Sunday, January 18, 2009

Six Randoms Meme

I've been painting for two hours without pause (man, the water got so dark) and my back is aching, and I have to wait for both of them to dry before I do more. So it's time for a quick break. I visited Liberality and found she'd tagged me as part of her triple Six Random Things Meme (triple because she was tagged three times and she did all three - 18 random things - I'm impressed). Unfortunately I can't follow the rules completely because almost all the people I blog follow also follow each other (kinda like a family) and so they've all tagged each other already. I'll tag a few people, but not six, I think.

So there are the rules - copied from Liberality's blog.

The Rules
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Six Random things - my goal is to find things I've never mentioned to anyone, including Moomin Light - she's the one I'd most like to entertain with these:
1. My hair started going gray when I was in my early twenties, and this accelerated around 27, when I became a father and work got a lot more complex and stressful. So the random thing is that I've always enjoyed being silver early - BUT I don't want my thick Hungaro-Italian mono-brow to turn gray. If it starts, I will be tempted to dye it. I doubt I'll do it, but the thought goes through my head. I might have told MLight this one...
2. I wear my red beret on walks, etc. but I have very complex feelings about this hat. I've already said that it's linked to childhood ideas of what an artist was, and how they looked, but I also have it mixed up with the Prince song Raspberry Beret and the idea that this is really a girl's hat, not a guy's hat. I wear it in part to thumb my nose at this overly gender conscious part of myself, and in part to please my color sweet tooth, and in part because it DOES seem to me to be what an artist would wear. It's what I wear, after all. I'm not sure I own anything else for which I have such a tangle of feelings.
3. I am thinking of naming my paint brushes - at least the three I use most often. Is that weird? Paul Klee named his engraving tools... And he seemed pretty sane.
4. I want to paint scenes where the rules are broken - and things are oriented whatever way I want (sideways, upside down, etc. - like Hundertwasser) - but I am having a hard time doing this. I push up against this, like a doorway I want to walk through but there is a soft pliable membrane blocking the way. The membrane is actually distended quite a bit into my "normal" artistic space, which is a sign to me that there is a lot of pressure behind there. I think I'm concerned about popping that bubble and what will pour into my inner world. I would like to do it today, but I have four days of meetings and conferences starting tomorrow, and I won't get to follow through. I'll have to get back to all of you on this one...
5. I am disappointed with my clothes. I want them to be as colorful as a harlequin's - reds, turquoise, violets, vivid greens, yellows so hot they cast light on surrounding objects, orange so pregnant and voluptuous that it simultaneously makes you crave and satisfies the craving just to look at it. Not only do I not own this kind of clothing, but I've never seen any of it anywhere. I have seen objects this colorful, but not clothing. And I doubt I'd have the cheek to wear this clothing if I owned it.
6. I dislike the points on the top of the tower of Duke Chapel - I can't figure out how I'd like them to be different, but I find them too tall, too thin, odd, owl-ear-like. I think I wish the top was a different shape entirely.

Tagging others (but I'm going to break rule #5 as well as rule #4, and if they see it here and want to do it, fine).
1. Moomin Light - hoping for 6 things I don't know...
2. Vicki
3. Mary Stebbins Taitt
4. Genie Sea

Back to painting - they're dry, so I can get back in there...

8 comments:

Life As I Know It Now said...

I love that you love colors so much and that you paint those colors too. The hat is perfect and manly enough--after all, you are a man and you are wearing it so enough said.

Genie Sea said...

LOL Thanks Steve! :) I will do it cause it's a fun thing to catalog random things about yourself.

Like your beret issues. Hysterical. :) It's not like Prince didn't constantly thumb his nose at the gender conscious. I think it's very apropos!

Name your brushes! Live dangerously! Christen them online! I'll bring virtual flowers! :)

As for colorful clothing.. I think you would love one of my colleagues. He dresses in bright oranges and greens almost exclusively. One day he came in all in orange. Yes, including his shoes. That's just a tad too colorful for my eyes at 8 am though! :)

This was fun reading. Thanks for sharing! I will post mine tomorrow. :)

okjimm said...

Your grace of wit is only surpassed by a brush stroke of your hand.

Naming the paint brushes could be arduous. I had enough trouble with two kids, sheeesh!

Steve Emery said...

Liberality - Thank you - color has not always been this important. I've let myself get here - the hat too...

Genie Sea - "Don't you just love Prince?" Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman... I'm going to name those brushes...

OKJimm - Thanks! I know what you mean about naming the kids!!! Naming a child is hard, though, because it has to live with that name the rest of its life - powerful responsibility... Naming a brush - only I have to put up with it. And you have to name kids before you know them at all!!! How impossible is that!? But I know my brushes well already.

Knowing the GENDER of my brushes - not that might get interesting...

lisahgolden said...

I think the colors you wear should appeal to you and should also look right with your coloring. And so the red hat is perfect. Complicated, but perfect.

I have gone completely gray and am fretting not about graying eyebrows, but thinning eyebrows. I've considered asking Cupcake how she superglued hair onto her eyebrow when she accidentally shaved most of one off.....

Steve Emery said...

Lisa - thanks for the encouragement about my hat! And I think gray looks beautiful and confident on women - I've always found it to be a head turner, myself.

L'Adelaide said...

steve, I haven't been able to comment on this but now I can, whoopee...firstly, the hat...wear it like a man and you will do yourself a good thing and since you are a man and don't have to do an impersonation of one, I think the hat wears fine.

men worry too much about things looking too feminine or weird in the way of clothing and yet, clothes can be fun in a very artful way...I myself only wear black so that is actually total BS as far as I know but everyone should wear colors if they want to! ;) I do use scarves, shoes and socks(good man trick) with saturated color so I am not a complete freak of nature...

steve, if you have a monobrow, wax it dear man!? I didn't notice a monobrow...hmm, have to look now because if you did, I would have noticed! what do you call a monobrow anyway! and for god's sake, don't dye it!!!!!!! imho... ;)

you haven't named your paintbrushes?

I think it's time for a little hundertwasser experiment for you, how hard can it be...we can both do one. Imagine what boundaries you could break through if you do and what's stopping you from doing it-paper usage, paint clean up, what?
no comment on the last one, believe it or not! ;)

Distributorcap said...

i was nearly completely gray by 30 - join the club!