Sunday, May 30, 2010

Week #40 Time Project haiga

This week's effort is a memorial to a cactus I had with me from the sixth grade.  As the haiga indicates it came in a snall cat shaped vase and it was the tail pointing straight up as in the comics.  It lasted all that time growing bigger and bigger.  I cut off and planted the top and then over the years they became two big cacti.  They were around my height by this time.  A year or so ago I decided I had to just leave them outside in the garden (where they spent the summer) which I figured would be fatal - and it was.  I didn't have the strength to lug them in and out.  Plus I felt crowded out.  I made four cuttings, two from each.  They are now in the garden and seem to be doing well.  They are under a foot tall so we can live in harmony during the winter.
This torso - or so it seems to me - is what remains of one of the cactus ancesters.  And the background is from a piece of tissue that I peeled off the torso. 
That's probably more than you cared to know about my cactus dilemna.  So I'll end this tale of the cacti from Ohio. 
Kay Dolezal

Monday, May 24, 2010

Week #39 Time Project Haiga

This piece was inspired by an actual robin's nest in my front yard.  And it also was an attempt to balance the impact of the bad news that seems to be all to be seen on TV or read about.  The moons are from a small piece of cloth I dyed with indigo about 20 years ago.  Tonight I'm beginning to review what I read about haiga almost a year ago.  As I've been making my own I've kind of forgotten what I read about the form.  The review was inspired by the great discussion we had yesterday at our monthly meeting - another good balance of positive input and congeniality.  Kay Dolezal

5/29/10  I've revised this haiga and image since I first posted it. I've been reviewing all my time project haiku and tanka and doing what I hope is improvng them. 

Monday, May 17, 2010

Week #38 of Time Project The Oil Spill

This event seems to say so much about human arrogance that I felt I had to join Marnie and speak my piece about it.  It relates to time in so many ways. What strikes me at this point is the slow motion of its unfolding consequences.  Kay Dolezal

Sunday, May 09, 2010

Week #37 for Time Project

This piece needs some background.  I learned about the Kanellos, greek protest dogs, on the Internet and kept thinking about them after seeing the photos on the Newsweek and Guardian web sites.  They seemed somehow to embody a peaceful, even playful spirit, which seems so absent in our present day world - at least as shown in "the media".  At any rate, I spent a lot of time making a piece using two of the photographs as part of the haiga.  But then I felt uneasy about the ethics and legality of using them, even in part.  So this is my resolution.  I'm hoping that this link to the Newsweek site will work, so you can see them.   Also I learned on google that kanellos means cinnamon in greek. http://photo.newsweek.com/2010/5/greek-protest-dogs.html 

Kay Dolezal

Sunday, May 02, 2010

Week #36 - Time Project

Water was on my mind today because of the "boil water order" that effected my town and so many others.  Its quality as well as its availability is something I've taken for granted.  I'm not a bottled water fan, but I was thankful I could get a six pack.  I've had gallons of distilled water in my basement for over 25 years!  But then I was aftraid to use them because of all those years in plastic. 

The rusty water in this piece comes, I think, from underground pipes that run through a small park in Lexington where I like to walk.  Kay Dolezal