Showing posts with label cycling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cycling. Show all posts

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Summer Feet + Many Summer Things = ...

To see the summer sky 
is poetry, 
though never in a book it lie
—
true poems flee—


Emily Dickinson, c.1879

My summer...


I have spent many hours 
sitting 
in this front porch turquoise chair...


sometimes sketching van Gogh in thirty minutes or less.

[marker, sharpie, oil sticks & mineral spirits, q-tips]

I gave it the title, 
Someone stole her beer so now she's even more depressed.


The sun
sneaks in.


An evening stroll down the hill.



August leaf drop.



Visitors.


Invaluable time spent.



Handstands with friends.


Summer in the city.


Riding the MAX.


Interesting compositions.


Cycling in the Columbia Gorge,
this has to be the greenest place on earth.


Bridge of the Gods.


A light summer shower = slippery cycling on the bridge.


Secret spots in the forest...



where I do quiet things...


things that soothe my temperament...



things that allow my breath to
replenish...


things like this.


Sailboat summer
breakfast.


Sailing + Dawn = a new relationship, lots to learn.


Gorge paddling on the Columbia River.


City kayaking on the Columbia River.


Ya know...
Now that I have all this listed I realized...
this is a typical summer week.

Once the rain sets in in autumn...
I will retreat indoors...
sorta.
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A donation for Vashon Allied Arts on Vashon Island, WA.

Autumn = time to get back to making art.
[but that's not quite here yet]
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Sunday, March 22, 2015

My Rococo Day...sort of

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The 18th century artistic movement...
Rococo...
[originating in Paris intending to rebel against its 
proceeding dramatic and tension-packed movement,
of the Baroque style]
depicted the frolicking and whitty compositions of opulent lifestyles.


Such as this painting by Antoine Watteau c. 1718.
titled, Embarkation for Cythera (the Berlin version)
or...
The faces of jobless, wealthy youth,
basking in the sun,
no drama,
no tension,
just passing the time.


Frolicking in the present day...
Although gainfully employed
[and youthful is a subjective term]
and by far not in the highest tax category to date...

this is the face of me...

[at 0.0 miles and counting]


basking in the sun
no drama
no tension
passing the time
just like those 
swanky, frisky Rococos
engaged in passionate tryst...


except I'm riding a shiny new bike...
on the...




Not lounging...
yet.


However...
I did have a quick picnic at a local waterfall.


On my return route home...
after many steep, long, laborious hills
at about mile 19...


this is the face of me...

not so joyous...

not so frolic-like.


But...
I kept going...


and found some street art.
[in the mountains, on a river, far from urban life]


So I did a handstand...
because that's what I do.


J. H. Fragonard, in his painting, The Swing, c. 1767...
composed a classic Rococo painting
of people having fun...

[and flirting 
and painted 
through a male lens 
for 
the male gaze...
 but I won't get into that here...]


I seem to be doing something similar.
[and I'm wearing a skirt]
[sort of]


And once again...
I kept going...


Until I reach the car.

[25 miles]


At this point in my day...
all touchy-feely aside, as seen here in...
Fragonard's The Musical Contest c. 1754...


I felt sort of like these guys.


But even more so... 
I felt like this.


From my now lounging somewhat Rococo
perspective...
Sasquatch.
So not Rococo.


But of course...
he could be.
[Fragonard's The Progress of Love: The Pursuit 1771-1773]

And I'm pretty sure he's got that 
Rococo touchy-feely thing down.


Off to the hot spring I went.


Louis Jean François Lagrenée 1755
The Abduction of Deianira by the Centaur Nessus
and
Dawn Nielson 2015
The West Sky of the Columbia Gorge
;-)
[See...there's still a bit of drama in the Rococo
they aren't fooling anyone.]


Aparently Sasquatch meditates at the hot springs...


and I'm OK with that.
After a good, long soak...
I napped.

Aaaahhh...my frolicking, Rococo day.
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