Inspiration’s Good Wherever It Comes From

Posted on June 12, 2010 by Leslie Sigal Javorek | Leave a comment

Posted by: Leslie Sigal Javorek • Date: Sat. June. 12, 2010 4:20 am

Ya know how you tend to buy more at the grocery store if you go there hungry? Well, I’ve come up with a new twist on that. Tonight I just couldn’t get out of my mind a desire for Cantonese Pork Fried Rice with Duck Sauce on it, and the next thing I knew, I was drawing pictures of Chinese ladies and paper fans. Excuse me if that’s politically incorrect, but when I realized what I was doing (and why) I started laughing hysterically. (As you can tell, I’m easily amused these days). Ah well, I guess it’s as good an excuse as any to draw something different.

I’m still having a bit of trouble drawing hands right – especially when I’m drawing what is more or less a mirror image of my own hand. Next time I think I may try drawing a hand upside down, like the exercises from the book “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain”. If you haven’t heard of that book or read it yet (came out around 30 years ago) I highly recommend it. The book really opened up a lot of doors for me as before I read it, I was convinced that I had absolutely no talent for drawing and blamed it on the fact that I’m dyslexic. That book taught me a way to overcome that to a large extent. Really amazing how our brains work.

I’m really tired tonight so I’m gonna close now and leave y’all with the fruits of my hungry labors. Enjoy!

Free Clip-Art / Icons of the Day

The following images are either full or reduced size previews. Simply right-click (or control-click) on the preview to save the image(s) of your choice to your desktop. (Unless otherwise noted, downloads are 512px X 512px in .png format). As always, usage of any of the images offered on this blog are free for your personal use while subject to the limitations of my Creative Commons Non-Commercial – Attribution – No Derivatives 3.0 license. (See sidebar for details)

Justice Watch – Week 12

Posted on June 8, 2010 by Leslie Sigal Javorek | 4 Comments

Posted by: Leslie Sigal Javorek • Date: Tues. June. 8, 2010 4:30 pm

Hubby’s birthday is coming up in 2 days but since our son is up here and getting ready to drive back to his apartment in Columbus this evening, we’re going to have the birthday celebration tonight. It’s going to be a trial run for me to see how well I can do sitting up for an hour or so in a restaurant, as I’m hoping to visit my Dad for his 85th birthday. Glory, I sure hope that I can do this. Seems ridiculous that it should be such a big deal but such is life. Rob just came in from working out in the yard, our fine young man took it upon himself to drive 150 miles from his apartment just to clean up our landscaping so the “block police” wouldn’t cite us for undignified curb appeal. 😉 His buddy Travis drove up on Saturday to help out and his friend Ryan, who lives around the block, came over too. They worked about 12 hours solid for 3 days. G-d Bless them! It looks great now.

Of course, it’s another Tuesday, and so another night of “Justice Watch” – this time week 12 and so far no answer from the Court. Praying for tomorrow.

I’m cutting this post short today as off we go.

Enjoy!

Free Clip-Art / Icons of the Day

The following images are either full or reduced size previews. Simply right-click (or control-click) on the preview to save the image(s) of your choice to your desktop. (Unless otherwise noted, downloads are 512px X 512px in .png format). As always, usage of any of the images offered on this blog are free for your personal use while subject to the limitations of my Creative Commons Non-Commercial – Attribution – No Derivatives 3.0 license. (See sidebar for details)

A Summer of Hummingbirds

Posted on June 7, 2010 by Leslie Sigal Javorek | Leave a comment

Posted by: Leslie Sigal Javorek • Date: Mon. June 7, 2010 3:48 am

First things first. Over this last weekend, I created a new page for this Blog, titled “Hot Links” where I have gathered some of my favorite websites, blogs, and resources on the Internet. While I’ve still kept links already in the right-hand sidebar of my pages, I just had so many more that I wanted to share with my readers – and hope you’ll add to it, too. I’ve kept the links there as text-only to cut down on the loading time. Hop on over there when you get a chance and let me know what you think.

As for the title of this morning’s post, “A Summer of Hummingbirds”, this is the title of a fascinating book I’ve read by author, Christopher Benfey. Published in 2008, it has the intriguing sub-title of “Love, Art, and Scandal in the Intersecting Worlds of Emily DIckinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, & Martin Johnson Heade”. Anyone who is a history, sociology, or biography buff will enjoy this easy to read treatise that interweave glimpses of pre and post Civil War American society through the eyes of these famed authors, artists. Their lives not only touch each other in unexpected ways but Benfey has managed to reveal insight into these personalities, the influences upon them and the imprint they left for future generations without resorting to heavy-handed background detail or moralistic commentary that historians and biographers often fall prey to. The central theme of hummingbirds not only runs through the lives of the central characters, it is a theme which those characters and this book’s author view[ed] as an allegory for the entire era that saw the social fabric of America (and much of the world, as well) brought into question and literally torn apart. Suddenly, the “younger generation” growing up in the 1840’s began to question and discard the old traditions and attitudes of their parents regarding the concepts of nature, religion, sexuality, family, time, eroticism, and beauty. Not being familiar in the least with anything to do with Hummingbirds, despite having enjoyed Dickinson, Twain, Stowe and Heade for years, I had never picked up on this common thread between them much less recognized that every one of them had been drawn to this species and beheld it as a symbol in their works where the bird was never just a bird.

So whether you’re into history, sociology, biography, birding, the US, or Brazil (which was not only a newly sovereign nation back then but it’s Amazon River and Rainforest serves as home to the world’s largest population of Hummingbirds), this is a book I’m sure you’ll take pleasure in. You can buy it here.

Of course, how can I not offer with this review a selection of Hummingbird art? Enjoy!

Free Clip-Art / Icons of the Day

The following images are either full or reduced size previews. Simply right-click (or control-click) on the preview to save the image(s) of your choice to your desktop. (Unless otherwise noted, downloads are 512px X 512px in .png format). As always, usage of any of the images offered on this blog are free for your personal use while subject to the limitations of my Creative Commons Non-Commercial – Attribution – No Derivatives 3.0 license. (See sidebar for details)