collage

penumbral

penumbral s

almost a shadow
almost an echo between
vast uncertainties

hidden voices wandering
the uncharted borderlines

This year’s Wolf Moon comes with a penumbral eclipse.  For Frank Tassone’s #Haikai Challenge #120, and also linked to OLN on dVerse, hosted by Grace.

penumbral close up s

This is a watercolor with a moon photo collaged on top.

I’m going to be absent from posting for awhile, though I will try to check in with what everyone’s doing.  I’m moving into a small temporary space, putting most of my stuff in storage, and hoping to move into a permanent home before 2020 is through.  I won’t have a drawing table and not sure how many supplies will fit into the space, but I’ll be back to doing more work of some kind as soon as I can.

deficits

deficits s

the world gives me wide berth
as its sharp edges leave cuts in my flesh

passing by in starts and stops
a broken narrative without a plot line

I cannot remain but where I am
fits nowhere leaves no mark

feeding me endless empty words
that catch my throat and heart

I am alone

standing still shouting
an unnamed beast

trying to wake those lost strangers
hidden inside the shrinking circle

too many voices fallen silent
too many gaps grown between

what is left to be
sacred to be denied

For Sue Vincent’s photo prompt, above.

deficits close up s

Poem up at The Ekphrastic Review

the water under the bridge s

My poem “the water under the bridge” is included in The Ekphrastic Review’s Victor Gontarov Challenge responses.  Gontarov’s painting is entitled “Gogol’s Dream”, and many of the responses did refer to the writer and his work.  I chose to focus on the dream.

mermaid s

Sometimes the formatting does not come through, and that was the case this time, so I’ve included the poem below with the correct line spacings.

this disordered arrangement
it cannot remain
as it is it is

always somewhere else
transparent shadow
what it was it was

a current of emotion
a glimpse of possibility
what could be could be

a conjuring that takes
and spends itself in fragments
what is not is not

no single body holds it
it cannot be arrayed
what it is it is

always disconnected
from story, form, the why
and what if what if

man s

My thanks to editor Lorette C. Luzajic for once again featuring my work.

January 2020

january 2020 s

jan 2020 news words s

My January grid turned out to be a circle.  The words were taken from a NY Times section that summarized the 2019 year’s top stories.  I tried to take all the negativity and give it a more positive spin.

january 2020 grid close up s

 The birds may have been climate-changed out of their respective states, but they are still here.

memories conjured
in opposite images
balance transition

anything can be portaled
where borders cross into birds

Blogger Recognition Award

december__s

Sue Vincent recently honored me with a recognition award on her blog, and I wanted to acknowledge and thank her both for the mention and the support and inspiration she provides to me and the all those in her community.  I don’t remember how I first connected to her blog, but her weekly photo prompts have become an important part of my creative process.

How did my blog start?  My friend Nina and I, who worked together for a textile company in the 1970s, were trying to encourage each other to get back to making art.  Emailing back and forth wasn’t working too well, so we decided to start a blog to post what we were doing and comment to each other.  That was in 2014.  When Nina told me we had acquired followers I was surprised, and we both started looking around at what others were doing on WordPress.  It seems like connections rose organically–I don’t remember exactly how I “met” most of the people I interact with regularly now, although I do remember early on that Marcy Erb, who blogged on Illustrated Poetry, asked me to illustrate a poem for her, which certainly started me thinking about combining words and images.

This year Nina decided to take an extended break from MethodTwoMadness, and not wanting to do our joint venture by myself, I started kblog as a place to post until she gets back, keeping MeMadTwo going with the monthly draw-a-bird day.

I would definitely not be doing the work I’m doing now without the interactions I have with both artists and writers on WordPress.

My advice to new bloggers is the same as has been given by many others:  build relationships, comment and reply to comments, and visit other blogs.  Be open to things outside your comfort zone–I would have never predicted I would be not only both writing and doing art, but combining them in ways that weren’t even in my consciousness 5 years ago.  Prompts are a good way both to spur creativity and see how different people approach the same subject.  I’ve learned a lot from doing them.

The art at the top of this post was done for a call for calendar art (from an old calendar, not this year’s).  It was rejected (expect that with great frequency if you send your work out for exhibit or publication), which gives me the opportunity to use it for this December as we move from dark days to ones with more light.  I’m taking a blog break for the rest of the year, but I’ll be back in 2020.  And hopefully Nina will too.

Happy New Year to all, and thanks Sue!