Next stop, Nowheresville Art Depot

Today was a day spent searching for art materials. Some time on Ebay, some time at local flea markets…I even ventured into (gasp) Home Depot, only to find that their wood cutting machine was broken. Since I had been hoping to get some oak planking cut into manageable-sized panels for paintings and collages, I was unhappy with this complication. I only half consoled myself by picking up some tiny brass hinges and eye screws. Then as I was passing the paneling area, I spotted some sample pieces cut into four-inch rectangles. The cashier seemed puzzled that I was buying so many, but I was on a quest for wood and at 50 cents apiece, the price was right.

I’m trying to work on a project for Somerset Studio’s call for submissions on the topic of Music, but my ideas keep changing. At first I was working with the theme of the danse macabre, specifically a band of musical skeletons I saw years ago at a Renaissance festival. I couldn’t get a handle on it, though, so I went to bed irritated, thinking that I had wasted my Saturday on something that didn’t pan out. I slept fitfully and found myself wide awake in the middle of the night. While listening to Art Bell talk about alternative 9/11 theories, I had a strange sort of half-dream about my late grandmother and a particular song she used to warble while she was cleaning the kitchen or washing her hair. I wasn’t nostalgic about the song, which is from a movie from the 60s that I’ve never seen, but rather the funny little off-key sound of her voice, which I can still hear clearly in my head, although she’s been gone for fifteen years. I started to think of another song, one I *am* nostalgic about–”They Can’t Take That Away From Me” by George and Ira Gershwin—in particular, the version sung by Michael Feinstein. “The way you wear your hat,” it goes, “The way you sing off-key”. And I had a different idea. I guess the musical skeletons will have to wait for another time and a fresh inspiration. The good thing about art is that it doesn’t go bad, like food or fashion.

I sketched tonight. Whenever I get bored I do more masks, as they have a strange simplified quality I find enjoyable to draw. This is pastel on prepared wood board.