Devil In The Details
I'll begin with a Normaphoto taken last week. Somehow it captured my theological posture toward existence. It shows how I look from behind where horns hold my halo up. Hopefully it confuses demonic attackers who strike from the rear, or avenging angels above. A personal detail.
I don't begrudge this confusing feature. I accept surreality, and yes reality , even though I don't always approve of it. A detail. Let us consider another detail: paper towels and the 20th century:
Caption: He's one of the few physicists who has
conceptualized Black-hole Theory:
I drew this on a paper towel many years ago --during my 1/2-hour lunch break at someplace I worked, possibly in the early 1970s. It may easily be the last surviving paper towel of the 20th century. I never made a fair copy of this doodle to submit to a periodical, as I sometimes did. It is just a detail.
Then there's the big detail of the California sky. It has been brown again, very brown. It turns brown every summer and every fall brings out a tremendous amount of painters and scaffolding. Here is a photo over the Vineyard:
It usually consumes 8 or 9 months for crews to get the sky blue again, but this summer's been bad. Could take 2 or 3 coats. So our taxes go up. Small price to be penniless under blue sky.
Point is, Brain sometimes yields a pleasant, fun memory or constructive fantasy, even in these hard times. It's Brain's way of saying, "Just details. We got this." Don't forget to thank your Brain when that happens.
The smoke has moved east and now our skies are grey. That is a much easier color to paint over.
ReplyDeleteSaint Geo, what are you doing outside? Get you butt and halo inside where the air is better.
Dear Arleen, I'm staying inside today. We have a team of arborists here today and all morning they've made a huge racket out there. They're cutting down eucalyptus trees, which people have long-planted here to get shade for new crops. But they're awful. They keep growing. Let them alone a year or two and they go 200 feet up and fall apart. This time I paid for it instead of doing it my old self.
DeleteI love the idea that painters renew the blue sky every year.
ReplyDeleteDear Emma, it's a dangerous and time-consuming job. Some leave for easier work because they had no idea how HUGE the sky is. Others consider it a calling, a career.
DeletePaper towel art is very unrated in my opinion. That is a great detailed drawing.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea the skies back home in Bucks County, but did indeed hear the smoke has reached east. So far in the Pocono's it's been sunny skies.
Thanks, dear Maddie, I've always saved my sanity with doodles, and always loved the porous, pliant surface of pulp-paper towels --this from a time when I was selling high-grade sketch paper at an art supply store but couldn't afford what I sold. Paper towels? Better, cheaper. Very glad the beautiful Poconos have been spared the smoke of our highly populated coastal cinder.
DeleteA sad detail: I read yesterday that smoke from the California fires had reached Europe. Hard to believe until I remembered that I read it on the Internet so it has to be true.
ReplyDeleteDear Bruce, Sad indeed. Obviously Europeans have been raking their forests thoroughly and I haven't raked ours ever. Also we left the dangers of offshore firenadoes and explosive gender-reveal parties out of our calculations. I'm staying in, trying to stay safe. You too! Deal?
DeletePretty much though I shall take SWMBO to get some blood work, then a pleasant drive around the countryside before a take-out lunch from a burger joint. And then back into isolation.
Delete....."where horns hold my halo up"...
ReplyDeleteI love that sentiment and can relate to it. Unfortunately my horns pierced my halo long ago.
I also like your wonderful paper towel doodle, which is not only entertaining - but also confirms the fact that paper towels were much more resilient decades ago (much like myself).
Dear Jon, Thanks! I commiserate with halo problems but they really don't signify. I only keep mine because it distracts bullies from my big bushy tail.
DeletePaper towels had lots of uses in memos and graphics, and we could dry our hands with them. Dates us, eh?
Okay, so I'll thank MY brain for keeping me kinda sane(ish) these days, but I'll also thank YOUR brain for enabling you to appreciate the sunny side of the street, even if the sun does look kinda weird out your way right now. (The photos I've seen look downright apocalyptic.) Embrace the duality of your horn-supported halo (Love it!) and keep on keeping on. The notion of painters making the sky blue again is delightful. Just like your post. Take care, dude, and give your sweet dudette a big hug... just because you can.
ReplyDeleteHave a super weekend. (Inside!)
Dear Susan, My brain thanks you kindly, and genuinely. There have been times over this past decade when your posts, their gentle but powerful humor, have helped this brain out. I'm grateful. Yes, I did give Norma a hug and "...just because (I) can..." thought of you too.
DeleteWhat a wonderful image of painters in the sky and if only it were that simple. Here in NH, our early morning skies have been very gray in recent days. Maybe those painters will get here one year? And, that was quite a detailed doodle to be drawn on a paper towel. Like Jon commented, they must have been made back then, like most things. Hope you and Norma are keeping safe while the sky is being redone. Too bad about the eucalyptus trees becoming unmangeable.
ReplyDeleteDear Beatrice, I too miss blue skies. Word is the painters are adding a night crew, so we may wake to fair skies soon. I suspect eucalyptus trees have invaded Earth from another planet, but, after conquest, don't know what to do with it. I now doodle on junkmail envelopes but they are no good for washing up. Suggestions welcome!
DeleteMore delicious images and laughs, Geo! Thank you! The horns are so funny, suiting your devilish humor. My sisters in Nova Scotia told me the west coast smoke reached them. Likely Hurricane Teddy will blow it all away. It's bearing down on Halifax as a category one. Take care, my friend!
ReplyDeleteYou take care too, Blue. Also best wishes to Nova Scotia sisters. Stay safe ALL. Hurricane will indeed blow California smoke away (although we haven't even exhaled yet), but at such cost to safety and property! Let's all take care together, dear Louise.
DeleteFeeling terribly and totally muzzled these days ... working hard on the unit mask, shield, gown, gloves ... sweating ++ ... soon my compassion will be fizzling down to ... making money ... c.
ReplyDeleteDear Cat, Your kindness can certainly be tested, but never overthrown and definitely not fizzled. As a recipient of your compassion, if only by written word, I can attest to its infizziablity.
DeleteA well balanced halo - mine will not sit still. That is a fine paper towel doodle, an art that may be lost now. Nothing here in the UK is currently on fire that I'm aware of, so we are lucky for that. (I had better perform a finger crossing ritual now lest I have caused a jinx.)
ReplyDeleteThank you, dear Lisa. I'm glad to learn UK is intact. Not so, our western seaboard. Late at night, when it's very quiet, one can hear the roar of saws and trenchers in the high Sierras. US is trying to cut my State adrift. Installation of a steering wheel on the Golden Gate Bridge and fuel-lines from Bakersfield to Baja --well, when we feel the mighty southern engines rumble, California will be underway. May visit UK if we can chart our way round Cape Horn (too broad for Panama Canal). We will trade beads and trinkets for good BBC comedies. No jinxes so far detected.
Delete