I'm gonna title this one Art,Misery and Mars retrograde. A couple of years ago before the new American depression started a patron purchasing one of my older paintings informed me that my new work was nice but lacked the dark edge of older pieces...... he said I needed more angst in my life. Well now I have it and its showing in the new work. Working in a less than ideal environment where the human condition is packaged and sold in high volume has taken me to a place I never wanted to revisit. The only way to NOT run screaming from the room is to to get it on canvas. I'm planning on a private showing of the new work in August. I'm a little confused right now because I don't know if I should be grateful for the inspiration or if I should be pissed that my personal utopia is disintegrating. Now......I know I am not alone in the new paradigm we are all facing. Astrologically speaking we are reaching a collective critical mass. Jimmy and I saw it coming years ago which is why we consciously adopted our lifestyle.
We have spent the last 4 years digging up all the info we could on subsistence living. While we were doing it, it was hip,cool, and fun. Now I fear we didn't learn enough. There is so much more we need to know to insure a high quality of life in the coming days. I know this post is a bit of a downer but I am deeply affected by the increasing numbers of homeless begging on the corners as I drive to and from work. Yes, I know there are some scammers out there but the folks I am seeing now have a look about them. Its in the downcast eyes and the embarrassed body language that tells me they don't want to be there. Its the air of quiet humiliation they are carrying. While I could keep going on this topic for pages I will move on to what we are doing to prevent our own slide to the desperate side. We are increasing our medicinal garden this year. Our starts are doing great they are all two to three inches tall and need to be transplanted from the tiny little start trays. We have had a nice surprise this last two weeks. Our winter garden which was frozen and wilted two weeks ago has sprung back to life?!? Next year I will pay more attention to it. We are only a few weeks away from spring planting.
The next thing on the agenda is to refurb my great grandmothers treadle sewing machine. Get a new drive band for it and learn to use it. It still works but needs some oiling and one new part. The thing is bullet proof. It will sew everything from silk to leather. Why did singer ever go electric when they had such a perfect product. Its almost a hundred years old and does exactly what it did fresh from the factory. There is not a piece of plastic anywhere on it!
We only have a week and a half til this Mars RX is over. This has been a tough one for everyone. I will be glad when its done. It has been enlightening though.
