Recyclabilia

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My boyfriend and I recycle paper all the time. It can certainly save one a few shillings--on note paper and art paper. Simply save all that trash mail that is blank on one side. You can even cut up food packets and use the inside as card for writing on. (I admire coconut milk canning companies who print useful recipes on the reverse side of the label.) Nice collages can be made out of cut up colourful food packets and pamphlets and things; newspaper too. All you need are pieces of coloured paper. Try ripping up some petal shapes out of coloured papers. Make a few stems and leaves, too. Then paste them into attractive arrangements that please and suit you. You might find, at some point, that a piece of torn paper is no longer just paper, but the real and actual petal of a flower...

Purple Haze

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I now enjoy a sort of art whereby I recline back, with a sketch block on my knees, and I close my eyes for 10 minutes or so, continually drawing what I see in the purple haze on the back of my eyelids, all the while, all over the same page. Lots of fun drawing things from the Other World...

When I close my eyes, and go to Fairyland, I see that fairies wear beautiful, exquisite jewelry. They have gorgeous embroidery. Fabulous costumes, made of wonderful materials; and their wings are irridescent and fantastic!! Almost too beautiful to describe!!!!

Cat Chewed Thru Laptop Power Cable

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Our cat recently chewed through the laptop cable. He'd been sleeping peacefully, on the bed beside me, but became excited and playful when the cable moved. My boyfriend was very cross about it all, and managed to connect the wires together again. The join's been permanently sealed in a blob of silastic, that took 24 hours to dry, so I couldn't use laptop until it had all set firmly again. I've had to take a pledge to not let Kitty get at the cable again. I'm always vigilant now, and won't put up with any trouble!!!!!!

Hey! Click here to donate food to a hungry cat, for free, at The Animal Rescue Site.

I think, therefore I blog.

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I think, therefore I blog.

I've not ever bought one of those fancy ''artist's diaries'' from the newsagent. But I have used botany books in a similar way--doing daily entries of both texts and images. Science project books, with blank pages could, too, be filled with pix 'n texts. Donald Friend's ''visual'' diaries are interesting, inspiring and fun. Daily journal with pictures. Still, I've been mindmapping for years and years, now, in the margin spaces of my many textbooks. Lots of cartoons and diagrams, all coloured in with various colours of hilite pen or biros. Pictures and clippings pasted or taped in, too. My many textbooks have become sort-of visual diaries/artist's diaries. Cheap digital cameras, too, allow everyone to photo-blog; and software, such as Audacity, means anyone can knock together an audio-blog; and YouTube can be used for video blogging. There's no excuse, now, not to blog in all and any directions, using any media, and in any combination. Come to think of it, I've really, too, been a sort of email visual diarist, for over a decade, now, creating colourful illustrated emails with coloured texts and wallpaper, animated images and background music. A fun way to share with relatives and friends.

Sausage Dog

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This sausage dog was fun to create in my computer's paintbox. I should try animating it. There are lots of freebie GIF-animators available online, but, of course, the super de luxe models you have to pay for. Still, you can do a lot with the free ones.

Speaking of sausages, I had vegetarian sausage sandwiches for my supper, tonight. They are tasty. I'm not one of these vegetarians who sits around, all the time, craving flesh, but I do enjoy analogue ''meats'' as vegetarian convenience foods. (They aren't exactly cheap, actually, either!!) I suppose they are a bit reminiscent of meat.

As a vegetarian of nearly thirty years, eating tasty and filling vegetarian fare, I don't think about eating meat, at all. Vegetarianism doesn't seem to have done me any harm, and I hope I've saved animals a lot of suffering. I cannot understand ''vegetarians'' who eat fish, since I did never understand that a fish--or a prawn--was a vegetable. I think it is important for vegetarians to have some seaweed in the diet, though, as it does keep fingernails nice and strong.

Stained Glass

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These images of stained glass windows were created by my boyfriend, some years ago, when we were making up our minds what shapes and colours we wanted for our house windows. It was a lot of fun swapping colours around with a 'puter mouse.

I often take a nice black and white scanned drawing I might like, a picture of a fairy, for example, and, treating it like a stained glass window, simply fill in all the shapes with whatever colours I may prefer. It's great to creatively play with colour and shapes, and does switch on the ''right brain''. Of course, there are many online kids' colouring book websites that allow you to colour in images, this way, onscreen. Just type ''free kids colouring book'' into your favourite search engine.

Tutti Frutti

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Look what I have made for you! Some nice pineapple and watermelon.

I read a dreadfully sickly-sounding dessert recipe, recently. It comprised of a packet of coloured marshmallows, a can of pineapple pieces--or was it crushed pineapple?--and a carton of sour cream. All mixed together. I confess I've never tried it, so I shouldn't be too judgemental. That can kill creativity, and is why Edison wouldn't employ people who put salt and pepper in their soup without taste-testing it first. We gotta remain curious and creative, for our whole lives!!! What a pity creativity and curiosity get choked out of kids!

