A day of healing

I tried to stay off the computer yesterday, even with all the lovely comments I know you have left. I promise not to be a slacker, and visit you soon, especially if you have visited me. That's what friendship in this blogging community is all about. But for now, I am trying to stay out of this computer chair, which is ergonomic, but still not enjoyable. And today, I will be putting on my healing hat and spend the day with my art friend Kathy.

On this, the 301st day of the year, I want to show you some things I started last Saturday, while I still had all my body parts intact (or in their proper place). I played by painting a few pages. I got out some greens and blues, both in paint and Pearl-Ex powders. I also got out some 12 X 12 card stock and a pad of watercolor paper.

Here are the results of the green, all I managed to make before my back went out. It was a bit of a waste of time to get out all those other colors, just to have to return them to their homes, but hopefully I can revisit this technique in the not too distant future.

The large squares of card stock gave the best variation in shading, as did a few pages from a dictionary I keep close by for when I have more medium left than I need. I could see the watercolor paper (the 9 X 12 piece in the back) was not giving me the look I was going for, so I stopped after one sheet.

I totally spaced off the fact I left the white sheet and cheesecloth from Tuesday night's dyeing session (see previous post) in my basement. When I made my way there today, I brought these up, gave them a quick rinse and, instead of hanging them on my clothesline, which would have involved reaching above my head to hang wet fabric, I simply hung them over the rails on my front porch, which involved little bending or reaching. At the same time, I remembered the rusting pieces I had started last week. You can barely see the rust in these. I was shocked, since the last time I rusted fabric, I got awesome results in a single day. I guess the extreme heat really was the catalyst for good rust transfers. Remember, when rusting fabric, to wear gloves when handling it and rusty metal, and rinse the fabric well in baking soda and water.

I found David Hockney's web site during an internet search. Imagine my surprise when I entered his site and the first photo to appear, Pearblossom Highway, was one I had seen at the J. Paul Getty Museum during a trip to the Los Angeles (California in the US) area. Of course, when I saw it there, I had no idea who he was, or that he lived in England, or that he had also lived from 1963 to 2005 in the US. It is a stunning piece, made up of hundreds of smaller photos about the size of postcards. It is part of his "photographic collages" collection. I even found a large photo of it here. Once you see this piece on a large scale, you will never forget it. I'm sure that is true of the rest of Hockney's art. Please check out David Hockney's other art at his web site, too. You really will not be disappointed.