Grooving on!

I had a good productive week, perfect timing with the craft fair coming, sometimes a deadline is just the kick in the pants I need! Here are a couple more new paintings, I'm especially pleased with the red bird one.







I've also made some fridge magnets - collages of different papers on heavy cardboard with a little saying or thought. It's a chance to get on my soap box!! and say 'read some poems' 'plant a seed' 'change the world with kindness'...







Now I'm reading High Tide in Tucson, essays by Barbara Kingsolver on a wide range of subjects. Here is a lovely quote from one titled 'Civil disobedience at breakfast' about parenting and creativity.



The remarkable poet Lucille Clifton was asked, at a reading I attended, 'Why are your poems always so short?' Ms Clifton replied, ' I have six children, and a memory that can hold about twenty lines until the end of the day.'

I would probably trade in my whole Great Books set for an epic-length poem from the pen of Lucille Clifton. But I couldn't wish away those six distracting children, even as a selfish reader, because I cherish Clifton's work precisely for its maternal passions and trenchant understanding of family.



Reading this put a big smile on my face!! What an amazing woman, what do I have to complain about with only three children!! It gives me a great feeling of encouragement, reminds me that I'm not the only one trying to juggle all these things. (the world of blogs tells me this too!). And it also sends me on a quest, I don't know if I have ever read a poem by Lucille Clifton, I definitely need to track some down!


Later note ; I just googled Lucille Clifton, and discovered I do know and love her poem Blessing the Boats. And sadly that she died last month.

Craft Fair coming

I knew there was a craft fair coming, but still it manages to creep up on me. Only a month to go, and I have heaps of work to do. I've started on a batch of little paintings, 4 inch square and 5" by 7" mostly. I think of these as 'not serious work', but it's really interesting to work fast like this, take inspiration from anywhere - images in magazines, old sketchbooks, half remembered paintings - and let one painting suggest what to do for the next. Some turn out great, some don't! (Sometimes I'm surprised about which ones sell and which don't...)

On the writing front I did send out a poem for Feb, but didn't feel like mentioning it as I hadn't written anything all month. At last - after a couple of false starts - I have a new poem underway about a blind man I saw getting on the bus. ( Hooray for catching the bus!!! half my inspiration seems to come from there.) The experience also reminded me of a great poem by Denise Levertov, 'A Solitude' - about seeing a blind man on a train, of being able to gaze at him because he doesn't know he's being watched, and then helping him through the station; her feeling of him being closed off in his own world. Unfortunately I can't find it on the net to link to, but check it out if you can. If I'm sounding very knowledgeable here, don't be fooled. I loved poetry at school and as a student, but then didn't read any for 10 years or more, and only started again in the last 5 years or so - reading it and writing it have come along hand in hand. I have a couple of huge anthologies that I'm slowly dipping in and out of, finding poems that I love, and poets that I'd like to read more of one day!

two steps forward one step back

On Friday I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped. I printed up this new lino-cut of woman with guitar (& admirer), and re-printed some of my old ones so that I have a stash ready for card making.

Other than that I was running around - to the hardware to buy cord, then stapling the cord to the back of paintings, and then delivering the paintings to Territory Craft. I get frustrated when these jobs eat up half of my art morning, but they have to be done!

I've added an extra section to the sidebar of my blog, of books I'm reading. I always have a book on the go, and squeeze in reading on the bus and in my lunch break.

Hopefully this week will be a bit more productive...