My Hearts For Haiti

It's time to send in your heart creations to the Painted Thoughts website, listed in the post below this one, if you haven't already. The 29th actually was the date, but the artist extended the date to over the weekend to give more people an opportunity to participate. I actually did 6. I didn't like the first two at all, especially after I saw some of the other submissions on the Everyday Matters website. Those were really good! So, I went back to the old drawing board, and even looked at all the Valentines displays in the stores.

I'm not really a "heart person", but I figured that I could draw one for a good cause. So, I got some of those little ATC or ACEO papers at Hobby Lobby, pulled out my pen and my watercolors, and tried.

I kind of liked my little cowboy heart, but decided that the result was too weak. Another design with overlapping hearts also looked like it was very lacking and needed to be reworked.

Above, I have "Yellow Rose of Texas... For Haiti"; "Many Hearts Coming Together....For Haiti"; "Delicate Heart...For Haiti"; and "Dainty Heart....For Haiti"; and "A Big Heart From Texas...For Haiti's Heart To Lean On". All are 2.5" x 3.5" on Strathmore acid free Bristol Board or Strathmore acid free watercolor paper.

I'm not sure which one I'm going to send to the project, yet, but I am leaning toward the "Delicate Heart" with the light purple. It may be too light , though, and the "Dainty Heart", with the darker pink, might show up better.

If you like the hearts and would like to purchase one, let me know. The proceeds will go to the Helping Haiti Through Art project.

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The Brazos Valley Art League meets tomorrow, Monday, at noon at the Art Center in College Station. There will be a watercolor demonstration by award winning artist, Nellie Kress. Visit with other artists and those who enjoy art before the meeting starts.

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And, be sure to go downtown Bryan February 5 for the big Art Step. You can read more about it online through Great Watkins, the Brazos Valley Art League Newsletter, or the Downtown Bryan Association's website.

The Art League will be showing at St. Andrews Episcopal Church, downtown.

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Tuesday-Ironing Day

Tuesday

Ironing Day

8.5"x 11"

pencil

Back in my hometown, when I was growing up, Monday was wash day, all over town. I've written about that and shown a drawing of it, at my house, last week. Today I am showing the next day in the week, after all that washing was done.

Clothes were sprinkled with water, then rolled or folded over, ready to iron (without steam. We did have electric irons, though. Mama had a GE iron.). Things that didn't have to be ironed, like socks and underwear, were folded and put away.

Bertie was there to help Mama, some. Friends came over to play and we had a good time sitting in the pile of clean clothes on the kitchen floor, or crawing through cabinets, playing with the pots and pans, or just hiding. Mama didn't like for us to go in the cabinets, unless she cleared out all the cookware and let us play there. We must have dented a few pans.

I know that Mama was glad when the weather was good and we could play outside. But, sometimes, it was more fun to be in the house, where everyone else happened to be working. The grownups probably spent a lot of time shooing us out of places where we shouldn't be.

In my drawing, I've shown Bertie coming out of the dining room into the kitchen. Mama is at the wooden ironing board, ironing. I've shown three little girls playing in the clean clothes and the cabinets. The smaller one has to be my sister, the one in the cabinets must be my next door neighbor, Edie, and the one in the clothes was going to be me, but I think she looks more like another playmate, Tootsie. My pictures seem to have a life of their own. What I have in my mind is not always what comes out on the paper!

We had wooden cabinets in our small kitchen, with a built in dough board near the door. There were some shelves over the sink where Mama would put a plant, vases, and some souveneirs from trips, or wedding presents. She would put her rings on the bottom right shelf while she worked. The counter had small octagonal tiles in white, with some black trim. A glass bowl of water is shown on the counter. This is what was used to sprinkle the clothes once, then again when ironing if a wrinkle appeared or if the clothes dried before they were ironed. Some people had a sprinkler head that they placed in a Coke bottle. But a handful of water worked just as well. On the right side counter, there is the radio, where Mama would take it to listen to the soap operas after dinner. (That would be lunch, to some people.) Otherwise, the radio was kept on a small table between the living room and the dining room.

