I have finished the first layer on all the pieces in the Transcend series. After the two layers of high solid gel dried, I soaked the page in water and rubbed as much of the paper off as I could. In the photo below, you can see that the end result is a fairly transparent version of the original collage.






I painted the back of this new "skin" and the front of the substrate I'm using, which is illustration board, and then basically glued the two together (bottom photos). I had to do this is a couple of stages because I got tired of rubbing the paper off of the collages and so took two days to do that. The newly glued pieces needed to be pressed together while they dried to avoid bubbles and warping of the board, so I stacked my big heavy art reference books on them. I only had enough to press five or six at a time.




















The next step was to trim the edges and prepare for the next layer. The type of the newpaper headlines is clearer than I want in the final pieces, so next will be some paint application.

I'm finding that I'm seeing images while I'm running that I will likely incorporate into the final pieces. I'll have to be careful not to include too much that represents asphalt. Or heat.
I have started a new series of paintings. I haven't done a series in quite this way before, and have never documented the process, so it will be interesting to see how this goes. I've been following Robert Elrod's blog and have been inspired by the way he shares his work.


I'm using a working title of "Transcend" for this series of twelve small paintings. The painting size itself is 8"x8", to be mounted on 10"x10" mat. The frames, which I'll build, will fill out the visual border to probably 12"x12" or so.


I wanted to start the background with the feeling of the state of current affairs, so I did a collage of newspaper headlines glued on newsprint. Then I made color copies of this collage at the local office-away-from-home store. The ink on the copies needs to be waterproof (not from an inkjet printer/copier) for the next step. I wanted to start all the paintings with the same background. They could all go together as a set, or be separate paintings on their own. Either way, I wanted a common element. There may be more common elements as I go along. I'm only a few steps ahead in my mind as I plan the work.


The next step is to paint the surface of the color copies with a couple of thick layers of acrylic gel medium. I chose high solid gel for this stage because I didn't have any clear tar gel; both dry clear, but clear tar gel would have required only one layer. Since the high solid gel would take two layers, I painted on the first layer with a brush and let it dry for a day; I applied the second layer with a palette knife for texture, and let that dry over the weekend.


I've made a special worktable for my studio for this project so that I can work on the entire series at the same time. This precludes setting up my easel for the moment because I don't have any extra room unless I juggle some other projects around. I have another painting of an entirely different nature to work on right away; if I can get that set up I'll show a stage or two of it as well.

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“It is not reality that has a time flow, but our very approximate knowledge of reality. Time is the effect of our ignorance.” —Carlo Rovelli


mys·ti·cism n.
1. a. Immediate consciousness of the transcendent or ultimate reality or God.
b. The experience of such communion as described by mystics.
2. A belief in the existence of realities beyond perceptual or intellectual apprehension that are central to being and directly accessible by subjective experience.
3. Vague, groundless speculation.
(The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.)

Two things this week made me think about time. The first was my running. I ran twice as far Monday as I did last Friday. I'm on target for six weeks out, but I definitely didn't expect to be when I finished that Friday run. The second was that I received some completely unexpected help on a project. This help cut two weeks off the time it would have taken me to do the project on my own.

I’m just saying that sometimes things just don’t take as long as I believe they will, and that still always surprises me. Breakthroughs can come unexpectedly and sometimes inexplicably, and sometimes are so subtle I barely notice them. I think noticing them makes life more interesting, so I try to pay attention. Speculating about their advent allows me to believe there is a possibility of mastery, a chance that I can learn to summon little miracles.

If you are familiar with Esther and Jerry Hicks and their work with Abraham, then you will recognize their take on the illusion of space and time in this video:



As I neared the end of my run Wednesday morning, I was passed by another runner. She was older than I am by maybe ten years; since she came from behind (and from nowhere, because I hadn’t seen her in any direction before I turned the corner) I only caught a glimpse of her face as she passed. Questions came to mind that I wanted to ask her, and I thought if she slowed down or stopped near where I would end my run I would talk to her. But she was still running and long gone by the time I reached the pond where I start and end my runs right now. I could see her cerulean blue shirt way off on the street above the pond. I was faintly disturbed by how quickly the gap between us became kind of vast.

Later I thought how strange this encounter was. I’ve been walking or biking or, now, running in this area for years and never have seen her before. (Of course, there are a number of reasons that this could be so.) Plus, she really did seem to come out of nowhere. I decided that I had encountered a future me. She was about my size, only slimmer, with silver hair (mine’s still richly brown with only a few silver threads, thank you, but it will go silver eventually). If I consider this an encounter with a future me, then I have an image to hold on to while I continue my training, an image of me in several years being stronger, faster, more steady (and slimmer). I like that image a lot more than some of the alternative images of the aging process.

Could such an encounter be possible? Years ago I heard or read a statement that time is a human construct, not some force of nature. I know that Einstein addressed this idea. I’ve heard it several times since, and every time I hear it I keep trying to imagine life without time. I can experience the absence of time (when I'm painting, for example), but I can't seem to imagine its absence.

Anyway, I found this interesting article about the illusion of time: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19726391.500-is-time-an-illusion.html?page=1. The quote at the beginning of this post came from this article.

Finally, this whole post reminded me of a poem, which I will share in closing.

Love After Love

The time will come when, with elation you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror and each will smile at the other's welcome, and say, sit here. Eat. You will love again the stranger who was your self. Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you all your life, whom you ignored for another, who knows you by heart. Take down the love letters from the bookshelf, the photographs, the desperate notes, peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit.
Feast on your life.
Derek Walcott

I started running about a month ago, three times a week. I’ve been really surprised at how easy it has been. I am following Stu Mittleman’s technique as described in Slow Burn, combined with a slower build-up described in a magazine I read somewhere and the alternating walk/run plan that I followed a zillion years ago when I used to run before. I dug out my copy of Runner's World Complete Book of Women's Running by Dagny Scott, but haven’t re-read it yet.

I’ve adopted a very smooth, very slow (probably kind of silly-looking) running style and am now running a whole mile without stopping. That’s pretty exciting to me. I have no pain and I’ve been doing it long enough now that I’m looking forward to my running days. I’m not working on speed yet; I’m first trying to keep that smooth gait (to minimize injury) and to build distance. I’d like to be running three miles after about two more months.

I was given a heart monitor for my birthday a couple of weeks ago, so I’ve been using that. However, my pedometer crashed about two days after that so I’m not able to increase by distance initially. It’s hard to measure my route by car. Maybe I can tell by time until I can get the foot POD that goes with my monitor.
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