The page is back to its old self again and I hope it stays that way for a while. I have a sometimes bad habit of messing with the scripts and code of my web pages and usually end up destroying them in one way or another. I really do need to learn to a) back up successful pages more often and b) leave well enough alone!

The new air conditioner is to be installed this morning - I hope. Max and I had to sleep on the floor in the living room last night. Not particularly comfortable but at least it was a bit cooler. I look forward to being able to move about the house without breaking a sweat!

I realized last night, while sitting very still in hopes of cooling down a bit, that I had been avoiding thinking about and even more, doing something about one of my favorite topics and activities: ART. I hadn't written anything, I hadn't drawn anything, painted anything -nothing! Now, I did buy two art magazines the other day with the intention of gobbling them up and then reviewing them here and in the newsletter (which I have let slide as well!) But, did I do that? No. I've only flipped through them and then set them aside.

Then, this morning, I found myself checking out some of the posts on DE's brother blog, Scented Shadows and I read a particular bit about transformation. I realized that I am still quite actively in the process of reconstructing myself.

I believe that the last time I spent considerable energy painting I was working on taking myself apart. I was responding to images and paintings that I had seen, I knew that I was imitating both the raw images and the ones that had been transformed by others and I tried as I worked to separate those containers of awareness. As I did this, I noticed certain sensations that were familiar but distant. I don't know what those sensations really were but I suspect they are closer to products of a real me than I have experienced in a while.

Loving the act of pushing paints as I do, I am surprised that I don't do it more often. Part of it, I am sure, is the cost. Part of it is the large hunks of time involved in doing it to my own personal satisfaction. The primary reason, though, and this may be a conceit, is that the process of painting itself is, for me, a wondrous, transformative, magical and spiritual act, and having accomplished something concrete in it I find, like a body builder, I need time to recover. My body and my spirit and my mind need time to rest and rebuild.

Knowing about paints, brushes, supports and knowing about elements of drawing, color, illusion and perception and knowing about history, context and cultural positioning of my own work are all incidental to the transformative power of the act of making art, especially, for me at least, painting. Those other aspects of art can be approached separately and, if you ask me, must be addressed if one is to be successful as an artist. The essential and central point of art is transformative in nature and purpose. Transformative for the artist and, if the byproduct of the actions of the artist is successful, the artifact if you will, then it is transformative for the viewer as well.