Reaching across the abyss

So here's what happened yesterday when I began painting over one of the squirty pieces. I had intended to glaze some parts of it with quinacridone nickel azo gold, but as usual I was seduced by the blues and decided to leave it in its current state; there's plenty of texture and orangey-yellow stuff showing through to keep it interesting (though I realize you can't necessarily see that in this relatively lo-res photo). I still have lots of blue paint on the palette; maybe I'll put it on the other squirty piece and do the glazing there.

It wasn't until this morning, when I turned the painting blue side up (Originally its natural position was horizontal, rotated counter clockwise from where it is now so the big drips go down), that I realized there was what appeared to be a sort of white angel figure reaching across the darkness. Well, that's fun; I can work with that, so I posted it in my regular blog today, with the caption:

"In faith, we reach across the darkening abyss,
Praying there will be light on the other side.

And isn't that what a lot of us are doing right now? Reaching out to (without actually touching) our brothers and sisters on the planet, offering help and sustenance wherever we safely can do so, and hoping -- praying -- the crisis will pass and not leave us totally devastated? Reading the internet, I see that there are angels everywhere, doing their best to help the vulnerable and "flatten the curve" (epidemiologist speak for slow down the spread of the virus.)

That said, there's lots of advice out there, including get lots of rest, which is challenging, when we wake up in the wee hours of the morning and begin to think of the possible horrors ahead. I'd been doing reasonably well about getting back to sleep, but last night we were awakened at 4 am by a tree falling (in our neighbor's forest, thankfully, no one hurt, nothing damaged) and that adrenaline rush when you hear the branches starting to crash through and are not quite sure where it's going to land... Uff-da.

I finally gave up trying to sleep at 5:30; got up and blogged, meditated, and breakfasted; finally returned to bed around 9 for an hour or so of vivid dreaming filled with assignments missed, passages blocked, friends ignored, etc. I wouldn't really call it rest...

You'd think those of us who meditate would have a leg up on this self-soothing thing, but in fact I suspect those of us who meditate do it precisely - or at least partly -- because self-soothing has always been a challenge.

Anyway -- back to the subject of Art: The Library just called to say they'll be closing Wednesday, and if I want my paintings back I should probably pick them up in the next day or two. Which reminded me -- if the library's closing, I'd better stock up on reading material! Looks like a library trip this afternoon; hope the place isn't too crowded.

Learnings: Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold is too strong a glaze.
                   Don't forget to rotate the picture.