Notes from August Early

writing to a friend

I was writing to a friend and thought I’d mention it to you.

There is no theme intended and nothing particularly linear here.

I have this feeling that doing art during tumultuous times …

allows one to flow alone into god space.

The Serenity Prayer in its most common form:

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference."

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Buddha was asked, 'What have you gained from meditation? He replied, “Nothing. However," Buddha said, "let me tell you what I lost: Anger, Anxiety, Depression, Insecurity, Fear of Old Age and Death."

Yes. I slap wide, overlapping strokes onto art and meditation.

We may also have heard that Nero fiddled while Rome burned.
Let’s save that for another time.

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Notes from early August …

Anniversary

It was our 37th wedding anniversary last week Wednesday. We decided to go out to the Chocolate Factory for lunch across the street from the Pewaukee Lake Beach.

Never had I ever. Fun time. Hot. Crowded. And by God, we will go back after Labor Day. It was a lovely experience. It also happened to be root beer float day. Yum.

And the anniversary gift to ourselves was our first ever air fryer. I had done a little research. I wanted to read what’s in the box. And we went to a retail store and picked one up. And it’s still in the box. Because in a couple days we needed to be ready to go out of town for the weekend for the 65th Annual Square and Round Dance Convention. It was in Oshkosh at the Marriott this year. Lovely.

Good times. Nice to be somewhere different for a little while.

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Quiet

I had just finished reading the book titled Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop by Susan Cain

Still at my tender age I’m looking for I continue to discover expanded perspective. I find that invigorating. Sometimes agitating and upsetting and sometimes, perfectly, just so.

If you like case studies this will be very pleasing read. I ordered the large print book from the library and that’s probably the only reason I was able to get through it.

Susan Cain probably has a TED talk and other videos. I’m not sure. I haven’t looked. But the introversion thing is still of some interest to me.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/4101935.Susan_Cain

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Artist Trading Cards

I recently bumped into artist trading cards sometimes abbreviated to ATC. They are the same size as baseball cards and playing cards!

And this is of some interest to me as I continue to explore what to do with my art. I’m so obsessed about not creating inventory that I’m also not creating art because I don’t know what to do with the product at the end. And honestly … packaging, prepping, shipping … the whole thing the energy and attention that needs to go into. That is a very low interest to me. For free or for money. I don’t wanna spend a lot of time thinking my stuff has monetary value. It’s a rabbit hole.

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Paradox of Curiosity

You may not need to know any more about it than that right now.
If you ask, I’ll tell you I have nothing prepared. I am looking into recipes.

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Recipe

The naming of things …

Dinner, for instance:

Black Bean Tuna Fajita - no broil.

$24.95

It was fun. Tasted fine. Probably make something similar again.

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The Blank Page

The blank page, and in this case, sheet, has been said to be intimidating to writers and artists and other people who have to start somewhere.

And I started by folding it up as if it was a rosary, prayer beads or a fidget stick. And I’ve folded it back-and-forth for quite some time before I started. Folded into thirds and thirds again on a sheet of card stock it’s a little rude, but it’s a unique art letter to a friend. The high points of my first week of August.

And so I had 18 panels. I made a list. A recipe, the obligatory flower art, a quotation and a couple of items of personal news. And when I got to filling it out, editing happened and …

The blank page I’m talking about here happens to be a piece of letter sized card stock: 110 pound index. The grain direction of index is very forgiving. You can crease it in either direction fairly easily without a lot of buckling to the surface of the sheet. In this instance, I got off the rails early and just kept steaming ahead driving that train off the missing bridge. Before I even scratched a note though I folded it back-and-forth and upside down and held it this way and that as if it was a rosary or prayer beads or a fidget stick. There is something a little bit calming about it.

At any rate, I folded it in thirds, and then again. Then I ended up with nine panels per side. Wow…

I’ve been meaning to write to a friend. Yes, we use email, voicemail, telephone, yet to use FaceTime or Zoom.

One of the things, my friend and I have in common is some affiliation with graphic design. Her professional mine not so much.

To prepare a document for someone to send them physically requires a certain amount of presence and touch in the first place and so it is regardless of the message, or the recipient, it can be worthwhile time spent.

It is time that I am not consuming any messaging from anyone else. No social media. No television news. Nobody in a small group yakking up their opinion. Really is quite lovely time. And that message right there is probably more important than whatever I had to say to my friend.

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Tic-tac-toe

After folding and unfolding this blank page sheet from every possible direction for What was probably hours on and off for a day or so. I finally realized I was looking at a tic-tac-toe board before I ever put down any lines. I was really tempted, but that would seem to distract from whatever the random design would end up being. I didn’t want to box it in so tightly.

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Coming Soon

to a screen near you

Radio Free David presents

MFQ: my favorite quotes

Here’s one now …

"You fall in love with the people who make you love the person you are when you're around them." - author unknown

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Radio Free David