Gathering up the Odds and Ends
1. As I mentioned recently, I have become one of these.
Confessions of a Late-Blooming Gardener "I visit every nursery around, returning home with the back seat laden."
2. I Wanted a Dog. I Bake Bread Instead. "Making sourdough bread is the opposite of using the internet."
3. And there's this: (I read the Kids section of the Sunday NYTimes. I know. I'm not supposed to go there. It's for the kids. However, there's a wealth of good stuff there.
There's more...and then I wanted even more.
4. ...which led me to this: (and, by the way, there IS an index for words spelled backwards, doncha know?)
"Dictionaries are often seen as argument-settling arbiters of truth. But their job, Ms. Stamper notes, isn’t to say what something is, but to objectively and comprehensively catalog the many different ways words are used by real people.
Ms. Stamper has no patience for self-styled purists who quail at “irregardless” — an actual word, she notes. (She is O.K. with ending sentences with prepositions as well as — brace yourself — split infinitives.)"
5. If you haven't checked out this Daily Amazing posted a week or so ago, I hope you will check it out. (I actually thought I had put it in a post, but have discovered that I didn't.) It's a wonderful testimony to the effort - this time in Liverpool, England - to bring arts to school children who, because of cuts to arts education, cannot experience a rich and full arts curriculum.
6. This month, I inaugurated a version of Ladies Drawing Night with the friends in our neighborhood. I'm always looking for a chance to sit down and make art with others in an informal setting, so, although for these first gatherings, I have taken on the role of showing others tools and techniques, one day soon perhaps we can gather together with all of us at play. With a pretty full studio of art toys, I am happy to share it all and hope the notion of just playing, perhaps sticking to some category, will catch on. It's a group that loves to have fun, so I am optimistic. For these three summer gatherings, we're creating Gelli Plate prints, making imaginary animals while playing with a range of mark-making tools, and experimenting with doodles, especially botanically.
Gelli plate day:
My hard work was the setting up, so for awhile I watched others play.
Imaginary Animals Night:
(These are my efforts from the night. I may have to needle others to share theirs.) A lot of what I do myself and shared were from Carla Sonheim's brain via her classes and books. As I have mentioned before, I am often seen taking pictures of cement and old walls.
I was happy with them all, but i think I like that Sidewalk Cracker the most.
And, finally, let me wish Franklin a happy 50th birthday. There's a nice story in this NPR piece.
GOOD-BYE JUL-Y!
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