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Saturday / 10 December 2016
My brother Bill called me last night while I was at a hockey game
and
left a voice mail:
” I am COMING with ALL my dogs after I finish my rounds at the hospital.
I will be at your loft at 8:30 am!”
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I have created a new series of paintings
in the last couple days:
PALESTARS: RI/SING, a suite of 4 works.
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My visual art is a conduit/solace and a vehicle
of my internal/constantly evolving/sensuous constellation.
My visual art accesses the truth-telling oracle
in my hidden chambers, out of sight to the external world,
where I fly when I need a safe haven to breathe and listen.
The haven is where coal turns to diamonds, where lead transmutes to gold.
I must dive deep and with complete surrender.
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For the last several nights,
while in bed and under my sheets,
I watch 2 episodes of
LUKE CAGE
on Netflix
– my man crush!
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I set the alarm for 7:45 am
– giving me 5 hours to dream about Luke
– and, I am his Claire,
of course!
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7: 45 am- zen bell alarm!
I leap out of bed and Jaspar, my dog, leaps from the bed at the same time!
I make fresh coffee for my brother and I.
I photograph the new work with the soft ambient light offered by morning.
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I listen to my collection of Charles Lloyd’s sonics.
8:30 am passes.
9:30 am passes.
Bill is a surgeon and emergency cases come up.
I know NOT to call him.
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Finally, at 10:00 am,
Bill calls and informs me he is now 5 minutes away from my loft!
He tells me:
“Meet me outside in the front of your building!
Do NOT bring Jaspar with you!
I have something I must bring into your loft!”
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My imagination is
VIVID,
in technicolor; with subtitles; a spectrum of camera angles
and
is spontaneously
capable of creating
87490345 narrative possibilities
from the
OMGdevastatingIcan’tbreatheNO!!!
to
lalalalalalLOLLOLLOLbreathtakingYES!!!
Streams to torrents to tsunami velocity and rhythm.
Only a few people on Planet Earth “get” my humor.
I am imagining WHAT is he bringing with those conditions?
Holiday: a partridge in a pear tree?
Animal: a GIANT cat which would terrify Jaspar
– and, me, because I prefer canines.
A person?
Hope it is
LUKE CAGE
– yet, I know he is
a MARVEL SUPER HERO COMIC MAN
and, to me, he is
MARVELOUS.
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Bill arrives.
He says:
“DON’T MOVE!!!!!!!!
CLOSE YOUR EYES!!!!“
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( I am really hoping with unrealistic expectations:
LUKE CAGE
or
a
FAT TIRE BIKE
because I ride my bike ALL the time
– no matter the temperature–
and
my tires have lost their tread
from my flying fast and faster
on the gravel trails of Vento Nature Sanctuary
with my Jaspar running FREE
and
making the same hairpin turns I make.)
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Bill comes from stage right with a holler:
SURPRISE!!!!!
A FAT TIRE BIKE!!!!!
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My response:
SWEET CHRISTMAS!
(LUKE CAGE)
HOLY BUCKETS!
HOLY BUCKETS!
HOLYBUCKETS!
HO LY BU CK ET S!
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I am
OVER THE TOP
EXCITEDEXCITED!
We bring the MARVEL SUPER HEROINE VEHICLE into my loft!
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We then drive to Vento Nature Sanctuary
with 5 canines in the back!
We arrive within 3 minutes,
and ALL of his 4 dogs and my Jaspar
( all are English Springer Spaniels)
are set FREE:
go racing; bounding;
“springing” – a beautiful sight;
flying on the trail
– making the same hairpin turns at the same time!
A visual rush of seeing black+white zooming in a singular motion!
Int0 the fields, up the hills and down back on the trail.
They look like lean/mean Holstein
government funded
laboratory cows
who were injected with a secret serum
for the 4-legged Olympics
– flashing Black and White MARVEL COMIC CANINES
– FASTER THAN THE SPEED OF LIGHT!
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Harper sees geese on the half frozen pond.
Off she runs, slides, slips onto the ice and then falls into the open water!
OMG!
Bill and I go into rescue mode.
Harper is called to the closest shoreline.
They all start up again with more fervor:
tumbling and runing together
as Harper’s fur changes into icicles!
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Bill departs to go back to his home
– far far far away deep into the Western suburbs of Minneapolis-
with a bounty of:
Thank YOU!
YOU are AMAZING!
TOTALLY SURPRISED!!!!
And, several excited grateful
WOW! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT!
and the preciousacred:
stunned sister kissing/hugging her reserved brother scenes
=
BEAUTIFUL is “I CAN SEE YOU!”
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Bill says with a HUGE smile:
“MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Get out there before it snows 8 inches!”
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I take it out on its maiden voyage.
SHE IS MADE OF STEEL.
WOW!
A workout unlike what I can achieve on my mountain bike!
This is a HEAVY DUTY muscle strengthening and cardio workout.
The physics of the FAT TIRES plough through snow: yes, absolutely!
The same physics applies to the force/POWER needed
to make the bike move with MAJOR wide tires!
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I loooooooove it!
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After 2 hours,
I arrive back to my loft.
Jaspar is listening
to Charles Lloyd and Billy Higgins
“Which Way is East”.
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Under my down jacket, I am soaked with perspiration.
I take a long HOTHOTHOT shower.
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I look into the bathroom mirror
and
what is reflected back is WHAT?! astounding:
I am vintage;
black and white;
my hair has grown down to my shoulders and is in curls;
I am on an ocean beach;
I am in a 1960’s pointy bra bikini
lifting a 100 lb. barbell
over my head
with ONLY my right arm!
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My response:
SWEET CHRISTMAS!
(LUKE CAGE)
HOLY BUCKETS!
HOLY BUCKETS!
HOLYBUCKETS!
HO LY BU CK ET S!
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IMAGINE
what I will look like in FIVE days
biking my
NEW FAT TIRE BIKE?
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WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
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Now to a DANCE PARTY @ Peter’s celebrating Deandra’s 30th bday!
WHEEEEEE: lasers, black lights, walls of lights, spinning LPs +a DJ!
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I LONG TO SEE YOU
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TO ENLARGE, PLEASE CLICK TWICE ON THE IMAGES
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I LONG TO SEE YOU
I longed to see you BOTH Dorothy and Charles.
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The drive through the blizzard to satiate my desire to see you
was a winding, snow globe, snow blizzard travel!
The streetlights looked to turn into torches of divine fire
– harkening the sacred and sublime sonics of you, Charles,
and the collective genius of Bill, Reuben and Eric.
The experience that night was ravishing- sensual and harkened every blessing within to rise.
Every nerve in my body was transformed into conduits
of glistening gold
-filling my heart
and
tenderly caressing my soul.
Thank you.
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Thank you Lowell.
Thank you Nancy for driving through the blizzard, arriving safely
and, then, once all the artists raised their instruments,
we were ALL sent into soaring sonic scintillation
…a hymn of/for life; light; grace and love
and, the blizzard outside stilled.
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I took the pictures above: through the windshield and the camera’s eye on Charles/ me aka selfies.
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CATHERINE L. JOHNSON 