Thursday Art Date with Rain -- "Creases"

Rain and her weekly Art Date theme 

have once again inspired me to complete 

an unfinished assignment from the 

"Art of Coloured Pencils" class I took 

in the Fall of 2019. 

This portrait of a Boxer Pup has plenty 

of wrinkles and creases!

 

(As do I, of course, but luckily this was

not an assignment in self-portraiture!)

So, back in 2019, I made a good start 

on the dog's eye, highlights and base colour --

Added a few more layers of colour . . . 

say, things are going swimmingly 

so far, aren't they!

And then I went totally berserk 

applying blue shadows to 

the dog's muzzle and under-eye area . . . 

. . . which meant I had to go over those areas again 

with some darker pencils, trying

to tone things down. 

It did help a little but as you know, 

once something's done, it's done

and there's only so much 

you can do to fix it after the fact.

Anyway, this toned-down version

 is where I left off in 2019 --

And here's the completed art 

which I finished just this week.

This required a total of 23 different

colours of Prismacolor pencils.

Once it was photographed,

I noticed that I'd applied the colours

on the dog's body with a much

heavier hand than on its head.

D'OH! 

I'm blaming the discrepancy on

being out of practice due to

the year and a half delay

between start and finish.

All things considered, however,

I'm happy with this dog.

[Art and photographs © Debra She Who Seeks, 2019-2021]

This Month Marks a Year of Lockdown

And what a loooooooong year it's been!

 tailornorata

As long as that mask meets covid regulations I'd say it's valid

And are you as tired of 

covidiots and deniers as I am?

Well, at least there's still 

the joy of cats!

But this next cat is NOT

Her Royal Highness!

I swear!

February Full Moon Altar: Brigid

February's full moon altar honours Brigid, the Celtic triple goddess of healing, poetry and skilled metalwork. Her sacred day of Imbolc occurs at the beginning of February as well. Brigid, her lore and her symbols were later incorporated into Christianity as the popular "Saint Brigid."

I bought this wonderful statue of Brigid about 15 years ago at a spirituality store here in Edmonton, a reproduction of a work by Paul Borda of Dryad Design. The blue altar cloth with its golden sacred spirals is meant to honour Brigid's dual role as a Goddess of Sacred Wells and as a Goddess of the Fire of Life and Creativity. These themes are also reflected in the two white lotus bowls containing (on the left) water and (on the right) a votive candle.

The water used for this month's altar actually did come from a sacred well -- the Lion's Head Well in Chalice Garden at the base of England's Glastonbury Tor -- water which I brought home with me a dozen years ago. If you're interested, you can read about that by clicking here. I still have half a bottle left!

At the front of the altar lies a Brigid's Star (or as it's known by Christians, a Brigid's Cross), traditionally crafted from rushes, its woven centre meant to represent the interconnectedness of all life. I bought this one many years ago at an absolutely exorbitant price from a British import store in West Edmonton Mall.

[First photo © Debra She Who Seeks, February 2021.

Second, unfortunately blurry, photo © 

Debra She Who Seeks, November 2009.

Pixels are so much better now!]

Updating a Favourite Classic Poem

[illustration by Theo Gayer-Anderson]

Ozymandias 

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

["Ozymandias of Amarillo, Texas"

sculpture by Lightnin' McDuff]

OZZY

by Mitchell Thompson

@leonsbuddydave

I met a traveller from way the hell off

who said: two gigantic, fucked-up rock legs

be out there in the middle of goddamn nowhere

right next to them covered in shit some kinda big face

looked pretty pissed & upset & whatnot

all damn covered in words

“yo ozymandias here, this my shit”

“better than your shit, get fucked buddy”

not much else tho, just sand

shitloads of sand all over the place

It's Smut Time, You Sinners!

In my last NSFW post, I included these 

charming light switch plates . . . 

. . . so now Her Royal Highness the Cat 

insists on equal time!

And while we're on the subject of cats --

A Chicken In Every Pot

If this next one isn't true, 

it SHOULD be --

Dumb clucks, one and all --

Speaking of McNuggets --

Oh, thought I couldn't work 

Steve 'n Bucky into this post?

 

Well, think again! 

Behold "The Cap Coop" --

How Every Film Noir Ends

After I posted about Film Noir last week, Miss Cellania posted this hilarious little video on her blog. The comedian and star is the brilliant Alasdair Beckett-King. He has absolutely captured the essence of every Film Noir movie ever made, LOL! 

My favourite part is the deathless line: "You can't learn to have knees, Doris. You either got 'em or you ain't." So, SO true!

Polar Vortex Haute Couture

As you can see from this screencap I took last week of a local Edmonton TV weather forecast, virtually all of Western Canada has been under an "extreme cold warning" along with parts of British Columbia and Ontario. Oh yes, it's the beloved annual Polar Vortex when frigid Arctic air descends from the Far North, overstays its welcome and makes all our lives miserable.

This year the Polar Vortex lasted over two weeks. Daytime highs in the -20 to -30 C range. Nighttime lows in the -30 to -40 C range. Then add windchill that makes it feel 10 to 15 degrees colder than the actual temperature. 

Good times!

Unlike my recent Tarot Haute Couture post, there is nothing magical, ethereal or whimsical about Polar Vortex Haute Couture. It's all about warmth, baby, and staying alive. That's what counts.

For some unknown masochistic reason, My Rare One takes a one-hour walk every day to achieve a goal of 5000 steps. A daily walk outside, no matter the weather. 

Here she is last week --

Quite apart from her down-filled parka, two pairs of pants and thermal winter hiking boots, My Rare One keeps her head cozy warm by wearing a big fur Russky hat overtop of a baseball cap (so its brim will shield her eyes from the wind), with the rest of her face swaddled in a huge knitted infinity scarf. I believe there are earmuffs under there as well. No frostbite for her!

You can see the very chic Russky hat more clearly in this next photo. Doesn't it look like there's a raccoon or some other animal perched on her head?

Oh and what about ME, you ask?

Do I accompany her on these walks? 

Are you serious?

Thankfully, the Polar Vortex should be gone by tomorrow and we'll be back to seasonal temperatures again. In other words, nothing below -20 C. YAY! It will be so nice out that I won't even need to plug in my car block heater anymore to keep the engine from freezing!

[Selfies © My Rare One, February 2021]