freewrite #59 bread

There's nothing in the world like the smell of fresh baked bread.  It must be a universal pleasure whether the bread is flat or round or styled into a loaf.
My friend's father was a baker who made his own bread.
A psychic once told me i was a baker's daughter, but in germany in the 17th century.  I was in love with the local ner' do well.  Not so different from this life.
Bread in all flavors, rye, pumpernickel, marbeled breads.  The bread of life. Sustanance, nourishment of body and soul.
Warm bread with butter slowly melting , a little bit of heaven for sure.
Bread tossed upon the waters.
Bread toasted golden brown -- chunks ripped from a crusty loaf.

FREE WRITE #58/ dance

you have to be extremely comfortable in your own skin to dance...which is why i don't.

ballet is my favorite form of dance to watch..  i admire the hours and hours of practice to achieve the  effortless leap.  the flow of tulle  twirling as the ballerinas spin across the stage.

i also like the alvin ally type dance troupes with their movements so raw and primitive you feel your own limbs wanting to move too.

no. 57/whales

massive and amazing, these creatures, singing their sad, soulful songs.

i went whale watching once.  a dozen sailboats converged on the whales as they made their way into baha.

stuck on this one, but i just keep writing about whales, their enormous bulk reminding me of a henry moore sculpture.

free write 56/ sunsets

my friend Barbara does the most glorious photographs of sunsets.  Big swooping clouds; or a golden sky that looks like something out of africa.  check her out over at Reading the Sky.
sunsets are all about color.  as a painter, i'm intimidated by the sky and mother earth's rich palette...and that fragile glow that i can never capture.
i struggle with this subject; sunsets are so visual how do you ever describe them in words.
kinda like fire behind an object.

free write #55/ fireflies

i always called them lightening bugs and i associate them with childhood at my grandmother's or cousin robbie's place in long island.
someone would puncture a jar lid with holes and we kids would pass the evening catching fireflies and collecting them in the jars.  it was fun watching a bunch of them light up together..like some strange glass torch.

freewrite 54/ signs

we did a photowalk on the subject of signs,all along 5th avenue.  i mostly took pictures of store signs.

street signs were more interesting before they were generic green and white. 
Road signs are cool "burma shave" comes to mind.
signs warning us, careful danger ahead, merging traffic.  keep out. keep off. keep going.

caution signs alerting us to deer crossings and curves in the road.

free write #53 shamanism

Michael Harner's book started it off,  The Way of The Shaman.  shortly after i met my own teacher Grey Owl.

i remember once we were paddling a canoe; going deep, getting darker.  i started to panic and woke myself to my regular reality.

the vision quest in the mountains is what i remember most.  collecting items in my power pouch that later disappeared, or perhaps were never there

4 blue jays circled my head 4 times.
that's all i remember; that and driving down the mountain while the sun was setting.

free write #52/Watercolor

i started doing watercolor after my first back operation.  it was easier on my body than batiking which required some lifting of dye baths.  watercolor was a lot like painting silks...brushes loading with pigment; color spreading out in the wet on wet technique.  using salt for texture was also something i learned painting silks.
i sometimes have a heavy hand when it comes to watercolor. i like my pigments thick.  glaze upon glaze to achieve rich color, but sometimes the colors go all muddy.

free write 51/incense

the lighting of incense is a ritual in some religions.

smokey tendrils of fragrance, heavy and permeating.

long slender wands or short stout triangles.


i've used incense to mask the smell of marijuana, cat pee or too much cigarette smoke.

my favorite fragrance is rainwater.

50/gourds

this topic brings me to national city,california, to wilbur bradley's gourd farm.  There i washed gourds with peter shapiro who would later cut and fashion them into kalimbas...thumb pianos....with notes reverberating.  he could play that kalimba like it was a steel drum.

gourds are amazing things. they come in all shapes and sizes.  painted, wood burned, carved or natural, gourds possess a quiet dignity and timelessness.

free write 49/ coney island

one of my favorite subjects to paint, coney island fascinates me.   the big bold machinery of the rides intrigue me.  they are like the bones of prehistoric beasts rising above you, then swinging and sweeping your body down mountainous hills and curves that make you lean first to one side and then the other.

i should stick to painting.

every generation thinks that their coney island was the best. back to dreamland, luna park, steeplechase, astroland.The ornate carvings of merry go round figures and the steeplechase horses that rode independently arriving at the finish line.

coney island, where the garrish and the freakish and the sensational meet.

i had my first crush in coney island.  bryant wallman of the tilt a whirl.  he flirted with me and gave me free rides.

I must've road the tilt a whirl a hundred times that summer.

free write 48/ Independence day

i remember watching "Yankee Doodle Dandy" each 4th of july.  The story of george m. cohen,as portrayed by james cagney.  "top of the world, ma"  but that's an entirely different story.

i remember writing in journals on july 4th as i struggled to declare my personal Independence.

4th of july fireworks at coney island, or more often from the roof where we would "oh and ah" at each new blast of color and light.   tenants knew each other back then.

free wrote # 47/ ice

cubes of frozen water
good, on a hot night
like this

ice melts in a glass.

glaciers deep at sea
deep transparent blue
bitter cold and clear
as ice
in a frosty glass

gliding on ice
the skaters fly by
supple
and with such grace.

free write # 46/senses

what can ya say about senses except that it would be a dull life without them.

the exquisite visual, the pungent taste, the sweetest sounds, sensual touches, the fragrance of freesias.

the senses open the proverbial gates
of pleasure and pain...
the bitter and the divine.

free write $45/candles

i remember making candles back in the 70's.  i would fill the mold with ice cubes to get that swiss cheese, filagree look.

a good scented candle is the best...like the one lynnie gave me last we met.  lilac.  actually smelled like lilac.  a product that told the truth.

candles on cakes and candles to celebrate a romantic evening.

i once lit a dozen candles for a lover that never arrived.

how long is this free write?
there is an end even to candles.