There's More to This

Yeh.

It's dawned on me what has been niggling at the back of my mind for some time now - the differences being expressed by various groups of our people.

On the one had you've got the ones who seem unable to find anything the least bit encouraging about our nation. They can only focus on the negative.

On the other hand are those who would rather focus on the positive.

America is a blend of both wonderful good and detestable bad.

There's no getting around that.

I think the difference I've been picking up on is that the people on the one hand are apparently so wrapped up in hate and vengeance that they refuse to look for any way out of the bad other than seeking to punish anyone and everyone they think might be either guilty or complicit.

The people on the other hand aren't so narrowly focused that they cannot see and address the issues of the bad - with an intent to first identify what's causing the problem so that they can then take steps to minimize/eliminate the roots.

So on the one hand (and my ability to even try to remain un-biased is rapidly diminishing) we've got a bunch of wound-up people spewing really nasty things at and about people who, on the other hand, are trying to calmly go about the business of healing what ails this nation.

I'm pretty sure I don't have to identify which is which.

One thing I have noticed is that EVERY hateful hurtful thing hurled by the folk on one hand at the folk on the other hand is pretty much EXACTLY a mirror of what the folk on the one hand ARE and precisely what the folk on the other hand ARE NOT.

I get the distinct impression that we are all, me included, being forced into making a choice by the folk on the one hand.

Since I have to choose, I choose to remain politically an Independent (as that's in my DNA I suspect and likely cannot be altered) but I've just about come to the conclusion that I'll throw my two cents in with the folk on the other hand.

The gloves are still on, figuratively speaking, but I've untied the strings.

STAND up! SIT down! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!

All the brouhaha and the fact that it's football season ... I tell ya ... woke up with memories of being a cheerleader way back in my early college days ... and a rousing cheer ringing in the air ... CLOWNS to the LEFT of me! JOKERS to the RIGHT! STAND up! SIT down! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! ...

And in the back of my mind I'm cynically wondering what it is this time that the media doesn't want us to be paying attention to as we take the bait again. It makes me want to watch and listen to that whole speech again, to see what we're being distracted from paying attention to. Or give a gander to quieter things happening (or not) on other kinds of playing fields that we might ought to be focusing on, other types of teams whose behavioral choices we maybe should be examining.

What would we do if half of our favorite football team decided that they just weren't going to play ball? If they refused to budge their butts off the bench and sat there with their arms folded for a whole season? Owners, advertisers, coaches, and fans alike would be slightly irritated I would think, if half of the team just pocketed their pay while riding the bench because they didn't want to do their jobs.

Extrapolate.

Now somebody please explain to me why we're all up in arms about some athletes exercising their 1st amendment rights and we're exercising ours right back at them - while another team hired to play a different kind of game is flat bench-sitting, pocketing their pay while refusing to do their job - and America just lets them ride the bench without so much as a murmur.

Am I the ONLY ONE in this whole entire nation who sees the irony here? We're all freaking out over a couple of minutes of some of our team players being recalcitrant before they go onto the field and do their jobs. At the exact same time we're not making much of a fuss about a much more important team that is sitting out the entire season.

ACA - Just Make It Not Mandatory For Pete's Sake - We'll Take It From There

Below is something I posted on my facebook page.




Random thought: how are any republicans who vote against the upcoming health care bill going to look (and feel) if a few democrats actually put the nation's best interests ahead of their own and get it passed? Hmmm ... ?

A not-so-random thought ... it's crossed my mind that really all they have to do for the time being, since apparently they aren't going to just flat repeal the ACA (oath-breakers!), is to make it not mandatory and let the people of the United States do what they do - clarify the situation to the expensive health care providers and insurance folks.

A couple of hundred million Voices can speak without having to say a word simply by opting out and opting back in by throwing their weight behind the providers and insurers that provide the best services, premiums, and deductibles.

If the ACA is so great, let those who love it keep it - but don't tie everyone else to it. Let it stay and finish dying on its own; but don't make the people of our nation go down with it unless they choose to of their own volition.

Am I naive? Of course. I've always been. I just do NOT see that this has to be such a terribly complicated thing, though.

I remember hearing an infamous line: 'If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor.' Something to that effect. The difference between that and saying 'If you like the ACA you can keep the ACA' is that this time you KNOW the program is in its death throes and that you'll likely go down with the ship if you stay aboard. You can jeer at the ones who head for the lifeboats but those are the folks who will be watching from shore as your ship goes belly-up with you on it. They'll probably pray for you, though.

