What I can do

 Every day, sometimes every hour, some new piece of discouraging news seems to emanate like an ugly viscous cloud from the internet or the television, telling us the latest atrocity our government has committed or intends to commit, the latest scandal discovered and revealed to no purpose, the foul plans of the men at the head of our country, seemingly unchecked by either the representatives we have hired to be our advocates or by their own better natures, which no longer or never existed. The people they have or intend to disenfranchise, the rights they have or intend to trample, the progress they have vacated, the functionaries they have fired to put their puppets in as proxy, the denigration of our brothers and sisters, our most dearly held rights and beliefs sacrificed to their egos and their pocketbooks.

Daily I have become more filled with rage, but also with despair. That feeling of ineffectualness that tells me sending that letter, signing that petition, putting up that lawn sign, marching down that street will do nothing to stop the juggernaut of Fascism and bigotry that has somehow infiltrated every inch of our federal government. The sense of no control over my own life, my own body, my income, my choices.

I have been getting by with a combination of sending furious emails to the heedless so-called public "servants" who are now seemingly our masters, burying my face in a book to escape from this reality, and distracting myself by making art. Today, finally, I decided that what I can do, one of my capabilities and therefore possibly a vital function, is to use my skills at art to encourage, to rally, to keep up not just my spirits but possibly those of others. It may seem laughable to believe that this would have any effect where letters and emails and phone calls and marching have not; but art, after all, is powerful, is visual, can be visceral, and has the ability to inspire.

So here is my first piece of political art. I am claiming it by signing it, but I am sharing it freely on social media. If you like it, take it. Copy it, share it, spread it. I hope it serves to inspire or comfort or encourage someone to hang on for 40 more days and then during what will no doubt be troubled weeks and months after that until we can root the monsters out of our House, our business, our country, and begin the long and arduous but hopeful or even joyful task of building and rebuilding. Let's look ahead. I don't like the Biden/Harris slogan "Build back better." Let's not go back. Let's only go forward. Restoration is good, but creation is better.

Pencil, Uniball pen, watercolor, Daler Rowney inks, gouache, gel pen, on 140-lb. Strathmore watercolor paper, approx. 7.5x9.5 inches.

Birthday pic

 Now that the day is past and I posted the portrait on her Facebook page, I can also post here the portrait I did of my cousin Karen and her critters for her birthday today. I got a little conflicted while doing this—I started it in my sketchbook and was going to do a traditional portrait, but my new methods sneaked in while I was drawing the eyes, so this is kind of a hybrid of old and new styles. I loved the photo she shared last week of her cat and her bunny having a staredown, so I included them in the portrait. Karen has a particularly engaging smile, and I think catching that gave this a close likeness, even though the eyes were exaggerated.

Pencil, watercolors, Uniball pen, in my Bee multimedia sketchbook.

Off kilter

 With everything that's happening in the country right now, I'm feeling like the earth is uneasy under my feet. (It doesn't help that we had an actual earthquake in Los Angeles the same night RBG passed.) Several of my new friends on Deb Weiers's site have been expressing their unsettled natures through their artwork, and I was inspired by one of them, who painted the most perfect primal scream person, to try to express my own feelings of angst, anger, fright, frustration and, well, vertigo.

I found a fellow's photo online that seemed to convey all of that, and changed it to make it my own. The background I painted came up with these circular, planet-like shapes, so I accentuated them a bit with paint and circles, and then I thought, should there be a caption? So I typed "earth out of whack" into Google, and got an essay that told me the world is actually wobbling on its axis. In fact, the planet's axis shifted a total of 32 feet during the 20th Century!

The NASA people say the wobble is caused by three things, two of which, according to our GOP overlords, are "fake science." The first is loss of ice mass due to global warming: As the ice caps melt, mass is transferred from the polar regions into the ocean, shifting the balance. The second is called glacial rebound, which is what happens when glaciers recede and expose long-compressed ground, which starts rising back up to its natural level, changing the distribution of mass further. The last is mantle convection, i.e. tectonic plates doing the Pony due to molten rock shifts.

Is it any wonder balance and serenity are in jeopardy? Link up this trio with the randos bringing shock and awe to our government and I'm feeling pretty much like a Weeble.

The thing of which we have to keep reminding ourselves, however, is that Weebles wobble, but they don't fall down. No, they keep bouncing back, unsteady but eternally upright. Earth wobbles or not, we must do the same.

Pencil, Daler Rowney inks, watercolors, India ink, white gesso, Uniball pen, gel pen, on 140-lb. Strathmore watercolor paper, 9x12 inches.