Selfie

For a combination of reasons, most of them resulting from brangling with arrogant, overly sensitive, and poorly informed people online about my new business, I had another wasted day. Finally, I decided I'd try to save it with some therapeutic painting, so I assayed a selfie.

I was actually thinking it would be exploding with either red for anger or blue tones for, well, feeling blue, but the photo I managed to take to serve as a reference looked fairly cheerful, so that's how the painting ended up too. Somehow, despite the appearance of more and more gray hair, the angle at which I caught myself looked younger and happier than my current state would suggest! So I went with it. (Plus, the eyes came out a little bigger and the lips a little fuller, and the head tilt lost an extra chin...) Sometimes you need to idealize things, even if they are self-portraits. Or especially if they are self-portraits?

Here I am, with clean, pinned-back hair and a slight, pursey smile...

Uniball pen

M. Graham, Daniel Smith, and Paul Jackson watercolors

in Bee Sketchbook

Masked crusaders

Once again, six days passed without any painting. I don't know if I'm in a fugue state from being isolated for so many months, or am just having that periodic dip in energy that people with some physical issues have from time to time, but lethargy has triumphed lately, and all I seem to manage to do is read, eat, and sleep.

Today, however, I got into a somewhat unwise online exchange with someone who was espousing the conspiracy theory that Covid 19 is a "plandemic," rather than a pandemic, and I decided I would make this painting I've been wanting to take on for some time now.

These two beauties were all masked up for the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic because, despite their downtown ladies-who-lunch (or march-for-votes?) attire, they knew it was important to protect themselves and each other by covering up their respiration.

I found a great article online called "Four Lessons from the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic," and I'll feature a quote from that:

"The Spanish flu tells us that social distancing works. And it works best if we act early, act fast, and stick together—and base our decisions not on social or economic concerns, but on science and data and facts."

 If you would like a further lesson from history, which is eerily similar to our own in some respects, please read the article, which is here.

This was a black-and-white photo, so all color decisions were my own. I couldn't find a source to credit for the photo.

Uniball pen, Paul Jackson watercolors, Bee sketchbook.