occurrent gallberry jesus

Cynical realism is the intelligent man's best excuse for doing nothing in an intolerable situation.

Aldous Huxley 

Shocked and dismayed that The Captain and Tennille are divorcing.  
What about the rest of us?

And the beat goes on-  still have to do at least a onto more PT, and that's with really applying myself at home too, doing the exercises I hate the most because, naturally, they hurt the most!  But I am making progress, especially if I don't turn into a mad knitter every night and undo all the PT good.  Still hurts to knit, the only 'handicap' I still have, and I still have to finish the big driver club cover before the Play for Pink tournament auction.  I finished the ribbing tonight so now I'm down to a few more hours that I'll divide up over the days I have left.  Not to mention I have things I must get done for my own life as well as get some entries sent off to upcoming shows, if it's not too late already.  My friend leaves tomorrow night and then I pick up TY from the airport the next morning and we start the cycle all over again.  Now that he will be able to chip and putt he will possibly be out of the house a bit more.  

Plus I have that February 1st self imposed deadline...

you may or may not remember.

Aht

Look closely and you can see the tiny rabbit that sculptors Andre Prinsloo and Ruhan Janse van Vuuren put inside the ear of their nearly 30-foot-tall statue of late South African President Nelson Mandela at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.  There is a tiny brass bunny, the only signature on the massive piece.  It's been ordered to be removed immediately even thought none has noticed it since its unveiling.  Pity.

Visual artist James Fox seeks to challenge our expectations of gender roles in modern society and the workplace through his artwork. Often he juxtaposes these subversive themes with the techniques he uses (machine embroidery and reverse appliqué) to create an incongruous, ironic feel to his pieces. Having graduated from Goldsmiths college with a first class degree, he has exhibited and sold textile-based work nationally and internationally.

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Robert Genn, one of our favorite artists, has fallen on poor health and is now painting lying in his bed-  there is a precedent for h=this with Matisse and later Freda Khalo but Genn is ours, of this age, and we are following his journey with concern.  The other day he posted a list of things to understand as an artist on his blog, The Painters Keys

1. Art is a perfectly complete cause.

 2. You are solely responsible for doing the work required to become better.

 3. You are responsible for understanding your limitations.

 4. You are responsible for radicalizing your strengths.

 5. Make a searching and fearless inventory of your creative curiosity.

 6. Pay no attention to the less courageous.

 7. Learn from the greats, and expose yourself to better work.

 8. Read in order to write, but paint in order to paint. 

 9. Be artistic, choose taste, set an example.

 10. "Play" is your route to mastery.

 11. In the art game we do our own cooking.

(With thanks to this wise man)

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Gratuitous snow pictures populated by my grandkids:

My little announcement of Squirrel Appreciation Day yesterday garnered me some pretty interesting responses, don't know who sent me this of a very tiny guy standing on a poor sleeping squirrel...