Of Suns and Yellow Spots

This year... more than ever before, I have found myself time and time again swept up by the "chance-ness" of things, by the way connections appear, by the way dots get connected unexpectedly, by the way the right image is seen at just the right, the most "apt" moment. This year... I've noticed. And I'm left always feeling a little amazed. I can't show the picture at Flickr that has prompted this post, but I can link to it. So, click through.

It's a wonderful piece. What she does with that liltle wooden form makes me catch by breath. There is such feeling there. Such personality. Why so wonderful at this moment?

I saw it in my "new posts by contacts" list, and I immediately clicked through to see... because I love her work and because I could see from the thumbnail that there was an easel invovled, a painting in progress. As the full image loaded, I read the quote first... and that is why. That quote paired so perfectly with that illustration.

I did not catch a "real" glimpse of sunrise this morning. In January and February, I was wowed, daily, by a shifting gradient of color out my kitchen window beyond what became a favorite tree. For the last few months, there has been nothing. It's mostly light already when I get up circa 5:30. I thought maybe I was just missing the display. This morning, as I took a look while I stirred my coffee, I could see that the problem is that the sunrise has shifted just enough over the past few months to be behind basically an entire hill of trees. So, I can see where it "is" but can't see "it."

I carried my coffee in, sat down, and drew this... a simple tribute-comic for today... or for the start of today.

I mentioned rainbow hair a while back... it's come up for me in various ways... I don't have rainbow hair... Episode 53 of the CMP (which I'll release today in celebration of my birthday) is entitled "Rainbow Hair."

And so this, this morning...

And when I was ready to turn the hair "into" rainbow hair... I envisioned his gel pens... but couldn't find the vibrancy I had in my head (out of something like 100 gel pens - crazy). I tested his Tombow markers... but the red is dead. (Must make a quick stop at Flax to get one before we leave town.) So... I scrounged around and found a little bag of colored pencils... and inside, a Ziploc of chubby kid colored pencils... and those hit the colors. I have not seen any need for "regular" colored pencils this year... although I often admire the work of artists who use that medium. Suddenly, this morning, I'm wishing I had a full set... a whole box... to explore this new path... these simple boxes... this challenge to pare life down to a few words (so hard for me!).

(At the last minute, I used his black brush marker to re-ink the boxes themselves. I wish I hadn't done that. I've got a more fragile line - and... seeing what the thicker line does... I realized that the fragile line is part of what I'm doing.)