summer in the city 2020

dense with heat
drivers changing shifts
bus idles

basketball
gold headphones playing
by himself

skateboard clacks
over empty courts
echoed moves

line of carts
winds around corner
still waiting

masked hunger
distances between
uncovered

heavy clouds
greyness falling now
lightning flash

For Frank Tassone at dVerse, a haiku sequence reflecting what I saw out my window this morning.

My monoprints were inspired by de Kooning, but somehow ended up looking more like Pollock.

butterfly

sun casts its
eye on winged shadows,
dancing in
to the day–
tossed by light waves that play with
dappled melodies

I’ve been wanting to do another butterfly painting, and the dVerse prompt from Laura, flights of fancy, provided the perfect excuse.

Last weekend of July, 2020

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Swimming with the fishes

I spent an hour and a half in the pool yesterday. Swam laps for a while, then a friend of mine came and I kept swimming and chatting with her. It’s been very hot and I’m grateful to have a place to be in the water.

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Tried to do something different with unpainted rocks. I may have to mess with these more. I swooshed the paint to make a design, kind of fun.

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I still like painting them matte black first. I’ll spray the finish on but it’s too hot to do it outside. I’ve been keeping a few in my drawer at work to give to people (if they’re not afraid to take them. I am not shedding the virus as far as I know).

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William Carlos Williams at Garrett Mountain

Random picture of the poet who wrote “Paterson”, my home town. I’m going to attempt to do a drawing.

Have a good week! Nina

Four Poems up at Scribe Base

I am delighted to be included in the Space issue of Scribe Base along with Damien Donnelly.  You can see it here.

My thanks to editor Chris Hubbard for continued support of my work.

There are still a few days left to submit to the Emergence themed issue–both writing and art.  Read about it here.

water music

sea reaches
toward land
waves form patterns
mermaid songs rising falling
on currents of air

I used the photo supplied by Sally Cronin, above, for Colleen’s #tanka Tuesday gogyohka.  The colored pencil drawing is one of water currents I did earlier this year.  I meant to do more of these, but it requires a focus I just don’t have right now.

Also posting on dVerse Open Link Night, hosted by Mish.

The Kick-About #6 ‘A Field Guide To Getting Lost’

The latest Kick-About offering featuring my labyrinths and lots of other wonderful creations as usual.

Red's Kingdom

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Arguably, all previous Kick-Abouts have been a response to this same prompt, courtesy of Francesca Maxwell, with each resulting showcase of work offering a guide to the ways in which different people take unpredictable journeys into new and unexpected terrains. As is attested to by a number of the works in this edition, ‘getting lost’ is never about losing time, but rather gaining experience.

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Charly Skilling

“When I started thinking about this prompt – about how you plan a trip, about what can go wrong, about getting lost – I was reminded of this bit of family lore which is often trotted out at our family’s events: the day mother went to Shrewsbury and got lost.

It was actually in the mid-90’s (Cadfael was a very popular mystery television series at that time, based on the books of Ellis Peters) but everything about Mum’s story was reminiscent of…

View original post 1,546 more words

Drawing and painting over the weekend

I took a break from rocks this weekend. I had some black paper with paint marks from getting the point on the brush and decided to try turning them into something.

Drawing of an old brooch

I have a lot of shots of random stuff on my iPhone so that was another option:draw some of them. I take shots of stuff I like and that I think I will draw someday. This was a brooch on an auction site I look at because I like to look at jewelry.

I love medical drawing so here’s a brain and a heart.

Another one on black paper with paint dabs on it. The dabs were up by the left eye. This one, not so great but posting it anyway.

I also cleaned up my area a little. The rune in the photo was a gift from K. I think she meant for me to paint it but it’s too beautiful the way it is.

Drawing table with some rocks I still have. The blue elephants are out in the neighborhood.

Hope everyone has a good week! Nina

triangulations

I am am three wishes
caught in a vast sea-tossed net
of indecision

Grace at dVerse asked us to use the words I am in a first person narrative.

heat wave

on the horizon
top melts into bottom and
becomes something else

For Frank Tassone’s haikai challenge #147 smoldering hot.

And a watercolor for World Watercolor Month, hosted by Charlie at Doodlewash.

Weekend batch #?

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I spent some time this weekend painting rocks again. As Claudia McGill has suggested, this is a very meditative activity for me. I’ve evolved it into a production line with steps: first paint the rocks flat black, paint in white the mandala-looking design, go back in with colors.

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The first couple of steps. The white suggests an outline of what to paint. I start with the color and the next few colors will reveal to me what they should be.

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The purple started to look very Easter-eggy. I knew I had to use some gray and yellow ochre.

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I don’t know why I am painting rocks as I have mentioned before. I am putting a lot of painting into these; I almost think I’m reverting to my textile design days when we had to do some small-brush detail painting on the prints of the 80’s.

A couple of these are for work friends. I made one for my practice manager that says “The Buck Stops Here”. I didn’t think she’d know what that meant (I believe it was a plaque on Harry Truman’s desk) but she laughed and said “Nina, I’m not that young “. (She is but she knew the phrase.)

Anyway, I’m not sure these are totally done. They need some black outline. I hope everyone is feeling well and looking forward to a good week. Nina