Diane di Prima (1934-2020)
…we do it for
the stars over the Bronx
that they may look on earth
and not be ashamed.
–Diane Di Prima
from “April Fool Birthday Poem for Grandpa”
I wanted to note the death of Diane Di Prima, a poet, social activist, Buddhist, and teacher. A native New Yorker, she was a member of the Beat Poets, and moved to California in the 1960’s. I made this grid of the Bronx in April 2015, inspired by her poem, “April Fool Birthday Poem for Grandpa”.
Read an obituary with some wonderful videos of her reading here.
And here is a reading of the entire poem that inspired my grid.
The Kick-About #13 ‘Ersilia’
The latest from the kick-about.
Last time it was fairies and other flights of fancy. I think many of us enjoyed the opportunity for a spot of magical-thinking. This new edition of the Kick-About begins with the no less improbable city of Ersilia, one of Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities – a conurbation of string!
Phil Hosking
“Here is my offering for this week’s prompt. Sure I’ve gone way off point on this one but was serious fun to get stuck into! When I first read the prompt, I straight away thought of those giant spiders’ webs that entomb entire trees, plus slum like city streets in Asia with endless electrical cables overhead, somehow feeding the city despite their chaotic appearance. Painted in Photoshop over the course of a weekend.”
instagram.com/eclecto2d/linkedin.com/in/phill-hosking
Marion Raper
“I found this latest kick-about very interesting and thought provoking and feel it would be a great book to read…
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A for effort
I have been uninspired this week. I did some of these pumpkins and put them around the neighborhood. I’ve given away a lot of rocks and need to replenish the supply.
I wanted to do something different than the black wonky mandalas. These are very simple. I’m not really too crazy about them.
One of the walls in the neighborhood. It has my rocks and lots of the kids’ rocks. I like to walk by and play with them.
It is a gloomy day here in NJ. Have a good week! Nina
Weekend drawing and painting, 10/17/20
I started this one a few weeks ago. It’s good that I’m trying to post some art every Monday because it makes me sit down and work. This one has the three figures in it but they were put in intentionally.
I wasn’t feeling inspired much. Took a walk with my husband and found this little bird wing. I’m hoping it’s just a piece from the bird and that the bird is still okay. It was a beautiful little find so I had to do a drawing.
Lovely weather here in New Jersey. I hope everyone has a good week. Nina
The Kick-About #12 ‘The Cottingley Fairies’
This is the kind of magical thinking that the world needs now…
It’s tempting to draw the obvious conclusion from the recent choice of prompts offered up by the kick-about artists of late. Last time it was the exoplanet Trappist 1e, with its promise of new beginnings ‘off-world’, and an escape from this one, which seems smaller by the day and rather dimmed. This week it’s fairies – or more accurately, the need to go on believing in them, a yearning for something as-yet-unspoiled and magical. In these different ways, we seem preoccupied with escapism and realms more expansive than those afforded by our current circumstances.
Julien Van Wallendael
“I saw something about the Cottingley Fairies being the theme of the month on your blog, so I put this together last night as a response… I was mainly driven by the need to figure out something that could be done in one sitting! The Cottingley Fairies case exposes all at once…
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Painting 10/10 weekend
I found myself sitting down and doing a bit of painting over the weekend. I’m running out of rocks so got some of them going:
I used ArtSet for iPad for the first time in a while. I drew this landscape using my forefinger.
All in all a good weekend. Have a good week! Nina
seasons
oceanic bells
remnants of autumn bending
landscapes into dreams
beneath winter’s frost
ancient stonesongs murmur
through rootpaths
following earthlight
from seed to spring
haiku and gogyohka from the Oracle
Guns and Grudges
Who knows the questions? or the time?
What if there is no time?
What if all the time has all been wasted, or lost?
When karma comes around,
where will it go?
Why keep running into the same things?
How did we get here?
If only I knew
how to fix it all–
I would be honored
to be unremissed.
I’ve been having trouble completing things lately. Bjorn at dVerse has us asking Google to finish our thoughts. Perfect.
What I learned:
1) Many of those searching on Google are thinking about death–lots of killing and dying going on.
2) And remiss. Many many of us feel we are remiss.
Draw A Bird today!
It’s Draw a Bird day!
method two madness 
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