Crafts and other Obsessions

It’s been awhile since I shared the crafts and other stuff taking up my leisure time. I’ll start with the oil painting to the left. It’s one I did in the class they have here on campus. It’s a class mostly for people who haven’t painted in the past and it only costs $10 including the stretched canvas, oil paints and all the other supplies. I should probably not be signing up for these classes because there are only six spaces open and I’m not really a beginner which the classes are geared for. But it's the only game in town, so to speak, so I go and accept the fact that the instructor doe not allow anyone to pick out their own subject matter, colors or brush strokes. She teaches in a formula style and this painting took up four afternoons (twelve hours) of my life. 

I was having dinner with The Art Professor and my neighbor, who still curators and rotates art for a foundation's purchases---we're talking paintings worth big bucks---and they were asking about the class. When the professor found we start out tracing the composition and the process that follows blab, blab, blab she said, “That’s outrageous, she’s killing creativity!” So I asked her, “How would you teach a group of seniors who’ve mostly never held a brush before? It’s not like anyone is interested in setting up a still-life and practicing drawing, composition and color theory a semester before being allowed to take a painting class. Everyone leaves with a painting they think is ‘real art’ and they are happy. It’s entertainment, not art. Like the sip-and-paint parties for wedding showers.” My neighbor could see the point I was making, the professor did not. (She taught three dimensional art, by the way, and judging by the sculpture by her apartment door she could handle a welding torch with the best of them.)

After the class ending I started and finished a paint-by-number canvas that is to the right. I first one I've done since I was a kid and I thought doing this bouquet of flowers helped me with relearning how to control the paint flowing off my brushes. And it was fun. Then I discovered that you can get photographs turned into paint-by-number kits. So I ordered two of them. The first photo below is one what I sent to the company and the second photo is the completed paint-by-number generated from my photo. From a distance it looks pretty good but up close it looks digitalized---which it is, of course and I'd love to see the machine that does it.

Slightly off topic but when I was downsizing I had 4-5 vintage paint-by-numbers that I sold on e-Bay for $40 to $60---worth the effort to put them up for sale. Apparently, the mid-century modern trend in decorating and collecting brought back an interest in those silly, crafty pieces of 'art' and I like to imagine one of those old paint-by-numbers I did in the '50s found its way onto the walls of a trendy gay couple's apartment.

The next photos show my second customized, paint-by-number project and when I’m finished with it I will (hopefully) be ready to fix the face on a portrait I was working on when my husband had his stroke. It’s an important goal for me and as my hand gets less shaky my confidence grows. By the way, I bought the kits from Amazon from a company named CBCBBEAU and they cost $17.99. Working on the paint-by-numbers, for me, is like a meditation session. You have no choice but to live in the moment. If paint-by-numbers is all I end up doing for the rest of my life I could live with that.

The second photo I sent the company.

 

What comes in the kit.

The color palette.

The canvas that you have to stretch yourself before you begin.

My other obsession that is eating up way mega time is I joined the “I Love Mahj” website where I’m playing Mahjong against computer bots. So far I’ve played over 700 games in three weeks and my stats say I'm winning 32% of the time. Don’t freak out over that 700 number; each game averages six to eight minutes long. Our mahjong group here on campus take two hours to play three games. The bots don’t have to think so I'm able to build my skills faster. Last week I won two of our three in-person games and the woman who taught us all and has been playing 35 years won once. I love the game more the more I play it.  

I did have occasion to leave my apartment for something other than food. Residents from all three buildings met in our park to see three women dressed like '50s carhop uniforms sing song from the '40s, '50s and '60s. (The park is really a fenced in area so the people in memory care and assisted living can be outside without wandering off.) They told stories about each song and did a great job. As per my usual M.O. at these musical events on campus one of the songs made be burst out crying. Going to Take a Sentimental Journey reminded me of my Mom. She loved to sing and that was one of her favorites. That was the extent of my holiday celebrating because on the 4th I spent the day in first Urgent Care and then they sent me to E.R. Between the two places it took me seven hours to find out I don't have a blood clot. How's that for a creative way to hide out from The Professor? You might remember I told her a lie about having plans for the 4th to get out of going on a road trip with her. I tell her the truth eventually...that I didn't feel capable of driving that far anymore but I guess Karma doesn't care. It paid me back for lying in the first place.

Until next Wednesday...