Again, my naivete is showing. A few of the career politicians in Washington are not going to let any such thing happen.

A nod to the cynicism that's been keeping my naivete company of late ... the demand for the repeal (not replacement) of the ACA and the election of a non-career-politician are symbolic of our rejection of being dictated to, railroaded ... a notice to those who act against the collective will of the American People ... we cannot repeal you at the Washington level, but we can replace you in due time. I speak as an Independent who voted a mixed ticket so perhaps my Voice is meaningless to you. It is nevertheless mine own Voice and this is still mine own nation, which is still a Constitutional Republic (which you ought to bear in mind maybe a bit more thoughtfully than apparently you have been).




That having been said, there are more than a few ways that the People of the United States of America can, if they choose, take into their own hands the reins to their own health care needs. I've yammered about some of those things elsewhere in this blog so won't reiterate them here and now.

The point is that nobody's going to put our vulnerable, our elders, or our young at risk. Anybody who implies otherwise is full of baloney. They are why we have Medicaid and Medicare in the first place, if you recall. The rest of us can (and should) be maybe a lot more pro-active about tending to our own needs before we go yiping about somebody else doing it for us. Again, I've done my own yiping and griping about the issue elsewhere and don't feel like repeating myself any more than I have to. There are things people can do as individuals, as families, as communities, as counties, as states ... that would make an enormous difference - if we want to make that difference.

"The average adult male and female in the United States has a BMI of around 26.5, according to the National Health and Nutrition Survey. A BMI of 18.4 to 24.9 is considered healthy, while 25 to 29.9 is described as overweight. A BMI of 30 or above falls in the obese category. The average American having a BMI of 26.5 is overweight and needs to implement dietary changes and exercise to drop down to a healthy weight range."

Our athletes aside, because they tend to be more muscle than fat (and muscle weighs more), IF/WHEN the citizens of the United States of America can prove themselves smart enough and determined enough to get the average BMI down to say 20, and learn some basics about taking care of ourselves - THEN most of us can kiss anything except catastrophic coverage goodbye.

Getting off my soap box now as I've got a shift to fill tonight.

One other thought before I go. I read recently that a certain item costs one dollar but the patient is billed fifty bucks for it. What does that say about mark-up? 0% would be a buck. 10% would be $1.10 ... 100% would be two dollars (double). What does that make fifty bucks for a one dollar item? 

The World Often Watches America

As this 9-11 draws to a close my thoughts return, as they always do on this day, to that day 'When the World Stopped Turning' to go with one of the songs of that day.

Where were you when the world stopped turning?

I was working an interstate rebuild project beneath skies that went silent as the day progressed.

We kept on keeping on, getting the job done even while our tears and fears dried up like mist in the sunshine.

I watched as the people of my crew shook off their initial shock and grew silent, glints of steel coming into all pairs of eyes but one. That one pair of eyes I never saw again after that day which is a different story entirely and I'm not going to tell it here and now.

Nobody had much to say as the day wore on; nobody had to say anything.

What I saw and what I felt on that day, on the job and afterward on the way home, and for quite a while at that time, is what the world has been watching America show over the course of these past days as we've been dealt some harsh blows.

I feel it again, rising as it did on that day when we also took some hard hits.

It is America, wakening and knowing her own strength.

Perhaps it's like desert flowers and will bloom full force only under specific conditions, lying dormant and waiting the rest of the time. When the conditions are met, the result is one you will never forget having witnessed.

Never EVER underestimate We the People of the United States of America is the message that we, without even a moment's thought, send when 'something happens' and we automatically just do what we do. We aren't deliberately setting out to send any messages. We've got other matters on our collective mind. Actions speak louder than words and I needn't even be writing these. I'm obviously not writing them for us, but for the watching world, to make in words the point that America is making without having to say a single thing.

Our politicians and our media mostly play at being American. We the People of the United States of America ARE the United States of America. We are not the extremists on either end of our political charts. We are the enormity of the center. If you have seen footage from 9-11, and just recently from fire and flood, and you fail to grasp what you see, that's on you. As push comes to shove within our borders, We the People of the United States of America are a bit too busy just doing what we do to much care whether anybody is watching or not.

