and we saw it!!!
But perfect blue skies in Barton, Vermont on eclipse day. What luck!!
TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN
March Art -Loggerhead Sea Turtle
MAMMONELLE’S BLOG
I happen to agree with what Scarlett writes here, so I thought Mammonelle should get a little publicity!
NEW ART OF 2024
Although I’ve been making jewelry, I only have a little art to show this time. A big paper mâché tortoise and an oil painting of a house, which isn’t quite finished because I’m waiting to see what the foliage in front and back looks like when it’s summer. My only photos were from the dead of winter, and there’s a small tree and hedge in front that I may add. There are still a few issues that I need to touch up but I can do those later. This has taken me much much longer because of needing to wait for the oil paint layers to dry. An acrylic painting takes much less time to complete in terms of drying time.
The tortoise I started on impulse, just to prove to a group on FB that I could build a giant tortoise using trash like recyclables and things that I already had on hand. For this tortoise I used an old “flying saucer” sled, packaging paper, a torn old sheet, and mailing tubes and various empty food containers. That plus paper mâché solution, so the only true art supplies used were the Apoxie-sculpt I used for the toe nails, given to me for talking with a university class, and acrylic paint that I already had.
5th Anniversary of the loss of my twin, Feb 17.
Carolyn (lynnie) and Phoebe (formerly Pammy) in 2006. In photo above this one we are in reversed positions. Both were taken during book tour in 2005 or during a joint presentation, book-related, in 2006.
Robin Gets A New Face!
This is the original Robin. But below is the new updated Robin as they are today:
Although I had wanted to stay away from paint, the colored papers I used in the original Robin faded in the light very quickly, so I ended up opting to paint the clothing and sneakers and a bit of the facial features, but not the skin or hair.
MORE BLACK AND WHITE
I have lost the photo I took as a reference photo, probably in a hurried effort to give myself more space, so alas, you cannot see what I was looking at. I call it Breakfast Tray With Meds, but I may change it just to Breakfast Tray because it seems everyone now takes some medication with their morning meal, yeah, even young people! Anyhow, as you can see, I’m rather enjoying drawing from this overhead perspective. And black and white is a challenge. Since all who know me know I love a challenge, expect to see more of these! (Maybe)
ART FROM NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER
Bone bud vases or candlesticks for slender taper candles. Handmade paper roses. Have made 8 bone bud vases and a dozen or more roses.
This head and torse made for a friend, Judy, who wants to keep her Halloween headless person throughout the year. Arms were slapped together years ago just to hold a bowl of Halloween candies but Judy insists they are good and go along with her new friend Jo’s head. Otherwise I would make new ones.
Window at Harmony Artists Collective Gallery, with all my art on display.
two different paper flowers very time consuming.
Paper flowers in most recent bud vase.
Front of most recent bud vase/candlestick
FIRST NOVEMBER ART
With this still life drawing, similar to the one that I ended my Inktober drawings with, i used the same view point but instead of cross hatching I used grayscale pens to achieve deeper contrasts and bolder shadows. I also lit the still life better, with only one source of light not multiple sources. I took the reference photo below, but made some changes to the drawing itself.
INKTOBER IS OVER, FOR 2023
The word was Massive…I think this drawing fits the bill! (Even though as a ink drawing it wasn’t very successful.)
The word was Rush and as I said on Facebook I didn’t draw much more than a rush with a burgeoning inflorescence, wanting to spend my time practicing the architectural style lettering I am teaching myself.
Again, as I posted on FB I had lots of fun with the last Inktober word, Fire, but I forgot to light the still life properly, so instead of dramatic darks and lights I had complicated weak shadows from light from multiple sources. Not good! I’d like to draw this again, but with better lighting. Once again however I got to practice my lettering, explaining why my still life fit the word Fire.
CHAINS,SCRATCHY, SHALLOW, DANGEROUS etc INKTOBER CONTINUES
The word was Chains,, so I drew a bank of fast food store chains, all in a row. I could not find any photos for this so I had to imagine it.
The word was Shallow. My cat scratches the word work, and me, when I walk too fast past her, so she’s my Miss Scratchy Baby!
The word was Shallow. Sea turtles are swimming in shallow water when you can see their shadows on the sea floor beneath them.
The word was Dangerous. This drawing depicts a young man singing in the bathtub while radio blasts out music, but little does he know the vibrations threaten to topple the radio into the tub…and we all know what happens then!
The word was Remove, so I drew an eviction as that’s how landlords remove an undesired tenant from their properties.
This time the word Beast suggested a young girl, understood to be beautiful, who looks in the mirror and sees only a beast. I don’t think this beast successfully captured what I wanted to depict, but there you have it.
This time the word was Sparkle, which stumped me until a friend said “eyes sparkle” and suggested I draw a detailed eye. Thank you, Mizzy!
Angel, Demon, Saddle, Plump, Frost— Inktober2023
Destroying Angel is an extremely poisonous mushroom in the Amanita genus.
Demon or Daimon can mean a god or deity so i chose to draw the Venus of Dolni Vestonice found in the Czech Republic and perhaps as old as 29,000 years. One of the oldest ceramic objects ever found.
Saddle shoes are full of nostalgia for me whereas saddles that go in horses etc mean little.
