Day 2

Painting:
Barbara and I have met one time so far to organize and begin our work together for our self teaching painting program. We have chosen two books to work from, one on brushwork and one on basic drawing. I began reading the drawing book from page 1, and following the instructions. The assignment was to draw straight lines, which is funny because I have been drawing and painting for quite a few years already, and never did that simple thing. In fact I considered it a weak area of mine (drawing straight lines), so was glad to have to just DO IT, and find the approach that worked best for me.

Of course, straight lines are pretty important, being related to drawing all sorts of cubic, cylindrical and conical shapes, before modifying them to more organic shapes...in fact, in drawing everything. It's a classical skill, to draw straight lines and then soften them. And of course, very important for linier perspective. Our first week homework assignment (which we gave to ourselves) was to draw as many cubic/rectangular shaped objects as we could from observation. I worked on a picture of a glider on my deck, and it went off the page and I had trouble with the perspective. So I'll do it again, on a day it is not POURING RAIN! for a change! I've also been doing some pictures of boats and cars. All important for city scapes, sea scapes, etc.

Israel
Rich, my husband, and I bought a large piece of luan for a painting I made on paper of a woman in Israel with bolts in her back from a dirty bomb. I am going to do something different with this picture. I had to buy bloody red spray paint for the luan and Rich has to glue a piece of wood to the back, so that we can hang it, and also for some support to prevent warping. I will be working on finishing this piece.

I will post a picture today from the paintings I've already done. It's called, "Liron" and is very large, probably about 5' high...I don't have it here and forgot the measurements exactly. A neighbor has been letting me use her attic for painting and storing the Israel pictures, and it is there now.

Liron saw her sister killed at a bus stop in Afula, the town in central Israel where they live, when they were going to school. This was some years ago. She was five then and is now about 15. There have been a lot less suicide bomb attacks in recent years, really hardly any, since the wall was built. No one likes the wall...but it is serving the purpose of protecting the children.

Liron had gone for a soda, and was coming out of the little grocery when the bomb exploded, killing her sister and a friend and other youngsters at the bus stop. I met Liron and her parents when I visited Israel in Dec. '06. They family runs an organization for victims ...they say that the problems are never over after something like this happens to a family. Helping others was the only way they could find to go on, after Maya, their older daughter, was killed at age 17. It was Liron, who was then only 5, who watched as her family was falling apart and said to her parents that Maya would have wanted them to find a way to go on.

I've decided that as part of my blog, I will collect donations for their organization. I'll will give more information about that later, in case anyone wants to help them financially. I have to find out how to do that.

Health:
I went to the diabetes doctor yesterday, and she was very proud of me. Having lost 25 pounds so far, my numbers were looking really good...blood sugar has gone down to normal, just as they said it would with just a 10% weight loss. Now I have to work on my energy level, which is still very low.