Month: April 2009

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A Rude Awakening

Mexican Place Settings -- work in progress
Mexican Place Settings -- work in progress

Deaf moments – those times that something unexpected, and usually embarrassing, happens as a consequence of being deaf – rarely occur these days. But I still have them from time to time, I suppose just to remind me that I still am deaf and to add spice to my life. What would life be without its entertainment value?

Well, I had a doozy this morning, a deaf moment to go down in history. The light was dim through the curtains when I first opened my eyes, and since Dave was still beside me I knew it was fairly early since he had to be at Lowes for work at 9AM. I tossed a bit and went back to sleep. To awaken sometime later with Dave gone and still not much light coming into the bedroom; I went back to sleep. This went on a couple more times until I told myself I really needed to get my butt out of bed. As I started to toss the covers off, I was struck with a thought that sent me into sheer panic. I had an adult education class coming this morning at 10 to begin a tour of LowerTown galleries! God help me, what time is it??? Glasses hurriedly crammed onto my face, I looked expectantly at Dave’s clock. To my utter horror it was 10:01. I could only pray they were late.

Being as I cannot hear a ten gun salute next to me while I sleep much less a door bell or the phone since I am without my processor, I knew that had they rung my bell or knocked I would have been oblivious to their attempts to arouse me. I flung on clothes and put my processor on hurriedly. The first noise to assault my consciousness was the trill of the phone from the living room. Oh, heaven save me, get me to the phone before they hang up! Of course it was them. I ran to the phone just in time to reach the instructor at the other end of the line. Where are you? she quite reasonably wanted to know. Well…ur…umm….well, I am here. But you see, I am deaf….uh…well, and I couldn’t hear you……and……ummm….well. Oh, geez, I have just now awakened. I am SO SORRY!! This is so embarrassing.

Sandy, the instructor, was such a gracious person, to my eternal gratitude, and offered to go somewhere else first. But I wouldn’t hear of it since I had maps for them all, marked as to which galleries were open. In less than a minute I had my hair brushed and studio lights turned on, the studio blind lifted, and opened the door to wave them in from their van. Sandy alighted and greeted me, “Rise and shine, sleepy head!!” Hugs all around.

The good Lord save me from myself. I hope they had a wonderful day here in LowerTown and Paducah.

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Images of Morocco

Unloaded
Unloaded

At last! We have a working camera after two protracted visits to the repair shop and finally the purchase of a used lens through ebay. The old lens was the problem, as it turned out, not registering anything with the camera body. I kept getting “error 99,” whatever that meant, when I tried to take a picture. So my little blog, with all its high-flung intentions, went neglected until I could post pictures.

After the lens arrived in the mail today I immediately attached it to the camera and fired off a couple test shots from inside and outside the house. Success! I then carried my painting outside for its long-awaited photo shoot and took some shots to transform via Photoshop. Digital images are so much easier than taking slides as you used to have to do. Now I don’t have to worry about what’s surrounding the painting, I just crop it out in the image preparation. After some futzing with the tripod and then a little touch-up after looking at the photos on my computer, the images are ready.

The painting is called “Unloaded,” and is a fair depiction of a familiar scene in a souk, or marketplace, in about any of the major cities in Morocco. This one is actually in Fez, but the important thing is that burros, such as the one standing prominently in the foreground of the painting, provide the predominant means of transporting goods into the market. Their ability to handle huge, heavy loads, their sure-footedness, and their resilience makes them the perfect adaptable transport. Not to mention the narrow, twisting corridors of the souks that they can easily traverse, which don’t lend themselves well to trucks of any size.

I like the strong geometric sense and contrasts of the composition. There is a hardness in those strong lines, reflective of the toughness of the donkey.