No Mirrors for Me

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Some artists always draw from the mirror, and it would seem to become a permanent habit with them. No matter who they draw, what the gender, the face always looks, pretty much, their own. I suppose it is all just the same formula they regurgitate, each time, over and over again, as a matter of habit-energy. This is not to say that such art does not have value, but it's just not what I want to do. Jean Cocteau, for example, used often to be drawing his own face, and the male figures he draws all look pretty much alike, but his work has its own charm. Some commercial artists tend to draw every human face the same, and one suspects they don't know how to do otherwise. I can't think of anything more boring than working from the mirror, all the time, when there are so many other interesting things and people to draw. I shouldn't like, either, to project my own likeness onto a portrait that's supposed to be of another person.

I notice, in the cartoon scribbles, above, that I used pretty much the same symbols for nose and ears. Who are these people I have drawn? Do you know them?

The Secret Garden

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Tiny Book Review: The Secret Garden

by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Many editions, 224 PP, 1909.

This is most definitely not an ordinary children's book, but a wonderful story with a powerful healing message that has been overlooked by many.

It is about Mary Lennox, a neglected, sickly and sour-faced little girl, orphaned in India, and sent to stay with her uncle, a Mr Archibald Craven, at Misselthwaite Manor, in Yorkshire.

Left to her own pursuits, Mary finds a mysterious abandoned garden, and secretly begins to nurture it.

While exploring the giant manor-house, she also discovers that she has an unhappy, spoilt and invalid cousin, Colin Craven.

With the complicity of a wonderful wild moor boy, Dickon Sowerby, and his animals, Mary and Colin begin to come to life and health, with the secret garden as the catalyst.

The children use exercises, diet, mantras, positive thinking/autosuggestion, fresh air, friendship, Nature (as manifest in the secret garden) and Love to bring about marvellous changes in their own health and personalities.

Whilst this book was written a century ago, now, its healing message is still as relevant today as it ever was.

The secret garden is a state of mind which all, without exception, can cultivate and nurture.

***********************

Later...

Like all classics, The Secret Garden gets made, again and again, as films. I note that the Elsa Lanchester version, made in the early Fifties, omitted the Doxology. As if tampering with the plot wasn't bad enough, they had to leave Doxology out! The Maggie Smith version of recent decades, too, left out Doxology. The only version I've yet seen with Doxology included, and which was true to the book, was the 1975 BBC TV children's series--recently issued as a DVD. There was, also, about fifteen years ago, an excellent BBC Radio drama available as audio cassette. It starred Beryl Reid, and was beautifully done; true to story; and Doxology was sung nicely--by the children and Ben Weatherstaff.

Homoerotic Bodhisattva

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Look at these two clippings. One is the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara from Sri Lanka, a late Anuradhapura period c. 9th century gilt bronze, height 49.8 cm from the National Museum, Colombo. I found the small picture in a Buddhist books catalogue, and recognised, immediately, the sculptor as gay. A friend remarked that the model, too, was gay. (But of course!) Observe the Bodisattva's ornate crown, and his hand in what some would call a ''mudra'', but what I would call ''making the magic''. Notice the rather sensual and receptive position of the Bodhisattva's legs, with the boy's energy field impressed, ambiguously, as folds in his loincloth. He is very pretty and has a serene gaze.

The second clipping is pretty Mathew Little, Mr Gay Queensland, some years back. This pic was an advert clipped from a Campaign Australia gay magazine, and ran in many issues back in the Nineties. Look at the almost identical attitude in the two pictures. Describe (aloud) what is similar, and what is different.

This Ain't Blue Poles!

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This ain't Blue Poles. Nor is it worth a million. But it is a lot of fun. Lots of free expression. Exercise of creativity and imagination. Gives the ''right brain'' a good workout.

I should do fingerpainting, to ''release my inner child'' as they say. Still, fingerpainting can be messy and takes time and energy to set up and clean up. Using the computer paintbox doesn't entail a cleanup. Art lessons at school were always spoiled by a mad (and messy, wet ) stampede to clean up and put the brushes and water jars away before the period ended. The frenetic haste took the zen of art away. Sticky desks afterwards, too, were unpleasant.

Another unsloppy way to do art is to simply go to your newsagent and buy various different coloured contact papers. Then cut them into pieces of whatever shapes you would like, and then peel them and create beautiful collages on sheets of coloured paper. Lots of fun.

I'm not averse to wet and sloppy art, but it's just not convenient for me--at the moment. I don't think I could stand being an oilpainter though, with constant fumes of turpentine. I think I would prefer to work with acrylics or watercolours. I also hate breathing in chalk from pastels, and the fixative fumes can be thoroughly unpleasant. Still, some people are more allergic than others....

