coping

^{***fyi since I'll be posting more than one image a day you will be able to click on them individually to view larger.***}

Hello everyone who might see this post. December is the last month of the year and halfway through my 64th year of existence. After the insanity of the US general election in November I sunk into a deep depression and I lost all hope for a better future for my lifetime. Picking up on a quote from November by artist Paul Klee, "the more horrifying the world becomes, the more abstract art becomes". I knew to cope with and survive the mental/emotional "funk" I was in I needed to do something. With all that in mind I decided I wanted Decembers images to be abstract, even minimal. And I wanted to do something with the number 64.

I got to thinking about Chess. The playing board is square made up of 8 rows and 8 columns of alternating squares for a total of 64 squares. I started doing color studies on my computer. Just simple square blocks of color with 2 stripes of alternate or variant colors. The stripes had to be in different locations on the solid block. I wanted to see what moods or feelings might be created by color relationships. On top of that I could imagine that all 64 squares could be displayed on an interactive wall where patrons could rotate the squares or even rearrange the order. The possibilities of rearranging and rotating 64 squares seems almost limitless (but I'm sure there is a mathematical limit - I just lack the ability to determine what that is LOL).

The soundtrack for this series is (perhaps unsurprisingly) the musical CHESS.
For this first post here is track "Opening Ceremony" sung by the character known as the Arbiter who "knows the score" and from "square one, he'll be watching all sixty-four". It also has the prescient lines "no one can deny these are very dangerous and difficult times," which seem suitable for everything that is happening around the world right now.

****if anyone knows how to create an interactive page where I could simulate the "gallery" experience of  a viewer rotating and moving blocks on the computer/tablet - let me know****

Songs From The Wood

Let me bring you songs from the wood:
To make you feel much better than you could know
Dust you down from tip to toe
Show you how the garden grows
Hold you steady as you go
Join the chorus if you can:
It’ll make of you an honest man

Let me bring you love from the field:
Poppies red and roses filled with summer rain
To heal the wound and still the pain
That threatens again and again
As you drag down every lover’s lane
Life’s long celebration’s here
I’ll toast you all in penny cheer

Let me bring you all things refined:
Galliards and lute songs served in chilling ale
Greetings well met fellow, hail!
I am the wind to fill your sail
I am the cross to take your nail:
A singer of these ageless times
With kitchen prose and gutter rhymes

Songs from the wood – make you feel much better
Songs from the wood

Let me bring you love from the field:
Poppies red and roses filled with summer rain
To heal the wound and still the pain
That threatens again and again
As you drag down every lovers’ lane
Life’s long celebration’s here
I’ll toast you all in penny cheer