We know you're watching.

We do not care.

What we're caring about right now is one another, and getting the job done no matter what.

Because that's what we do.

INFJ, Semantics, and a Soaring Eagle

As you may be well aware, I've gotten stuck with one of those ultra-rare personality types (3 - 5%, a definite minority). I only mention it now because knowing ahead of time that I'm INFJ (Meyers Briggs Type Inventory, look it up) MIGHT help you to 'get' where I'm coming from.

I'm the one going the speed limit when everyone else is zipping along.

I'm the one who thinks proper usage of language matters, unless I'm using a vernacular or there are quote marks involved, as people don't speak in grammatically correct sentences.

I'm the one who picks up on every emotion in the air and feels it, even if it doesn't belong to me.

I'm the one you might not want to lie to. I'll likely let you get away with it, but I'll know.

I'm the one who will walk away from small talk but spend hours on end discussing and exploring topics like the impact of entanglement (quantum physics) on people's everyday lives, or the life cycle of Earth, or the ramifications of history.

I'm the one who gets 'peopled out', can and will work alone, but most of the time (ironically) prefers a strong team (leadership typically pops in crisis situations; otherwise it will likely show up as ideas).

I'm the one who goes with my gut because the times I haven't done so haven't turned out that well.

I'm the one who deliberately seeks out the good, the positive because, unless I do so, the bad, the hateful can and does overwhelm me.

I'm the one who will probably recognize you by 'feel' rather than name or face. I won't remember what you were wearing but will remember what you were feeling.

I'm the one who will seem 'stand-offish' unless there's a good reason to interact; if there's a cause I believe in I'll not quit on it - ever. I'll take a stand on things that seem to be diametrically opposed, and find no conflict between them or inside of myself.

There are lots of other 'characteristics' but you get the general idea.

So when it comes to 'semantics' I understand that referring to something like a sub-group of a larger population is going to vary according to where the speaker is 'coming from'. Generally speaking, as long as the meaning is clear I'm not going to quibble about the word choices of different folk. I fully know that you will likely not understand me but know that I will understand you.

At the moment I'm finding it interesting, and a little puzzling, that people have taken to referring to the exact same sub-group of a larger population in completely different ways, depending on personal beliefs. To me, as the J part of my equation rises (the only one that has any flexibility at all; the INF part is solidly carved into stone - it's 'opposite' is P and the two take turns) and I find myself wanting to make a choice as to whether to go with 'undocumented citizens', 'undocumented immigrants', or 'illegals' - my mind recognizes that the law identifies them as 'illegals' and so that's my choice as it's the only one that makes any sense to me.

Citizens are documented as such; without the documentation they are not citizens. Immigrants likewise. To present this population as either, to me, smacks of deceit. Deceit is right up there at the top of the list of things that I find abominable.

Regarding our DACA folk, which I've done a couple of posts on, the program gave them a DEFERRED time. That time is up as their deferment program comes to an end. Yapping and yiping about it isn't going to change that. The fact that the deferment itself was unconstitutional in the first place, in the J part of my mind, makes the whole thing wrong from the get-go.

Ignoring our immigration laws (reprehensible to the J part of my mind) allowed the current situation to develop, and I'm not even going to comment on that as we cannot go back in time to make it not have happened. If we closed our borders right this minute to everyone, we would still have our quota of Mexican immigrants already inside our nation to cover well over 400 years worth of legal migrants from that country. I ain't even kiddin' ya. (there's vernacular phrasing).

To the logical part of my mind, that means IF we allow everyone to stay who is already here, we can accept ZERO more folk from Mexico for the next 400+ years. Going by the overall quota, we wouldn't be able to accept anybody from ANYWHERE until we get this resident population properly legally immigrated.

So there's that part of it. Cut and dried. The alternative would be to locate and evict something like 20 million people who are here illegally. Twenty million is a really big number, they are all illegal, shouldn't be here in the first place, and ought to be sent back to Mexico and points south.

Well.

I cannot, with any of the rest of me, find it in any sense okay to send ANYBODY into the situation that exists south of our border, with the exception of the bad guys of course.

So what are we going to do?

Congress has six months to come up with a solution and good luck to them sez I (another vernacular usage).

