Bob Dylan

I was fortunate enough this morning to see a biography of Bob Dylan... just what I was in the mood for. What I love about him - I think I'll just list a few things:

his music

his lyrics

An artist in the real sense of the word. When the world wanted to make him a voice for a generation he declined and said it's just about writing the songs. Just about the creativity. You have to respect that.

I was fortunate enough to see him in concert at NIU a couple of years ago. Most of the audience left early - I'm thinking they wanted to hear all of his famous, old stuff... which would have also been fine with me... but instead it was a performace 'in the moment'. He changed the lyrics to familiar music and vice versa, he played brand new stuff. It was a great experience. He never spoke during the performace except at the very end when he made a lame skeleton joke - it was Halloween. : )

The best thing listening to Bob Dylan does for me is inspires me to be myself, in my art, and in my life - because he's so true to himself.

am I happy yet?

I think I'm happy now. I was going to wipe the whole painting out, but after discussing it with Lois over the phone she convinced me that I may regret it. Burning bridges, you know? And overworking something. This can apply to life as well as art.

So, I wiped out the sky. I took the vibrance of the blue water down a little and added yellow to the foreground. And I signed it which must mean it's finished!

Now it's time to move on.

by the way, I still don't really like the pastel seascape I did and I will probably change it again. : )

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday. I can't remember much about Palm Sunday except everyone waving palms at Jesus, praising him... and I think the point was that later that week the same people crucified him. I could be way off, of course - I'm pretty sure I am. : ) I have a very good friend who is a Methodist minister and the Easter holiday came up in an email conversation.

And I (like many others) have been reading "A new earth" by Eckhart Tolle which is very thought-provoking. So, I've been thinking about when people feel MEAN and do mean things to others (like crucifiying Jesus for his beliefs for example) it's ALWAYS their ego involved, isn't it? If someone is ok with themselves they would realize us humans (and animals and plants) are all CONNECTED and when suffering happens to one, it happens to all. (animals are suffering too - if Factory Farming were illegal like it is in many countries there be a lot less suffering.) When people get AWAY from their egos and realize God, themselves, awareness is always in them there's no choice but to have peace - the whole world would have less suffering and fighting. When you're 'conscious' and think about WHERE the meat came from that you put in your mouth or WHY a person said something to you that hurt your feelings and take it for what it REALLY is you'll make a more conscious choice and be less likely to hurt another being.

I like this better.

I changed it a little. I smoothed out the wave lines in the middle and added more white.

Seascape

I did this the other night, it's a pastel 22" x 30. It was kind of an experiment and also just my subconcious coming through. I've really felt the need to simplify. I covered the whole sheet with a very vibrant red. I then, working top to bottom, brought in the blues and other colors. You can see a red glow from underneath in the original. I'm not sure how much it shows up on the monitor. Anyway, it was fun. I want to do more.

New domains

I'm very excited because I just bought two new domain names that lead to my site. marysart.net and marylovesdogs.com - hopefully easier to remember. Go to my site!

I did a pastel seascape the other night... well, it's almost abstract, but still representational. I'll get a photo of it later today and post it.

Helen in Coffee

We're doing coffee and tea paintings this week in my classes. Here's my daughter in coffee. It's not finished. I thought it was very much like watercolor painting. I had to use instant coffee really strong to get the darks. Anyway, it was fun!