Nothing’s black and white.
I thought that was a great title for today as our politicians fight it out on Capitol Hill but also because my still life is primarily black and white!
There’s an old saying “never bring up politics at the dinner table”. It means there is a time and place for such talk and you don’t want to be rude or offend the people at your table. What’s funny is I was brought up amongst artists and intellectuals who believed that’s what dinner is for!
Adults would sit at the table for hours after dinner debating every issue known to man. What was the worst, was when you’d know it wasn’t someone’s true stance, they were just arguing for argument’s sake. The whole act of debating a stance wasn’t to anger or offend someone, the practice was to celebrate great conversation, wit and intellect. Knowledge of current events, history and culture were a must if you were to survive at the dinner table. Hand slap lines like one might see at the end of a ball game were how the dinner conversations ended. Actually it was more like a back slap, a hug or a good old belly laugh. My grandfather and Uncle Charlie were the worst!
I mention this, because I forget that this may be viewed as unusual or even rude. Maybe telling the world what you think about hot button issues isn’t the best idea. Especially when you hit the publish on a computer! I speak of politics light heartedly. It’s the best show in our modern coliseum! I will make a conscious effort to try to refrain from telling the whole wide world my political ideology and revert right back to yelling at my radio!
I can only imagine what my neighbors think “who’s she yelling at in there? Isn’t she home alone?” I must say current politics have got me heated. My poor kitty cat. She’s taking the brunt of it!
Every time I look at this Statue of Liberty still life I wonder about the direction of our country and of our world for that matter! 28 year jail terms for protesting global warming? Sorry there I go again….
Back to art. That’s a safe topic right?
Today as a painter, I spent quite some time painting in the blacks and whites. There’s a pitcher, two bowls, a dairy creamer and a toy truck. All of them have elements of white which is such a fun challenge to paint. You have to figure out how to describe white without using the pigment “white”. This is done by leaving areas of your paper bare and through shades of grey. Each grey in the painting has varying degrees of black, blue and brown intensely watered down until they form their own degree of grey.
We’ll call that the foundation work, but the fun part comes for me, when I get to add the color! For this painting it is in the form of red apples. I LOVE PAINTING APPLES. Let’s just call them spheres-o-fun! I get to practice the lights and darks of a sphere as well as add the reflections which make the spheres “pop”.
Yeah, I’m a nerd. I find painting apples exciting.
I simply can’t wait to finish the apples tomorrow.
In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ll finish these apples before our government re-opens.
Yeah, I’m not holding my breath either!
Be Creative Mary 
Nice work!