The Fluffbucket Diaries

“To my surprise, God guided me in this discernment through a Wendell Berry novel I happened to be reading. The book’s eponymous narrator, Jayber Crow, is a barber in a small town in Kentucky, and he describes the moment when he looks into the faces of some of his regular, elderly customers only to recognize that they are dying. The barber reflects that in this moment, ‘[T]his man, your foolish neighbor, your friend and brother, has shed somehow the laughter that followed him through the world, and has assumed the dignity and the strangeness of a traveler departing forever.’

“When I picture the faces of those whom I have said goodbye to this summer, I see in each of them that mystery, dignity, and strangeness, and I am filled with awe and wonder. And when I continue to gaze at this person with that newfound awe and wonder, I catch a glimpse of their sacredness and transcendent beauty. That is, I see the image of God.”

In your charity, please pray for my friend who was just diagnosed with pancreatic cancer that has spread to his liver.

I worked with him at my corporate contract job, where we were lunch buddies and fellow contractor scum, 7+ years ago. He connected me with his wife, who hired me full-time at the job I have now.

I’m forever indebted to him, not to mention that he’s just plain very dear to me. Devastated by the news of his diagnosis today.

Please pray for strength and consolation, not to mention skillful and effective treatment and financial help with looming medical bills and terrible health insurance.

Okay, I’m late to the #uglyartclub party and the #tuac5minutechallenge. I realized that I needed the relative discipline of an art challenge to help me #makearteveryday.

Trying out a self-portrait scribble on an ATC-size piece of painted background my sister made and gave me ages ago. The background’s fine; it’s the self-portrait and lame doodle under it that’s, well, ugly. But it’s something.

Today’s self-care doodle. I thought about doing another challenge; I admit I’m missing the Instagram attention that the ICAD hash tags provided.

But I’m happy right now drifting through artist tiles or whatever strikes my fancy. A piece of art a day is usually as much as I can do during the work week.

My sister sent me some black artist tiles over the weekend. Bought a white Posca pen, used that and a white Gelly Roll pen, and did a little self-care doodling.

Rummaging through an old bag of T-shirts now that I’ve lost enough weight to wear a few of them again. It’s unlikely I’ll be able to wear this one — a medium — from my senior year in high school, but I’m keeping it out of the Goodwill pile. It represents fond memories of holing up in a San Diego State dorm one summer with a bunch of other kids who were dreaming of a career in journalism like I was.

Now that ICAD is over, I’ve really been diving deep into the #inchie pool — like, seven of these little guys at a time. (I know, I’m only holding four here.)

Just slathered a bunch with some molding paste I found deep in my stash; not sure what else I’ll do with all that. Going to experiment with Mod Podge Dimensional Magic next.

Now that the ICAD challenge is over and I can leave my index card burnout behind, I’m turning my attention to my first art love in recent years: inchies.

Created the foundation of the first set from leftover collaged index cards covered with chalkboard paint, then layered with faux postage stamps punched from another leftover card smeared with metallic acrylic paints; each is topped with found words.

The second set is created from a swirly doodle on a 4-by-6 card.

ICADs 60 (top) and 61; no prompt. Blackboard paint background, acrylic paints.

Tried to somewhat capture the view at the kitchen table in our AirBnB cabin in an attempt to brighten up one of my black mood backgrounds. Didn’t do well, but it was worth a try. Had better luck with watercolors on cut 2-inch square watercolor paper pieces, which I’ll share later.

And with that, I’m done with this year’s ICAD challenge. I’m tired, mainly because we just got home from a meh long weekend that ended with news of another pet loss in our extended family (my sister’s 13-year-old dog—this on top of my mother’s passing in May) and a general sense of frustration that I didn’t get a lot of art done.

But I’m glad I did these 61 days. The challenge has me trying watercolors and doodling and acrylics, in addition to jump-starting my little mixed-media inchie hobby. And I’ve really appreciated the encouragement of the ICAD group on Facebook and, to a lesser extent, Instagram followers. Grateful all around.

ICADs 58 (top) and 59; no prompt. Illustrator pen, metallic Sharpie.

Been on vacation. This is the best I could do. Had hoped to set aside more time for art. Didn’t do real well with that.

Thinking about the Billy Crystal line in “When Harry Met Sally,” when he tells Meg Ryan that she’s “the worst kind – you’re high-maintenance but you think you’re low-maintenance.”

Some writers have had issues with this line as a view of certain kinds of women in relationships. Understandably.

But it doesn’t bother me at all. Honestly, in my experience, it rings absolutely true with certain people – men and women. One of my aims in life is NOT to be one of them.

