2:34 PM: SWITCHING GEARS AS A MEANS OF INCREASING CREATIVITY/PRODUCTIVITY:
below you can read about how a new collage emerged between tasks involved in creating a new best left unsaid oil. a few minutes ago, mikela called & asked to come over to the studio to talk through a problem she had encountered while working on our educational product, actionlab360. i was fresh in my questions and observations because i had been engaged in 2 other unrelated activities. so in the space of a half hour, we did good work and she got "unstuck." in addition, i gained new insight into our product by asking how i'd apply it to to presentations i want to create for the sales staff at gremillion in houston and to john tatoulis, director of the melbourne hellenic museum, with whom i'm working on putting together a show. plus i got good feedback on the new collage you see below, as well as the seeds of the next oil, as seen in the photo below right. all this has left me re-energized at a point in the afternoon when my energy normally drops. mikela left for the house full of new ideas, just in time to beat the brief thunderstorm we're now experiencing.
i was a big tarzan of the apes fan as a kid, and i still use that image of tarzan swinging on vines from tree to tree, letting go of one just as he grabbed a new one.
11:00 am: this morning, while preparing the drawing for best left unsaid 8, i made this collage while waiting for the photos to print. the hijab in the title derives from the fragment of a head scarf, or hijab, on the lower left, which was worn by a student i photographed last year at a denver high school.
the new image i'll be using for the 16x16" canvas is below right, shot at moma in 2008.
following 2 days of rain, at times heavy, which was the remnants of a tropical storm off mexico, our 8am sky looked like this; still brooding, but clearing. if the weather holds, we'll walk up the trail a bit later, and i'll go out to paint plein air tomorrow afternoon.
after a threatening start to the day, above, and a mid afternoon thunderstorm, we had that special late afternoon light that happens after the cleansing rain washes away all dust whatsoever. it helps to be at 8,000 ft. altitude. we're just returning from our short walk (the trail walk will have to be postponed till tomorrow); mikela's head, wearing the green hat can be seen in the lower right.