On the stove, there is a pot of homemade soup cooking, a coffee pot so Daddy could have a cup of coffee when he came in, and a smaller pan with some starch cooking, ready to use on things like shirts or pinafores. The broom is in the corner by the stove, along with a rack for a cup towel and a hook for a pot holder.

Ma, our part Blue Maltese cat, who had soooo many kittens over the years, is lounging on the linoleum floor. Her latest litter of kittens are in their favorite place, under the stove.

The window in the door is covered with dotted swiss curtains with a patterned trim. Mama was always sewing or making something to improve the house, and painting and wall papering went along with that. I remember the kitchen being yellow, light green, white, but always bright despite having only the door and window, and an overhead light to provide light.

In the space in front of the cat, there was a refrigerator with a cabinet over it. Inside the cabinet, there was the water heater. The door to the living room opened between the refrigerator and the cabinet where the little girl is peeking from.

I always wished for a fireplace, an attic that we could go into like in "Little Women", and a basement. But, our house was more of a two bedroom cottage. When it was first built, and Mama was showing the ladies around while they were there for an afternoon game of canasta, people were just delighted to see the "honeymoon cottage". I remember how impressed they were with the built in dough board. It wasn't long before we were crowded, and more modern homes were being built with so many neat things. And we longed for a bigger, more modern house. But Daddy wasn't about to move from the house that he had built and had paid for.

Today, my washing and ironing was done at the same time. Things are sorted, go in the washer, then the dryer. I hang things up right away, put things that need ironing on the ironing board. Things that are ready to hang are put away, while the ironing is sprinkled with a spray bottle. I kind of dawdle with that ironing as I put the ironing board where I can watch tv. Boy is it hard work, ironing all 4 of those shirts! Not really. It's nothing compared to the big load that my mother and Bertie did when I was young.

We learned to iron as children by doing the flat pieces, beginning with handkerchiefs and pillowcases. Some people liked to dry their handkerchiefs and scarves by flattening them out on the stove. That way, they didn't need much ironing. I still dry my scarves that way. Not on the stove, but on the shower handles. Thank goodness for tissues, so we don't have handkerchiefs to wash and iron like we once used.

As I iron today, I think, first, why didn't we buy wash and wear instead of looking for just 100 percent cotton! And, then, I think that it is nice to be able to iron shirts for someone again, after many years. And it's nice, having the time to do those little things.

And I remember how the clean clothes smelled after being washed outside and dried in the sun, and the smell of food cooking in the kitchen, the sound of the iron sizzling as Mama ironed, the odor of Berties dip of snuff, and the noises of little girls playing in our kitchen on ironing day.

Hope that, if you are ironing today, that it goes smoothly.

Look on the links on my sidebar and enjoy some of those sites. I enjoyed reading about Mary Marshall's participation in an art show over the weekend. And Esther Read had a story published in the "Corpus Christi Caller Times" about her mother. Virginia Vaughan has a lovely painting today of an old well on the farm that she is leaving, and a nice story about that place.

The Art Step in downtown Bryan was quite an event. They have a First Friday event each month there, so, if you missed this one Saturday, you have other chances to go. I sent two paintings to the auction Saturday. One was an acrylic on 16"x 20" canvas of the Art Deco series, "Deco Street", in black, white, and silver. I put it in a dark, plain wood frame and it looked really elegant. The other was of the watercolor farmhouse that I have shown you previously, and I put that in a barnwood frame with a gray mat. That one looks nice too. Goes really well with my stone fireplace! I thought I might have better luck with something smaller, but I guess that either they were not small enough, or the right person didn't see them. I still have them, in case you are interested.

My photos didn't come out very well. I'm not having much luck with the digital camera. There is a lot of yellow or orange on one side of my Deco Street painting from a lamp in the room, I guess. The frame doesn't show at all. In the farm house painting, the colors are distorted, and the whole picture is blurred. But, I'm going to put them on here anyway, so you can see what I sent to the auction.

