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. 💕

Related Amazon Search & Products
https://www.amazon.com/shop/felipeadanlerma

My Art & Photography Materials, Supplies & Instructions Idea Page
on Amazon
*
You can also begin a new search from any image below 😊

I do like to point out I pick my selections to showcase from my Amazon searches. May not always be the case, or wholly always the case, but for now, I prefer picking titles and book covers and gift items that just really appeal to me. There’s lots more to choose from, but only have so much room, lol! I hope you enjoy —

My Purchase & Wish List On Amazon 😊
https://www.amazon.com/shop/felipeadanlerma

*

My Related Blog Posts

*

My Latest Blog Posts

• Happy Thanksgiving 2020November 26, 2020
  Happy Thanksgiving 2020! Though we’ve obviously many many challenges and problems, we’ve also much to be grateful for.
• The Old American Artist Twitter Excerpt Series, Number III.3.2November 25, 2020
  “Gently, he rubbed at a few spots he knew were extra tough, noticing a tender lone hair nearby….”
• The Old American Artist Twitter Excerpt Series, Number III.3.1November 24, 2020
  “Face held still, eyes wide open, Arturo examined his features and almost grizzly, mostly grey beard in the ancient mirror that Anna’s dad said was original to the old fisherman’s hut.”
• Tweets That Caught My Eye on Twitter – Elle Justine @only1elle #PoetArtistNovember 24, 2020
  “My sample above is, for me, quite haunting….”
• The Old American Artist Twitter Excerpt Series, Number III.2.4November 23, 2020
  “Only the colorful cows on canvases, t-shirts, and life size embellished sculptures reminded him of Texas, but not of his own art….”
• Skydancer the Book, By Our Daughter, Tania, Now Available in Spanish! – Bailarina del cieloNovember 23, 2020
  Many of my readers are familiar with my posts detailing our youngest daughter’s readings and book adventures with her illustrated children’s book, Skydancer! It’s now is also available in Spanish in a beautifully produced paper edition – Bailarina del cielo – Ballerina of the Sky!
• The Old American Artist Twitter Excerpt Series, Number III.2.3November 20, 2020
  “‘It’s a new visual language for me,’ he told Rosetta at a local artists’ show….”

Thanks so much everyone! 😊

Adan

Twitter / Instagram / FB @FelipeAdanLerma
Amazon Author Page – https://amzn.to/2YpgyUf
Fine Art America (FAA) – https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/felipeadan-lerma.html