Month: June 2020

Posted in Beads, Jewelry, Photography

Flames both Wild and Political

Posted on by debthumanblog

Prepare to bow down to the god of Political Correctness. 

There was an article in this morning’s New York Times about a quilter. The article was accompanied by a number of photos which showed sloppy sewing, bad quilting, the artist grabbed every doodad in her home and slapped it on the fabric then called all of this art. 

No. This is not art. I think about the quilts made by Faith Ringgold that I’ve seen. Beautiful pieces that tell a story. Nothing extraneous. Nothing badly sewn. No horrid quilting. Ringgold’s quilts are art. 

I made the mistake of saying the above publically and a shit storm ensued. Why? Because the artist who made the ugly quilts is black and criticism of work done by a black person is now labeled racism. It’s not. It’s fair comment. I’d think those quilts were badly done no matter who made them. 

There’s an attorney in town who has never impressed me. I’ve been present when he clearly misstated the law in a particular instance. I’ve seen this attorney present evidence in such a way that I wondered if he knew what the evidence showed. I’ve been present for a hearing he did that any first-year law student would have done better. The local attorney made no effort to prepare for the hearing which left me scrambling to make up for his lack of preparedness. I can’t say any of that publically. The attorney is black and to mention his failings as an attorney is racism. It’s not. It’s justified criticism based on his actions. 

Yes, there is racism in the US. There was also a civil rights movement in the 1960’s that tore down barriers, integrated schools, integrated neighborhoods, and made educational and occupational opportunities where none existed before. I was more than old enough to understand what was happening in the US during the 1960’s. I’ve seen the before and the after. The after, while imperfect, is a major improvement over the before. 

In other news……. Although I live far enough away from the wildfires in New Mexico and Arizona that I’m in no danger from the flames, the particulates in the smoke which blow by are causing problems. I can’t go outside today because the air quality is bad enough to trigger an allergic reaction. I had the same problem on Sunday when my allergies were so irritated that I had to take 5 decongestants to be able to breathe. Today, I took an antihistamine. I’m breathing well. My nose is only trotting rather than running. My eyes hurt. Rather than blue, the sky is gray and has been for several days. 

This was taken Monday morning. That’s not a cloudy sky; that’s a sky filled with smoke particulates.

Wednesday was a tough day for me. My sister died on June 24, 1997. I’ve had a difficult time on the anniversary nearly every year. To counter the sadness, I put on fancy clothes, my favorite jewelry and we went to Chili’s for lunch. New Mexico is only partially open so dining options are a bit limited. After lunch, we went to Starbucks for fancy coffee. 

Quail photos have to be done through the sliding glass door. Any movement or noise, and the quail scatter. Every year, we look forward to seeing thumbs. Baby quail look like thumbs with feet. The thumbs are now nearly adults although still accompanied by adults when they visit the yard. There may be a second batch of thumbs this year. 

Quail stopping off for a drink before going home. Ideally, this shot should have been taken at ground level. Realistically, it was take the shot standing up, or cause the quail to run if I got down on the floor.

I did venture out to photograph the sunset on days when my allergies were calm. About the only thing smoke particulates are good for is vivid sunsets. 

I like how the landscape looks like a collection of different, solid colors. I may need to make a quilt from this photo.

I’ve been making jewelry again. I’ve taken some product photos, but I’m not happy with them. I’ll try again in a day or so. 

I used focus merge to combine several photos into one. Each photo is focused on a different bead. The result is all of the beads being in focus.

I’m linking with Nina Marie here: http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

My store, Deb Thuman Art is here: http://www.DebThumanArt.com

My Spoonflower shop is here: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman

Posted in Fiber, Photography

Pass the Decongestants, Please

Posted on by debthumanblog

Fires in Arizona, the Gila Wilderness, and abut 100 miles north of where I live are causing Jim and me allergy misery. The fires are too far away to be a danger, but the smoke particles in the air are causing misery. The DEA has made it difficult to buy decongestants, and has forced drug companies to lower the amount of pseudoephedrine in decongestants. Claritin-D used to have 750 mg of pseudoephedrine. Now, it only 240 mg. That means I need to take 3-4 pills to get relief. But one can buy only so much pseudoephedrine at a time, only so much per month, show ID and sign a statement that one is complying with federal law. I wouldn’t bitch about this if the laws had achieved their stated purpose: slow the production of meth. That experiment has been a resounding failure. As a criminal defense attorney, I’ve represented a multitude of drug addicts. I’ve seen no decrease in the number of people using meth since the feds have made purchasing decongestants so difficult. I once asked a client why he was using Sudafed with a mere 50 mg of pseudoephedrine to make meth when he could be using Claritin-D which at that time had 750 mg of pseudoephedrine. The extraction methods are different and it’s too difficult to extract the pseudoephedrine from Claritin-D. 

