was charming and handsome and we decided there wasn’t any sense in having separate life adventures any longer. Two months after he graduated we were married. No plan, no money, and a bad honeymoon later we landed in Madisonville, Kentucky where he bill collected and I attended community college. Not the adventure either of us had in mind. We moved to Nashville. Then Knoxville. Levon worked a dozen or more desk jobs while I finished an English degree and half of a Masters in Education. In the last year we moved from Knoxville to New York City to Grace Acres Farm to Virginia Beach to Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico. All to find that actually, we really like Knoxville.
During our Brooklyn stay I saw a graffiti slogan. In blood red paint it read, “You are not your neighborhood.” I think I understand that the author was reminding us that our worth isn’t measured by the status of our surroundings but I don’t think we can easily separate ourselves from the places and communities we inhabit.
Moving around and seeing things has given me a healthy dose of audacity. There are many ways to live a life; and so I’m trying out a version of my own.
(read the latest at noroomforhipsters.com
find me on facebook and twitter too)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)