{"id":808,"date":"2007-12-27T18:36:22","date_gmt":"2007-12-27T22:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/2007\/12\/27\/various-sundry-part-sixty-nine\/"},"modified":"2013-08-29T17:17:34","modified_gmt":"2013-08-29T21:17:34","slug":"various-sundry-part-sixty-nine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/archives\/808","title":{"rendered":"Various & Sundry, part sixty-nine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\u201cArt is to take from life something real, then to build it anew with your imagination.\u201d
\n       \u2014Taha Muhammad Ali<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— I made good on the recent advice from Irina to paint fast and complete a work within one day\u2014I spent most of Christmas Eve executing a heron in watercolors for Nic, my Godson. It turned out rather nicely, so I\u2019m encouraged about continuing with a series of single-day images for display at Wilma\u2019s new gallery. Nic likes it, using the term, \u201cshagpoke,\u201d which he learned from Dadbo. Since I was unfamiliar with that name, I dug into its background and came up with this: It\u2019s a variation of shitepoke,<\/em> which made reference to a bird\u2019s habit of defecating when disturbed, but is generally applied to the green heron<\/a> (Butorides virescens), the black-crowned night heron<\/a> (Nycticorax nycticorax) or the American bittern<\/a> (Botaurus lentiginosus), none of which is the bird I painted, the great blue heron<\/a> (Ardea herodias), that familiar creature which, for me, is always a symbol of good fortune<\/a>. Interestingly, nicknames for the great blue include \u201clong john\u201d and \u201cpoor joe.\u201d Perhaps Dadbo called any heron he saw a shagpoke, or hadn\u2019t thought it necessary to make distinctions with a young lad developing his fondness for the world of animals. I can\u2019t help but think of my father\u2019s early days fishing the Stillwater, and wonder if great blues populated that part of Ohio in the 1930s. One more curious observation is that double \u2018nyc\u2019 in the scientific name for the night heron. <\/p>\n

— I finally got to meet Jerry R at Kelley Ridge, and was happy to see him again when we gathered for Clan Stew. Does this make him an official \u201dsweetie?\u201d I enjoy hearing him share his historical knowledge. This is the kind of man that has the capacity to unlock Marty\u2019s natural desire to study history. Dana and I have resolved to take the lad on a visit to Boonesborough in 2008. <\/p>\n

— Although there are numerous commercial tasks facing me in the studio right now, I can\u2019t help but spend a good portion of my energy this time of year looking ahead to the coming cycle and getting organized. Rather than get caught up in an assessment of past months, I tend to flush all my thoughts and feelings about what\u2019s behind in favor of anticipation for what lies before me. Januaries are full of hope and fresh confidence, with my mind turning to \u201cMax Organ.\u201d Now, don\u2019t let visions of spam-email lewdness dance in your head, because I\u2019m talking about my age-old effort to sort and categorize my morgue of visual materials and other personal papers, along with structuring my work space, and, in general, just dealing with all my accumulated stuff\u2014Maximum Organization. It\u2019s an ideal that can\u2019t actually be reached (if you intend to accomplish anything else), but always remains a worthy goal. It makes me think about the mathematical concept of the asymptote<\/a>. Max Organ shall always remain the valiant endeavor that draws one closer and closer to the unattainable standard. Nevertheless, \u201cfinished is better than perfect<\/a>.\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n

— There should be a strong contingent of Clan at the game tonight, rooting for #3. Tomorrow is Belle\u2019s 17th birthday, and I think she\u2019s due for a good performance on her home court. Like a knucklehead, I got so worked up about watching her play last night that I drove us out to the high school before it became obvious I had the date wrong.<\/p>\n

V & S<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cArt is to take from life something real, then to build it anew with your imagination.\u201d        \u2014Taha Muhammad Ali — I made good on the recent advice from Irina to paint fast and complete a work within one day\u2014I spent most of Christmas Eve executing a heron in watercolors for Nic, my Godson. It turned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,71,7,12,18,8,28,72,6,14,27],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1436,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808\/revisions\/1436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}