Our House and Senate folk have got to be seriously in a quandary. Because the only points of view that they're probably hearing come from the extremes of our political left-right graph, our Senators and Representatives likely (and perhaps correctly) assume they're damned if they do and damned if they don't - either way.

What nobody seems to be taking into consideration is that the further to the left and the right that those extremists go, the more of us there are who flat refuse to have anything to do with either side.

So there's this massive population who (again) isn't being represented AT ALL in Washington except by the (essentially unaffiliated - thoroughly opposed by the democrats of course and the republicans also fought him until they could fight their own people no more) President we elected. And I'll put in a side note here, just because I feel like it: if said President is as smart as I'm convinced he is, he will locate and endorse Independent candidates who DO represent us - and if we're even a fraction as smart we'll see to it that folks who represent us get onto the ballot/s. Let the democrats and the republicans duke it out all they want. Most of us are sick of the both of them, and are hoping President Trump runs as an Independent or SOME other designation (Constitutional would be my preference, if it's not already taken). We've got just over three years to get ourselves pulled together and we aren't particularly all that interested in who is put on the ballot by the democrats or the republicans because we aren't going to vote for them anyhow - we'll re-elect our President with write-in votes if need be.When it comes to a 'color' to represent the in-between folks (who happen to make up the vast majority of us) I wanted white as it is the presence of all the other colors in the spectrum and is the third color in our flag, but unfortunately white carries connotations ... so it would have to be all three I think. Doing that would include the 'blue' folk and the 'red' folk, as well as all the rest of us. Now to think of a symbol. Do we want an animal, like the donkey and the elephant, or simply the American Flag? If an animal, I'm almost certain the Bald Eagle would be appropriate. While the donkey and the elephant are fighting, the eagle flies away with the votes. Yep. (colloquialism) 

Back to topic.

My point here is that, as far as I can tell, almost all of 'the rest of us' who aren't at either end of the extremes mainly want a clear end to the immigration issue. Close and lock the borders while we get things sorted out. No it's not fair to those who legitimately want to come but we're so far over our reasonable quotas right now that there's no way that I can see to justify any more until further notice. The loud-mouths on both ends can yipe and gripe all they want. If it came down to a referendum, I'm betting we would say, 'Okay, they're here. We're used to them and they're used to us. Let the law-abiding ones stay as long as they remain law-abiding, deport the bad guys and anyone else who commits a felony in the next five or ten years, and no more at all until we've caught up to ourselves.' Period.

Frankly, humanitarianism aside, it boils down to (for me) laying to rest the semantics of the whole thing. No more need to figure out how you're going to refer to these 20+ million people who live among us. There will be nobody calling them 'undocumented citizens' or 'undocumented immigrants' or 'illegals', which are all trigger words to the opposite sides. They will be, simply, Americans just like the rest of us.

As an INFJ I'm the one who is all about conflict avoidance.

I'm the one who wants balance.

I'm the one who so very firmly believes in Justice for All. And Mercy. And, ultimately, Peace.

DACA, Visa Over-stays, Illegals ... IF ONLY ...

IF ONLY our laws had been enforced all the way down the line.

IF ONLY our judicial system had stepped up to the plate and given a resounding 'NO!', backed up by the House and the Senate when somebody just upped and made a unilateral and unconstitutional decision all by his lonesome (because, you know, he had a phone and he had a pen).

We can 'if only' until the cows come home.

The fact of the matter is that we have been handed a rather daunting situation and somebody's going to have to figure out what to do about it. We cannot go back and change anything; all we can do is the best we can with what we have to work with.

Thankfully, we do have our Constitution. Although it has been kind of ignored in recent years it is still our guide and our law.

Because somebody did ignore it, and nobody stepped up to say, 'Hey, you can't do that; it's unconstitutional!' we've got a mess on our hands. That it didn't have to happen in the first place is entirely moot, except for the unlikely possibility of somebody getting held accountable for what he has wrought. As I say ... unlikely. I think the DACA folk ought to sue him as an individual (not the government), a class action suit, for landing them in this boat. He could have chosen otherwise; he could have enforced the law of our land; he could have insisted that their parents obtain citizenship; he could have made it mandatory that they apply for citizenship upon reaching their majority (or leave at that time) ... they've all got to be going through some powerful anxiety as a result of his actions ... he himself, out of his own pocket (although over a million/year plus a lot more for secret service is coming out of OUR pockets) ought to at LEAST pay any associated fees for them to obtain citizenship as well as any mental health services required for them to cope with their lot. HIS pocket, not OURS. We're the ones who are already lining his pockets; why should we have to pay multiple times for how he chose to use his phone and his pen? Which we also paid for, come to think of it. Uffda.

