Susan Livengood

I know this looks “cartoony” now.  I was looking at Matisse’s cutouts, and borrowed some of his colors and the idea of layering colors that are very close over each other.  The mask is an image I’ve used often.  I’m quite sure that there will be spattering and interrruptions.  And when it’s all said and done, well, theoretically, we’ll have a painting.

Last year we made $12,000 and paid $8,000 in health insurance premiums.  In Dec. we ran out of money and had to cancel the ins. and borrow money from Forrest.  Not a position we ever expected to be in.  Finally things are improving and we went back to BCBSNC.  Even with jacking up the deductible to $5400 and doing a HSA, they won’t insure us.  If competition is the backbone of American finance, what are the health insurance companies scared of?   The GOP and naysayers can blame the unisured as  pariahs on the economy.  So here’s a good GOP solution.  “US establishes death camps for das uninsured.  SC GOP Spokeswoman says” With the price of gold, this is a fiscally responsible plan.”

I suffer from being Scottish, or just an ornery penny pincher.  The RAPGrant gave me plenty of money to do a big project, to really pursue the questions “What if, or what else?”  Now that project is finished, the money spent, and I am at a loss.  I did a very nice painting on canvas, but I ended up channeling Peggy Lee.  Is that all there is?  And “how you goin’ to keep them down on the farm, after they’ve seen Paree?”  My what if’s and else’s seem to be going beyond a flat surface.

Last year Gregg and I began discussing handmade books, and what does the concept “book” mean.   Since thinking, drawing and wondering are mostly free, I’ve been doing that.  After all was said and done the materials for Chemo were not that expensive.  We didn’t end up using the hollow core doors that  we sketched that project around.  However, I am a HUGE fan of painting on those doors.  So Gregg decreed, and I concur, that we will now call them “panels”.   These panels are often available at the Habitat store, so I can also say I’m repurposing old building materials.  Now there’s a buzz word for you.  We bought some books at Goodwill with the idea of incorporating them into bigger books.  This was the inscription in one that I’m probably going to use.  Maybe.  Like I said, thinking’s for free.

I got my picture in the paper yesterday with the press release about Chemo Today.  It was in The Guide, which must only go in subscribers papers.  I bought the paper to find this out.  Gregg brought The Guide home from work.  Thanks to the Case’s.   Did Andy Warhol mean that everyone is famous for 15 min. or you accumulate seconds, that add up to 15?

I have to quit picking at this stonewall or it will move toward hyper-realism.  Horrors!

I floundering a bit after my big project, Chemo.  Little paintings seem minor, but I can’t afford the time or money to do big projects.   Or the space.  I’m going to be like those people they find dead in their homes after all of their stuff has suffocated them.   WAH!  There’s still some room and time, so I’ll seize the day to paint!

I have a cardinal that just started an affair w/ my window.  They can be such persistent pests, banging into the window.   Today’s image is of poison ivy.  Although it doesn’t sound like it, I like living in the country.  Except no hi-speed.

Gregg’s working.  I’m working.  No holiday for us.

I realized I can’t treat the stonewall as a pattern.  I need to address every rock and every shadow.  The Galkyd med. is SHINY.  Maybe I need to thin is more.  Now I’m painting over parts of it.  It’s giving me fits in my photo.  That super white spot is a reflection, not a mega white rock.

This looks different from yesterdays work because it was UPSIDE DOWN.  We discovered that this morning as we swapped places w/it and Chemo Today.  My studio space is small, and I wanted the screen closer to my tabouret(fancy French word for painting table).  Chemo is heavy but we were able to slide it.  Imagine my surprise when we set “A Good Marriage” right side up, and the reverse was upside down.  Anyway, I said I wanted to be more abstract, so now that is a red shadow or something in the grass.    Who cares?  I’m experimenting w/ Galkyd med. which is why some parts are more shiny.  And we have to work on my light fixtures.  They do NOT stay pointed where I want.   All considered, I’m glad I’m painting and not doing something else, like fighting a war or cancer.