chicken progression

 Enter the chicken time machine... where we start at four weeks old (today) and go backwards.  Keep your wings and feet inside the vehicle at all times...

 Same type of side-eye, one week later (now above, 3 weeks old below)

   

and a week and a half... 

 

 

about a week in
 

after we had them for four days...

fresh from the big box store (above)

 

we have no pictures of eggs... well, of these chicks as eggs. **ha** 

Medium in Art

'Mortal', ink drawing, 30 minutes, left hand

I keep experimenting, and think that is more being an artist than making four foot murals all in one style etc...  There is a difference between being an artist and being a commercial artist .. although, yes, you can be both, the goal for one 'mode' is necessarily a bit different than for the other.

The Thoughts:
 

My husband was commenting on some art news that (almost) everyone he sees making big splashes seems to be 'one medium' - usually something like oil painting, or welding huge metal sculptures etc etc.. and that is all they do, and they are celebrated for it and the museums are full of huge sculptures and four-foot-wide oil paintings etc while there are thousands of artists out there doing their thing in small formats and whatever medium brings their idea most to light. I do like the variety that is shown in the DayLight Gallery in Camden, TN for that reason.

 

I told him that the one medium I focused on for my years in school was ink - but for some reason the main reaction to that was : 'And it's all 'just' ink - how do you have the patience to do that?', and the second reaction was 'Where's the color'... so yes I have branched out over the past decades into not only colored inks and watercolors, but colored pencils (which are often seen as 'not professional') and pastels and paint ... but the other side of that is that it seems unfocused. You can't have your cake and eat it, too - either you're versatile or you are focused. 'Why do you make so much? Do you ever sleep?' The thing that, I believe, makes me an artist 'the most' is that I am compelled to create, to express, to chase whatever it is almost every single day.

That also equals mountains of work, and little outlets for most of it.. it can be a bit overwhelming at times truthfully to look at it all. I put a few small things in the gallery, or offer one up on a site for a while, but that doesn't mean I'm not making another item tomorrow etc. I tend to send some pieces off to special people once in a while, and then that is sending off little bits of myself to say 'I thought this might mean something to you, too.. and either way, here it is'....

 

 

 'What Can you Reach from Here?', paint and inks

black paint, white paint, blue paint, black india ink, gold ink, brush, palette 

What can I reach from here?  This palette, this brush, these paints, this pen... what about that mountain?  I don't know, I haven't built it yet.

Experiments, like left-handed drawing, and 'we're gonna run with whatever we can reach from this point without getting up.. and we're starting with this brush, good luck...'  It's constraints and yet it's also freedom within the circle to do whatever it is that circle can bring... and then expand it, refocus it, do something else.. and through every single thing you do, each thing that is different from each other, the same element is you - and those that can see that, then they know something more than just the casual observer of one piece

Poem : 

Graywing

The clamor can quiet a bit

that deafening onrush of Time

when watching the plain gray moth

grip the stem of the plant

swaying under its weight

and drink nectar from the white flower

that you had not even seen

spurts and attitude

We talk about spurts, both cognitive and physical growth spurts, in Esme's group often. I have to say she is in a spurt, although an oddly timed one. She has been saying things to me like 'I understand the rules now, Mom' and 'I promise I can do it' and other things that are another level up for her. She has picked up little random skills in fine motor. But, she has also been in a terribly disagreeable mood for days going on a week. She has forgotten her courtesy words lately and has been craving and demanding me to play with her and only with her instead of doing tasks or chores.

Really bad attitude changes are parts of spurts. We know this, and know they will not (usually) last, especially if due diligence is paid to correcting the behaviors. During a cognitive spurt lots of things are happening - and it is opportunity for learning as much as it is a display of new things they are already learning.

The night before last Esme, in her spurt disagreeableness, was very upset about my going to bed early. This is my early weekend shift rotation - so I need to go to bed much earlier than she is ready for. She can stay up - if she is good and allows me to sleep. She was beating her fists on my legs and pushing me, crying and growling at me she did not want me to go to bed. She stood by my bedside and growled some more at me - only running off to her bed when Daddy rose from his chair to come see why I was talking sternly to her and she was yelling at me. She dove into her bed and was asleep very quickly but with a tear soaked pillow.

She has also been getting in trouble for having Daddy put a movie on, putting it on 'pause' with the remote and never coming back to it for more than a few minutes at a time. Daddy has been turning it off completely on her and she has been upset about not being able to fix it.

We had a 'talk' yesterday about these things and about what it means to be 'big and strong and GOOD'. I told her she was growing up but she had to be a GOOD girl and say her please and thank you and not 'play' with the TV like that, and help instead of throwing fits if she wanted to have privileges like helping me with my seed collection, playing ball, making things etc etc... She seemed to agree with these things and listen some to what I was saying but not intently. She likes to try to change the subject in these circumstances.. but I repeated what I meant and after she said 'ok' only then did we go on to the next thing.

Later that night I was getting ready to go to bed early again, and she was winding up for her fit. I told her it was up to HER if she was going to be a big girl and help or be a baby and cry and be sent to bed. Daddy reiterated that, and offered that she could watch his dragon game even if Mom (who had been playing ball with her) was going to bed. She thought it over and then took me by the hand, marched me to bed, pulled down my covers and said 'this looks like a good spot for you, sleep well' and blew me a kiss. OK, that seems to have worked much better. Daddy said she watched dragon game beside him until she was nearly falling off her chair and then went and crawled into her bed without much fuss.

one year of growth

I've been using the doorknob as a gauge of how much she has grown. This was September last year, and September this year. It's almost as good as a measuring tape in itself!

Antique Silver Acorn Ring

This ring has a history. It is sterling silver, and has the motif of an acorn with two leaves on it. It is one of the two 'family jewelry' items I brought with me when I came to Mark's.

According to my mother, her mother (my grandmother) gave this ring to her when she was a little girl. However, it soon did not fit her, and it went away in a jewelry box. She gave it to me when I was a teenager, because it fit me then. It stayed in my jewelry box for a long time too. Last December I began wearing it - with the acorn as a personal symbol of change, growth and potential. I had also lost a lot of weight at that time and it was one of the few rings in my jewelry box that DID still fit. Most of my other rings were so loose they would fall off at the slightest shake of my hand. So, that morning in January, this ring was on my finger.

When Mark and I went on our trip to Minnesota, a small crack had appeared in one side of the ring, right next to the acorn. Being that it is over 50 years old (reportedly) that is no surprise. Also, I recently found out that sterling silver rings may become more brittle with wear. The ring had hardly ever been worn before that month. When the crack went all the way through I started keeping it in my dream bag instead of wearing it.

Apparently fixing sterling silver isn't easy - and there wasn't a single shop in our area that could work on it. Sterling silver has a certain coating over it that requires special equipment. When we went to Dayton last month, I found a small shop in Yellow Springs, Ohio (Rita Caz Jewerly Studio in King's Yard courtyard) that
could fix it. I left it with them and it came back from their studio yesterday by registered mail.

They have done an amazing job fixing this family heirloom! And - it still fits perfectly. The repair is very hard to see - unless you know where to look.

I will be wearing it, but I hope to keep it in good condition for our daughter one day. And I'll know where to try the next time it may need a repair.