Since I'm complaining, I may as well tell you that, although I enjoy working with crayons, I hate the way they melt and smudge everywhere. I like the way, though, that crayons don't run out--not like felt pens do after a mere few minutes of use!!!! And if you live in a hot, dry climate, as I do, there's nothing more frustrating than opening a ''new'' packet of felts--only to discover that they are bone dry. Grrrrrr! Better to check 'em out before you leave the store!!!

Aquarium

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Kids in far flung country towns, who rarely saw the sea, used to always love to look in the aquarium at the local fish and chip shop--and wonder. Do they still have those aquariums, nowadays?

I like flashes of light from neon tetras as they change direction. Lemon tetras are cute. Guppies are nice--provided their tails have not been all ruined by other fish!

Gavin Scobie had a couple of goldfish, long decades ago. One died, and, eventually, he gave the other away. Speaking of fish, Gavin likes smoked Scotch haddock with white sauce. The way his mother makes it--delicious.

Freedom of Expression

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Well, yeah! You gotta express yourself. I gotta express myself. And wasn't it Mama Cass who sang, ''You gotta make your own kind of music, sing your own special song, make your own kind of music, even if nobody else sings along...''?

And didn't someone say, ''The forest would be a very quiet place if only the best birds sang''?

Farmyard Rooster

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This rooster is from my imagination. Scribbled out awkwardly with a computer mouse.

I like his red comb. Perhaps his name is Chanticleer?

Poultry reminds me how I make a very quick omelet in the microwave:

RECIPE

Toss half a cup of frozen sweet corn in a pyrex bowl. Microwave it under cling wrap for 3 minutes on ''high''. Peel off the wrap and stir in a few teaspoons of capers. Add a teaspoon of garlic granules. Add a teaspoon of dried parsley flakes. Add crushed black pepper to taste. Rip in 2 sheets of nori seaweed paper. Stir well.

Take 2 large eggs and crack 'em into a mug. Stir well with a fork. Add a dash of milk. Stir well. Pour egg mixture into veg bowl, and stir well, moistening nori paper with the milk/egg mixture as you go.

Microwave (unwrapped) bowl of omelet mixture in 3 to 4 one-minute bursts on ''high''--depending on your microwave. Stirring the mixture before each blast of heat. Don't overcook, or you'll have a rubber frisbee instead!!

Serve omelet/scrambled eggs on buttered toast. Celery salt is nice for seasoning.

Eating seaweed regularly is a good idea for vegetarians, as it promotes strong fingernails.

Bon appétit !

Dinner Plates

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This computer art is fun. Your feelings can be expressed in colours and shapes. To think some people have been paid, as artists, for their happy and free self-expression. I recall someone got a chimpanzee to do some artwork, and passed it off as high-falutin' ''abstract art'', highly praised by the art experts.

This sort of art could be done on a canvas, or board, using dinner plates as templates. The circles and ovals could then be colourised with oils or acrylics--or whatever you wished to fill them in with. It's lots of fun, and a good exercise in playing with shapes and colours. You can do it, too. It's quite decorative art, and the sort of colourful thing you often see in the background of brochures for furniture stores or art union prize homes.

Reigniting Creativity

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Well, creativity is important. If it was destroyed, in childhood, one has no choice but to reignite it again. My creativity was destroyed, but I've succeeded in regniting it; and it is such fun doing so.

It's never too late to have a happy childhood!!!!!!!!

Curtain Material

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This floral print would make a rather nice curtain material. It looks a bit light and breezy, too.

Maybe I was a textile designer in another life?

Cats and Clumsy Mouse

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The jerky line of my clumsy mouse makes these cats look even more interesting than they might look otherwise.

I like cats. Hmm! I should leave some money to the cat protection society, when I die!!!!

Blazes of Colour

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It's interesting how every colour seems to have an emotion connected with it. Shapes and lines, too, stir emotions within one. Every sound has an emotional link. Music can certainly arouse powerful emotions. So can touch. All the senses would appear to involve neurological links to emotions. I think the The Five Skandhas psychology, in Buddhism, says as much....

Save Money

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Surely it's a very good money-saving idea to do art in one's computer paintbox, and on virtual paper? There is no expenditure on paints and paper; and no mess to clean up afterwards, either. Still, there's a limit, with eye-strain, to how much time one can spend gazing at a glowing screen....

Beachtowel

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I shouldn't mind a beachtowel with this motif on it. The colours and shapes are decorative enough for me.

Abstract

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Well, this could be called ''abstract art'', I suppose. I call it a lot of fun, and effortlessness and pleasure....

Mazes of My Mind

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It's fun doing these drawings. They do look a bit like mazes and, yeah, I guess they do come out of the mazes of my mind....

Muscari Blue

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I'm always havin' fun in my computer paintpot. (It's where I express my genius!!!)