Yea, Purple!

Yea, Purple!
8.5" x 11"
pencil
"Yeaaaaaaa, Purple! Yeaaaaaa, Gray! Yea, Trojans! Yea! Yea! Yea!"
Our cheerleaders, all 4 of them, lined up on the stage in the Calvert High School auditorium on Friday afternoons in the fall. We sat in the wooden chairs, lined up in rows, and followed the traditional yells, that most people in town knew and had participated in when they were in school.
Football players, teachers, and students from first grade through 12th grade sat out in the audience and followed the cheerleaders' directions. The band didn't play, there wasn't a skit or entertainment. Sometimes, the bass drum and a snare drum might be used during the pep rally. We just yelled for the boys who were going to do battle later that night for the dear old Trojans.
We yelled things like "Orange crush, lemon ice, hit em once, hit em twice" ; "Two bits, four bits, six bits, a dollar"; and solemnly sang the school song, "Cheer for the purple and gray" (or as it came out, "cheer for the pulrp n gray".
The cheerleaders were dressed in long satin circle skirts, made of purple and gray gores. The matching blouses had balloon, long sleeves. Each cheerleader wore rolled over white socks, (with rubber bands to hold them up) and saddle shoes. They had purple, or some years, white, megaphones with a silhouette of a Trojan, and the cheerleader's name painted on them. Those, and, sometimes, purple and gray pom poms, were reserved for the football field. The head cheerleader might have her's on stage to announce yells. The others might just keep their's in a row by the lights at the foot of the stage. Fashions at the time dictacted that the hem of skirts should be 1 1/2 inches above the socks. Later, that changed to a space of 2 1/2 inches above the socks. At the time, it was a bit on the risque side, that women were showing so much of their legs!
"Just wait," people would say. "The styles will change and skirts will come back down again."
Little did they know that mini skirts and bare tummies, plunging necklines and such were on the way.
The circle skirts swirled in unison as the cheerleaders spun around. They poofed out, then fell, when the girls jumped in the air and landed on their feet.
We would get almost through a pep rally, when someone, sometimes the cheerleaders, would start singing, "Beer, beer for old CHS. Oh, lordy, we're such a mess." And, when the teachers would realize what was being sung, they would come out into the audience and try to stop the singing. They announced, insisted, pleaded, explained, while some kids tried to sing, or giggled at how upset the teachers were. Mrs. Brannon explained to us that the song promoted drinking and we must not act that way, especially at school. I guess some of the same parents who insisted that dancing, card playing, smoking, and drinking, were wicked, got to the board, the superintendent, and the teachers, and told us to cut that stuff out.
It didn't work too well, all the time, and the teachers would yell at us. Someone might sing it softly until everyone joined in. Or, if we couldn't manage that, we would wait until we were outside, possibly in the street on our way home after school, or at the football game that night, and then sing it over and over, at the top of our lungs.
I would crack up laughing when the school where I was teaching, in later years, changed the school song from the very traditional song they had for years. I guess they were trying to keep the kids happy. Everyone was assembled in the gym when the band started playing, "Beer, beer for ole CHS". I had to turn around and stifle my laughter. "How could anyone have that song as a serious school song", I thought. I had quit singing because I didn't want anyone to hear my croaky voice, but, in my head I was hearing, "Beer, beer for old CHS" as sung at Calvert High. I even mouthed the words to it since no one knew the new song, yet. A little rebellion, I guess.
Maybe they had never heard the song the way that I always heard it! It certainly wasn't a song that glorified the school and pledged undying love and loyalty to the school.
Our parents and older generations had sung the same songs. They didn't see anything wrong with it either. But, whatever the teachers said, we had to do. Grandpa, who was on the school board, just listened when I told him about how unreasonable those old teachers were being to us poor little kids, with no comment. After football season, it would all die down and we forgot the restrictions until the next year.
One time, when a cheerleader or two were out sick, I was asked to be a substitute cheerleader and so I went onstage for the pep rally. It was fun to swirl around, and do all the moves that I had watched for years. We had played cheerleader and practiced with the elected cheerleaders, not to mention watching them for years. So, the yells and moves were all familiar. That part was easy. But, being a shy kid, getting up in front of everyone made it hard to breathe, and I felt really hot. I took a deep breath as everyone was leaving the auditorium. At last, that was over! And I just had to play in the band that night, not stand in front of everyone and lead cheers.
Several high school boys came up to the stage after the pep rally.
"Good job!" one said. "You were really good," another said. "Have you thought of running for cheerleader?" "I think you should run for cheerleader. I sure would vote for you!" were some other comments. I just said "Thank you." I was just happy that I could get out of there.
I should have tried those things, as I look back now. But it was hard enough to have to recite in class or to have to get up in front of a crowd with the band. At least, in the band, I was in the middle of a lot of other people and hoped that no one would see or hear me!
We left the pep rallies, with the football boys going off to get ready for the game, and to eat a meal prepared by the homemaking girls, if they were going out of town. Cheerleaders went home to get ready for the game that night. Band members gathered at the band hall to get their music, lyres, and have the band director check uniforms before the game. Spectators started gathering early while the PTA ladies readied the concession stand. Rows of cars parked on the outside of the fence in order to get a good viewing spot. Daddy and other spectators would gather between the shrubs and the outside of the fence, so they could watch the game without having to pay for a ticket. We only lived 1/2 block away, so we could just listen to the game announcer and the crowd from my great-aunt's porch, or just go out in the yard, or even open a window. Daddy liked to go to the games, but he would just as soon stand behind the end zone and watch, and talk about the game with men.
If you have a favorite team, I hope that they win tonight at the big Friday night game. One of our local teams played last night, so I hope all those people will go downtown to the Art Step event!
I have a couple of paintings there. One is the larger acrylic painting of "Deco Street", and the other is the smaller watercolor of the farm house. I sure hope that we don't have to bring them back home after the auction! It's a beautiful night here, clear and cool, so, hopefully, a lot of people will turn out and buy, while they are having fun.
Thanks for passing this on to others who might be interested.

