The Best and the Worst

(Blah Blah, 2023 Lynn Skordal)

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world;

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

--William Butler Yeats

 

Okay, I'm Pissed.

I really didn't believe this was going to happen.  We have now willingly entrusted our future to a man who during his last four-year term as President increased the national debt by 40%, presided over the biggest single-year increase in homicides (2020), bungled our response to Covid leading directly to hundreds of thousands needless American deaths, presided over a net loss of 2.9 million American jobs, turned the White House into his own personal cash cow (charging the Secret Service over $1 million for the privilege of staying at his properties while they protected him, for example), let the government bungle its way into a total shutdown three different times, separated more than 5,000 children from their families at the US/Mexican border with no plans to reunite them, reneged on his promise to give American families a $4,000 "pay raise" in the form of tax cuts and instead helped billionaires double their wealth, labelled climate change "a hoax" and pulled out of the Paris climate accord, rolled back more than 100 environmental protections, tried (but failed) to repeal the Affordable Care Act, buddied up to Russia's Putin and exchanged what he described as "love letters" with North Korea's strongman dictator, referred to fallen US service members as "losers and suckers," presided over a huge rollback of women's rights including the overturn of Roe v. Wade, and continuously denigrated and attacked women over and over again, both in the form of actual physical assault and verbal abuse.

The Love Song of Donald J. Trump, 2017 Lynn Skordal

We knew this and yet we voted for him anyway.

America, we deserve what's coming.

THREAD

 PSBA is sponsoring their 6th Annual Book Exchange this month, with the theme "threads."  The exchange rules are simple -- create a book using that theme, in whatever form and using whatever materials you like.  The book you create is then delivered to a randomly selected participating book artist, and you similarly receive an artist book created by another participating artist.  It's a lovely idea, the books are great and each participating artist gets to add a wonderful new book to their collection.

Continuing my trend of cleverly-titled books, my "entry" is called THREAD.  I created it by altering a mailing advert from the Sundance Catalog (which used a single sheet of paper, folded into six nesting panels).  With the addition of some spray paint, some collage, some thread and some hand-cut vinyl lettering, it emerged as this:

This World Is Full of Many Wonders

 I'm off wandering for a bit, back in late September...

Magic

 These days seem a little devoid of magic...so I made some.

Contrapuntal Magic, 2024

Cut & paste paper collage

(magazine & decorative paper scraps)

A Raven

A Raven (7/5/24)

I saw the body of a dead raven today as I was driving the freeway south to Seattle.  I only caught a fleeting glimpse as I passed by, but was startled by how large it was.  Slick black feathers swayed in the breeze of cars speeding by inches away, and nobody seemed to notice.  It seemed an ignominious end for such a magnificent bird.  I wanted to take it into my arms and carry it to a safer place (is any place safe when you’re dead?) but I did not stop.  There were friends waiting for me in Seattle and I was busy.  We’re all busy.  Busy living.  Busy dying.

 

Dark Side of the Moon

 She was beautifully out of place.

Dark Side of the Moon

Cut & paste paper collage, 11x14, 2024