Sometimes our eyes, hearts, and minds need rest from worlds too much with us, worlds of politics, incompetencies, brutalities, and -isms. We offer this diary, which you can visit once briefly or longer, or revisit many times for respite.
Perhaps the images here, the words here, will return to you in moments when you need them or will inspire you to find your place of or in creation.
Linger with us as you will, and then, if you like, on your way out at the bottommost end, drop a shekel or two in our gratitude jar for Chef Andrés and the World Central Kitchen and their COVID-19 relief work, at the request of the artists and writers and organizers of the KOS Art Expo community.
Previous Salons in This Series
- This salon is the fourth and last, May 10, 2020.
- The third, May 3.
- The second, April 26.
- The first, April 19.
2thanks
Leaf-Light
From afar, each branched Leaf
seems exact as Neighbor, unflawed and fair.
but closer
each green Petal takes on Imperfection,
and divorces nearby Kin.
and even closer
A Story lines each Palm —
Ant tore, Grub breached
Mold devoured, Spider rolled
Dirt tainted, Water ripped
Sun negated, Mystery eclipsed.
now please do come within —
in intervals of space and time
between the most minute, barely-more-than-nothing
no-name-yets
whispers a certain Something, unflawed and fair.
2thanks © 2020
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GlastoSara: 3 Portraits
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GlastoSara: I’ve done a series of portraits of personages associated with Glastonbury, which traditionally is identified with the legendary Isle of Avalon. The cast of characters includes mostly historical and/or mythical figures, plus a few from the 20th Century.
Arthur was oddly one of the more recent in the series. Obviously, he was done mainly from my imagination. I’d used a snapshot of my husband as a starting point, but that got left behind within the first few minutes. As often happens with my portraits, he “told” me who he was, what he was supposed to looked like, and how he was feeling at the time. I started out to paint a hero, ended with a man grieving for lost comrades, lost battles, lost dreams. I tried to change the expression, he wouldn’t cooperate.
Blake was interesting — I looked for source pictures and found a sketch or two of him in his youth, and his self-portrait in old age. My portrait emerged as William Blake in his prime (our local Blake Society was quite taken with it). Blake’s association with Glastonbury, by the way, was that he composed the poem Jerusalem on a visit to the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey, a popular tourist attraction in the early 1800s, much as it is today. The poem is based on the legend that Jesus accompanied his uncle (Joseph of Arimathea — I’ve painted him, too) on a visit to Glastonbury. It was set to music by Sir Hubert Parry about a century later, and is considered Britain’s unofficial national anthem.
And, finally, a sketch portrait of Arabella, from an informal photo I found online. That’s Arabella Churchill, granddaughter of Sir Winston Churchill, and a leading light in the contemporary Glastonbury community until her passing in 2007. Despite rubbing shoulders with royalty in her life (at age 5 she was considered a possible future consort for Prince Charles!), she embraced a counter-culture lifestyle, left-leaning politics and causes, founded a charity aimed particularly at children with special needs, and co-founded a major rock festival that’s still going strong (except not this year). She’s much missed.
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mflinn
mflinn: In the late 80’s and the 90’s I took a long hiatus from painting to run a commercial art business that was, ehhh, somewhat successful. I designed logos, did illustration work and painted a ton of signs (including on home-run fences at the local bush league baseball facility) all over town. But I really missed painting and came back to it after a health scare and 9/11. Something about “facing mortality” and all that. Anyway, “Are These Your F#•king Cats?!” (censorship my own for the benefit of our Salon visitors who might have qualms) was the first painting I did when I returned to the easel in 2002. It opened gallery doors that had previously been firmly shut. Things had changed in my time away from trying to get my foot in the Art door and the art shops were not just accepting “weird” paintings but actually seeking them out for inclusion. What came to be called “Pop Surrealism” (a phrase I detest) was hitting its stride and so “odd” was “in”. And so a revived career in painting began and nowadays, with a few exceptions, I am happily retired from commercial work. After those long years of having to accept that the “public is always right” (they are actually rarely right) the change was a little bit of Poor Starving Artist Heaven, right here on Earth. The painting belongs to my wife of 37 years and who made it and all the rest literally possible.
This is a recent painting. It is a tribute piece to a friend lost to suicide. The story is long and unfortunately familiar to many. I felt compelled to do this one and painting it helped. A little.
And on that happy note I’ll say “adieu" for now. Thanks to all of the Exponauts and the visitors to these Salon exhibits. See you in the summer.
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Trot
Trot: One day I was looking through a huge book of Rembrandt's works and I saw the painting Titus in a Monk's Habit (as St. Francis), 1600. Rembrandt's son was the model. At any rate, I loved it, and right away wanted to reproduce something similar. I begged my husband to be my model. I didn't have the outfit, but I decided to do the best I could reproducing a Monk's garb.
Of course, with my lack of expertise the painting was looking flat and--as I usually do when I don't know how to proceed--I set it aside for a time. That time has lasted about 8 years. Maybe it's time to finish it for better or worse.
I want to add that I love Rembrandt's style. A few years ago I saw one of his most famous self-portraits at the National Gallery of Art. Photographs do NOT do it justice. He was not a handsome fellow, but the color palette was glorious. I can still see the rosy flush on his aging cheeks, and the impasto of oils that added so much dimension to his face. I regard that time spent in front of his self-portrait as one of my favorite aesthetic memories.
