Ocean Beach 6:04 p.m.
Watercolor 101, Week Four
Is it not obvious how serious we are – how hard we're trying? And there sits Mr. Erik, giggling.
Upside Down
Circles in the Sand
Ocean Beach 5:44 p.m.
Watercolor 101, Week Three
Another great class tonight. We talked about Steph Curry and the game last Saturday. I said it was the most incredible game I had ever seen in my life and Mr. Erik agreed. When we’d finished talking about the Warriors and checked on the score, Mr. E. taught me how to draw smooth circles on my new cold pressed pad of watercolor paper – that’s the paper Norm suggested. That's the paper that's impossible for me to use. But I’d like to learn to use it so I can scan pieces of paintings and work with them digitally without having to worry about the texture. I shouldn’t say Mr. Erik taught me, but he demonstrated in front of my own eyes that what I wanted to do could be done. I noticed that he was very patient, using a dry brush to soak up the water that pooled at the edges. I like having a thin little line around the shape, and he said pigmented paint rather than Dr. Martin’s would be more likely to make that line happen.
Ocean Beach 6:15 p.m.
Oops. That's not me, is it?
The wall at Vicente Street weir
Ocean Beach 5:52 p.m.
Watercolor 101, Week Two
Last night in class we painted for three hours. We tried to get the hang of smooth washes and gradations. Mr. Erik's jazz station played softly in the background and it was all very meditative – but physically taxing too. I used up a 60-page tablet of paper and somewhere in there I feel like something clicked. We'll see.
After class Mr. Erik asked us to roll up our paper tablecloths so we could reuse them. When he saw mine, he said, "Never mind. Just throw that one away." This is one reason I work digitally – most of the mess stays inside my computer.
That's Mr. Erik in the very back, the one who looks like he's smacking his forehead and going "God help me."
Jane
Ocean Beach 6:02 p.m.
Jane Underwood was my writing mentor. I wrote this poem about her. The first paragraph is about meeting her for the first time at a class she invented called the Round Robin. I must have signed up for that class 15 or 16 times! And it's still going on, thanks to Suzy Parker who has taken it over. I took my poem to a gathering in Jane's honor today. I wasn't able to read it but I kept it in my pocket and gave it to Jack.
Jane
Your child-like voice
The SHEER VOLUME of wonder your eyes could hold
Your sense of style
Your smile.
Remember those persimmon jeans?
The shoes with wide elastic bands?
Pens like arrows in your hands.
You loved a rant.
You unearthed my best
And gave it back to me in gold.
You brushed aside the rest.
Let fly the bad and blasted back the good
–A regular Round Robin-hood.
Ocean Beach at Stairwell 17
For Valentine's Day Tom and I ordered these amazing cushy sweatshirts for eachother from American Giant. His in phantom grey; mine in black. So romantic! We waited and waited and waited for them to come and when they finally arrived, Tom's was much too small and mine was much too big. Heartbreaking.
Ocean Beach 5:44 p.m.
My brand new bag came with a book by Susan O'Malley called Advice From My 80-Year-Old Self. Wouldn't it also be fun to compile a book called Advice To My 80-Year-Old Self?
Watercolor 101
I hated the exercises we did with watercolor. But I loved the class! We have a really interesting teacher who plays great music (Miles Davis / Kind of Blue). And sixteen good-natured students, except for one.
leftover placemats
A hike on the Coastal Trail followed by a romantic Valentine's dinner from Chino's, along with the Sunday paper. (My favorite way to spend an evening.)
On the back deck: rock collection
Ocean Beach 5:50 p.m.
Ocean Beach 6:01 p.m.
Today is Alice Walker's Birthday
Ms. Walker was born to sharecroppers, the youngest of eight children. At age 8, she was blinded in one eye when her brother accidentally shot her with a BB gun.
She later wrote that the disfiguring scar and blindness left her feeling isolated and introspective. She started a journal and began to develop her writing voice.
“I think writing really helps you heal yourself,” Ms. Walker once told The Times. “I think if you write long enough, you will be a healthy person. That is, if you write what you need to write, as opposed to what will make money, or what will make fame.”
-NYTimes Your Morning Briefing