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Ink on Paper then manipulated on my computer.
A new technique for me. |
I seem to have two sides to me, the right and the left, often referred to the left and right brain. I think I'm equally right and left brained, but, on two different scales: on a larger scale, the life experience scale, I fluctuate between the two. For a couple of years, all I can think about is art and I paint and do little artistic projects. I cancel my subscription to "The Economist," and subscribe to "Cloth Paper and Scissors," instead. If you visit my blog
"Old Woman on a Bicycle," for the past year it's been mostly about art and visiting art exhibits and making videos. I belong to all the big art museums in town. However, I haven't written on this blog for over a month, because my mind is shifting again. I just subscribed to "The Economist" again, and I will probably start writing about politics and history. I was making a video about one or two a week and now I haven't made one in over a month (see me on YouTube). Undoubtedly, I will undergo another mental shift back to the art scene, which I've presently lost all interest in. The last time that I was in one of my artistic periods and then left it, I had no idea I would be interested in doing art again, so I threw a lot of stuff away that I was really sorry about when I re-entered this phase about a year later. I'm not really good enough at it, to be a professional, but each time that I enter one of these phases, I'm better at it than I was before, and I try to accomplish something before I lose interest again, which now I'm sure I will. My measure of success in the art world is getting something published. Getting published is my measuring stick for success no matter what phase I'm living in. The only question has been, how long do I have before another radical change in interest, and I go back to reading "The Economist" as though it were the Bible. By the way, in both phases of my personality, I always read the Bible and the same religious material that I like, like Dietrich Bonhoffer and some Buddhist writing. My religious interests remain a constant. I should add that each time I switch back into the other phase, I'm better at what I'm doing than I was before. Constant emotional and mental growth is a constant in my life. When I'm in my artistic phase, I don't do much reading, and when I'm in my "left-brained phase" I do. I actually feel happier in the left-brained phase. I am very intellectual, and when I'm in the right-brained, or artistic phase, I feel that a part of my brain isn't being exercised significantly. However, I get some enjoyment in seeing what progress I'm making in my art work.
By the way, besides "Old Woman on a Bicycle" I have another blog called
"One American Mind," which is primarily devoted to the left side of my personality, which is the history/political/philosophical side. I judge which site to post on as to which interest I think it falls into. If I'm thinking about Obama or Michelle Bachmann, I'll write something on "One American Mind." My blog "One American Mind" gets twice as many hits as "Old Woman on a Bicycle," but I've also had "One American Mind" for a much longer period of time.
What I really like the most is combining these two sides of my personality into one project. I've written a novel enititled
"That Smooth-Faced Gentleman" which I published myself. One reason I liked publishing it myself (which was a mistake) was that I could design the entire book. I photo I took is on the cover. I would really hate to have a book published with someone else's art work on the cover, but perhaps I wouldn't mind if it were much better than I could do. Here's a piece of irony. The title of my book, which I wrote 10 years ago, is a quote from Shakespeare's play "King John." I just found out on Ancestry.com that the real King John was an ancestor of mine.
