Covid Pasttimes

My mother used to say “She’s not a gusher…” to describe me when I opened a gift and was not raving outwardly about it. Then she’d laugh nervously as she always did when she was describing me. Of course I didn’t have a name for me then, (flat affect, autism, dysthymia) there’s many names I’d […]

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My Family, My Updates, and Art

Masking is a process in which an individual changes or “masks” their natural personality to conform to social pressures, abuse, and/or harassment. -wiki I enjoy making memes, they’re something I can do creatively that takes little time. I made the one above and these recently: I didn’t note the misspelling of “autistic” until yesterday and […]

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Collection MMXIX Dobbs Ferry

I had the great opportunity to represent Art of Autism with my art at this event in Dobbs Ferry NY on May 30. Some proceeds will go to AoA -any purchases from any artist in the show (commissioned or sold) made up to 30 days after the show. Artists present: I caught many Sleeping Snorlax’s […]

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Hangry For Peaceful Moments

There is a phenomenon in nature known as ‘crown shyness.’ Some trees have gaps in the canopy. Those reluctances to touch are intentional. When I think of trees, -when I depict them in paint or ink or graphite, I am most apt to ensure they intertwine, ‘holding hands in the sky’ (so to speak) much […]

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On Curiosity 

My autodidactic passion for learning is perpetual. And Einstein is right. Question everything. There’s a reason for curiosity. It leads to lots of things. On that note, why would someone make curious art like this? Because they can. Because it’s cool.  Art. Here is a story about a mural I painted years ago.  The woman […]

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Unquiet Brain

I used to be adept at  “Find the hidden______” puzzles.  In doctors’ offices when I was a kid-I went right to the Highlights For Children magazines to find the hidden toothbrush, pencil, banana, etc. I’ve played a few phone apps too along these lines.  So. With all my ‘experience’ finding hidden items, one would think I […]

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kudos Keri Bowers, Art of Autism

In Bulgaria, the idiom “Friendship is friendship, but cheese costs money,” is one I came across and puzzled over for a meaning. From what I have come to understand it means not to take advantage of a friend’s generosity. Even if a person prefers isolation as their natural state of being, the symbiotic nature of […]

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Back Off Pigweed OR: Just Enough On The Plate

Deserted houses, forgotten outbuildings, abandoned vehicles, long vacant parking lots, and sunken ships. They’ve all got something in common. Nature gobbles them up. Underground roots (rhizomes) undermine the integrity of foundations. Ivy creeps stealthily into cracks. Temperature extremes, dampness, insects and various wild animals- all play a role in reclaiming structures. In the sea, artificial reefs […]

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Having A Walmart Brain

Above: This is an example of a 25 hundred dollar mirror with superb “psyche” tilt. That’s an actual term. Below: a French Budoir mirror (Etsy). And Below: WalMart mirror. Functional simplicity.  There are some grand sounding words associated with mirrors. For instance:  gadrooning (leaves, flowers, birds, etc. carved on the frame),  psyche (the mechanism that […]

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Feed Sacks are Cool and other Updates

My grandson likes to think he resembles Brick Heck (Atticis Finch) in mannerisms and looks. He does. Kinda. I identified with the recent episode of The Middle (as defined by Wiki: an American sitcom about a working-class family living in Indiana and facing the day-to-day struggles of home life, work, and raising children.)  Sue, while […]

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BETWEEN THE GREYS

Somewhere on the planet as I type this; gurgling, burbling geothermic hotspots spurt predictably (like certain presidential candidates) and just like Old Faithful, Pixar presents us with another animated film. Inside Out is about feelings; so I was putting this one off. Eventually I did give it a watch. Turns out it’s literal, it runs […]

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Seeing All The Sides

When I was 12 a friend plucked a white hair from my head and showed me it; holding it up to the light. I laughed and laughed. This was an unexpected quirk in my day. Eclectic. Funny.  When I was in my twenties I saw colonies of white hairs. This time I had a different […]

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International Autistic Pride Day: June 18th. Splurge, fish and take public transportation too…

International Autistic Pride Day: June 18th. I missed this celebrated awareness day last year. On any given day something is celebrated to “raise awareness.” June 18th is: NATIONAL DUMP THE PUMP DAY On the third Thursday in June, National Dump the Pump encourages people to ride public transportation, instead of driving, and save money. NATIONAL […]

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From Singing Bananas to Vests

I was a bit under the weather today, aches, pains, etc. Had a test at the hospital this morning. I had an MRI, and I never have trouble in those things. But this morning was different. I felt so claustrophobic! I kept thinking of that old Vincent Price movie where someone’s buried alive and tries […]

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On Roadside Ruminations

A poem by James Richardson—   ESSAY ON WOOD At dawn when rowboats drum the dock and every door in the breathing house bumps softly as if someone were leaving quietly, I wonder if something in us is made of wood, maybe not quite the heart, knocking softly, or maybe not made of it, but […]

