I listened to Cory Booker for a short while before my doctor’s appointment and then for a good long while later, stitching in the afternoon sun. I’m noticing how much better I feel. I’m noticing how much it matters for people in power to speak up.
Got quite a few “finishers” in the works. Antidotes to despair I suppose. Medicine against feeling powerless. One stitch at a time.
Trimming, binding, signing, and adding dowel sleeves. It always takes longer than I think.
Here are examples (below) from four recent series of digital collages. Almost all incorporate paper collage or photos of my own. If I weren’t feeling tongue-tied by national events I might have something to say about them but they can speak for themselves I guess.
are the catalpa blooms early this year?So many hydrangeas here have died. Not this one!Lady’s mantle, predictably lovely after rain A couple of quiet days. I can hardly believe it!We had a picnic at the lake yesterday The renovations are greatThe funny thing about this is I was already planning to make lasagna!After a pause in Paris Collage, I’m back2 PCC prompts combined & my photo of LAThis and the first collage feature the same moon rubber stampShe’s back! From paper doll collage seriesClose up“Rusty” filter in Diana photo appThat cotton magazine ad that I so loveSometimes accidents are the bestPCC prompt
Happy Father’s Day!
Publishing (boring) update. SO MUCH OF THIS PART IS BORING. Ken is helping me figure out the self publishing platform, D2D. I made an account with them and supplied tax info. This will be in conjunction with Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). In advance of using D2D’s formatting feature, Ken was able to resize the margins and get the book under 500 pages. This is a good thing! I think I’ve landed on a cover with a designer from Connecticut (to be revealed before summer’s end!) AND
AND I may (finally) have written a decent blurb. Bit by bit! Now to try (for the third time) to figure out WordPress’s newsletter feature. Conventional wisdom is that it’s the most important marketing tool for writers, but? Really? Who wants another fucking thing showing up in their email box? I for one am getting six daily political newsletters.
Probably more important to rework my landing page here.
Established writers have other people write their blurbs
Dull light this morning but no percussive hammering. I think it’s over.
Also over: the first (and most invasive) step in getting an implant for my front right tooth. The one with a history.
Grievance: a doctor who didn’t answer my email about anxiety meds until it was too late to do anything about it.
Humor: my brother disagreeing with her assessment that diazepam prescribed eleven years ago probably wouldn’t work. “Unless it’s turned to fungus,” he said, “it’s fine.”
It was fine. In fact it was so fine that I was relieved when K said he’d walk over with me. I felt that woozy.
Tonight I’m eating ice cream. I can be a bit of a baby.
Yesterday I wrote a scene where a character spins and spins and spins. Sufis were mentioned. Imagine my surprise as I noodled around with this week’s Paris Collage Collective visual prompt in bed later to see the Sufis emerge (from an old SoulCollage card). I remixed extensively to make them more visible (along the lower edge).
I didn’t seen them at first. With many of the dianaphoto app filters they disappeared. I love to be surprised like this.
A far cry from where I started.
He’s the prompt
The Christ-like figure is from a photo taken by Andrew J. Whitaker, a photographer for the Charleston paper The Post and Courier. He took it during the summer of George Floyd protests — George Floyd who recently would’ve turned 50.
@andrewjwhitaker on Instagram, photo itself
Other surprises from last night.
Incorporating Sketchbook Project PageIncorporating photo of Hearts for Charleston QuiltSome earlier Sufi collages
I’ve lost half an inch — which means the next time I lose half an inch, I’ll be 4’11” and a half. I know it’s indicative of spine deterioration, aging, blah, blah, but I also find it funny. FOUR-ELEVEN and a HALF — REALLY? (I’m looking at you, Dottie!)
At my annual yesterday, my PCP managed to be efficient and personable at the same time. I got to air my concerns. She referenced reports from specialists and reviewed them for both of us. She even asked after the boys.
Are you lucky enough to have a doctor that gives you enough time?
In other news, this week’s Paris Collage Collective double image is dedicated to Tommy Tuberville who recently announced that white nationalists are Americans and not racists. He has since walked this back.
I agree with the commentator who said it was hard to tell if the man is more racist than stupid or more stupid than racist. And then there’s this:
Paris Collage Club — this week’s image
The printer is working again, so there will be paper variations this week.
I am still in California and it is still grey. At least it’s not the fire-roasted smoky grey of Boston or New York.
Sometimes in my double collage play with the Paris Collage visual prompt, the prompt gets lost. When it disappears, I don’t post to instagram, even though sometimes I like them better. Today I’ll share a bunch here.
It just occurred to me that making these double/triple/quadruple images might be my version of Hazel’s watercolors. I find her daily practice inspiring and the paintings expressive, sometimes beyond what her words say. I guess that’s one of the points of the practice.
As a writer friend announces after every read: THE END.
