Don't Be Obsessed With Truth, Instead, Make It A Fundamental Part Of Your Existence. Plain And Ordinary. Truth Requires No Embellishments.

If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.

Mark Twain

Water Carrier. Rapidograph pen and India ink on drawing paper.

Signed, December 25, 1980.

A worthy, interesting and exciting life is not determined by how well you tweet, write, relay, draw, paint your stories or how well someone writes about or illustrates it. It is determined by how honest you are. Honesty makes ordinary things extraordinary. No highfalutin word may describe the simple joy and excitement of being. You try too much and your life sounds like a cheap fiction novelette or a cheesy boring blog post. The only people who will read it and leave positive comments are your sycophantic self-serving audience or boring people with greasy hair who sit in front of computers all day and pretend to be someone else.

Ever noticed that perverted and depraved men and women who are accused of sexual harassment for the first time and deny it, keep on fending off stories and similar allegations with lies? Likewise with those who take advantage of others. It is their reputation.

You, know, truth is just like that. It is a pattern. You live a good and moral life and chances are, other people are likely to repeat stories of goodwill, honorable deeds, appreciation and admiration of you. They keep popping up. They will be ordinary stories because there is nothing complicated about truth, though plain, simple and ordinary, they are perfervid. It is their integrity.

In my many years of blogging I have met many extraordinary bloggers with ordinary tales of courage, perseverance, struggles, fun and adventure. Bloggers write about these special people. I have also met many autobiographical liars and trumpet blowers.

What does this post have to do with my drawing? A lot and nothing. I did this drawing thirty one years ago, on December 25, 1980. My sister preserved it. Unfortunately I don't have a scanner handy, so I took a macro shot. I was then a student of speech pathology. One of my sisters told me, in a scolding way, to make something of my nursing degree instead of studying new fields. At that time, I had already spent seven years in college. I was working full time as a speech therapist for children diagnosed with cerebral palsy and autism. I remember what I enjoyed the most though; being a Girl Scout troop leader of disabled scouts, drawing, painting and making town models. Thirty one years ago. Not much has changed it seems. I still have a specialized licensed professional career but devote my time on extraneous activities like squiggling, painting...

Thank you for your visits and comments.

A Perennial Sisterfriendship Of Virtue

Genuine. 18"x24" Oil on canvas.

...a genuine friend is someone who loves or likes another person for the sake of that other person.

Gentle, Kind, Loving, Fun Words With friends: A friendship of virtue is rare. Lucky and blessed are they who have it. Nothing evinces a friendship of virtue more than the one I hold dear to my heart, my perennial friendship with my sisterfriend, Bella Sinclair.

I painted this without a palette. I dipped the brushes directly into the paint tubes or squirted the paints directly on the canvas where I mixed them with my brushes. The brush strokes are clearly visible, . I wanted every brush movement to record my joy and happiness when I painted this. At times I was actually giggling.

In my painting of Scarlet (left) she is shown holding a book. It is one of my favorite books, a gold edged and trimmed leather bound edition of Aristotle's Ethics. The chapter on Friendship is my favorite. It is where I first read the Friendship of Virtue, one that my mother lectured me about when I was growing up. For years I have worked for that type of friendship... I am blessed. Here is an analysis of Aristotle's book, Ethics. it's actually better if you just read the book. I think every home library should have it.

A Perennial Friend of Virtue

Present at all seasons of the year

Persisting for several years

Persistent and enduring

Continuing without interruption

Regularly repeated and renewed

Gesture

ElizaDeath, oil on canvas, holding a Fiesta coffee mug.

Some people take their coffee mugs seriously...

I have an email address I have owned since 1992. I constantly clean the Inbox. I rarely use that address, although it used to be my main email address. I thought it was pretty much empty until I discovered the Sent folder was never emptied!!! What a discovery. I can tell stories by merely posting the email conversations verbatim! Here is an exchange I want to share. This is one of the reasons why my blog is named "Ces And Her Dishes." This was around the time I decided to collect all the Fiesta mug colors. D and I are still friends. :)

-------------- Original message from Ces: --------------

Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2006 12:14 AM

Subject: Re: WAIT!!!!!! Don't do anything yet!

Hi D,

I think I am getting an education on eBay. LOL! Thank you for the advise. I have to put it on my watch list instead, yes? I even put a maximum bid on it. I forgot now. Isn't that terrible? It cannot be more than $30.00. I hope no one snipes me. Please, I'd welcome and appreciate your advise. I am not very comfortable with eBay. Thank you.