There are now hundreds of thousands of folks who are not guilty of anything except having had parents who broke the laws (which weren't  being enforced anyway). They are innocent (unless they've broken laws themselves - other laws, not the ones broken by their parents) and do not deserve to be punished for something they did not do. That's a fact.

Because one branch of our government, without being checked or balanced by either of the others, did something that was illegal, We the People have been saddled with the sorry situation of having to look askance at all three of our branches of government. Many of the 'guilty parties' are still right where they were when they failed us as a nation. That too will have to be dealt with.

The issue at hand is poignantly heart-rending. Hundreds of thousands of innocent lives are on the line. Maybe not literally, but they will most assuredly be affected (as will we all) over the course of the next months as the legislative branch of government, who should have been the ones to either deal with this in the first place or at least stepped up to either confirm or deny what the executive branch chose to do unilaterally (AND - I presume - the judicial branch, who also should have come out with a very clear statement about the constitutional validity - as in the lack thereof - of said choice) are at last called to task about the whole thing.

I'm just a little old lady and not personally affected by DACA, except in the sense that as a citizen of the United States of America I am inherently as culpable as anybody else.

So what are we going to do about all these folks who are just living their lives out as best they can, but are suddenly faced with the consequences of the actions of others?

Are we going to turn them out?

I think not.

That they are now adults is a factor that has to be taken into consideration.

That they have been well aware of their status for all this time has to be taken into consideration.

That they have, each and all, had ample opportunity to apply for legitimate citizenship, and could have done so as soon as they reached their majority, has to be taken into consideration.

Some of the culpability here belongs squarely on their shoulders as well as on those of the (now-ex) executive branch of our government, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch - and our own as we didn't step up to say, 'Hey that's unconstitutional, what are you DOING!?!' either.

We're all guilty, when it comes right down to it.

Solutions?

I have no 'solutions', only thoughts on the matter.

I'm thinking that every last one of our DACA folk need to get themselves posthaste to the closest immigration office and get their paperwork started.

I'm thinking the legislative branch needs to clearly and definitively put an end to the continuance of something that was unconstitutional in the first place.

I'm thinking that the judicial branch has got to present a decisive ruling on the matter.

I'm thinking that enforcement ought to be stepped up even more, to clear out the criminal elements.

All of these things ought to have been done long since but 'long since' is long gone.

Now is going to have to suffice.

I looked up the DACA thing and the guidelines are pretty clear. The people affected fall into specific parameters, which does help.

It's not like this is the end of the world, folks. It's just got to be taken care of so everyone can calm down and get on with getting on.

The same goes for those who are over-staying their visas. They can follow the rules about renewing them if that's an option, or they can go home. It's not complicated.

I have a feeling it's liable to come as a shock to some peoples' systems that there really are actual laws in our nation, and that (until/unless duly changed) they're (GASP!) supposed to be followed. I know there has been a great deal of 'flexibility' these past years about that little detail, and it might take a while for the concept to sink in. Hopefully it won't take too long.

When it comes down to it, the same goes for all of the illegals among us. It seems to me that, while our legislative branch is dealing with this one part of the whole they may as well extrapolate and deal with the rest of it at the same time. If your paperwork for citizenship is in the works, and; if you're gainfully employed or enrolled in a bonafide educational/training program, and; if you've been here straight through for five years or so, and; if you have no criminal record ... welcome home. Everyone else, so sad too bad, you had your chance, out you go.

Effective immediately, until we as a nation get back onto our feet and can assess our ability to take on anything more, the doors are closed. To everyone.

That's about the only way I can see the whole thing.

No doubt I'm not being 'politically correct' here but honestly I don't much give a rodent's behind about being 'politically correct'.

It's not the current administration's fault, this mess. It's part of the 'legacy' of the one/s before. A disrespect for the laws of our land, coming from the highest of our governmental positions, has been disheartening for a lot of us. For those who didn't know, didn't care, or welcomed it ... I don't know what to tell you except that now you know. You might still not care, and you might not welcome the return of our Constitution, but now at least you know.

