No Grey Area--Either you are, or you aren't!

Today, instead of returning to my job after a busy 4-day holiday, I ended up taking my mother to urgent care, who sent her to the emergency room. Fortunately, it was not a life-threatening situation, but one that was causing her considerable pain, most likely due to a huge arthritic flare up in her fingers. After 6 hours consisting of a few tests and a lot of waiting, we were no further ahead. They didn't know what it is, nor what she can do about it.   *sigh*

Meanwhile, this morning before getting out of bed, I listened to a story on NPR about the link between lack of sleep and obesity. Which would explain why my waistline has completely disappeared behind an exploding wall of fat over the past 5 months. I thought it was just old age creeping up on me. But, I hope I can mostly reverse this with adequate sleep and more exercise. The threat to my 3SIXTY5 project is problematic; I will try to repair my compromised health and continue with my collage-almost-every-day exercise. Can I simplify my work enough to manage it? Well, my self-imposed art challenge has become something of a life and death matter. And my goth-themed art continues...

The Constant Gardener_090310

Lost Lenore

One of those "good" ideas that didn't work out that well. At least Lenore is grimly beautiful. She is another of the elements from my Itkupilli purchase.

3SIXTY5 for Monday, July 12: Alphabet Balloon

 

This was a really simple concept that proved to be a bear to execute. A primitive hot air balloon sailing over a medieval town, sprinkling gothic blackletter on the scene below. A funny anachronism, a calligraphic opportunity, what could possibly go wrong?  Bad choice of background, for starters. My harlequin diamonds let me down. My first choice was marbled paper but those were proving difficult too. Then I forgot that even a little fantasy scene like this should have aerial perspective to bring it off. So I had to scrape out some lettering to knock it back into the distance--where it conflicted even more with those humongous diamonds! *sigh*/**smacks forehead**  A different balloon image would be a good idea too. (This one looks like one of those bulbs you use to clean a rapidograph. Am I dating myself again?) Also, more distance between the town and the balloon would make the middle less congested. Back to the drawing board. Don't hold this against me--I'm doing it to learn!  This is another designI hope to revisit next year, when I have time to play.

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." --Scott Adams

Afterthought on my yesterday's post:  I was so happy when I thought up a winged elephant! Then, this morning--I remembered Dumbo. Was he subliminally flapping around in my subconscious? Anyway, my daughter said Dumbo has nothing on my Elebird, so I'll be content.