CREATIVE CYCLES

Last fall, every watercolor that I attempted went into the wastebasket. I made all the common mistakes of watercolor painting. I overworked the paint, I didn't lay a good foundation by careful drawing before I started to paint, and I covered up all the white area of the paper. I know that the turbulent time after the election and our move affected my abilities. I knew that outside those influences I was going through a period of creative aggravation that develops before I can progress further. 

I remember our son as he struggled as a toddler. He would spend some time frustrated before he broke through to master a new skill. I remember his impatience and his triumphs as he took first steps, first tastes, and the glee at new accomplishments. I tell myself that, eventually, my own period of dithering and dissatisfaction will likely produce a new leap forward. 

I find landscapes the most difficult to master in watercolor. The large open spaces escape from me quickly and I try to over-correct what I've put down on paper. My example from last fall, three paintings of the East Bay hills show what happens as I painted.

First overworked rendition

New painting - Second rendition

Last rendition that may or may not work

I switched to painting portraits and flowers because with them I can work in small spaces, connecting to the next space until I have a satisfactory piece. I haven't been able yet to translate that same way of painting to landscapes.

As we get older, sometimes we have to give up activities that we've taken for granted such as riding bicycles, walking without assistance, writing legibly, and making large pieces of art. We rail against the loss. Sometimes the loss leads us to other ways such as letting other people help, focusing on artwork that is possible, and being willing to accept that you look older, and people may treat you differently. I enjoy the moments when people look at me as older and want to help in some way. So far, I don't really need the help, but I find the offer both amusing and kind. In our cruel-hearted world that has become more and more the norm, especially in the last few weeks, I am glad to see young people who still live by thoughtfulness. In my life of always trying to take care of myself by myself, I can now let some things go.

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Two artist friends have made a pledge to each other to "toot their own horns" about their accomplishments. I'm doing the same here. I have made an edition of the Postcards in the Air essays I've written for 2024. I used Into Real Pages, a site that can grab my blog posts from my website and print them into a beautiful book. Here is their website:

https://intorealpages.com

Here is my latest book:

Collage of photos from 2024
 displayed before the title page

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Thought for the week:

 … Sen. Lisa Murkowski: “If Musk truly wants to understand what federal workers accomplished over the past week, he should get to know each department and agency, and learn about the jobs he's trying to cut. Our public servants work hard to ensure that our national security is protected; that planes land safely; that forest fires do not spread to our homes; that Social Security checks arrive on time; that research for the breakthroughs needed to cure diseases like cancer and ALS continues; and much more. Our public workforce deserves to be treated with dignity and respect for the unheralded jobs they perform. The absurd weekend email to justify their existence wasn’t it.”

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February 2025 View from My Window with a slight change of scene for four days

WHY ARTISTS COLLECT

A page in a sketchbook using stamps as a focal point

Stamp collecting as a child opened my eyes to other worlds. I loved the feel of the old, thin paper and the designs printed on them. Looking at one-color small portraits of historic figures or events led me to discover the history and culture of a person or place. I grew to love history by collecting stamps. I ran to the mailbox in hopes of finding unusual stamps in the stack of mail. I wasn't a stamp collector who put a monetary value on my stamps, but I did keep an eye out for the Inverted Jenny, that rare upside-down airplane stamp that is now worth millions.

To save the stamps, I cut them off their envelopes and soaked them in water till they slipped off the paper. I dried them on a paper towel under a book and then placed a hinge on the backside so that I could adhere the stamps to the pages of my stamp book, which was sectioned into countries. When I went to college, my stamp book sat in a closet at home. Over the years though, I found myself drawn to stamps as I stood in line at the post office and looked at the stamps on display.

While we lived overseas at the turn of the century, I collected the stamps in Japan and France. I wandered through Marche aux Timbres, the outdoor stamp market in Paris, and stood in line at the local Japanese post office where I was flabbergasted to see people drop off shopping bags to be sent through the mail with no additional packaging. I also had to learn not to lick envelopes or stamps there. Instead, I used two-sided sticky tape. By that time, the stamps around the world had become colorful and designed by artists. While looking for flat objects to include in mixed media projects, I bought small bags of used vintage stamps that I sprinkled throughout some of my mixed media sketchbooks. I found that placing a stamp somewhere on a blank page lets my imagination flourish.

I sat this weekend in a workshop led by Annie Cicale, a noted calligrapher and artist. She offered various ways to create art books with the idea that the content is the most important part of the book, leaving the construction of the book to the end. As I was sifting through my pile of paste papers and scrap papers, I rediscovered an envelope full of used vintage stamps. An idea erupted: I could make a Stamp Book!

First draft of my Stamp Book

I created a first draft of the book and decided that I would make the graphics stronger on the next try. (I will soak off the stamps to reuse them.) And then I thought about the last couple of years as we downsized and gave away items that we no longer used, including all of our stamp books. We had agreed that they might be a spark in someone else's life to discover history and culture. Thinking of those books, I had one of those moments of recognition as to why artists collect things to the point of being hoarders when really those collected things might turn out to be the next big idea.

Even the outline of a stamp creates interest

Check out what the US Post Office offers to stamp collectors:

https://www.usps.com

Check out Annie Cicale's website. Her work is worth a look:

https://cicaledesign.net/about/

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Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Elie Wiesel 

ART HEARTS: CHOOSE LOVE

cartoon by Bill Slavin

I married a romantic and a risk taker. On our first Valentine's Day, Bill gave me a hand-drawn card. To give a handmade card to someone whose family are all artists, that's bravery. He also gave me the nickname Gus (but that's another story). Later Bill asked me to marry him on a different Valentine's Day while we sat in a crowded Italian restaurant on Tahoe's North Shore after a tiring day of skiing. 

