Start of Summers Journal Entry

They say Memorial Day is the "declaration" of Summer start. I'm in total agreement, however, our Oregon weather has disagreed. Up to a few days ago we had rain showers and very cool days. But my lil' family forged ahead, ignoring that silly unpredictable weather and made picnic plans for Sunday May 30th.

I got home from church and we each made an unusual sandwich accompanied by drink and packed off to a nearby park. Oh my, it was packed!! We'd read in the paper that national soccer groups were gathering here for playoffs but didn't GET the impact til we saw the soccer fields speckled with players and attached family, picnic gear and coaches. Luckily, we found a parking place AND an open picnic table. Cody, our lovable Golden Retriever stationed under the picnic table, should there be any food droppings, and us perched gazing ~ ~ we reveled in the cool breeze, the abundance of families playing, chatting together ~ ~ just an overall feeling of joy and freedom. In the background, I heard the Ice Cream Man come along with his sing-songy tunes repeating in the air - there's some childhood memories! My favorite vision was of this little pink-be-decked girl, holding hands with her older brother, both were smiling. After lunch we took a prolonged tour around the perimeter of the park where it was more quiet, savoring just b-e-i-n-g.

For our further initiation into Summer, we completed our meal with our first annual visit to DQ for a soft ice cream cone. One lil' decadence we still enjoy ...

The adjacent journal entry page was an adventure. I was working with a private student, demonstrating Light Molding Paste which was dry, and attempting to squeeze out some liquid Alizarin Crimson Acrylics onto the page. Yep, you guessed it - - the slight clog unclogged all at once -- squirting a pool of blood-like pigment all over my page. I sopped up as much as possible and made an attempt to add lighter value pigments to soften what my student had now named "a crime scene". But nothing helped. It remained a red, ghastly blob on my page. What to do???

My original idea for the page had been "play" so I went in search of anything that could bring back that feeling. I came across a jester I'd painted and using opaque gouache, overlaid this flamboyant fellow and his white spinning pins over my bloody mess. I have to admit, this helped and now, I'm fairly at ease with my disaster.

So once again, I want to model for you, well, maybe not the accidental means by which I started this "need for a creative solution" but, at least the process. You can "save" almost anything . . . don't give up . . . let even your life lessons be avenues to see differently. I'd love to hear about some of your "creative solutions" . . . and your feedback.