All Saints Day

Dark Angel
9" x 12"
watercolors
This was the day that I chose to have my daughter christened, when she was a baby, some years ago. I had pushed her stroller to the door so that she could enjoy the trick or treaters who came to our door the night before, on Halloween. Then, on All Saints Day, which fell on Sunday that year, we dressed up, and took her to church to be christened. I dressed her in a white, lacy and ruffled gown, and a cap that was supposed to be made so that threads could be snipped and it could be used as a handkerchief to carry when she married. After church, we went out to eat, then went visiting during the afternoon.
Today, All Saints Day is kind of quiet with one granson in school, the other working, and I'm painting. My daughter, who was the one who was christened in the entry above, is busy running errands. She probably has not thought that this was a special day in her life.
I like the way this angel turned out. I thought that her face was hidden a bit too much in her hair, when I first painted it, but, the more I look at her, the more I like the way it is.
Let me know if you see something of interest to you. Please share with others. And, a big thank you to all of you who send comments on my blog.
Join my group, if you haven't done so already. There is a bit more art work there.
If you are in the area tomorrow evening, Friday, be sure to go to downtown Bryan to the big Art Step event. I'll have work there for the Art Auction, and there will be lots more artists in various places. Also, there will be carriage rides, food, readings, demonstrations by artists, music, and entertainment. Sounds like a fun event!
I would love to send some art work to a new home, where it can be enjoyed and appreciated!
Here are some links where you can read more about the art event.
http://www.downtownbryan.com/docs/artstep_downtownbryan.pdf
http://www.downtownbryan.com/activities_events.shtml
http://www.framegallerydowntown.com/
http://www.lifeinthebrazos.com/articles/arts_in_brazos
Hope to see you there!
Be sure to visit the links on my sidebar. Lots of things of interest there. If you want to read my posts on Macular Degeneration, go to my archives and read the older posts. All those that are on AMD are prefaced with the word, "vision". There will be more on that subject later.