After the Snow, oil on canvas, 24"x24", 2007

I also want to leave you with this painting, one of my personal favorites. I painted it one winter day two years ago, as the title indicates. Painting from life is my way of holding back a fleeting moment and all its ineffable particularities which I have no other way of comprehending or expressing. Chief among those qualities is light, of a particular season, weather, place, or time of day. By getting light right sometimes I succeed in getting temperature right. I feel that how things, especially ordinary, everyday things, look in light has a way of evoking shared memories. It was how I felt the first time I saw an Impressionist's painting on a magazine cover: I, a girl of maybe twelve, standing in an adobe in a Chinese commune, staring and feeling strange familiarity in the sun-dappled French courtyard depicted in that picture.

What I'm up to

Izyperspective will be quiet around here for a couple of weeks. She's leaving for a cross-country trip in two days. She will file reports from the major cities on her itinerary. She's really excited about the museums, art galleries and cathedrals she will visit en route, and wants to share with you. She's not travelling with her personal computer so how spotty her reports will be will depend on the ease of access to Blogger along the trail.

Before she bids "So Long," she leaves you with this from the Gems of Devotion:

Subjects for Daily Meditation

Remember, Christian soul, that thou hast this day, and every day of thy life:

• God to glorify
• Jesus to imitate
• The angels and saints to invoke
• A soul to save
• A body to mortify
• Sins to expiate
• Virtues to acquire
• Hell to avoid
• Heaven to gain
• Eternity to prepare for
• Time to profit of
• Neighbors to edify
• The world to despise
• Devils to combat
• Passions to subdue
• Death perhaps to suffer
• Judgment to undergo
  

Fully aware that the last two subjects especially may become reality at any time, at home or on the road, Izy asks that you pray for her and her husband, KDM. In prayers we're united.

Till next time, So Long, my friends.

Morning Catch

By way of American Papist

“No really, kids, you have to believe me – I’m out of presents!"

[credit: AP Photo]

Feezer Day

KDM is out chopping ice on the pond. I just put on some long johns and think I'll venture out to help. Not sure what the outside temperature is, but feels like in the teens or even single digit.

I miss Global Warming. I won't even mind a bit of Global Swarming right now.

Picture to the Rescue

Is this better? A picture? A friend saw it at the show and told me it's her fav as she could "see the wind!" in it. Do you see it, too?

Room with a View, oil on canvas, 30"x40", 2009
Whisper: one of our guest rooms upstairs, pasture outside the window. Facing east, the 1st room the sun kisses daily. The stuff in the vase? I call them flowers, and think them exquisite, KDM, however, weeds. Whatever.

I'm Feeling Chatty

I know, I know. It's been quiet around here. I'm playing travel agent to myself, KDM, and a few friends who will come to visit from afar, abroad, really. Then in less than two weeks we'll all band up and make a heroic tour from top to bottom, literally, of the U.S. of A. The trip has been several months in the works, and up until this week, little was firm about it. As an amateur travel agent, it means hours upon hours on the internet, phone calls, emails, changes of mind and...more change of mind...etc. That also means I could hear my back cracking and neck giving up elasticity brought on by that prolonged, you-all-know-it-too-well, most unimaginative, posture, followed by a general weariness of the keyboard and cyber acrobatics.

As the trip takes on more realistic shape, I'll share with y'all some details. A hint: I'm going to the Big Apple.

Also an update to you who is concerned over my recent spiritual exercise (fraught with hidden pragmatic agenda), yes, I'm still fasting. But I'd be darned if a relative didn't show up late last evening with more cookies and other gooey substances!

On the art front, all is quiet too. My few dozens of paintings are still on exhibit. Sold several, and the hosting gallery has just informed me of its intention to acquire a piece. I also managed to reproduce a black-and-white engagement photo in pencil for a lady of her daughter. I don't do this kind of work often but the mother's earnestness for surprising the young couple at their July wedding proved to be more contagious than either of us foresaw. And I became her tacit ally. Pending her permission I may share the image here.

And, y'all, it's COLD here. Grrrrrr, cold. We southern folks are not accustomed to it (you'd never think I grew up in the northern-most province in China. Ever heard of that city famed for its ice sculptures, Harbin? Google it. It has by far the largest beer consumption in the whole country. They also make chocolates filled with vodka).

Do I sound chatty? I am. A badly needed relief from hotel.com and such. I hear a hot shower and hearty vegetable soup calling. If I feel up to it when I'm through with the water/soup therapy combo, my dears, I'll keep on trucking, eh, blogging.

Later Gator.