Today

Woke early. Need an equally early breakfast today. Taking Sheila to Gold’s Gym, then I head over to my 1st showing with Creative Arts Society since 2010 w/2 paintings. If I can head back soon enough to Gold’s Gym I might be able to catch a new SilverSneakers Stability class there & try it out. After, we make a return trip to Olive Garden after several years lapse for their special annual Veterans menu-offering for Veterans Day. With my new post-surgeries appetite, I’ll especially appreciate their bottomless soup and salad option ❤️ Then another stop, this time Walgreens, and finally home, to batten down for the afternoon’s freeze-bringing temps & winds! Maybe a little painting, hopefully a little walking, even if at the fitness center – we’ll see 😊

Yesterday

Listening to the quiet outside this morning, that stilled lull when opposing winds have equalized. The north wind will win we think later today. Meanwhile, Sheila and I leisurely drove ourselves to near exhaustion yesterday, ie, we were ready-ready for bedtime, lol!

(chores, art, creativity)
Today’s Yesterday in Pictures shows but a bit of it, I just didn’t think to snap pics of all the food samples at Central Market (too busy eating, lol!) Or much of anything til I was back home early afternoon for a full day at home.

I did prep final prep of my paintings for a new Creative Arts Society show I’m delivering to tomorrow morning. Test drove my new 1/4 oval mop on my seemingly perennially in-progress painting (which is okay, it’s still exploring and expressing ❤️) and finally tested out my new art projector with my newly arrived hdmi adapter.

I set everything up exactly as described, rechecked everything, and – with mini instruction manual in hand – went through the process. Several times. Many times. No signal. Unplugged and replugged and retried. Same result. I finally acknowledged it wasn’t gonna happen, packed everything back up, and sadly set up to send it back.

The newly arrived hdmi adapter I decided to keep, since it’s likely I’ll need it again for something else. I painted a bit with the last of good light, and called it a night. Time enough for a much needed hot bath, set the dishwasher to do its charm, and gave myself permission for a few minutes reading.

(reading / absorbing Notan)
Notan, is still my reading-in-progress, and am through chapter 1, and ready to start reading (doing?) the design exercises projected to awaken my (in my words) inner Notan 😊

I am very much enjoying the image examples and thesis, but beginning to disagree that there’s a total separation of what primitive people created – like for ceremonies, and designs in modern life – like razor blades.

That so-called primitive folks had a tighter connection to nature, and thus primal design impulse, in general, yes. That today there’s so much more freedom of how and what to design one must “work harder” and more consciously about creating a “gestalt”, a feeling, in effect a design, again yes. That today’s designs, though because utilitarian for (usually) money making purposes, are inferior to designs early people created for ceremonies, because they weren’t utilitarian, seems off, even if just a bit, I think.

My sense is, early people’s ceremonies, even if invested with more awe and appreciation for the forces of nature and fate around them then we folks today, with concerns for (example) shaving (and thus designs of blades for shaving that work and hold up), probably felt their ceremonies were quite utilitarian to them, ie, “designed to be useful or practical rather than attractive” – attract a good harvest, ward off evil spirits, insure a good reception in the afterlife.

Though, my true sense is, a true contemporary designer, like the ceremony designer of times past, will just as often create as attractive a design as practical that also gets the job done.

Why?

One, because nature seems to be repetitive in it’s formation-inclinations so to speak, from snow flakes and arteries in lungs, to diamonds and branches in trees, from eyes that see to spirals of galaxies.

And two, because attractive designs sell. They sell products. They sell feelings to be held close by to remind us of those same feelings each time we see those products.

Making something that makes us feel good, long term, vs punitively addictive and short term, is, I believe, part of what art is about.

Is it designed to be useful vs attractive?

Or —

Are positive emotional experiences and states of mind useful?

Are positive emotional experiences attractive?

Yes. And yes. 💕

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My Latest Blog Posts

• November 21, 2022 – My Most Viewed Image this Past Week @FineArtAmerica, “Dispatcher” : circa 2011November 21, 2022
  I thought Dispatcher had once already been one of my most viewed of my work on Fine Art America, but I guess not! 😊 It’s been a popular poem, and with the holidays upon us, a great choice as a print or coffee mug ☕️ 🇺🇸
• November 13, 2022 – My Most Viewed Image this Past Week @FineArtAmerica, “Cypress Creek Mid Afternoon Mid October” : Circa 2019November 13, 2022
  Very unusual to have so many photos from my collection of images at Fine Art America show up among my 12 most viewed images there at FAA, and for so many showing up for the 1st time….
• November 08, 2022 – The Mid-Term Elections 2022 : This is It! If the Elections Are Important to You…VOTE!!!November 8, 2022
  If the elections are important to you – vote! 😊🇺🇸🙏
• November 06, 2022 – My Most Viewed Image this Past Week @FineArtAmerica, “Arc de ( d’Nuit ) Triomphe Poster ” : Image Circa 2012, Poster 2017November 6, 2022
  Once again one of my poster designs was my most viewed image from among my listings for prints and gifts on Fine Art America….
• October 30, 2022 – My Most Viewed Image this Past Week @FineArtAmerica, “Volleyball Kill Poster” : circa 1994 ( writing ) / 2021 ( poster design )October 30, 2022
  Another of my sayings / posters made it as my most viewed of my work on Fine Art America this past week, Volleyball Kill, which I wrote in the early 90s….
• October 24, 2022 – My Most Viewed Image this Past Week @FineArtAmerica, “Danseur en Bleu” : circa 2022October 24, 2022
  Quite an unexpected treat to see my newest painting, Danseur en Bleu, it’s 1st week on Fine Art America, be my most viewed of my images for the past week!
• October 23, 2022 – A Beginner’s View : Inflation, the Economy, Climate, Clean Energy, Health etc, How Are They Related in Our Current Everyday Lives? – An On-Going Inquiry, Part 9 – #Inflation and Our 2022 Mid-Term Election to Keep/Improve Our #DemocracyOctober 23, 2022
  …while true that any price guidelines / control can be a slippery slope, we also already know price gouging has easily done slipped-slid-and-sunk into its own quicksand of problems….

Thanks so much everyone! 😊

Adan

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