Monday, September 29, 2003
The painting goes well...
It's been days now, and today I notice I've reached the point where it starts to "fit".
It is a puzzle to me, painting...
I see abstract shapes- chunks and dots of color...
I guess I have always seen things in an abstract way.
As a kid I used to spend a lot of time alone in the woods.
I loved the silence of the place I used to visit the most:
A group of rocks with hickory trees surrounding it.
I'd sit there at a huge rock used as a table with a big rock in one hand, and a small pile of hickory nuts in the other.
The birds and squirrels were my only visitors.
I used to love to look up into the trees and see the colors the sun would make on the leaves.
I still look for that "place".
There is a point in all my paintings where I can "see" it come together.
I use some forms of navigation; sketches, photos, etc.,
but those are only loose guides-
The trick is putting my focus to where ever it leads...
A kind of "spirit" takes over, and transports me to another place.
This is why I paint.
I go AWAY when I paint.
I leave the premises-
If only for a few hours,
but it's like going back to that "place" I loved as a child.
Back to work...
"In the big rock candy mountains
all the cops have wooden legs
the bulldogs all have rubber teeth
and the hens lay soft boiled eggs..." -Harry "Mac" McClintock
Till next time... 'Mela
12:06 AM
Wednesday, September 24, 2003
I didn't know when I painted this scene,
that I would create a historic picture...
© Pamela MacCarthy
All rights reserved
“ October Night in Nakagawara ”
1995
Black Ink, Oil Pastel, Watercolor
37.5 cm x 25 cm
10” X 14”
On Watercolor Paper
The world where I live was simpler then.
Roads were almost like bicycle paths,
and rice paddies stretched out across a wide open terrain.
No more.
This scene is now changed.
Apartment buildings are now standing on what was once farmland,
and concrete lines the waterways, and expands the roads...
It is progress, no?
In any event, I have this picture as a testament
to what once was...
The good news is since I've gone broadband
and downloaded "real audio",
I am able to hook up to the most excellent online radio shows:
my beloved listener supported WBGO coming in from Newark,NJ
with the jazz I've been missing to my soul.
It now plays on my computer.
Glory Hallelujiah!
Along with the whimsy of WFMU coming out of Jersey City, NJ,
the funky New Orleans scene coming in from WWOZ-
and a new station [and radio host] I recently got hip to by a blues/jazz aficionado friend of mine from Oregon,
he told me of "Mama Jazz",
the radio host at WMUB/FM
coming out of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.
She's a wonder, that's for sure.
I hope to be appearing on a playlist there...
The days and nights have gotten abruptly cooler...
I love this time of year,
my only concern is that in the past,
the Indian Summers seemed to stretch into mid-October,
and the leaves would not turn and fall till November.
With things speeding up, maybe this autumn won't last as long...
"The naked Ginko tree
raises its fists to old man Winter:
"You stole my clothes!"
-Pamela MacCarthy
Till next time... 'Mela
Labels: Artist Pamela MacCarthy
6:53 PM
Sunday, September 07, 2003
"Etienne"
Digital
"Give me red lipstick
and a poppy red rouge
a shinglebob haircut
and a shot of good booze"
"Richland Woman Blues"
- Mississippi John Hurt
This is my new Digital art work.
I originally started to draw these as "mood journals."
I was imagining the look of that day...
I absolutely love the "jazz age" look.
Next week, in most towns throughout Japan, the neighborhood Jinja's [Shinto shrines] will have the annual event to bring about good luck for a plentiful harvest of rice.
In my town, there will be banging of drums, sake and beer, and members of the local shrine will man the floats,
to be paraded around the beat.
I have watched this for a few years now.
I have even banged the huge drum, with a baton the size of a baseball bat.
The parade begins and ends at the shrine, which is in my backyard, so when they beat the drum, my windows shake.
The year I painted "Rice Harvest Festival",
I was mesmerized by this little boy;
on that hot, early evening in September- with his oversized t-shirt and flip flops on.
The light sources.
And of course, the float performers.
I was trying to catch the feeling I got from this:
The boy is transfixed to the dragon puppet, as he pulls in angst at his t'shirt.
The light sources; from the twilight sky, the lantern lights of the float, and the eerie neon blue/green of the vending machines ...
The little girls dressed in yukata looking on as the grown ups perform on the flute, drums, and percussion instruments.
And of course, the dragon puppeteer...
My son Michio helped me with the Kanji for the lanterns.
I haven't sold this painting, as it is a very special memory of my time here.
Till next time... 'Mela
9:54 PM
Saturday, September 06, 2003
Marigolds.
Emails from old friends,
and new ones...
A cloudy day that spares me the light.
Frankincense and Myrr.
A cup of tea.
A phone call.
I will bake an apple pie...
It's autumn at last.
'Mela
11:09 PM
Thursday, September 04, 2003
I saw a movie yesterday called "Fried Green Tomatoes".
The screenplay was written by that fabulous
red- headed Southern Belle, Fanny Flagg.
I remember her from the "Hollywood Squares" show.
Her and Paul Lynde were my faves.
This film was wonderful.
It featured Jessica Tandy, Kathy Bates, Mary Stuart-Masterson, Mary-Louise Parker, Chris O'Donnell,
and Cicely Tyson.
What a great story.
Beside the story, the part that got me, was a particular scene where there was a "snowball tree" in the yard.
It brought me back home to my mother's house in upstate N.Y., where I painted this painting:
© 1995 Pamela MacCarthy
"The Snowball Tree"
My dear friend Kenji T. now owns the painting.
Till next time... 'Mela
8:50 PM
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Photo: Michio Yves Ueda
