Tidal Shift

Right on time. At about 5:30pm yesterday the energy tides shifted for me, and I'm sure that my recent prolonged bout of depression (what shall hereafter be remembered simply as "January") finally ceasing also added to the sensation. Imbolc or Candlemas came in, and with it the edge of winter is gone.

There's been a kind of relentless psychic pressure going on since late September. While the sun was still shining past 6pm amid days of unusually high temperatures that late in the season, the ebb of the year began to make itself known, and known with a vengeance. Whether from the tide of battles long distant yet echoing through the astral, or just a particularly harsh seasonal variance, witches were muttering all across the country. Giving a shudder here and there for no reason amid the golden late summer.

But autumn was muted this year. As the leaves turned they went quickly to brown, quickly down, quickly beyond the brilliance that you sometimes get, and right into that wan and faded stage. Perhaps a symptom for whatever it is we just passed through. There's still clouds... always clouds, especially for us pendulum people... but the season shifted. And my own inner weather front broke finally, too, so I'm sure that's heightening my own sensitivity in the matter.

And anyhow, it's passed. Whomever's battle it was this time, they got it done. I don't know what that means, but I have to trust that it means something good, if it means anything at all.

Oh, I picked up some art supplies from Jerry's Artarama yesterday. Couple of Newsprint pads (small ones) meant for my Richter Boxes, and a 12 pk of graphite sticks, assorted hardnesses from 2B down to 9B. Ink for my Rapidograph set-- note to self, clean that out tonight to be ready for the weekend when I'll do the grid assignment, or a serious beginning to it.

The most excellent news of all? They carry Old Holland oils -and- watercolors. Master Guru Dave trusts them to be archival, and I'm all for the method of testing the oils. (They paint 2 boards in a color and put one in hermetic sealing and one they expose to sunlight... for 50 YEARS. Then they take the sealed board and compare the sun-exposed board, to ensure that they're the same color. If there's any variance at all after 50 years, they mark the color as being 'fugitive', if they'll manufacture it at all.... Gotta love those standards.)

They also have a table easel for dirt cheap. I know, I know... maybe there's a reason the Renoir table easel is marked down about $100, but to be honest I need something basic for right now. I can't afford to invest that much all at once. I need to space this out over a little while. So each week I'll put some money into oil paints to get a set of colors ready and start working through.

I tell ya, too... the lines practice I did last night sucked ass. Being away from the page for so long really does show in the technique. This is training muscular control, so it takes continual repetition and sustained practice. Can't cheat... clowns will eat me.