Doodling for Stress Reduction

 

On Mondays via Zoom, I participate in a class where we spend  a half an hour doodling our stress away.  

T Stands For After All That Work

 

of cleaning and organizing the Lazy Susan cabinet, Monet and Me deserve a nice cuppa.

 Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Monet and Me

 

finally found silicone, round, Lazy Susan liners. We bought them before Christmas, but forgot where we put them.

Sooner or later, usually later, things turn up. I pulled out all of the cannisters, ran the lids through the dishwasher. Checked for expired items. Scrubbed the shelves, put the liners on. Ta-Da! All nice, neat, and the liners will be easier to clean then the metal shelves.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

The beginning of the week was freezing and on Saturday, we got a dusting of snow that never stopped snowing all day. A PITA snow because the couple of inches meant the walkway and stairs would have to be shoveled.

Icicle on the squirrel baffle and the feeders had to be filled again.

The back feeder filled and the Back Tundra

There was just enough snow so Himself could play with the Yarbo. Here's a very short clip of the robot on it's maiden voyage.

Our friend, Master Beef, said the robot needed a proper name. A gardener's name. There was Joshua, the gardener of the Garden of Eden and the only one that God talks to in the television series, Supernatural. Or Samwise Gamgee (the real hero ) from The Lord of the Rings. We decided Samwise had a nice ring to it. 

Himself had fun playing and controlling the Samwise from the relative comfort of the garage. Last week, he attended a demonstration as he had lots of questions particularly about the game controller which he couldn't seem to get to work though he was able to use his phone to control the robot. He controlled Samwise using his phone as he didn't want to spend a lot of time setting up the controller and he only wanted to see if he could get Samwise to move. Mission accomplished.

He also said, Samwise did as a good a job clearing the snow as the monster snowblower he used to have.

How does your garden grow?

Happy, Little, Time Waster

 

Bubble Freezing in Slow Motion

The Friday Five Good Things

Marie from The Aristocats

Five good things that happened this week.

1. I made beef stew in the crockpot and then watched "The Aristocats" because the kitten, Marie, looks like Calli and Himself had never seen this Disney feature before.

2. I looked for ways to boost the humidity level in the house. Besides using the humidifier, I went old-school and hung wash on a drying rack.

3. Ran an errand and then stopped for lunch at The Longhorn Steakhouse. No cooking!

4. I participated in a virtual sound bath run by the same facilitator that runs the Doodling for Stress Reduction class I take.

5. The bank resolved a transaction dispute.

How was your week?

2OLOTR - Norman Rockwell Paintings at The Norman Rockwell Museum

After viewing the MAD Magazine exhibit, we walked into the main gallery to see the work of American illustrator, Norman Rockwell.  The museum was very, very crowded so it was sometime hard to see and to photograph the paintings.

I've only seen Rockwell's work in magazines so it was astonishing to see how big some of these paintings are. Many of them were almost life size like The Four Freedoms (1943)

Freedom from Fear

Freedom of Speech

Rockwell staged his paintings to tell a story using local people and props. He would take photographs of the setting so he could finish the painting. Preserved in a glass case was the worn, leather jacket that the town meeting member wore.

Freedom to Worship

Freedom from Want

The Runaway (Study, 1958)

The Runaway (1958)

It was also a surprise to see studies of some of the paintings. We forget that a lot of work goes on behind the scenes before artwork is produced. Even for the big name.

"Norman Rockwell's boyhood experience growing up just north of New York City provided inspiration for this popular painting. I ran away from home when I was a kid in Mamaronek, and mooned around the shore, kicking stones and watching the whitecaps on Long Island Sound. Pretty soon it began to get dark , and a cold wind sprang up and moaned around the trees. So I went home. Many years later, Rockwell brought eight-year old Ed Locke and Massachusetts State Trooper Dick Clemens to a Howard Johnson's in Pittsfield, Massachusetts where they were photographed as models for The Runaway. After completing a first canvas capturing the restaurant's modern decor, Rockwell rejected it and produced a second version with a sparer setting. (Often thought to be Joe's Diner in Lee, Massachusetts) Asked by Clemens why he made the change, the artist explained that a rural background would give the impression that the little boy had gotten further out of town."

The Gossips (study, charcoal on paper, 1948)

No Swimming (1921)

Most of us think of or remember Rockwell's work on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post. He left that publication to do covers for Look magazine where he had more freedom to express his political views of the time. Such as the painting above New Kids in the Neighborhood (1967)

The Problem We Live With (1963)

"for Look Magazine was based upon an actual event, when six-year old, Ruby Bridges, was escorted by U.S. Marshalls on her first day at an all white New Orleans school. Rockwell's depiction of the vulnerable but dignified girl clearly condemns the actions of those who protest her presence and object to desegregation. The piece commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court Ruling that separate is not equal in America's public schools" 

Golden Rule (1961)

The Lineman (1948)

Murder in Mississippi (April 6 - 13, 1965)

"In the beginning of 1965, Rockwell began work on a piece about the June 21, 1964 murders of three, young civil rights workers.  Michael Schwerner, and his chief aide, James Chaney, were in Philadelphia, Mississippi to help train volunteers like Andrew Goodman, who along with other college students were working to expand voter registration as part of the Mississippi Summer Project. The anatomy of Murder in Mississippi illuminates Rockwell's intensive focus on the incident and process of making a painting that expressed his outrage. Veering from his habit of working on five or six projects at a time, he ignored other commissions, and in an intensive five-week session gathered research and produced charcoal preliminaries, and oil color study, and a large final painting. In an interview later in life, Rockwell recalled having been directed by the Post to remove an African-American from a group picture because the magazine's policy dictated showing black people in service industry jobs only. Freed from such restraints at Look, he sought to correct the editorial prejudices that had been reflected in his previous work. On April 14, Rockwell sent his final painting to Look. On the 29th he received word that Look had decided to use his color study rather than the final painting. In a letter to Look editor art director Allen Hurlburt, Rockwell wrote, I tried in a big way...to make an angry picture. If I just had a big of Ben Shahn in me it would have helped."

Girl at Mirror (1954)

2OLOTR (Two Old Ladies on the Road)