Trot: A pastel sketched one evening. Would like to paint a large oil based upon it. Someday. Pastel painting is loads of fun, but it can be messy, and sometimes frustrating if you don't have a huge array of colors, or room to spread out.
Trot: Based upon a very old photograph of my husband's grandmother. The photo was probably taken in the twenties.
Graphite is the most relaxing medium to use. I don't have to worry about color choices (to me, the most stressful aspect of painting), only value.
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duccio46
thriving vallejo series: yeah!// vallejo in the plague year.
duccio46: I have always been interested in the renaissance town view woodcut maps. I made this drawing of a Vallejo view from the early 1600's. I'm more or less sure that it hasn't changed much since then. The nuclear submarines have all gone after the Mare Island Naval Shipyard closed in the 90's. This one, 707, just happens to be our Area Code.
Europe had plague then too. I read today that Shakespeare wrote Macbeth in 1606 with the idea of a terrible government being like a plague. No kidding. (By the way, my house is top row, third from right. Plague has not visited here yet.)
I'm seeing lots of folks wandering around without masks or social distance. They were headed eastward in the direction of the County Buildings. I donned mask and decided to see what was up. Most of these folks were needy looking, possibly homeless. They were going to the County Building. One at a time they went to Window #2 to apply for General Assistance. Here are some of them being served right in front of the chair I was sitting in. I used a small camera I have for street photography. There were, there are, many of us.
All of these drawings are done with a #2 graphite, thick children's pencil from photographs. The pencils have big erasers to match their thickness which I use frequently to obscure passages which are too delineated and stand out too much. I'd say I have developed a "shorthand" drawing style that I hope shows my changing nervous state equally with my ability to define and express the subjects. Drawing is all about the marks one makes for me, the subject portrayed is a bonus. I tried to show something of each persons situation and uniqueness in the way they dressed and stood, and how they "felt" to me. I love to draw.
- Titles of the above pictures: Medieval Vallejo, Window #2 a,b,and c.
- Artist: duccio46
- Media: My First Ticonderoga #2 graphite pencil w/ eraser on paper
- Contact Information: Members of Daily Kos: duccio46
RiveroftheWest
St. Regis Paper Co.'s Logging Locomotive, Shay No. 7.
Medium: Oil
Date: October 1972
Attribution: P. Kuttner
RiveroftheWest: I first saw Shay No. 7 on display near Wishram WA in the early 70s. It was known as the Klickitat Log & Lumber #7, after the Westside Lumber Company was purchased by St. Regis Paper Company. After #7 was retired it went to Camp 6 in Tacoma, in Washington's Point Defiance Park, which is the site depicted in this painting. After Camp 6 closed it moved to Willits, California (home of “The Skunk”) and after that seems to have served in California’s gold country before moving to the Roaring Camp & Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad in Felton CA.
No. 7 is a Class C 1911 3-truck Shay locomotive, the second oldest operational Shay in existence. My granddaughter rode behind this loco as a small child—I have a photo, but had no idea the car was being pulled by our old friend No. 7! Latest information indicates that the restored engine is now running at the Hesston Steam Museum in La Porte, Indiana, under the name “Oregon Lumber Company.”
If I were not a “detail person” I would never paint something like this. Many artists would choose a different style, but I love the gears, drivers and myriad details. Oil is a good medium for this type of painting; it allows unlimited time to capture the intricacy of the incredible old equipment. This painting hung in my husband’s office for four decades.
Mt. Hood from Tygh Ridge, at Sunset
Medium: Oil
Date: Mid 1970s
Attribution: P. Kuttner
I painted this view of Mt. Hood from a photograph my late husband took in the mid-1970s. The viewpoint is near Tygh Ridge, a few miles north of the small town of Tygh Valley on Highway 197, which runs south toward Central Oregon. Tygh Valley is the site of the annual Wasco County Fair. In the 1970s I was active in the local Art Association and my husband in the photography club. So one day in early August after work, we’d drive 24 miles south, drop off our Fair entries, check out our friends’ entries and then head back home. On the way we’d enjoy the frequently-spectacular sunsets over Mt. Hood to the west.
This is the view the Oregon Trail pioneers saw if they chose to travel the 1846 Barlow Road cutoff rather than continuing their 2000 mile trip to the Willamette Valley from “the States” by Columbia River raft or Hudson’s Bay bateaux. The Barlow Road was considered by many emigrants to be the hardest stretch of the entire pioneer road—beautiful, but terrifying, to those weary travelers.
I favored oil painting in the early ‘70s, later switching mostly to ink drawing and watercolor.
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2thanks
Gently Asking
I, this poem, speak
to you, and I am gently asking —
What do you seek in my lines?
Why do you gaze with longing upon my word-eyes
my word-lips, my word-fingers, my word-loins?
I lie mute on this page, yet speak
from the last moment of my birth.
What is it you hope to discover?
What movement will you allow to rise?
What does it bring you to read me?
What is the truth you so long for?
William had his tiger and lamb
Siddhartha his path and tree
Hildegard her pen and brush —
What is it you have?
What movement stirs beneath your hair?
Please tell me what it is
that your heart so longs to speak
and I will be silent.
2thanks © 2020
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As noted far above, members of the KOS Art Expo community ask you to support COVID-19 relief efforts organized by Chef Josè Andrès and his World Central Kitchen. You can donate here to this very worthy effort.
2thanks, for the KOS Art Expo community
Please tell us which one(s) or which aspect(s) you like, and (maybe) why.