It’s a good thing I worked on Prompt #22 first thing this morning …
because things got a little complicated when I went in to brush my teeth and looked up …
And yes, there was a hail storm recently. Looks like a new roof is in our future.
Therapy
I’ve been loving Acey’s collage challenge and my mind is bubbling with ideas for today’s treasure box prompt, but …
I have missed cloth. And as the impeachment trial begins, hard on the heels of the angst-inducing gun rights rally in my one-time home state of Virginia, I crave the calming, familiar rhythm of stitch.
So this then, row upon row of discontinuous backstitch in variegated Valdani #12 perle cotton …
which looks like running stitch …
but when worked on the “wrong side” it leaves a wonderfully wonky trail of stitches on the “right side” …
And since I’m testing the new light box …
here are some progressively closer views (because I very much like progressive views) …
And pulling back, the big picture of a thrift store linen shirt, previously dyed with windfall lichen …
and obviously not ironed anytime recently. Nor is it destined to be.
Crazy country redux
At first I was psyched by Acey’s collage challenge prompt #20 …
“Sun and wind,” I thought, “light to expose the evil done in darkness, wind to sweep it away.” And on a more practical note, solar power and wind energy to replace the oil and gas that fuel our wants and needs.
But as I started to go through the book cover stash, it occurred to me that wind is challenging to find in static imagery. That was when I started to notice words and phrases, started tearing into them, started the adrenaline rush that would leave me feeling like hell by the time I was done …
Don used to love a roadside sign in Austin (no longer there) that read, “We the people don’t have a clue.”
For sure recent events (defined as anything and everything over the past four years) have been, are, “CRAZY.”
And I think of our grandkids … “someday all this will be yours.”
“The great transformation” would be, could be great “strength in what remains … when the king/man is gone.”
Fingers trembling (like a dose of too much caffeine or the drag of low blood sugar), I pasted the scraps down … then recklessly tore the backing, realizing too late how badly off square it was. The collage was/is also far too large to fit into the journal, or onto the bed of our copier. Ugh, seriously?
So I photographed the collage and did some major keystone adjustments to square it up, then printed it at reduced size …
and added it to the journal …
Fortunately, Don is back to painting, having finally reached the point where all is well-ordered (enough) in our world …
Such a rest-full place for my eyes after the intensity of the collage.
Wanting to put the morning behind me, I decided to get this post over and done with. As I considered a title, I recalled a long-ago post written about our journey to Texas. Entitled Crazy Country, it reminded me not to take myself so darn seriously … again.
