“'expression is the need of my soul,' declares Archy, who labored...

...as a free-verse poet in an earlier incarnation. At night, alone, he dives furiously on the keys of Don Marquis’ typewriter to describe a cockroach’s view of the world, rich with cynicism and humor. It’s difficult enough to operate the typewriter’s return bar to get a fresh line of paper; all of Archy’s dispatches are written lowercase, and without punctuation, because he is unable to hit both shift and letter keys to produce a capital letter."


Here I am again, remembering Archy's bon vivant attitude back in the 20's and 30's.  I admire that ability in others, especially in tough times such as the Great Depression and its aftermath.  Times aren't particularly easy today, so it helps to be reminded of Mehitabel's mantra:  "...toujours gaie...." 

Yesterday, I was showing you images of the two acrylic paintings I began at 12:30 on Saturday morning, May 5th.  You saw three images of the progress on the horizontal 10 x 20" "Into the Valley..." but only one of the vertical 24 x 12" "Blue Sky Day."


That would be because I had a major problem.  Somewhere along in my painting process, I stopped taking still shots and continued on taking videos only.  You might wonder what my problem was.  Well, although I've taken short videos on my new camera and Droid, I had never learned how to download them so I could make any use of them.  Well, today, thanks to friends and my daughter and son-in-law, I've solved that problem.


This is to say that, NOW I can show you BOTH paintings I was working on.  I don't guarantee that I'll ever match John Ford or Steven Spielberg as a maker of movies, but I'm willing to take the necessary baby steps needed to share my methods of thinking and painting with you.  If Archy, the talented cockroach, could type on a manual typewriter by jumping on the keys one at a time, I can be patient too.   Here goes:

And then.................

What I managed not to say clearly was that I'm painting these two pieces in honor of my elder sister who died last Friday, May 4th.


Well, it is time to call it a day.  Tomorrow, I'll show you more of my progress on these pieces.  Till then, au revoir!