Think about this....

"Athletes, musicians, witters, gardeners and lovers all attest to the experience the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls 'flow'--the times when our work or play so absorbs and attunes our energies that we lose track of time. For a little while time seems to both expand and contract, becoming spacious rather than constricting, making room for our creativity and activity, and we lose the self-consciousness that wraps itself around most of our waking hours, even as we become most fully awake and alert to the possibilities of what lies in front of us.

In this world, this life, 'flow' comes to an end. The canvas is dry, the fugue is complete, the band plays the tag one more time and then resolves on the final chord. And, too, the book is finished, the service is over, the lights go up in the darkened theatre and we emerge blinking into the bright lights of the 'real world.' But what if the timeless, creative world we had glimpsed is really the real world -- and it is precisely its reality that gave it such power to captivate us for a while? What if our ultimate destiny is that moment of enjoyment and engagement we glimpse in the artist's studio?"

-Andy Crouch author of Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling

When you screw up.

Step one. Say your sorry. Even if what you did was totally unintentional. Those are usually a bit easier to get over. But still it takes some time for the victim (s) to get over it.

Step two. Try and help where you can. Sometimes you just have to keep your mouth shut and take your punishment.

Step three. Say your sorry, again.

Step four. Make sure you take the ball point pen out of your pocket before your wife does a huge load of laundry. Especially after a busy weekend.

Stupid pen.

Complete

Here they are. Early On #1 and Early On # 2. I am pleased with how they turned out although I need to take some better photos that include the frames. Very graphic and print like in style. I suppose you could say they are a painterly print style of art. Or something like that. I displayed these two works last night at our co-op's group exhibit. Several people wondered if these were in fact screen printed or a combination of print and painting. Nope, just school grade tempera. The cheap stuff from Blick Art Supply. So matte and flat that they look as if they were printed.

I suppose that is one of the many things I like about tempera paint. My wife and I have talked about the fact that I really need to either switch to matte acrylics or at the least start adding matte medium to my paint to make it more durable. As most of you know tempera is a water based paint and even when completely dry can still be re hydrated and manipulated.

So basically if it gets wet, changes will occur. The medium would help eliminate this problem. Just have not purchased any yet. But I really need to. I'm cheap. Heck, I only paid twenty bucks for my prescription eyeglasses. And yes, they lenses were made with my prescription.

When talking about my paintings with a couple other artists at the show I mentioned that I love the feeling of painting with tempera on cardboard. There is this feeling of the brush against the cardboard that is difficult to describe. The brush sort of glides over the surface and at the same time is making this faint sound as the paint is pulled across. Then it starts to run down the surface. Making its own decisions as it flows. I love that feeling and that sound. One of my favorite things to do is take a brush and load it up with some paint, stick it to the cardboard and pull it horizontally across the surface. Man I love to do that. How that can balance me out I have no idea. I could easily do that for hours upon hours. And some day I will.

Any who, let me know what you think. My brother Jeff says the spiral slide reminds him of Fruity Pebbles. Yes, the cereal. There is a story here, but that will have to wait for another time.