After John Carter's Honey

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Falls of the Ohio WIP

Not a great photo; done with my Blackberry, but you can get the idea.
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Falls of the Ohio work-in-progress

I've been working on a new drawing; it's a 10 x 15 inch view of the Falls of the Ohio from the Falls of the Ohio State Park observation deck.  I've sketched it in with graphite, and yesterday I started using ink.

 

It took me a while to decide whether to use my black ink Pigma Micron pens, or to use my walnut ink with dip pens and brushes.  Finally I decided on the walnut ink.  It's more cumbersome, and the risk of a drawing-ruining accident is higher, but I think I'll be happier with the look.

 

Photos to follow.

 

Another angle

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Cemetery on Murphy Lane

I looked around this old cemetery on Murphy Lane on Saturday. It needs a little upkeep.
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Another exchange, this time stemming from a conversation about arnica massage oil:

 

Me: "I like the way it smells. What is arnica, anyway?"

Kim: "I think it's a kind of shrub."

Me: "Huh. A shrub. It would also make a good name for a baby girl."

Jill, yelling from the next room: "Shrub??"

 

 

I'm not a scrapbooker.  I wonder what the ratio of male scrapbookers to female scrapbookers is? Probably about 1/90?  Anyway, I just heard someone talking about scrapbooking, and it made me think about it.  I like the idea of scrapbooking, but I really dislike how most scrapbook hobbyists are doing their scrapbooks. (Disclaimer: since I'm not into scrapbooking, I only see a very small selection, so what I see might not be very representative.)  The reason I dislike it is because I want it to be more journalistic and information-loaded, but it seems like most of the examples I see are 90% style and 10% substance.

 

Maybe it's just a matter of expectation.  I associate the idea of scrapbooking with keepsakes and memories.  But if people did what they are doing and called it something different, like "Skrapping," I'd never give it a thought.  I'd just think of it as an art form somewhere between photography and collage.

 

This reminds me of my attitudes about the naming of artwork.  I think many, or perhaps most, artists are lousy at titling their art (and I recognize that this means that most other artists probably would think that I'm lousy at titling mine).  I want art, even abstract art, to be some form of record of actual experiences; furthermore, I want the artwork itself, not the title, to be the vehicle for any fanciful associations.

 

This means I don't like it when someone paints a landscape and titles it something like "Evening Symphony."  If a viewer is going to regard the painting to be a symphony, I think the artist should leave it to him or her to make that connection. "Evening" is a better title, and I'd even prefer "Evening: This Reminds Me of a Symphony."

 

James Abbott McNeill Whistler, whose paintings I really like, used musical terms in titling his paintings, but it doesn't bother me because they were used in a subtler, more consistent way.  His titles work as simple catalog entries.

 

 

Lessons learned (fixed link)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBgThvB_IDQ

Oh, the humanity.

Crocus

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Small landscape

I did this at the same time I was working on the below thoroughbred drawing. This is a black walnut ink sketch done with a brush wash and crow quill nib. It's pretty small, about 4 x 6 inches. This is the view of the Ohio River from the Otter Creek Park boat ramp, a scene I've sketched and painted a number of times before.

Another horse and jockey drawing

Another version of a previousdly done scene; walnut ink, drawn with a sharpened forsythia twig and a crowquill pen over a brushed wash. I did this the day before yesterday. I might do a little touching up still.

KFC Yum! Center

I finally finished this drawing of KFC Yum! Center. It's 10 x 15 inches on hot press watercolor paper.

Another photo from last June

photo by Jill; cropped and edited by me.

A photo from last June

taken by Jill
 

 

March Madness is Here!!!

The madness is likely attributable to lead poisoning, or simple deprivation.

 

My brackets for this year...
 

 

Looking for interesting dollars

I'm always keeping an eye out for interesting money, but I rarely find it. This one is sooooooooo close to being a good one to give to Kevin. Darn it!
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Monday Morning's Tornados

I used information from two National Weather Service maps showing confirmed tornado paths and joined them on my own map.  The red lines are based on the NWS tornado maps.  I drew the green line to connect the two to see how close it came to our house and Brian and Julie.  It's not right on top of us, but it's close enough! 

 

Kim said that an old barn on Hwy 22 not far from us was ripped to pieces, and I know Brian said he lost some shingles.

 

We never heard the sirens, though I was awake and listening for them.  It was hard to sleep because the house was creaking all around us and it sounded like someone was spraying a firehose against the side of our house.

Arrrrr!

These are the sort of pirates you get with $13 spent at Goodwill and a borrowed wig and boots from Pam.
 

 

Bronze Disease

One my favorite coins in my collection is my Marcus Aurelius silver denarius, minted around A.D. 176-177. A week or so ago, I pulled it out and noticed that there were some real problems with it.

It appears to have "bronze disease," which is a serious affliction for bronze antiquities. This is sort of unusual for a denarius; I'm still sleuthing, but I think it's rare for a Roman silver coin from this time to develop bronze disease. Later in the Empire it's more likely because the silver is more debased. Apparently, at least for this coin, there is enough bronze mixed in with this silver for it to be a problem.

Bronze disease occurs when copper chlorides form in the presence of salt and moisture. It's kind of like a cancerous patina; the formation of new copper chlorides becomes a self-sustaining reaction and the metal starts to eat itself. The chlorides form from the bronze, and slowly (or sometimes, alarmingly quickly) spreads. The bronze turns to bright greenish or brownish powder.

I don't know how far it could spread in a silver denarius of Marcus Aurelius. I guess it's possible that, if the silver content is high enough and the coin is kept dry, it could burn itself out. However, I certainly don't want to test it to see, so I researched the problem and decided to treat it with a solution of sodium sesquicarbonate.

When I first heard of sodium sesquicarbonate, I thought, "Well, that's just one more weird chemical that I don't have at my house and that I probably don't want to fool with." Then I read a recipe for it and realized that I actually had the two ingredients: baking soda and soda ash. I just so happened to have soda ash because I had bought some to use to prepare fabric for tie dying. It's also used for treating swimming pools. Soda ash, therefore, is actually easy to find and pretty cheap.

So I mixed a solution of 5% sodium sesquicarbonate in water (I actually made it a little more diluted, more like 3 or 4%).

I used a soft paint brush to brush off the green corrosion, then used a straight pin to dust it out of the holes and crevices. It came off very easily, which is a sure sign that it really is bronze disease and not patina, though I had no doubts. Then I put it in the sodium sesquicarbonate, which is a very hard word for me to type, by the way, and I'll let it soak there for a few days.

Next, I will take it out, rinse it in distilled water, and then dry it for an hour at a very low temperature in the oven.

With luck, bronze disease won't be back. But if it is, at least I know what to do.

(photos: all the green that you can see on the coin is bad stuff)

Sewing