God bless us all, and most especially those directly affected by what's coming down the pike including those whose paths are to enforce what has to be done.

And ... you know ... God bless our President. Mr. Trump's destiny is not one many of us would envy. His is the task of righting the wrongs of others, on our behalf I might add. The least we can do is give him our prayers and not get in his way.

Taking care of our DACA folk is a step.

Our legislative branch has six months to get something done that ought to take a whopping fifteen minutes tops. IF they can't manage to do even that much, I hope they're busy getting alternative careers planned and prepared for. It's too bad they can't be 'recalled', but they sure as heck don't have to be re-elected. None of them, on either side of the aisle. We can't repeal them, but we can most certainly replace them.

Our DACA folks have those same six months to get their rears in gear and get their paperwork started, get a job or enroll in a training program, prove their residency for the past five years, and make sure their records are clean and clear. The ones who can't/won't do those things might want to take this opportunity to vacate our nation voluntarily.

IF (yes that IF is in capital letters and in bold) our legislative branch isn't completely dead, and they know the meaning of the word 'extrapolate', it's not just the DACA folk who might want to be taking care of the paperwork, the job/training, the documentation of residency for five years, and proof of a law-abiding lifestyle.  As for the Visa folks, just get 'em renewed or go home.

Just sayin'.

Ach. But what do I know?

Since I'm In 'Artist' Mode ... Uffda ...

Over a year ago my sister suggested I try a painting that would look something like the one in the post this LINK will take you to.

Well, what with one thing and another, it completely flew out of my mind ... until recently.

I've been looking on line at relevant photos, found some rather impressive ones of both outer space and geologic formations that would be awesome to use.

I'm NOT going to even try to shoot for anything even close to the photo created by the person who created the beauty you'll see in the photo the link will take you to, and have serious doubts whether or not I'll be able to even come close to getting the general concept put together, but the thought intrigues me so I'll likely give it a try anyway. We shall see what we shall see when the time comes.

If you click on the link, you'll read that I thought 'PHI in the Sky!' when I saw the photo - that's because in HELL AND HIGH WATER (it's fiction, in case you're not familiar with the SONG series) there are references to relatives back in the far ancient days (think mammoth and saber cat) who went 'Hiving' in the stars, up there out there, before the advanced civilization of Phi got wiped out by the Extinction Level Event which triggered what we call the Younger Dryas. It took the mammoth, the saber cat, and many other species, that ELE did, and it annihilated a mighty big hunk of Earth in general.

Some of our Characters are separated from family members when they are caught on Earth away from those who are up there out there among the stars. Communications, let alone access, between Earth and the Star Folk are severed irreparably, one more loss to bear when the ELE and its aftereffects are already too much for people to cope with.

At any rate, I have no idea if I'll ever be able to portray what one of the 'hives' of the Star Folk might have looked like, but it's going to be fun just going through the photos of the Universe, and whatever I can find that might be used to represent the settlements up there out there. They're not going to be Space Station things, though. That much I can tell you!

I'm daunted, and I don't daunt easy.

Still gonna be fun though!! Pop that image, or one along the same lines, up to a four foot by six foot canvas and see what you think ... me, I'm thinking 'Challenge!' and I'm thinking 'Oh boy what am I getting myself into?' and I'm thinking 'My sister is either a genius or she hates me.' She wants it in high relief sculpted form no less. 

Uffda.

How about I just paint one and display it on a frame at a 45 degree angle or some such?

Heh.

I can make it the cover of a big triangular box and store stuff in there. It'll have to go out in my lean-to since this little house I'm living in now ain't got space for no such thing. 

Lord have mercy.

Like I don't have enough to do. I'm supposed to be rewriting the first book of SONG, making new book covers, concocting trailers, updating ALL of the books, yada yada and MORE yada. Do I have time to ding around with a huge painting? Well, maybe. Procrastination is my middle name. One of my middle names. I'm going to try to shoot for Spring Equinox to have this stuff all done, but it's not like there's any real 'deadline' for which I'm eternally grateful. Summer Solstice would be just as good a time, right?

I'll say it again, with emphasis.

UFFDA! 

Painting On 100 Year Old Cedar Roof Shakes Again!

And I have to admit to feeling a mite odd posting about artwork when I can't get any photos at all to load into my blogs, but there you have it. I'm posting because it's been too long since I've done any artwork at all, and I do love these little pieces.

