It’s St. Patrick’s Day. Leave it to the Mises Institute to “celebrate” by reprinting a piece on the causes of the potato famine I’ve never understood the saying “the luck of the Irish.” The Irish have had total crap luck. Irish history has been one long chain of famines, massacres, attempted genocides, and cruel (religious, economic, and intellectual) suppressions at the hand of the “civilized” English. It’s kind of like saying “the luck of the Jewish.” (And as Aaron Zelman used to remind me, “Imagine being both Irish and Jewish.”) —– I know some people won’t like the current, more…
Author: Claire
“Colors of the Palouse.” Inspired by Commentariat member FishOrMan — though it’s most likely not what he had in mind. Pastel on terra cotta colored board with a thin acrylic underpainting. As with everything else I’m doing right now, this is a small, fairly quick study. About three hours for this one, I think, though I lost track of time. Here’s the underpainting, which I thought was pleasant in itself because of those swoopy rhythms. The Palouse is a region shared by southeast Washington and southwest Idaho. It’s a very complicated place. Basically it’s sand dunes — only not made…
Today’s a housekeeping day. Not as in mopping the floor (though someone — I’d prefer not me — will have to do that eventually). But housekeeping online. As in renewing domain names, cleaning out email folders, and uploading articles to the Cabal. Much of it is screen-sucking tedium. Ugh. Floor mopping is starting to gain a certain appeal. That last part was good, though. I’ve just uploaded the first two of a four-part BHM series from2015-16 on turning my $10k house into a real home and will upload the other two in the next few days. So you Cabalistas who…
Same as the other day with the “Maria” drawing. Colored pencil on black construction paper. So essentially working the light areas more than the shadows. This time I wanted more blending and refinement in the skin. Impossible to get natural skin tones with the black paper showing through, though. I fought green ghoulishness to the end. Still need to work the skin tones on the hand (unfinished as of this scan) on which “Sophia” is resting her chin and to smooth out the background a bit. This color-on-black technique works well for sad, spooky, or pensive. Possibly spiritual. Not a…
Well, don’t thank me, personally. I’m not responsible (and if I were I assure you I’d have arranged events quite differently). But the Pacific Northwest is having its coldest winter in 32 years. Seattle’s winter, more pleasant than ours, has been classified as “severe” by the official classifiers. Where I live we’ve had an unprecedented (in my memory) eight snow days. (Compare that with zero snow the last two years and no more than five snows in the previously most-rotten winter.) And no matter how much we west-of-the-Cascades weaklings whine, the fact is that it’s the hardy east-of-mountain dwellers who’ve…
Right this minute I’m glad I decided to quit earning my living as a writer. ‘Cause if I were still A Writer, there’d be no excuse for the wordlessness that currently grips me. No longer being a Capital-W Writer, I’ll start with pictures. Photographs of a Box O’ Goodies that arrived a couple of days ago: Somebody — the name starts with C. — has a terrific memory. In addition to flower seeds and shoe treatments good enough to withstand the Northwet’s wettest, C has been observing conversations here on the blog and at the Cabal and saving stuff to…
After painting rocks (difficult), I decided to do something more natural to me — a face. But to do it in a hard, or at least non-intuitive, way, by working dark to light. So here’s “Maria.” She’s done with colored pencil on black construction paper (yes, the stuff you probably used liberally in the second grade). This was my reference photo. I wasn’t trying to make Maria look like her; just referring to her for general shapes and patterns. Maria is a slightly shopworn virgin with much on her mind. One of the challenges I set for myself was to…
Endarkenment. Been hearing that word a lot — most recently in this must-read Bill Buppert piece. (Via Joel) Barring some one-in-a-million chance, we are sliding into a long, dark time. When you have an intellectual class that’s gone insane, a wealthy elite that’s building bunkers for itself while looting the last of your liberty and prosperity, and a crusading enemy breeding new generations of superstitious intolerance, you don’t have a lot to build a future on. Unless it’s a future of rage, savagery, and chaos. But then, look on the bright side. The Endarkenment is a great age for Outlaws.…