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Interpretting White Roses

salus in ardunis sancte et sapienter Alice In Wonderland Syndrome…(or as it’s also called: Todd’s Syndrome or Lillipution Hallucinations) sounds made-up but it’s a very real condition.  People seem fine optically, but they have weird visual perceptions. They have what’s termed a “rare form of migraine” (migrainous ischemia?). All of their senses are strangely distorted. The […]

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IF

If it weren’t for the moon, to slow Earth’s spin, we’d have 6 hour days instead of 24. If Teddy Roosevelt hadn’t been carrying his speech in a metal eyeglasses container that October night in 1912 when John Schrank shot him, the bullet would’ve killed him. If Al Capone hadn’t compulsively carried his trademark mirror […]

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Is It Profound or Is It Poop?

Have you heard about the tiny skeletons appearing on the streets of Mexico? Urban artist Isaac Cordal can tell you about them. He created them. The following quote is from his website, which has a link following this blog: “These small sculptures contemplate the demolition and reconstruction of everything around us. They catch the attention […]

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Thou Art Inspiring

My grandson said recently: “Grandma enjoys stress. It gives her something to do.” This is my bathroom shower curtain. The curtain was purchased at Walmart.As you can see, it’s an oceanic world, an underwater scene of fish and coral. Every week I buy stickers and when my grandson sleeps over, he puts them into the scene. […]

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Emotions With No Name

Where can you find the remains of a giraffe, an upright dining table, a claw hand and silver bars worth millions (all in the same place)? Underwater, in NYC, that’s where. Weird finds in New York’s waterways are the inspiration for fictional stories on a “digital journal” called Underwater New York. But I’m more interested […]

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Rantings of a logophile

  I’m into obscure things. If you’ve read this blog you already know that. This forum, for me, is kind of an information purge of sorts. It’s like a safe place where I can say things like moon pigeons and alphabet juice and electric ketchup. Oddball conundrums keep my brain cells happy. Let me explain the […]

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Life is a Fractal; RIP Maya

The essence of living things are cascades of fractals. Related patterns recur enthusiastically at progressively smaller scales… seemingly random but decidely chaotic. Deoxyribonucleic acid, (DNA) with its double helix entwined like a ladder. Cells. Fractals are seen with the “naked” eye, as in this beehive:   And they are unseen (as in this close-up view of […]

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it’s that month again, here’s what I’ve been up to, in part

the infamous puzzle piece? Yeah I know, it’s very cliche   Here’s what I’ve been up to: (Keep in mind there are several links on this blog. Don’t forget to come back and read the rest…Or click them when you finish reading…) http://barkingsycamores.wordpress.com/current-issue/ The above link is from a “neurodivergent” sister site on wordpress who […]

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Some of Crows’ and Ravens’ Roles in Fairy Tales and myth and Literature

I think of ravens and crows interchangeably. I can’t help it; I just do. Ravens are bigger in size although there are other differences too; like their voices. Supposedly the crow can say ‘uh-huh’, ‘caw’, ‘eh-aw’, ‘kow’, ‘aww’, and sound real nasal, whereas the raven is harsher and says things like ‘kraa’, or it makes […]

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Acts Of Kindness and the HEART

My grandmother died when I was about 13 years old. It’s the last thing I expected even though she was nearly 90. (Or was she in her 90s? Memory fades that detail…) To a child, death only happens to other people; not to people you know. It was a special relationship. I was mute most […]

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Comparing Luigi to the Voynich find, a look at two of the weirdest outsider art books ever!

Imagine writing and illustrating a book so bizarre (but intriguing) that decades later people are still drawn to it and NO ONE has been able to decode the secret language you made up, nor are they able to understand what your mind boggling illustrations mean?! Hey that’s a feat, eh? Look at one of the […]

Read More Comparing Luigi to the Voynich find, a look at two of the weirdest outsider art books ever!

Believe In People and also Levi Brown, “Graffiti” and Photography/Art taken to New Lengths!

There is a mysterious local New Haven artist going only by the moniker: ‘Believe In People,’ often shortened to BIP. Watch out! A giant baby holding a briefcase-wielding businessman! This particular painting ‘sprung’ up “guerrilla style” on the side of a business along State Street. In this instance, the painter had the permission of the […]

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Keeping it Real, Feeling CRAFTY

I pick up things all the time. They don’t have to be shiny. Sometimes something catches my eye. How about sticks? You know…twigs, tree arms, small limbs, branches, tree offshoots, switches. That’s what I’m talking about. I guess it’s just that time of year when I get an urge to collect, to craft, to bring […]

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Inside My Head Again

Soothing Places… Some places leave vivid etchings on our memories. When we close our eyes and drift…we’re almost there again.             I was about 8 years old. There were crayfish to trap and study in Grandma’s Brook. I never saw more than one claw of the crayfish I named ‘Crab With The Big Green Claw,’ […]

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