If ever I can figure out what the problem is with getting photos to post, you'll be inundated with them!

At any rate, this new batch has mostly textured designs, meaning I'm essentially sculpting in low relief and putting the paint onto the 'picture'.

So far I've got one white on black winter-scape using acrylics over the sculpting medium on the wood, a couple of monochromes using translucents (one blue, one burnt sienna) again over the low relief sculpting, a couple using both acrylics and translucents over the sculpting, and a couple that are basically abstracts.

Sad for me that I have a heavy work schedule for the next few days. I hate when I'm just getting into a project and have to cut it short, but ... it is what it is and that's all there is to it.

Ah, the monochromes ... the translucents are antiquing the sculpting to bring it out. Layers will deepen some parts, and I can wipe off places I want highlighted.

You already know the bases I'm using: cedar roof shakes (shingles) salvaged from my old 100 year old house as I was putting on the new shingles.

You want to know what I've been using for the 'sculpting' medium? Acrylic latex caulk. Yes the kind that comes in tubes and you use a caulking gun for application. I put a bunch onto the shake and use a regular table spoon to move it around and into place. Build up some places that you want in the 'foreground', and even more if you're going to put grasses or other details in. The grasses are made by simply 'slicing' into the texturing wherever you want the blades. A person could use whatever tools they wanted to. Once I did everything 'finger-painting' except for the base coat. Finger-painted the texture on, did the base coat, then used my fingers to highlight the black base coat with gold (and possibly silver; I can't remember as it was a while ago and the painting is long sold to a great home). It's the same way I did the white on black winter-scape highlighting, and is the technique I'll use for probably a hundred more simply because it works the best, gives me the best control.

Once I'm done with this set of textured pieces I'll go to working on the flat surfaces of the cedar shakes, mostly with acrylics. One thing I love about the cedars is that they've all got weathering patterns that either suggest or outright dictate what the piece is going to become. They've also all got saw blade grooves, which can make it awkward to try to paint, say a sky, sideways to them. Even when I go 'with the grain' so to speak, the swoops of the saw blade lines show through. I don't mind it because they are after all what they are!

Yeh.

Still frustrated as all get-out that the photos won't post but ... oh well. I'll add them eventually I hope.

Another experiment I want to try is putting enough gesso onto the cedar shakes to give me a smooth surface and trying some of the Prismacolors on them. So there's that to look forward to, and that's a fact.

I once did a painting of a forest pond using the translucents, with metallic highlights. The thing about that one is that it looks different depending on what kind of light is on it. In regular room light it looks like a quiet peaceful little glade in the woods, a little on the dark side. But if you try to take a photo of it like that, and use a flash, you'll get all the metallic highlights and a completely different look.

Hmm ...

I wonder.

I betcha I've got a photo of that one somewhere in this blog. Maybe, just maybe, I can find it and do a copy and paste thing. It's worth a try, right?

Wish me luck.

HERE IT IS!

You may as well see the post :) It's not a long one, I promise! You'll see what I mean.

Seeing the photos makes me realize that they just can't capture the painting, which is an inconvenience to say the least.

Ah well.

I'll likely give it another try, and see what shows up in more of those kinds of paintings. Translucents show up differently on different types of surfaces. When I'm able to add photos (IF) you'll see what I mean about that too. The burnt sienna monochrome in particular emphasizes that. The 'base' of the piece is bare wood while the textured part of course is not; there's a big difference in how the translucent 'takes'. It soaks right into the bare wood, staining it dark, and kind of 'rides' on the smoother surface of the textured part. The 'riding' part of the equation comes into play when I'm working on canvas. It makes it easier to wipe off parts I want lighter, sort of like water colors, but takes longer to dry, giving me more time to fiddle with it.

Working the layers can be a bit challenging. You have to wait in between or you'll wipe off the under-color with the over-color ... and it's a bit like working with soft 'chalk' pastels in that you really need to begin with the lightest colors and work the darker ones over them - even when dry, it's next to impossible to lighten anything as each coat serves to deepen the colors. I suppose if I got desperate I could use acrylics over the top, but that takes away most of the challenge and compromises the depth of the painting's layers.

And that's about all I've got for tonight.

I've got a couple of pieces that are about ready for their next layer so had better get to applying them I reckon!