When we moved to San Francisco, we discovered large hearts decorating different parts of the City. We found large hearts at the corners of Union Square, we found hearts in bank lobbies, outside apartment buildings, and inside of hospitals. 

Heart at corner of Union Square

We knew about the San Francisco General Hospital fundraising campaign, but never realized how many hearts still can be found in the City. The fundraising annual event began in 2004, when artists were encouraged to paint large scale hearts. The hearts are auctioned off each year and have found their way to other parts of the Bay Area. Danville, our old hometown, created a similar event in 2020 and exhibited sixteen hearts on the main street, Hartz Avenue. We walk to Giants ballgames and pass by the army green heart outside of Momo's Restaurant. At the end of a winning game, we listen as the song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," echoes through out the stands. Hearts, then, have been a big part of our lives.

Heart in Salesforce Park

At the end of January we walked by the front door of the Ferry Building and discovered two large hearts, one called Japanese Tea Garden by Isabelle Hung, and the other by Dev Heyrana called Sol. We wandered through the busy Ferry Building and found a collection of smaller hearts at the back of the building. 

Japanese Tea Garden by Isabelle Hung

Cities around the world have adopted the practice of creating sculptures for fundraising. Not only do the specific organizations such as San Francisco General Hospital benefit from the fundraising, but so do artists who have a chance to exhibit their talents in a public space. We first saw artwork painted onto cows instead of hearts all over Prague many years ago. They had chosen to participate in The CowParade which highlights the artwork of artists who select from three different cow shapes to use as their base. These cities have recognized how important the work of artists can be to bring joy and fun to their communities while raising money for good purposes.

Easy-to-make Valentine card by Martha Slavin (see Project Directions2)

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Check out this year's hearts to be auctioned on February 14:

https://my.onecause.com/event/organizations/sf-001C000000valEmIAI/events/vevt:717330a2-fef3-4b5c-9d86-c3536d0d4c94/auctions/silent-auction

Map of Hearts (heart sculptures locations from previous years):

https://sfghf.org/map/

Danville's Hearts on Hartz:

https://www.danville.ca.gov/785/Hearts-around-Hartz-2020

In the Heartland of America, view Kansas City's Parade of Hearts:

https://theparadeofhearts.com  This year's auction is over, but their website is a colorful display.

Also, don't miss viewing the CowParade's site: 

https://cowparade.com/elementor-page-432/

Heart Card by Martha Slavin

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Have a heart, Choose Love (as the NFL said): 

Did you know that over $200 million dollars were spent on anti-trans ads by the Republican Party during the Presidential election? Did you know that there are fewer than 10 athletes in the NCAA who identify as transgender? Even a non-math major like me can see the disparity. Is this issue so important that it deserves such attention or are they just hyping up fear of the Other? 

ROOM FOR BOOKS

"Old Things"

A room lined with bookshelves weighted down with all the books I've ever read, with a large comfortable chair and a warm throw on my lap. Maybe a cup of tea on the stand next to me. This is one of my dream rooms, a quiet place to shut out our turbulent times.  I thought of such a room as I sifted through boxes of books I packed to take to our new home two years ago, not expecting that our choice would not have a book/studio room. Instead, we chose a small condo in San Francisco with lots of light and not much wall space that allows us to take advantage of all the city has to offer, but not much room for our prized books and hobbies.

Like many items I gave away this year, I took a photo of the books I had read while I attended Scripps College and experienced their rigorous 3-year Humanities program.

Yes, I still have most of those books.

I can give away other things pretty easily, but books give me the ability to capture the thoughts of other people, to understand other cultures and languages, and to consider the wider experiences of people I haven't met.

I admire the idea of the Renaissance Person, exemplified by Leonardo da Vinci who pursued knowledge in all its forms from art to engineering to anatomy to science and philosophy. (Did you watch the recent PBS series?) The Renaissance was another turbulent time when thinkers, leaders, and creatives imagined different ways to govern and live more freely.

From my stack, I picked up The Book of the Courtier by Baldassare Castiglione, which I hadn't read since college. It was part of a series of books written about politics and power at the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance. It is now an obscure book but was widely read when it was published. The book was a prominent source for the definition of an ideal courtier or court lady, who could offer advice to a political leader. Leafing through the pages quickly, I realized the book, written in 1515, is surprisingly current in its thinking. It is a companion and counterpoint to Machiavelli's The Prince, written in 1532.

Castiglione envisions a courtier as someone who is an eloquent speaker, well-rounded in both the arts and physical endeavors, and who refrains from following a leader's order if that order is evil. The Book of the Courtier provides a different point of view from Machiavelli's The Prince, which focuses on obtaining power at any cost and does not consider honor to be a virtue.

As I look at these old books, I am grateful I had a chance when I was young to learn critical thinking skills, understand different points of view, and not be taken in easily by charlatans or by the rabid approval of a crowd. As Winston Churchill said in 1948, "Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it."  Other people, including Karl Marx, George Bernard Shaw, and George Santayana made similar statements. Religious texts offer identical ideas. From these old books, I learned that people in different cultures often came to the same conclusions about values and principles to live by.

A footnote: I long ago stopped keeping every book I read. We would never have found a house big enough to hold all the books the two of us read. Looking through the art books that I've accumulated, I didn't really need 15 books about learning how to hand-letter or four or five books about book arts when one or two would do. Now these books are going to the library, the White Elephant Sale for the Oakland Museum, or to Scrap, a local reuse warehouse for teachers. What better places for these books so they will reach the hands of others.

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Thanks to Wikipedia and Brainly for helpful reviews of the two books, The Book of the Courtier and The Prince.

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180 Republicans voted against the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2019, which included funding for the agency responsible for keeping air travel safe. Is your representative one of these 180?