"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning."--Albert Einstein I am not particularly inspired, so I offer you a trio of comics from owlturd.com... This one could well be in reference to the my poem in my previous blog... And I am sure we all know someone like this! "The creative individual has the capacity to free himself from the web of social pressures in which the rest of us are caught. He is capable of questioning the assumptions that the rest of us accept."-- John W. Gardner
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Once again, I have grievously neglected my blog. And once again, I have returned to work on it. Yes, I have been very busy painting, but the best thing about painting is that in some way it both ties up my hands and frees up my mind at the same time. This morning as I literally watched paint dry, I recalled a song by Red House Painters titled, "Have You Forgotten." I am including a video link below so you can listen: There is something wonderfully repetitive and soothing about the music. And the lyrics contain much to comment on as well. HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN I can't let you be, cause your beauty won't allow me Wrapped in white sheets, Like an angel from a bedtime story And shut out what they say, 'Cause your friends are fucked up anyway And when they come around, Somehow they feel up and you feel down. When we were kids, we hated things our parents did We listened low to Casey Kasem's radio show That's when friends were nice, To think of them just makes you feel nice The smell of grass in spring And October leaves cover everything. [Repeat: x2] Have you forgotten how to love yourself? I can't believe all the good things that you do for me Sat back in a chair like a princess from a faraway place Nobody's nice, when you're older your heart turns to ice And shut out what they say; They're too dumb to mean it anyway When we were kids, we hated things our sisters did Backyard summer pools and Christmases were beautiful And the sentiment of coloured mirrored ornaments And the open drapes Look out on frozen farmhouse landscapes [Repeat: x6] Have you forgotten how to love yourself? Challenge 1Read the lyrics. Make a list of things you like about the writing. Make a list of things you dislike. Challenge 2The songs asks repeatedly, "Have you forgotten how to love yourself? Make a list of things you love about yourself. Challenge 3Look at the abstract painting below. (It is one I found on Pinterest and was not able to determine the name of the artist.) Discuss what you like and dislike about the painting. Then make some observations about the painting with qualifying them as positive or negative. Consider this by Jackson Pollock: "Abstract painting is abstract. It confronts you. There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didn't have any beginning or any end. He didn't mean it as a compliment, but it was." What is your reaction to this statement? And a Poem...AROUND THE MOUNTAIN AT THE END OF A SLEEP by Cheryl Hicks you seem to think you are as beautiful as the sun filtering slanted through the trees that you distract me like those beams and drive me headlong without regard into traffic coming on last Saturday I cleaned the kitchen drawers spent the drizzly morning bent on trying to remember into which clattery pullout I had stashed my dreams if I seem to be invulnerable, you are sorely misinformed In Closing"Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself."--Truman Capote
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January 2022
AuthorCheryl Hicks is a writer and an artist. She is happiest when she can combine the two pursuits. |