Adobe creative suite during Covid until May 31st

Hey all,

As an artist I absolutely am indebted to Adobe - InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator especially.

Right now it's free. Follow the link below and try it out.
ADOBE Site


The $30-40 month is steep so this is a deal to take advantage of right now.

What a wonder of a woman

How could anyone not love the work of Louise Bourgeois?

Watch her Art 21- she is so feisty and self assured.

                 


Music to dwell on after seeing an amazingly humble documentary. Click and really listen to the words. Makes sense for the time we are in.
The boys

Oh dear oh my..

So sad that we lost this talent! So connected to my hometown.

Ellis Marsalis you are loved and will be missed.

   

gig on youtube

Positivity Post #2-Jeff Lockwood

Good Stuff in Bad Times

Jeff Lockwood

1. Zooming with both of my kids on Sunday evenings (when we’d just phone each of them every couple of weeks in a haphazard fashion before now).
2. Playing games with my brother and his family on Saturday evenings (Codenames has been really fun via Zoom).
3. Re-connecting with some old friends who’d drifted away for various “good” reasons that weren’t very good after all now that we’re thinking about what’s really important.
4. Reading the entirety of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes mysteries as a big project (about two-thirds of the way through the tales which allow a wonderful escape from this reality).
5. Writing Sherlock Holmes pastiches (sold one to Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine), and distilling each of Conan Doyle’s stories in exactly 17 syllables (to match the 17 stairs from the street up to Holmes’s domicile).
6. Spoiling Gus, the cat.  He’s getting old and needs lots of affection and warm places to nap.
7. Enjoying time with Nan, the wife.  She’s getting old and needs lots of affection and warm places to snuggle.  Actually, it’s nice having “coffee breaks” and lunch together every day.
8. Watching and listening to the daily opera recordings from the Met which are now available for free, online via their “Nightly Opera Stream” (available for 24 hours after each night’s ‘performance’).
9. Marveling at how much better I look when wearing a bandana as a mask and how it gives me the cachet of a western train robber.
10. Chuckling at the capacity of humans to find moments of light in the dark hours through humor, such this from Michael Niavarani (Austrian comedian): “When this is all over, I’ll treat myself to a couple of nice, quiet days at home.”

Positivity Project Post #1_Anne Guzzo

From Anne Guzzo in Santa Fe, NM for sabbatical/ away from Laramie home

OK…...

I have been trying to keep a journal of “silver linings." 

Time outside (in my case, in an interesting, cultural place with nature, desert, ruins, etc.)

Time with family (Bonnie)

exercise time - I, too, have been walking about 5 miles every day.

birds - listening, seeing

dreaming about a new doggy in my life soon and maybe I’ll get chickens, too

flowers - apricot trees were miracles, and now we are on to cherries and apples

adobe architecture - warm, interesting, all different and sculptural in conception. No damn cookie-cutters here!

time to organize my files (when my brain is working, which is actually rare right now)

time to do my taxes (when my brain is working, see above)

time to read fiction - I love fiction, and I almost feel like I am a teenager, and I can put on an “album” and then just read. (I just finished Bless Me, Ultima - a coming of age story for the Northern New Mexico area.)

some delivery food - NM chile! And Chinese food. 

Weekly calls zoom calls with my extended family - I’m finally talking to my brother and sister-in-law and niece and nephew.

Zoom with my pub group

connecting with other friends once a day by phone

time to create - though only….you guessed it, when my brain is working, which is rare! Hah. 

So far, I still have my job and so does Bonnie….

Having a nice relationship with our Santa Fe landlord, who is a wonderful lady of 83 - and her cat, Sophie Sunshine

Getting to know Santa Fe’s roads and streets really well by walking them. 

UU services in Santa Fe are broadcast, and uplifting. (Zoom coffee hour with the septugenarians and octagenarians afterwards is….less fulfilling.)

MOST IMPORTANT: letting myself be kind to myself. I’m accepting what creativity I can do, and accepting my lack of creativity and productivity when I lack it, allowing myself pleasures (dark chocolate, for example) while still taking care of myself, walking. 

Calm before the snow..

How does one be creative when it feels like the world is falling apart? 

How do we as professors/teachers ask our students to be creative in a time like this? 

I remember Hurricane Katrina hitting the gulf coast I love so much and not knowing where my family was and if they would be okay.  There was this unknown and eerie drive to watch the news ALL of the time which showed only stupid people looting and folks on their roofs waving for help.

You feel helpless and distant and guilty and sad.

It is hard to help because the work you have chosen pays your bills, or the schooling you are in is not finished and it's up to you to do so.

It's hard to not look at the news because you feel so far away,
you are hopeful for any kind of positive news

that says things are getting better.

The one thing you want to do is throw your arms around those that are hurting and we currently cannot do this.

I am supposed to be advising students but how do you advise on the future when we do not know what that is?

I have been taking walks around the tree area of Laramie every day simply to get some fresh air, perspective, and exercise.  Ive gone from walking/teaching a minimum of 5 miles a day to sitting in front of a computer for hours at a time.

It clears my head and makes me smile looking at others getting out too. We stay away from each other but still being human together.

Then when I get back to home, I feel almost as if it were summer, and my time is simply my time.

This then allows me to be creative.
To problem solve.
To smile and laugh and be hopeful.

Keeping my hands busy allows my mind to be busy in a productive way.  I also surround myself with people I love, we have corona cocktails at 5 with different friends and family, and we laugh and cook dinner together.  It makes the time pass and we get to see our favorite faces.

This keeps me going.

Things will get better.

Something may happen in our future that disrupts our lives again, but maybe for reasons of merely getting back to what is important.  To love, to make and make a difference in the world, and 

to be kept on our toes.

Until the snow hits this weekend, I will enjoy the warmth and perspective Wyoming is bestowing us.

Track for the day:

Samba da Bencao- Bebel Gilberto

favorite art image..

Eva Hesse