ICAD 57/61; no prompt. Illustration pen and Liquid Flair pen.

More swirly lines, this time with a red splash (and I could use better coloring pens) and a little different doodling within the doodling.

It’s amazing what one can do during a staff meeting.

I got two index cards done, I started a new drawing class online, and I lost 1.6 pounds in 2 weeks. (More on that in my usual almost-weekly fat post, which I probably will post tomorrow.) Otherwise, it’s been a crap day.

It’s been oppressively hot, the A/C is on the fritz, and I would prefer to spend my days creating art instead of doing what I do now to make a living. Plus there’s all manner of anxieties and bitter, angry spots forming clouds in my head right now.

So, I’m up late to finish some editing for work, and probably will stay up late so I can see if more art therapy will make me feel better.

ICAD 56/61; no prompt. Illustration pen.

Started a doodling course by Alisa Burke and did something with the first doodle instruction here. I had created another one on a larger card (4x6) using a Pilot G2 bold pen, but since I’ve been using 3x5s throughout ICAD, I made another one here for consistency, except I used an Artist’s Loft illustration pen.

I think I like using the G2 for these better. That said, I enjoyed this as much as I’ve enjoyed the neurographic art—except that staring at these makes me dizzy.

ICAD 55/61; Community newspaper scrap and metallic Sharpie.

I actually made this a while ago and had intended to do something more with it, but I’m behind again and starting to hit the wall on this whole project. And I looked at this and decided it was fine. So, here it is.

(Incidentally, Two Brothers in Elmhurst, Illinois, does make a fine pizza and has decent Italian food.)

ICAD 54; no prompt. Acrylic paint, Tim Holtz stencils, newspaper scrap, sticker.

Looking forward to a long weekend starting Friday. We’ll be at a remote cabin for a few days, which will put us out of cellphone range for much of the time. This means I’m unlikely to post the last of my ICAD cards till we get back. But I’ll still be bringing my art supplies with me — so with no work distractions, I should have time to relax with some art.

ICAD 53; no prompt. Acrylic paint; Tim Holtz stencils; collage cluster using tag punched from repurposed food packaging, scrapbook paper scraps, and a used postage stamp.

Found some stencils my sister sent me years ago and decided to play with them a little. I need practice with them.

ICAD 52/61; no prompt. Acrylic paint background, newspaper scrap, flowers doodled with Pilot G2 bold pens and fussy cut from blue sticky notes.

Fell behind on the cards this past week. I’m liking the streaky yellow backgrounds. I think I needed the brighter colors after going dark for so long on many of these cards.

There’s something heartening about walking in on the end of our parish’s daycamp with a gymful of kids chanting the Litany of the Saints.

It’s even more heartening to pick up the kid from said daycamp and hear her say it turned out “better than I thought it’d be.”

ICAD 51/61; no prompt. Gesso, followed by Crayola Slick Stix (watered and brushed), illustration pen.

I probably should have limited the doodling to the “flowers” and left the bottom of this card alone. This is my first attempt at some kind of watercolor/doodle abstract work. It’s not great, but I want to play with this a little more.

ICAD 50/61; no prompt. Acrylic paint and illustration pen.

Late with this post, I know. Felt kind of off all day yesterday.

Finally getting away from my beloved G2 bolds and realizing that a proper illustration pen (this one from the inexpensive Artist’s Loft brand from Michael’s) is the way to go with the doodling. Far less smudging and blobbing for my left-handed self.

I’m hitting the wall on a lot of things right now, including the index cards and the weekly weigh-ins. And I have a lot of venting I need to do, but it’s the kind of venting that goes offline into the handy art/junk/gluebook journal I’ve tricked out from a 50-cent composition book. Some, if not most, of those opinions belong there. If only more people would do that in this social media age.

ICAD 49/61; Sharpie, glitter pen; collage cluster made with acrylic paint, scrapbook and newspaper scrap, bling stickers, and a Japanese postage stamp.

I’ve been hitting the wall on the index cards lately. But I’m enjoying working in an even smaller format with tags and collage clusters. I made this cluster and planted it on a random doodled card from earlier in the challenge.

ICAD 48/61; no prompt. Acrylic paint background, sloppy mandala made with Pilot G2 bold pen and metallic Sharpies, scrap from a past Sunday paper.

Actually created the messy mandala on a separate card, then cut it out and glued it onto this one.

F and I created our first batch of shortbread this afternoon. I think we have another recipe to add to our list of baking standards.

Worth the 17 grams of carbs (per bar) and two sticks of butter (whole recipe).

Ted Lasso would be proud.