Art After Hours and the wind

I'm baa-aack! I'm offering another free desktop. This one is abstract and mostly pink-ish. You can get it here. It's a spring thing.

Had another lovely evening at the Virginia Museum of Fine Art Art After Hours. This time I learned that the WMFA has one of only four, high quality Nepalese ceremonial helmets in the world. The one here in Richmond is entrancing, like a fairy tale. I have a personal attraction to Nepal. When I'm feeling disgusted with life I threaten to sell everything and go sit on a mountain top in Nepal. Difficult to do these days since it's all owned by China now.

I once read a fascinating book about Nepal. The author trekked through the mountains in search of the elusive snow leopard. Along the way he describes customs, peoples and modes of travel. My most vivid memory is visualizing his night in a tent which he pitched in the courtyard of a deserted home. The walls were a wind break. He didn't get much sleep because he spent the night trying to keep warm in the blowing snow. Anyway, back to WMFA. Apparently not many museums have Nepalese works. I plan to go back and take a good look at what is on display. A curator spoke to us about the works. He told us that they have more in the basement. I'd love to see them all.

I'm not sure I still would like to go to Nepal even if it has been a theme in my life. It's like a delicious, expensive candy that comes my way every so often. Maybe it's more like the scent on a wind which only blows my way during a blue moon. Nova Scotia is the other country that pops up in my life without effort. I actually thought I might get there one day but not happening so far. Where I ought to be going is Ireland as I may still have some relations there. My great-grandfather is from Ireland in Roscommon County. He and his brother escaped the priesthood together and ended up in the USA.

From the Artwells Oracula: Thursday is an escaped balloon. To be captured by the wind is to be free.

how i make some of my art

Just a reminder on how I construct my art. I use a software program called Bryce 3D (link is to new product). This program comes with some "presets" that let me automatically create rocks, skies, ground, mountains, etc. I often create custom textures and objects and modify the randomly generated items. Bryce is a landscape program basically. I used it once to make an illustration of a building that had not yet been made. This was an assignment from a client when I was freelancing. They liked it and paid me.

I agree with Picasso and other artists, that the composition of a piece is what makes it art. The fact that I don't personally construct each item by hand is not important. What matters is which objects I select, the process that leads me to make the choices, how I arrange those pieces and how I compose the final image. Those are the choices that make it art.

So that's the basics. To be fair, I suppose I could reveal some of the process I use. That might help with understanding what I do. I'll try to do that next time.

quoting again

"It's not what happens to you that determines how far you will go in life; it is how you handle what happens to you."
--Zig Ziglar

I suppose that any life then becomes a measure of how well a person can handle what happens. Is this fair? This gives an advantage to creative, intelligent, quick-thinking individuals. The rest of you are doomed!!! Ha. Ha. I'm not very quick thinking . . . sometimes.

choose life

As we age our capacity for joy increases. Choose life. Look for the light that leads to goodness and follow it. You cannot imagine the joy that you will find. You are not ready to comprehend it now. Just believe and choose the light of life.

Sometimes pain beyond bearing necessitates calling for help. There's nothing weak in that. We are here to survive together. So choose life. Choose the light of life and live on.

find me

find me
there's nothing
and nothing
and still nothing

but a feeling
a longing for a connection
for a connection to a soul of fire and ice
a soul of endless joy and fascination
a soul of magnanamous regard with cute pointy eyes

somewhere this soul roams the wilderness of joy longing to share it as I do
longing as I do to share it.
longing for that same connection
a warm heart and dry, firm hands

a part of this and a piece of that
roaming in the wilderness of humanity
head above the crowds
never alone but lonely and searching

here i am

— Elaine Greywalker

can I quote you?

Whatever you may fail to guard, guard well your tongue, For flawed speech unfailingly invokes anguish and affliction.

By a single word of injury Do all a man's virtues lose their goodness.

The wound caused by fire heals in its time; The burn inflicted by an inflamed tongue never heals.

— Tirukkural 13: 126-129

[Excerpted from the Tirukkural, translated by Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami. Copyright Himalayan Academy Publications, www.himalayanacademy.com.]

The pen may be mightier than the sword but the tongue beats them all.

vmfa

Went to the Virginia Museum of Fine Art "Art After Hours." I loved it! Mingling with nicely dressed, polite people to the tunes of a live band playing jazz. Little 10 minute tours with topics like "The Eyes Have It" and poetry readings in marbled courtyards. Every week there's a different flavored martini. This week it was Apple. Scrumptious! Then there's the 3-tastes-for-a-dollar wine tasting. This week wines by First Colony south of Charlottesville.

The guards apparently haven't got the message it's a party. What a sour-faced bunch of killjoys. They have a fetish about the guard rail that overlooks the marbled court where the party's held. Apparently it's dangerous to lean against it. You can put your hands on it but not lean against. I suppose if I lean too hard I might just push it over and fall 50 ft to my death (or my maiming and a law suit). The guard says no leaning is for my protection! I think not. I may just call the museum tomorrow and complain. It's so stupid. Really ruins the experience.

nothing

I have updated the daily visual. Not doing so good on the writing part. Feeling discouraged. Not reading anything related to the work of being an artist/writer.

I have no personality. That's my problem. There are few issues I feel really strongly about and don't get me started. I can't stop. So I live in quiesence and calmness. It's easier. Hmmmm. Maybe I've taken the wrong tack.

hip hop

I finished "8 Mile." I liked the entire movie. I can't say I understood all the words I heard but I liked it anyway. The white attendants at Blockbuster pointed me at white hip hop. (Is there such a thing?) Wonder where a black attendant would have steered me. Although hip hop is about the ghetto, I guess—not about color.

I've decided I like the whole fought their way out of crap and into good lives ethos of hip hop. It's very positive and motivational. It's also full of hard work and push. "I'm Good" is tune you can repeat because it's circular. Like a round. Very nice. That tune has been running in my head all day. Gotta take it to work tomorrow.

Here's the Honey site. Check it. Has a very informative section on musicians that have fought their ways out of the ghetto.

I think we need a sub-culture built on those who have fought their way out of emotional abuse and into normal lives instead of hanging out on rooftops with automatic weapons. What would that song and dance be called? Something that celebrates a below-the-radar tactic that let's you fly invisible and out of range of the emotional killers. Not quite a turn the other cheek thing. More of a hide that other cheek thing. Submerged in the landscape.

I feel encouraged. If those with far fewer social advantages can make it than so can I. It's just a matter of hard work and waiting for your opportunity. Right?