A to Z CHALLENGE - ART: Picasso's BLUE Period

 

Thank you to Arlee Bird,

Alex J. Cavanaugh, and all the co-hosts

of the 2014 A to Z Challenge,

for your tremendous efforts

to 'make it happen' each year.

 

 

 

 

The theme of my 2014 A-to-Z Blog Challenge is BLUES, PUPUS, and REVIEWS.

Tuesday & Friday - BLUES: Art, Movies, Music, and Police;

Thursday & Saturday - PUPUS: Hawaiian snacks to whet your appetite;

Monday & Wednesday - REVIEWS: mini-style book reviews

When I worked in the Chicago Loop, my interest in Picasso was fueled by a daily lunchtime rendezvous with Picasso’s unnamed sculpture. Donated to the city in 1967, it dominated the Civic Center (Daley Plaza).

 

I also spent an inordinate amount of time at the Art Institute of Chicago (now The Chicago Institute of Art) in Grant Park. Picasso’s most popular ‘Blue Period’ painting, THE OLD GUITARIST, was displayed prominently there. I purchased a poster of the piece, framed it, and hung it on my apartment wall. Years later, the poster still triggered images of the original painting’s genius brush strokes. Far from feeling blue, the obvious message of despair Picasso projected, I felt my spirits soar.

 

I especially like the elongated fingers of the old guitarist in the painting. They reflect the influence El Greco had on Picasso. His blue period, from 1901 through 1904, was dominated by themes of loneliness and poverty, possibly sparked by his friend’s suicide.

 

Some say it was not poverty that led Picasso to paint the impoverished outsiders of society: beggars, prostitutes, drunks, and outcasts, but that he painted them made him poor himself. If this is true, does it follow that subject matter also determines a writer’s spiritual wealth?

2014: An Ode to #AtoZChallenge

 





Join Arlee Bird's A to Z Challenge



‘Tis the week before ‘A-ToZ’

And all ‘round the world

Stressed bloggers are panicked

If truth now be told

 

Some posts are pre-written

And ready for view

A, B, and C, mostly

A few up to Q

 

Then out pops that brick wall

Of re-al-i-ty:

Be-hind eSS trails yoU

And eXe follows Vee 

 

What’s left yet to scribble?

A Quixotic mess

Can usufruct* save me?

That’s anyone’s guess!

 

Take stock and breathe deeply

It’s only a game

No “Hunger” rules dictate

And nothing draws shame 

 

Showers of April bring

May flowers of glee

Bright tunnel’s-end strobe lights

Declare “Victory!”

 

*Usufruct - the legal right to use and enjoy the benefits and profits of something belonging to another

 

Join Arlee Bird's April 2014 A to Z Challenge:

http://tossingitout.blogspot.com/p/to-z-april-challenge-information.html

Doing Just What I Want . . . Sort Of



The other day someone asked me how I liked retirement. In 2009, I decided to retire a bit early and enjoy life. That didn’t mean lounging on Waikiki Beach in the shadow of Diamond Head every day reading my fill of mystery novels; it meant researching, writing, and publishing mystery novels. It also meant paying closer attention to my blogs and participating in writers’ groups. But I do enjoy plenty of leisure time because I do just what I want . . . sort of. 

 

That means that although my goals are set and my projects outlined, deadlines are not carved in stone. If there is a deadline, I can begin the project far in advance so as not to be rushed. This year my goals include completing and publishing a novel; posting interviews with the 13 authors involved in the mystery anthology MYSTERY IN PARADISE 13 Tales of Suspense; and participating in Arlee Bird’s April 2014 A to Z Blog Challenge

by writing and posting twenty-six articles with topics ranging from A to Z.

 

Marketing is an area where I need to improve, another goal. My focus for 2014 includes the novel WITH FIERY VENGEANCE published in December 2013. As the third book in the Pepper Bibeau mystery series, and set in Hawaii, I am having fun discussing the settings featured in the story. 

Yesterday I spent time at Paˋina Café for the monthly local NaNoWriMo group gathering. I had been in a quandary about my WIP because of indecision over the story line. Scenarios had been swimming around in my mind since I completed the first draft last November. As I typed out my thoughts at the cafe, everything fell into place. Doing just what I want, letting my thoughts simmer until the time was right for a solution to develop, worked better than trying to force a decision. 

That’s what I like about my retirement state-of-mind: Doing Just What I Want . . . Sort Of. While I must still take the steps necessary to move a project toward its goal, I have the freedom to do just what I want at any given time. This is my idea of stress-free time management, an enviable luxury. 

How do you manage your time?