A July Day

The canvas above shows photographs of my very own ancestors; it was done for Project Eight in a variety of mixed media techniques. It's wonderful to have photographs of your ancestors to dream over, don't you think? To see your features in their features and to wonder over how nature uses the same genes over and over, just like artists do to recombine and create anew. I see my mother in me now as I get older and my father's stern English features too. My parents were both intelligent though without advanced education and they were ethical and conscientious in all they did. I got that from them and it is the best part of me. I wish I could thank them now. I was a bratty kid, it's all easier to see from this vantage point.

Well, enough about me, let's look at my journals now - ha ha. Blah blah blah goes my overheated brain. That's all you need to be an artist. A broken thermostat.

My daughter once described me as monomaniacal. Funny how something like that stays with you. I do not dispute it. How can I when I look at these pages crammed full of what falls effortlessly out of my head in addition to all the think think thinking I do. Aaaargh.

Here I am just being neat and tidy. I can do that too. In my busy business way. Oh, I've been working. Prepping kits for my upcoming classes, making lists, schedules, filling orders. And the emails! Aye with the emails.

Then at some point to clear my head I walk outside for a mental health break and pluck a few ripe strawberries and my world slows down and my brain shuts up and bliss descends as the sweet nectar takes me back to my purely animal nature. Five senses. I have to remember to use all of my senses, to be a happy animal, as well as living in my big, monomaniacal brain.