Fowl Play

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My neighbor David Bershad called me this morning and asked if I was keeping chickens now. I said no, puzzled that he would ask and he said he could swear he heard a rooster crowing in my yard. I told him it must be the people across the street as they had them in the past. It left and when I got back home, this was in my email.

Sure enough, that is a rooster strutting by on my terrace. The rather sinister looking iguana in front is actually the Quetzalcoatl sculpture that surrounds the water pipe that empties hot water into the pool. Its lower jaw is obscured by the tree so it looks like an iguana!!! I’ll never doubt anything that David says again and I’m amazed that the dogs didn’t kill it. No feathers in view so I take it it went back home.

Between Two Worlds ( Art Challenge # 4)

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I’m adding pieces to the show as pieces are sold and removed. This new piece and others are still on view at Jesus Lopez Vega’s Gallery on the corner of Rio Zula (Rio Bravo) and Ocampo, a block south of Casa Linda in Ajijic. Open M-F  10 to 6 through April 30, 2022. 

Between Two Worlds

This piece is about old and new, peace and conflict, blended cultures, freedom and confinement, the wide variety of what the world has to offer and the need to stay on target, to have fun and to spend our time wisely. The Luchador is wearing my All State Choir pin as a belt buckle? What’s that about??? I’ve recently added this piece to the show, along with several other new pieces, as work has sold.

 

My friend Linda Levy Challenged me to post a photo of a piece of art I created each day for ten days. Here is today’s share.

Alter Ego: NaPoWriMo 2022, Day 8

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Alter Ego

Sometimes she’s  an angel. At other times a witch.
There is no way to know when her personae’s going to switch.
When an angel, she’s gregarious, obedient and sexy,
but during her more bitchy days, she’s silent, dark and hexy.
No x-ray can determine which one she’s going to be.
There is no test to indicate which one she’s going to see
when she wakes up each morning and stumbles to the mirror
to discover which she’ll be today–the feared one or the dearer.
I’m always the first one to see what side of her will win,
for each day the face she chooses is the one that I’ll be in!

 

The NaPoWriMo prompt today is to name your alter-ego, and then describe him/her in detail. Then write in your alter-ego’s voice. Maybe your alter-ego is a streetwise detective, or a superhero, or a very small goldfinch. Whoever or whatever your alternate self may be, I hope this prompt lets you stretch both your writing skills and your self-knowledge.

Opening Night Jitters

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Opening Night Jitters

I’m consumed by stage fright. Please bring me my wrap.
This whole acting “thing” is a barrel of crap.
My memory’s kaput and I have a bad cough,
so before my first snafu I’d better take off.
There’s a good possibility that I might faint.
It’s clear that an actor I certainly ain’t.

 

Prompt words are stage fright, wrap, snafu, kaput and possibility. Image by Redd TK on Unsplash.

A Bird in the Hand: NaPoWriMo 2022, Day 7

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A Bird in the Hand

“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,” a psychic said to me.
Then my psychiatrist said the same, but for a bigger fee.
When people preach to me like this, I get set in my ways.
I’m never going to take advice from folks who spout clichés!
The birds that I’ve had in my hand number very few.
I can’t recall a single time I combed a bush for two.

And so although I know in fact a proverb is not literal,
and that allusions to two birds are very likely clitoral,
still I’m loathe to think in adages as others do.
I have no wish to take a walk in any other’s shoe.
I’ve never thought the grass was greener in my neighbor’s yard.
And spouting other people’s words does not make you a bard.

I don’t think cleverness with words need make us any wiser.
If my neighbor’s lawn is greener, I’ll use more fertilizer.
So please don’t give me your advice using hackneyed phrases.
For all this glib advice just sorta puts me into dazes.
And if you simply must advise, my character to hone,
please do me a favor and use words of your own!!!

 

The prompt for NaPoWriMo today is to write a poem that argues against, or somehow questions, a proverb or saying. They say that “all cats are black at midnight,” but really? Surely some of them remain striped. And maybe there is an ill wind that blows some good. Perhaps that wind just has some mild dyspepsia.  Whatever phrase you pick, I hope you have fun complicating its simplicity. Happy writing!

Winter Reunion

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Winter Reunion

Mom has popped some popcorn and Dad has built a fire.
Snow collects on window frames as flames lick high and higher.
With pillows piled on the couch and warm rugs on the floor,
it makes a cozy little nest for tired kids to explore.

With  temperatures lowering , it’s fertile territory
for a mug of cocoa and another Grandpa story
about their Halcyon years of youth when Grandma’s evening gown
set new stylish standards for their little town.

Her look representative of a wider world,
all the girls took notice of the way her hair was curled,
and what length her skirts were and what words she used
and when Grandpa came to town, they inevitably fused.

Grandpa in his Model T, raccoon tail on the mirror,
speeding down the main street, grinding every gear.
Grandma on the sidewalk in her flapper gear,
how they got together is why we all are here.

And we are representatives, each and every one
of the whole long story of how her love was won.
These familiar stories building our education
of how a family is built on each past generation.

Prompts for the day are fertile territory, temperature, stylish, Halcyon and representative.

Our Lady of Notions (Art Challenge #3)

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Click on photos to enlarge and view as a slide show.

 

Nuestra Señora de la Merceria
(Our Lady of Notions)

The wooden Madonna which forms the centerpiece of this retablo was hand carved and painted in Oaxaca. She is surrounded by both the “notions” and implements necessary to create beautiful clothing, quilts and other fabric art. Attached to the shrine are various pieces of handicraft, quilts and garments, many of them made by my grandmother. The three tiny much-decorated garments behind her have been presented to her as thank you gifts as well. On the top platform of the retablo, another drama is being enacted. Two tiny silk Chinese figures have cut themselves free of the pincushion they had been sewn onto and have rigged bobbins and thread into an escape device. One has nearly made it to the bottom of the box. Another slides over the edge, armed with a needle, as a third struggles to cut himself free with tiny silver scissors. There seems to be some animosity between those escaped and those about to escape, as signified by the somewhat threatening position of their weapons as well as their steely glares. Surfaces are covered by buttons, needles, thimbles and other sewing notions. On the platform is an antique Singer pattern marking wheel.

This piece was inspired by a church in Michoacan, Mexico where men bring their serapes to drape around the base of the male saint on the altar and all of the women bring gorgeously decorated aprons to drape around the base of the female saint. I had a woman make my basic tiny aprons and then I decorated them.

This was the first retablo that sold the day of the opening of my show. I’m posting photos of in in response to a prompt by Linda Levy, who challenged me to post a different photo of my art each day for ten days.