I have a problem when I paint. It takes too long.

This is due to several issues. First, no matter how I try to paint, I always get more and more sucked into the details of the picture, which causes me angst because I don't have the skills to paint with strict realism, and it slows me down.

Secondly, I start putting paint on the canvass, and then I realize I want to paint another color over the first, so I wait for the paint to dry.

So I have decided to try a new experiment. I am going to set up four canvasses and place a stopwatch nearby. Then I'm going to paint on the first picture for exactly 5 minutes. Then I'll move to the next, and paint for excactly 5 minutes. I'll repeat this until I get the last one and then I'll go back to the first.

5 minutes of painting, 15 minutes of drying.

I'm also going to limit myself to exactly 2 hours total.

4 canvasses, 6 5-minute sessions on each to produce 4 half-hour paintings.

My goal will be to capture only the bare essentials of what I'm painting, and the 2 hour time limit will force me to dispense with the details.

I plan to try this some time in the next two weeks.

These maybe ugly. I might encounter new problems. But if you want one of these you can claim one for the price of the canvass and paint.

I know that we haven't posted in FOREVER! But we have been busy, busy, busy. I am somewhat of a hypocrite, because I check other people's blogs when I have a minute and I am always so sad when a few days have gone by without a new post... hello! It has been a month since we last posted.
So, I wanted to share my latest projects with you all.

Today I am in the city. I'm sitting with my back against the statue of Grant looking down the mall toward the Washington monument. In the distance I can see the corner of the Lincoln Memorial too. Both of my projects this semester require research at thhe library of Congress, so I'm trying to get into the habit of going there every Tuesday and Wednesday. Today's trip has been a learning experience. The records I need are off location and have to be ordered. So, I'm blogging while I wait for the containers to get here.

I really like going to the library of Congress because I always see something new. Today it was a statue of Gallatin standing in front of the treasurey dept. The inscription calls him a financial genious and he looks pretty proud of himself. I like the statue of Madison just to the left of the entrance inside the library better. He looks a little more down to earth (besides that he is a giant marble statue).

I skipped going to see Renquist. Does anyone else think it's creepy these guys have viewings like this? But, I did go to the Visual Music exhibit at the Hirshhorn. The exhibit was interesting, but not really convincing. I don't buy the idea that visual art can be elevated to the abstract and sublime in the same way as music. Sounds lend themselves to abstraction. We deal with white noise and sounds that inspire feelings, even when we don't know what they mean. Jackson Pollock defended his visual abstractions by compairing them to fields of flowers (what meaning is there in a field of flowers?). But we all know a flower is a flower, and vision is a sense that is centered on definition. When vision is blurry, there is a problem. So why should a person try to make abstract visual arts the same way we would make music?

After a long break while I traveled and celebrated my anniversary, I'm back and blogging again. over the next few days I'll try to catch up on all my activities.

But first let me give a garden update. We have our first tomatoes finally! Brooklynne counted seventeen yesterday. The only down side is that they will probably ripen while we are gone on our backpacking trip. Last summer we had a large crop of small green tomatoes when we moved from Montana to DC, and we didn't get to eat any of them. So this year we hope the vines will continue to produce after we get back or I will have to consider what I've done to earn such a sad tomato curse. Any one want to harvest our tomatoes while we're gone?