RMW Ramblings

 Before Ida, Isabel Last night rem nants of hurricane Ida swept through, bringing a torrential downpour, but no flooding or high winds here.  In September 2003 we weren't so fortunate.  The wind from Isabel dropped our enormous tulip poplar, multiple other tree limbs, and the tidal surge flooded the cottage up to the window sills.  We sustained tens of thousands of dollars damage. We came back to the cottage from Wilmington as soon as it was wade-in accessible.  Here Mary and Mike are circumnavigating the house by kayak, about to dock at the ramp up to our deck on the previously inland side of the cottage. After I rebuilt from all the damage I installed this plimsoll plaque marking the high water mark on our kitchen wall. I have since installed a brace-bar across our double doors facing the Bay for when the weather is severe or when we aren't here.  The quotation is from Shakespeare's King Lear as he rants against the raging storm.    Later I de...

  Four Seasons A Found Frames Set   A thrift store find (four for a dollar) of small rustic but somewhat baroque frames were asking for content.  I was thinking about colonial Mexican retablos.  What evolved were four allegorical representations of the seasons.   Flora [Spring] is a flower face woman.  She has a floral glyph in the corner.   Fear Glas [Summer]  is a version of the traditional Green Man, with a leafy visage.  His glyph is a gold butterfly.   Autumna [Fall] is a leaf of the seasonal change. She is accompanied  by a copper sweet gum glyph.   Boreas [Winter] is the frosty Old Man Winter.  His glyph is a silver snowflake.    The small, roughly postcard size paintings are acrylic on illustration board.

  Blackground Paintings 5 Two Birds and a Horse Here are a few more blackground paintings that feature creatures.     Egret Rising is acrylic on canvasboard.  There's an arc of lunar phases above, and an arc of egret glyphs in gold in various postures.         Talking Crow , acrylic on canvasboard, is unnatuaralistically white.  He speaks in Lenni Lenape (or Delaware Indian)  petroglyphs as found engraved on rocks in the Chesapeake/Susquehanna region.  I have added color here.  I have used Lenape petrogyphs in many paintings,       Equus , also acrylic on canvasboard, is painted in what I call Greco-Deco style, a hybrid of classical Greek style and the Art Deco style of the 1920-30s.  Again here, as in Talking Crow, I did not feel constrained in color.  

    Blackground 4 "Cottage Rose" "Cottage Rose" is acrylic on canvasboard.  Flanking the two blossoms are rose and petal glyphs done with metallic paint markers.  

  Revisiting Delaware's Flag : The Delaware flag was adopted in 1913.  It, like many other state flags, is a "seal - on - a - bedsheet" [actually a coat of arms] .   In 2001 the North American Vexillological Association ran an online membership poll of members asking them to rank the design of the flags of 72 US and Canadian state, province, and territorial flags. https://nava.org/digital-library/design/surveys/2001-State-Provincial-Flag-Survey.pdf . (I am a member of NAVA but was not then.)   Delaware came in 52 nd place. I thought I could give Delaware a quick redo. First, Lets get rid of the coat of arms and the text. I've kept the color selection, with its historical connection to Revolutionary War Delaware uniforms.     Then make the diamond larger.    Does it need anything else?  This may be enough.   I tried out a chicken, another Delaware historical association, this one lifted from a painting of mine, "Chanticleer." ...