November is Fish Fabulous!

When I was hillbilly, tomboy, girl – about 12 years old, I would go fishing with my brother at our creek in the backyard in Northern Ca. I felt pretty enlightened when I strung up the worms on the hook because I was the type to build mud houses for fire ants to protect them. The worm thing made me seem serious to my brother. And a serious fisher-woman would catch a fish right? Nada. Standing right next to him, I’d watch him catch fish after fish. I never caught one. Several years later as I studied the intricacies of fish at the aquarium, I fell in love – serious opera in motion. It’s a good thing I never caught a fish, I kind of am one. Later in life, I became a swimmer and learned a bit of deep sea diving and painted fish whenever I could. Catching that fish likely would have been traumatic. I’m sure I would have been a wimp and thrown it back in. I might have stitched up it’s mouth first.

I’ve never been able to fully capture the beauty, color and emotional water world of sea-life. But I’ve lusted for that feeling of expressing just a sliver of it. So I’ll have 30 tries this month. I look forward to it. Oh, and when I tried to do the duo title like Fish and Water or Fish and Fireflies or Fish and Flora it seemed silly–ubiquitous. There isn’t one thing I could juxtapose that shared the equanimity of fish. Everything around the fish just contributes to it’s color and motion-they are center stage. So it’s Fish Fabulous. I might even pull out a bit of silk for this one.

A few things:

• For new subscribers: I don’t post on the weekends, so you’ll see a bunch of the posts come in at the end of the month.
• The doggies were tons of fun! The print sales donation goes to Hope for Paws. Thank you Tamara Greenleaf for the tip off to them. What a truly special rescue.
• I’m taking a class in November while painting the fishes… with Diane Culhane. Though it’s called Table Top drawings, I’ll be using the exercises to learn new materials and techniques to add a bit more creative interest and learning to this month’s dailies.
• An article I wrote about this project—it’s inception and why I committed to it published this week, “Becoming an Archeologist of Joy.”  Here is the editor’s summary:
  

  “At what point does art become just another form of work and drudgery that sucks all the fun out of its creation? This week we turn the Skinny Artist keyboard over to guest author Niya Christine who one day discovered that her own joy molecules had become gummed up. So she began searching for ways to revive them and find that elusive intersection where art and happiness collide. I hope you enjoy it!” ~ Drew  Check it out at Skinny, NYC creative group/mag. 

Okie dokie, I think that’s it. I look forward to playing in the water with you this month. I just love my subscribers. So fun, supportive and full of life. Thank you for your energy!