I am now very upset with myself for even thinking of having all the mugs. I thought it would be nice to have them so I can stand in front of the kitchen cupboard in the morning, half-brain dead, deciding which mug to use for coffee. I read that the sapphire mug was posted last year for around $300 and it did not sell. How am I going to explain to my husband that I am buying a mug for $300 even $500 for drinking coffeee which the doctor advised me not to do so in the first place? If I get a Sapphire mug, I will be the anti-Fiesta collector. I will use that darn mug everyday!

Thank you for your advise and help. You are most kind. I appreciate you very much. Are you attending the conference?

Ces

-------------- Original message from Ces: --------------

Sent: Monday, February 13, 2006 1:26 PM

Subject: Need your opinion

Hi D,

Hope the snowplow maneuver was okay. My sister said the storm stopped last night and the driving conditions are safe enough that she and her friends went to a bookstore.

I have a request. I need your opinion quickly. How high should I go for a Lilac coffee mug? $30 - $40? My last bid was $25.00 and someone has submitted that as their maximum bid. is Lilac rare? I can go higher. The shipping is only $7.00. Thanks. Let me know what you think.

Ces

D wrote:

Ces

Listen to teacher D

You be wise

Master eBay nuance

Oh here's a laugh - another MG member who emails me thought I was a blonde? Uhm? how am I supposed to take that?

-------------- Original message from Ces: --------------

Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2006 10:42 AM

Subject: You are right!

About submitting a bid on the auction. The other eBay member submitted a bid higher than my maximum amount. There is still 1 day left. I will try to grab the thing tonight. If I lose it, I'll find something else to grab. Oohh this sounds dirty. LOL.

D wrote:

What do you mean by "I will try to grab the thing tonite"? What are you going to do tonite?

-------------- Original message from Ces: --------------

Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2006 11:48 AM

Subject: Re: WAIT!!!!!! Don't do anything yet!

I thought I'd post a bid no higher than $35.00?

-------------- Original message from Ces: --------------

Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2006 2:52 PM

Subject: Re: WAIT!!!!!! Don't do anything yet!

Okay, I think you explained that well. I'm learning. Thank you.

Ces

Happy Valentine's Day to you. Are you doing anything romantic with E?

D wrote:

E can win it for you and we'll tell them to ship it to you! But you have to tell us what you want to spend.

-------------- Original message from Ces: --------------

Hi D,

I thank you and E for offering your services. Does he know it is not for you? If he wins the bid, how do I pay?

Ces

D wrote:

Yes, he knows it's for you. I will pay with my Paypal account and you send me a check. Just tell me the most you want to pay.

-------------- Original message from Ces: --------------

Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2006 10:54 PM

Subject: Re: WAIT!!!!!! Don't do anything yet!

Alright then. How about $51.00? Hope all is well with you. Thank you.

Ces

Sunday Painting 475

Well, getting there...

Today I announced to my daughter that I am retiring. She was shocked. "But I have not been to college yet!" Ah, she thought I was retiring from work. She felt better after I told her I was not retiring from work. Last night, I sat down and watched television with my daughter. We watched "Hoarders." Oh my God! The trash people collect. They were literally buried in filth! Fifteen minutes into the show, I panicked. I looked around and nervously asked my daughter if I was a hoarder. I have books but they are in book cases; dishes but they are in the china cabinet and servers; stemmed glasses and crystals but they are in the glass cabinet; clothes, shoes... I have many of those, I need to get rid of everything I have not worn since last year. I can't think of anything else. Is it hoarding when you are using the things? She assured me I was not a hoarder but I can certainly get rid of my drawings and paintings. Oh my God!!! She is right. Now I know my problem. It isn't so much that I paint a painting or draw a drawing. It's not the finished product. It's just the fact that I have to keep on doing it. I have a painting and drawing problem.

For a long time I thought that painting and drawing were worthwhile activities, Now I think it is really a pathological condition. I got up from the sofa and immediately looked for something to throw away. One hour later I threw away a large trash can of "stuff." They must have been stuff for I can't even remember what I threw away. Oh yes, I threw away a computer but not before I opened the tower and removed the data storage. I meant to do the closet today, but I was so tired from cleaning last night. I stayed in bed almost all day! I went on Google.