It was cool this morning, so I opened the sliding glass doors. I wanted fresh air. I got a bushel of allergens. Bleah.

I’m still trying to figure out how I want to quilt the latest suicide quilt. I thought about lightning bolts, but quilting experiments on a quilt sandwich were less than exciting. I tried FMQ with a twin needle. That resulted in a broken needle. So much for that experiment. I know what I want to say with this quilt, but I’m having a hard time speaking in free-motion quilting. I’ll keep experimenting until I find something that looks like I feel.

I’m still photographing whatever is blooming in the yard and still playing with special effects. 

I took this photo because I liked the lights and shadows.

Here’s what you can do with one photo and special effects.

There’s a whole lot to be gotten from one photo if you focus on patterns when shooting.

I’m linking with Nina Marie http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

My Spoonflower shop is here https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman

My store, Deb Thuman Art is herehttp://www.DebThumanArt.com

Posted in Beads, bipolar disorder, Fiber, Jewelry, Photography

The Art Cure

Posted on by debthumanblog

Anxiety shows up in one of three places – right on top of my sternum, lower left quadrant of my abdomen or last molar on the bottom right. I’ve been to cardiologists, dentists, had a colonoscopy, had ultrasound, and every time I’ve been told my tooth is healthy, my heart is healthy, there’s nothing in my abdomen that shouldn’t be there. I take an anti-anxiety med. I munch on edible pot. I get some relief. 

I’ve had chronic insomnia for about 10 months. The insomnia got worse as soon as the governor shut down New Mexico. I’ve got a prescription for a sleeping pill. I munch on edible pot. I don’t go to bed until I’m sleepy. Lately, that’s been around 3 AM. I get up around 8 AM. I’m living on 4-5 hours sleep a night. My sleep is mostly light sleep. There are some dreams, and almost no deep sleep. I can’t remember anything for more than a few seconds. I can’t think clearly. I’m moody. I read that pink noise will induce deep sleep which is when a whole lot of healing goes on. Pink noise sounds like fuzz looks. I tried listening to pink noise while I slept the night before last. For some reason, the 9-hour Youtube video only lasted 15 minutes. I did sleep better than usual, but still very little deep sleep. For last night, I downloaded a noise app onto my cellphone. I slept soundly, but still very little deep sleep. I’ll keep experimenting.

Some of the anxiety and insomnia is likely from bipolar disorder. Most of the anxiety and insomnia is from being in the middle of a pandemic. Because of my age, I’m high risk for a nasty outcome if I’m attacked by a tiny virus. I over eat. I under exercise. Yoga doesn’t help. Getting on the elliptical machine doesn’t help. Art helps.

Yesterday, I decided to refrain from Facebook which is filled with politics, knee-jerk reactions, and misery. Instead, I made jewelry. Art cures everything. A few months back, I bought peace jade beads. I bought them because I liked the color. Now, I like the name as well. I need some peace. I made earrings. By the time I was finished, the outside temperature was 100 degrees. Way too hot to go outside and do photography. I prefer shooting outside in natural light. The colors seem to come out more accurate when I shoot outside.

Today, I was able to shoot new masks and earrings outside before it got unbearably hot. 

Peace Jade and Pearls
Peace Jade and Carved Shell
Peace Jade and African Jade
Peace Jade and Blue Goldstone
Peace Jade and Swarovski crystals

All of the above can be found at my store, Deb Thuman Art http://DebThumanArt.com

All of the masks are made with fabric I designed and is available in my Spoonflower shop here https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman

Our 48th wedding anniversary was Wednesday. Jim bought me flowers and I worked on focus stacking. I put the camera on the tripod, and took several shots each focusing on a slightly different part of the flower. Then, when I edit the photos, I use the focus merge function in Affinity to make a final photo with every part of the flower in focus. 

I’m linking with Nina Marie http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com Stop by and see what other artists have been making.