messy pend holbrook

Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.   T.S. Eliot 

Howdee.  Arm is a killin' machine today!  PT yesterday was a bit too much and today it all feels like it's hanging by a string that's ready to snap.  But maybe it's how I'm treating it.  So, today I took an Advil and the ice pack is on so maybe it will feel better in a bit.

The Tortuga Castle Powers That Be changed out the street number plaque on our mailbox the other day so we would all 'conform to standards' but in the process they left cement hunks and slabs all over the mailbox stand  In addition they 'fixed' the corners that had been knocked out by the landscape guys so that was more cement clumps.  The mailbox is painted to match our house, the color of tomato soup, so the cement and plaster patches had to be dealt with, and of course any manual labor is my department here.  So I found some dredges of paint in a rusty can in the garage and managed to bring a bit back to life and tackled the project.  Unfortunately all I had a was a foam brush and the cement ate it up pretty quickly so I persevered by putting on some with my trusty tools on the end of each hand.

Then I also repainted the bare spots the last painters left AROUND the bushes, difficult to hold back the branches I imagined, but I did it in maybe 3 minutes and that was the length of the courtyard and maybe a foot high.  So I stood back to admire my work and the Old Paint Bucket is the original color-  Tomato Soup, while the house and wall and mailbox had faded considerably in the hot summer sun to 'Smoked Salmon'.  Maybe the gray cement chunks would have looked better left alone.

While I was at the studio grabbing that bad brush early this morning I managed to cut a facing for the jacket and pin down the neck facing ready to sew.  I also picked out some of the old bakelite buttons but I had to put the red ones back because I need more, so defaulted to the black furrier's buttons-  I still have hundreds left from the huge box I started with, no two the same!   Anyway I did get a few smaller tasks done and went off to my Stitch group for some human contact.  If my shoulder wasn't screaming at me I'd go back but that isn't happening today.  Damn.

Taking discarded junk and turning it into sculptures isn’t exactly new, but these fantastic sculptures from Edouard Martinet have something that most don’t: a striking resemblance to the animals they represent and a level of detail that only years of experience could create. Using vintage metal from old bicycles, electric fans, spatulas, and other discarded bits, he has created a surprisingly convincing body of work.

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INCOMPLETE MANIFESTO FOR CHANGE     Bruce Mau

• Begin anywhere. 
  John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere.
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  Addendum to the perfect day:  I ventured out because I was making enchiladas and didn't have any cheese other than Parmesan and I though that might be too far a stretch.  Anyway, tight parking lot, I pulled out of my space a foot at a time looking both ways and WHAM, I got hit by the lady in the Espalade pulling out directly behind me.  Good thing I wasn't moving-  she had really hit her pedal and whacked me good.  We both got out, the sun was blazing and I didn't see damage, know she could not have seen my Mini from her lofty vantage point, but all seemed OK and we went out ways.  I then stopped for cheese and when walking back to my car in more shadow, noticed the whole right side of the bumper is bent in.  And I KNOW how much new Mini bumpers cost.  I will take Paypal donations.  Damn.  But back to our regularly stupid program:
  
  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  For Korean artist JeeYoung Lee the question was how to utilize her small studio space in Seoul measuring 11.8′ x 13.5′ x 7.8′ (3.6m x 4.1m x 2.4m) that was proportionally miniscule to the scale of her boundless imagination. Instead of finding a new location or reverting to digital trickery, Lee challenged herself to build some of the most elaborate sets imaginable for the sake of taking a single photograph. These surreal and dreamlike images are the result of Lee’s determination to share stories from her own life as well as various Korean fables by completely manifesting everything you see in reality. Lee labors for weeks and months to create the aspects of each scene complete with a multitude of handmade props, suspended objects, and unique lighting requirements, all of which might normally be ripe for the use of Photoshop that could shave weeks off production time—however the artist shuns all digital manipulation and instead focuses on creating even the most minute details by hand.

  
  

  
  

  Another thing I don't want for Christmas:

  

  Classy R Us

  
  

  

When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.