The Internet is both a gift and a curse. I googled myself. Ugh! Don't google yourself unless you are prepared to see what you may find. I googled my "images" and "everything." Depending on how I formatted my name, the variety of results were interesting. Who are these people who post my artwork and entire posts, verbatim, on their blogs? They are properly linked back to my blog, but come on, I am not looking for an agent.

And pray tell, what is the purpose of Twitter? Never mind, don't tell me.

I hate filth!!! I love watching that show, "Hoarders," it shocks me! Okay, I am organizing my closet...

These paintings are also known by other names but as for Fiesta after which they were named they are as follows:

30"x 40" Oil on canvas

Plum

30"x40" Oil on canvas.

Peacock, Sunflower, Scarlet

30"x40" Oil on canvas.

Black, Pearl Grey, Ivory

30"x40" Oil on canvas.

Chartreuse, Heather, Scarlet

The Grandewitch of Xystoi

The Grandewitch of Xystoi. 30"x 40" Oil on canvas. I listened to every one's comments and advice and decided to leave her alone. Still having a hard time capturing her. Oh well, she is a grandewitch, after all. Check out the header above for a close up view.

What does Xystoi have to do with my painting? Well, for one, I started painting the above at the same time I started playing Words with Friends. Oh boy, it's worse than some online games in terms of its addictive effects on me but at least, Words With Friends enhances critical thinking and learning through strategies and finding word meanings. I am really not that addicted. I am just having fun and to date I think my best friend and I are setting a record of the most number of simultaneous games. With another friend, we are setting the longest running game for we take turns every four or more days. To think our offices are next door to each other!

Xystoi is a valid word in scrabble. One day, I laid down the letters on the board thinking they will be rejected but I was shocked, they were accepted! Thereupon my friend asked "What does that mean?" and I replied "I don't know, but it was accepted!" I really did not know what it meant, so I looked it up. I can't find a definition anywhere! So it is a word that has the distinction of being acceptable despite having no meaning? Somebody out there, if you find a meaning, please tell me. Xystoi is just like why I can't explain why I set out to paint a woman feeding a hummingbird and instead perseverated first on her face, then her bald head. Should I give her hair or not, I asked my daughter. I ended up painting her as such, holding a Little King Bird of Paradise and a Common peafowl behind her. I was still intent on painting a humming bird, so I put a Ruby crested hummingbird on her turban.

I also wanted to paint some fruit bats because my brother shared the photos he took of the fruit bats from our island-birthplace. Remember I once mentioned how I asked my brother to exchange images of our skies everyday? Ah, he is more diligent than I am. He shared photos of a tree on a mountain resort, with its canopy filed with bats. Thereupon he proceeded to tell me that people were eating the bats, "yum" he wrote, but he himself has not tried them. I immediately had this vision of my brother behaving like a caveman or like Andrew Zimmer eating a bat. Fear sat in. I thought of rabies and other diseases. He assured the bats were vegetarians. I chastised him until he told me to relax, he was just teasing me. Ugh! He knows how to push my buttons. Since bats are mammals, I decided against painting them, perhaps on my next painting.

Scenes from the island where I was born, from my brother's digital archives.

I named her the Grandewitch of Xystoi, a phase in my life filled with fun and adventure, loving and caring, great hopes, joviality; of copacetic weekends; of great friendship and reconnecting with childhood friends, my college classmates, of giggles and laughter amid seemingly insurmountable tasks, demands, hardships and struggles, stress, trials and tribulations and concern over loved ones... oh wait!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!

Yes, the bats do belong there after all... so while writing this post, I took a break and ran to the easel and painted some bats. See now...that's more like it, but bats be gone!!! Let live!

I painted this with brushes and halfway through, I switched to painting with palette knives but later in the process, I reverted to painting with brushes. The reddish hue is due to the fact that I took the image of the bats at night, with the ceiling spot lights on!

My dear friends, have a safe and good day.

Tsup!

A Difficult Time of Staying

I am having a difficult time capturing the image of this painting that I am actually contemplating scrapping the whole painting. I know, that's crazy, right? But it is bothering me that no matter where and when I take the photo, she turns out too red. Even though red is better than blue, (literally and figuratively), still, she is just too red for me. I may do something to her to make her stay because I have grown fond of her and her birds.

I hope you are all well. I am so busy, swamped, stretched and stressed at work that my friend told me "If you were dough you would be soft and delicious. " Hahaha! I don't think so. I should not complain. Being busy is very good but I have so many implementation dates, tasks and deadlines that I had to resort to entering every event in my phone calendar, otherwise, I'd forget. Do you know that multitasking actually makes you dumb? I'll explain later. So stay around. Ha!

