Green Lizard

I must be feeling witless today. I can't think of a clever title for this painting. Instead, my mind is wandering in the world of free association as usual, just thinking about the many meanings of the word "mean." Right away, one definition is to explain, or signify, as in what does "mean" mean? Or to have a purpose, as: I mean to get it done soon. Or, humble or shabby or stingy. Or how about malicious, as in "a mean streak." Or used negatively for praise, as in "no mean feat." Then there's its usefulness as a middle position between extremes; or a resource helpful in accomplishing something, as in "a means to an end," or "by all means." A "man of means" has better than sufficient resources. Imagine trying to teach all this to a student from another country. English is complicated. I mean it.

Cocoa Village

I am fresh out of things to write about today, so I will share my Email Lament with you, which I wrote in protest of all the junk that gets forwarded to me.

Email Lament

Please! No more flowers,
No more Bunnies,
No more promises of money!

No more “Send this
To eight friends
Then you’ll have big bucks to spend!”

No more “Microsoft will pay,
They have dough to give away.”

I can pray without restraint,
Don’t need help from clip-art saints.

That kid’s not missing,
She’s just fine.
That scam began in ’99.

I’m sick of scares, so send me none.
Go check your facts at Snopes.com.

Send this on or trash today,
Your luck won't change much either way.

Homage to Dali, Mixed Media

My painting group, Pieces of Eight, has a monthly challenge. One member brings in an object for us to paint. Our first object was a toothbrush. This is my toothbrush painting, an homage to Dali, named TranscenDENTAL. An alternate title could be "Persistence of Tooth Decay." We are painting indoors lately because of the heat. Plein Air is now Hot and Humid Air and we are not into suffering. Speaking of suffering, my husband and I were weeding our yard at the same time our neighbor’s landscaper was working next door. He went on for hours without benefit of jumping into the pool frequently, which is what I was doing. I started thinking about all the tough people who work in this impossible heat: road workers, firemen, landscapers, masons, carpenters, roofers, painters…and our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are tormented by the heat, and I don’t know how they do it. Yard work makes me feel like I’m going to explode. To those who are out there, sweltering and miserable, for their families and their country, hot-weather heroes, I salute you!

The Bridge

This is a 36 x 24 oil painting, a commission for the new Cocoa City Hall. It is the Hubert H. Humphrey Bridge, which spans the Indian River, aka the Intracoastal Waterway. During the time I painted this, Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Billy Mays, and Karl Malden died, the governor of SC disgraced himself, and a teenager survived the crash of an airliner into the ocean. And with all that, we have been ridiculously saturated with the Michael Jackson news, since in the world of 24-hour news, enough is never enough. And if you don't have facts, just speculate. And when speculation gets old, interview an "expert" who will gladly drone on and on and on and on...