The word Plump brought to mind a plump ripe fig nearly bursting its skin with sweetness.
First frost of the season is coming soon and there are not enough shelters for all of these fellow human beings…
More Inktober 2023
day 14 is Castle. I drew the school in Sançerre, France, where I went in 2019. Cœur de France is actually situated in a small castle.
Monday’s prompt will be Angel, so I drew two Destroying Angel amanita mushrooms. (Below)
day 13 the prompt was Rise…
Day 12 the prompt was Spicy, misspelled as Spicey…I couldn’t think of anything to draw except spicy hot peppers
Tomorrow’s prompt is Dagger.
Inktober 2023 – first week plus
prompt on day 5 was Map
prompt was Fortune on day 10
prompt for day 11 tomorrow is Wander, of which I did two versions.
INKTOBER 2023!
This is the month for Inktober, that means an ink drawing a day for 31 days. So far so good!
The prompt for Day 1 was Dream.
The prompt for Day 2 was Spiders
The prompt for day 3 was Path and for Day 4 was Dodge… in the sense that we both dodged a bullet , deer and driver!
CLOCK ART
All the clocks below are made from paper mâché (plus a clock or just a clock mechanism ) . They range from about 9” across for the round white clock with the multicolored face, to the the fish clock which is about 20” from head to tail fin. All are for sale at the Brattleboro gallery of the Harmony Artists Collective.
Some new art from late august
OPEN LETTER TO SHANKAR VEDANTAM
Dear Shankar Vedantam,
I listen to Hidden Brain every week with interest, and frequently I share what I have learned with others. But today I write in some dismay after listening to the segment titled, The Truth about Honesty. Right from the start of the broadcast the idea was promoted that telling Elaine she’s is a bad dancer is “honesty.” That Taya’s youthful disparaging comment to her mother about what her mother wore to go out was “honesty”. But in my book these are judgments and they say much more about the speakers’ own feelings and needs than about Elaine’s dancing or Taya’s mother’s inferior sartorial choices.
“Elaine is a bad dancer” is not a statement of fact. It is an opinion and a moral judgment disguised as something else. Maybe the people watching Elaine do not enjoy watching her dance, that may be their truth, but to call her a bad dancer is a judgment. Where are the facts? Who is the ultimate judge? Maybe she was feeling something wonderful as she danced (she says as much) and her dancing felt wonderful inside her. I myself loved the simile employed of a giraffe on a dance floor and my mental image was quite positive. All I know is people are very quick to judge others and find them in their view wanting. The notion that others clearly know better than the person they are judging gives these others, all of them, the “authority” to state their opinion as if it is an absolute fact. But the only facts that are real can be stated as objective observations. Elaine kicks her feet while she turns. She extends her arm. All else, like the “dry heaves” description is nothing but judgment, and it tells us only how the speaker feels, in no way truly informing the listener about Elaine’s dancing.
Many people state opinions as if they are facts. They state judgments good and bad as if they have the moral authority to judge others. But I think giving ourselves the authority to judge everyone else is precisely what causes conflict and suffering in the world. So often, when observing someone else, we tell ourselves how good or bad they are at what they are doing. Or we judge how they look. And we always find others better or more frequently worse than ourselves, constructing a mental hierarchy of worst-worse-bad-good-better-best. But these hierarchies are not facts either. They are opinions, they are judgments. We are all busy judging others and ourselves without reference to “observable facts” at all.
I don’t know what makes a good dancer or a bad dancer. Good and bad are moral judgments and in my view play no role in honesty. Evaluation? It’s an opinion, one that society may choose to value but in the end says nothing about facts. A flamenco dancer may not seem so skillful in tap shoes on a tap board. A self-taught dazzle of a break dancer may feel and look out of place if transported to the stage of Swan Lake. But to call any dancer bad is like saying she or he is an evil dancer, which would strike most people as absurd.
Honesty means being true to yourself, in honoring and understanding your feelings and knowing the difference between your feelings and your thoughts/judgments/opinions. Sharing your feelings honestly means keeping to statements that do not blame others for how we feel, because we know that we are the sole agents of our feelings.
The truth about honesty is that honesty is only about ourselves. When we acknowledge either to ourselves and/or to another, what we are observing, feeling, needing we are being honest. In terms of actions we can be honest about what we have done in the past, what we are thinking/feeling/needing in the moment, or about our intentions for the future. We can be honest about our motivations. We can be honest about having a judgment of another, but then we declare it as such, and recognize it is not the truth, not a fact, just a judgment. We can’t be honest about anyone else. Speaking my truth to another is about me, and not about them – it is about what I observe, feel and need. Period.
I think the biggest truth about honesty is that most people don’t know what honesty really is. And instead of being honest about themselves, their observations, feelings, and needs, they resort to judgments and verbal brutality. But what purpose does this serve? Cruelty doesn’t help anyone thrive in this world. If you want to be honest, look inward, know yourself. That’s where honesty’s function is, there and only there.
Best wishes,
Phoebe S Wagner
below is a link to the video in question, an episode from Seinfeld.
PORTRAIT OF A CHILD, IN STAGES
Mr and Mrs, Mr and Mr, or Mrs and Mrs What’s-it!
(Made of polymer clay and pipe cleaners, toothpicks and tongue depressors! )
WAGblog: Dum Spiro Spero 