Archive for the ‘elephants’ category
The Weekend. (At last!) Time to Reflect? (With Elephant)
June 24, 2011Very Tired (with elephant)
June 22, 2011
Public/Private disconnect (Sonnet) (With Elephant)
June 21, 2011
I hate to admit it but I’m kind of a solipsistic person. It’s not that I don’t like people–I take a strong interest in trying to help others (particularly if it involves telling them what to do.)
But I am just awful in social situations – parties, gatherings, even sometimes work settings. To some degree, this may have something to do with not being completely at ease with either my “public” persona or private persona.
At any rate, here’s a kind of gloomy sonnet about this kind of public/private disconnect.
Because I am now linking this post to dVerse Poets Pub Raising the Bar for critiquing, I am going to put up two versions of this poem, an older and newer. (I think the older may be better, but it’s also the one with which I am more familiar.) They are both a bit self-pitying, although that may be something that makes them universal.
The first is the older version:
Pretending
After years, pretending to be what you’re not
becomes a nature; a second skin
coating you like a kind of make-up, caught
in your pores, nestled in your grooves, a twin
of features, caked, you need not reapply.
But habits, faces, fail and it wears thin,
until, worn through, you can hardly try
anymore. Too wary, weary, the word
“cagey” describes so much of what you’ve been,
the opposite of free-flying bird,
while unheard, and hardly there within,
is all you’ve been saving, what you hid, why
you did this, what wasn’t supposed to die.
Newer:
Pretending
After years, pretending to be what you’re not
becomes a nature; a second skin
coating you like a heavy make-up, caught
in your pores, nestled in your grooves, a twin
of features, caked, you need not reapply.
Sometimes the habit fails, pretense wears thin,
that face that clung is suddenly wrung dry–
you don’t want to re-affix, but the word
“cagey” catches so much of what you’ve been–
the opposite of free-flying bird–
that, though you wish more than anything
to be seen, take wing; fretful, you still try
to keep tight all within. Oh me. Oh my.
If you are interested in my poetry, check out my poetry book, Going on Somewhere (by Karin Gustafson, illustrated by Diana Barco, cover by Jason Martin) on Amazon.
If you are interested in my elephants, check out my children’s book, 1 Mississippi, on Amazon.
Unnoticed Rainbow, James Joyce, Elephants
June 16, 2011
It’s June 16th, “Bloomsday,” the day in which James Joyce’s ULYSSES takes place. I wasn’t thinking about James Joyce when I did the above drawing, the elephant with a dark cloud over his head who has a hard time seeing a rainbow. I was thinking about the moods that overtake those of the ManicDdaily persuasion, the gloominess that is the dark side of an overly can-do spirit. I was thinking, really, how the gloominess often has little to do with external circumstances, i.e. a rainbow overhead, but more with internal physical circumstances, i.e. a raincloud in the head.
All of which brings me, awkwardly, to James Joyce, since if there was ever anyone who could delineate what was going on in a head, while also depicting the “overhead,” as it were, it was he. Alas, with no elephants.
Country Nights (With Dog and Elephant)
June 12, 2011
Outside the Train Window. App-loaded. Mini How-to With Elephant.
June 11, 2011
Followers of this blog know that I’ve become a little “App-happy” since getting an iPad 2 earlier this year. I openly disclose that a part of my obsession may arise from being an Apple stockholder: I am anxious to believe in the company’s products just so I don’t have to make any decisions about selling the stock.
In my defense, the “Apps” that have been of particular interest to me of late are not Apple products, but they do give the iPad a lot of possibilities.
The picture above was a photograph taken from the MetroNorth train going up the Hudson. Admittedly, the camera on the iPad 2 is not great. It’s even worse when used on a moving train, and worse still when used by me. (I’m still not exactly clear where the lens of the camera is located.) Plus the screen is so glossy and my eyes are so bad I can’t always see the image I am shooting. In this case, I didn’t even try. I just stuck the iPad over my head so that I had a hope of not filming the window frame.
Then I took that image, transferred it to the Brushes App, a finger painting app, and for lack of a better idea, drew an elephant in it. That’s the first picture below. (I was proud of myself for using the eraser function on the app, to make it look like the boat and oar were slightly underwater.)
THEN, I moved the painted photograph to the Photogene App to try some of the Photogene filters. Mixtures of finger painting and photograph often have a weird Roger Rabbit aspect especially with an unskilled artist (like myself). But the beauty of the Photogene filters are that you can stylize the entire piece so that the differences between the photo and the finger-painting diminish. The second one below was done with the “Posterize” filter.
Yes, a bit hackneyed. Still, cool!
Circus Animals? Appy Friday!
June 10, 2011
End of long hot week. Glad it’s over. I know this picture doesn’t really relate to any of that, but rather my personal fascination with elephants, dogs, and iPad Apps. This one uses Brushes, Sketchbook Pro, and the updated Photogene App, which allows you to make little strokes of light. Above, the strokes are pretty subtle and perhaps not fully carried through. Still, I’m hoping they look like beams from either an opening in the tent, or maybe circus lights (ha!), I’m not sure I’ve succeeded. Interesting tools though. Have a great weekend.
Buggy This Time Of Year
June 4, 2011
No Time In The Present
June 3, 2011
People who know me know that I frequently complain about not having much free time in life.
I really should not complain. (It’s just so satisfying.) The fact is that I am the main person who fills up all that “un-free” time. (Well, me and my boss.) I manage, in other words (and despite all the complaints) to spend a relatively large of my time of activities of my own choosing. But to satisfy my guilty Lutheran temperament, I slowly convert many of these chosen activities into “obligations.”
A part of me knows that they are not true obligations. I am not required to write a daily blog, to do yoga, to try to write poetry or novels. I am certainly not “obligated” to troll the internet (supposedly to keep up with the news, or the market, or “money-saving” sales.)
But, somehow (perhaps as a substitute for discipline), I convince myself that all these activities are somehow mandated, morally-uplifting, essential to maintaining a sense of self, and neglected at the expense of sanity. This results in extreme…. busyness.
(And then, of course, there’s my actual boss. And job.)
All of which makes it incredibly difficult to deal with anything extra, something not normally part of the routine. Take for example a driving license renewal.
I recently got a ten year license renewal notice that, because I wear strong glasses, requires the submission of an eye test along with the regular forms.
Which requires me to go to my eye doctor. Or an optometrist. Or the DMV.
All of which was supposed to be done before my birthday earlier this week.
No wonder people hate government intervention!!!!
For some reason, they (all those bureaucrats at the DMV) think I need to be able to SEE to drive.
If only I could take an eye test online. From my laptop. In bed.
If I could at least multi-task–take the test at my desk, or while doing yoga. (Say Tree pose.)
But they probably expect me to actually focus on something like that. An eye test! Geez!
(For now, I’m simply staying off the road.)
Favorite Activity and Elephant (Tapdancing)
June 1, 2011
(Of course, my true favorite elephant is in the wild. And I don’t actually have a big mirror or tap shoes. My downstairs neighbor is quite thankful for that.)
ManicDDaily 
Recent Comments