The Elaine Report: Feb 6, 2013

From Richard III to Beutel-Ei Nr. 1 in 8 steps.

• Reconstructing Richard III's Face So glad they did this! The portraits existent are so flat and characterless. There's a good description of digital facial construction and its limitations.
• Indian women robbed of their uteruses by money grubbing doctors ... and the government does nothing. Many women now convinced they cannot recover from illness without a hysterectomy. 
• New York city negotiating with Air BnB to keep visitors off the street. I was an Air BnB host for about a year. I met some intriguing, kind travelers who appreciated my local expertise. And helped pay my bills.
• Turns out being miles underground is the best way to study dark matter and get real peace and quiet.
• Microscopic nutrients from the Sahara rain on the Amazon. We are all one ecosystem, ya'll! Not a lot of other facts or explanations in this brief article with a Nikon-sponsored video of lovely shots of the Sahara.
• 21 Things You Should Never Buy at a Garage Sale. Full of ooky bugs and germs! Would have been better to tell us what we should buy.
• Internet to be replaced by esoteric time stream. Note the napkin sketch at the end of the article. Doesn't really help. Tumbled it.
• Technology aging backwards? I don't get it. Read about three paragraphs and became overcome by dark matter.
• Seamless beautiful backpack made of wool. The artist named it an Egg Bag. It is sort of egg shaped. Looks more like a Lady Bug to me. Pinned it.

Spirit Boat - 1

This is the beginning of a new 365 Make Something project (aka Morning Pages aka daily creative. Take your pick.) The new theme is Spirit Boat, taken from the old Viking idea of the spirits of the dead heading out on boats. Since the Vikings were all about the sea, most of their analogies involved sea-going vessels in one way or another.

I first become entranced with spirit boats in 1992 while researching artistic concepts for a typography class. I saw a photo of a Viking spirit boat sculpture while leafing through a magazine. There were little primitive figures in the boat to show the dead heading out to the spirit world. I was stunned by the concept of activating and manipulating the spiritual realm through the creation of a physical object. Don't ask me why the Egyptians didn't do this for me. They just didn't.

Seeing the boat sculpture, led me to look at just about any container as a mode for transporting spirit. The designed page (and art) had an intention that could be described as a carrier, or boat, and message expressed through color and form. I played around with what I remembered of plastic space seeing that as the expressive form of spirit.

While meditating today, I focused on the spiritual in my work, which has always been there in one way or another. Indeed, my process is based on inspiration which comes from the moment. To explore spiritual aspects more directly, I will be making at least one spirit boat each day. And I mean boat in the most abstract sense as a carrier or container for spirit(s).

Those of you interested in Viking ships, there's a museum in Denmark where you can learn to make and sail Viking ships.

Sketch from my notebook - 11/1992

Sky 184 - tribute

365: Sky 41 - tropical

Cancun, April 2007

Current Fads
Listening. Genius iMix based on Beau Soir; chirping birds
Watching. Four Weddings and A Funeral (1993)
Activity. following the Royal Wedding
Gadget. hand trowel
News Source. the news feeds in Safari
Reading. Reflections - Ajahn Chah; A Medieval Storybook - Morris Bishop; The Wisdom of No Escape - Pema Chodron
Writing. just finished a screenplay draft

365: Sky 5 - Modified Desert

Memory of the desert

The Bryce preset desert sky is too dark and looks more like a sand storm than a desert sky. As I remember the skies from Saudi Arabia, they are bright blue and rarely have clouds. So, I made the sky bluer and increased the frequency of the clouds. It still looks a bit like a sand storm.

0104 - Art and Words

I'm attempting to make something every day for 365 days. What I'll be making is a composition of words and art from my "dailies" archive. Many years ago I read The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. Ever since then I write or make art or both for my morning pages. I started with three little pages per day (small pages were easier to fill up), then graduated to big pages and then moved to the computer where I type or create for 10-20 minutes every morning. Sometimes I do this religiously every day, and sometimes (like now) I skip it for weeks at a time. In the hope that I will return to this energizing practice, I am starting a Make Something 365 project. Perhaps other good stuff (besides blog posts) will come from it.

Again, the rules: pull one text fragment and one art work or photo created on the day (i.e. today January 4) from my archive of "dailies" and post them here.

dreamed that Randy died (010410)

Sunrise, January 4, 2009

without 4:02 AM

I love playing in your fields
They are so bright and yellow
I especially like it when you aren't there
Then I can breathe without recrimination or guilt
Without the guilt of missed opportunities
Without telling myself what a fool I was
So, thank you for the fallow fields
Please surprise me at play
I dearly love to see you
.  .   .    .    .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .. ..   . . . .
Current Fads
Listening. Whatever Gets You Thru the Night, John Lennon
Watching. Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)
Activity. getting rid of stuff
Gadget. iPhone 3GS
News Source. the news feeds in Safari
Reading. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkein
Writing. a novel

maudlin

Current Fads
Listening. The Velvet Underground and Nico and Most of the Time, Bob Dylan; that echo in my head
Watching. High Fidelity (2000)
Activity. trimming the hedge
Gadget. iMic
News Source. the news feeds in Safari
Reading. Refuse to Choose - Barbara Sher; The Craft - Dorothy Morrison; Trail of the Dragon - Susan Kelly
Writing. nothing and feeling very guilty about it, although I did get this idea for a really good story and jotted down a quick couple of notes
Song of the Day: Most of the Time, Bob Dylan

like air

I would like to be the air

that inhabits you for a moment

only. I would like to be that unnoticed

& that necessary.

-Margaret Atwood (from "Variations on the Word Sleep")


wherever you are
whoever you are