Wednesday, March 22, 2006

My Rock Obsession

But first, I just came across this quotation that made me laugh:
"It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory." --W. Edwards Deming


Ha!

On to my rock obsession. It used to be that I couldn't hike or just take a walk outside without stopping every few yards to check out a rock. Sometimes I tested Joe's patience, but most times he was ridiculously patient with me. I'm happy to say the obsession is over, and now I have quite a collection of rocks: striped, colorful, spotted, you name it. It's not for everybody, I know.

This painting is a small watercolor. Joe filmed me hunting for jade one late afternoon along the San Simeon shore, on the Central Coast of California. I liked how he caught the bright sunlight bleaching the colors right out of the edges of my clothes, from my green bandana down to the edges of my brown jeans, and I decided to paint it.

P.S. On another topic: I'll go out on a limb and say my iPod has changed my life of late. I have rediscovered my love of music. I've loaded about 120 songs onto my iPod -- songs that move me, that I love, and no others. So with each song that plays, I get that exciting, anticipatory feeling you get when you hear a song's first few notes on the radio. Except I get it every 3 minutes! As that famous New York socialite Carrie Bradshaw said, "Me likey."

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Money vs. Renown

"O painter, take care lest the greed for gain prove a stronger incentive than renown in art, for to gain this renown is a far greater thing than is the renown of riches." --Leonardo da Vinci

Was daVinci right? What should matter more, money or renown? Is one more noble? More moral? More likely to be satisfying in the long run?