Here's the finished painting.

This Is Why I Am A Conservative...

BIG Government, higher taxes, more debt and more spending are not the answers!!!

The Woman I Love

Today is my mother's birthday. She would have been 92, but she is stuck forever in my mind and in my heart as that formidable and everlasting source of strength, faith, hope, charity and love. Do you know that my mother's name in Spanish literally translates to Faith Hope Charity? Maybe my grandmother could not decide which one was the best? Incidentally, my mother turned out to be all three and more but most of all Love, but I think a fourth first name would have been too many or she would have ended up with a much longer name.

When I think of my mother, I am flooded with scenes and images in my mind that resonate in my heart. Isn't it amusing that while I realize I am a grown up and capable, in my most difficult moments as a mother, I still call out for advice and ask myself what my mother would have done. "Give me a sign", I would tell myself or at least make someone I respect an instrument to stop me from self destruction.

I remember what I said when I was a teenager arguing with my mother; "When I grow up I am not going to be like you. I am going to be a different mother!" I remember my mother looking amused and smiling or annoyed and raising an eyebrow. The funny thing, it turned out to be true and everyday I wish and strive to be more like her. Happy Birthday, Nanay. You always told us to celebrate our loved ones' birthdays, though near or far. We are celebrating yours today and you have never been nearer or closer, you are in my mind and in my heart. I love you.

What is your strongest memory of your mother?

Below, on my easel...

A Preview Of The Grandewitch Of Xystoi

Above, the transformation of the Grandewitch of Xystoi, a painting in progress.

Sunday Painting

Someday, when I am gone,

I would like my children to remember me

happily and contentedly

painting or drawing in their midst...

in my pajamas;

while they tell me stories and jokes;

and laugh and play with Daisy or Snowflake

or show me a hornworm they have been feeding;

or sometimes ask me to stop

and sit with them in the love seat

and ask me to rub their backs;

or ask them to rub mine;

or sit with Daisy

while she patiently tolerates my wrestles, hugs and squeezes;

or with Snowflake on my lap;

I hope they remember,

their father asking me if I need anything;

or him coming over and giving me something to eat or drink

because I have not eaten or drank anything all day;

Perhaps they will remember asking

"Are you going to take a shower?";

or "Are you going to change? my friend is coming over..."

or "You don't have to change, you look fine, like a crazy painter..."

Will they remember

criticizing the faces I paint and saying things like

"her eyes are too far apart"

and laughing and asking

"What the heck, is she giving me the finger?"

and me assuring "No, no, no!!! She will be holding a bird...";

or saying something like

"She looks funny or depressed, do you want her to be sad?...";

or approving "I like that, that looks good now...";

and asking, "May I please have that painting?"

and my heart is content

and I say
"Yes!"

Remedy

A remedy...

You know what I love about oil painting? Well, for starters, it is a pain in the neck. It's a task-master. So naturally, I have to conquer it. Actually, aside from the fact that it is high maintenance, I love the smell of the oils. It is also very tactile and I love how the different types of brushes affect the application of paints. I love all of them, flats, fan, filberts, brights and rounds. I also have liners and I use a new brush to add to the current stock of used brushes when I start a new painting, because it's my tradition. I used to paint with palette knives and my human figures were more angular then.After I picked up drawing again during these past three years, my painting style has changed. I prefer the brushes now and my figures are gently angled. You can see the change from my early paintings in the 1980's and even the transformation of the current Fiesta Series.

Oil painting is very forgiving. One can blend the pigments with oils and change an image many times over which is really good for me because I keep changing my mind. Honestly what I am painting right now is not what I intended. I still don't know what I am doing, but I am doing it. My daughter sat with me last night while I painted and she told me the woman looked scary, sad, sullen, depressed, like a witch... I laughed. I thought I liked her very determined expression but this morning she told me again that she does not like to look at the woman. A remedy was in order. It took me four hours to redo her eyes. My daughter and I laughed at her many transformations. I finally settled for this one. My daughter and her friend told me that the current face is more inviting and is gentle.

You know, I secretly liked the first face but I want my daughter to look at my paintings, not look away from them. This was this morning when everyone was asleep and Daisy and I were the only ones up. I took this photo with my phone.

.

The sunlight peeking in at the drying paintings.