Am I Blue?

Are you blue?
Hello everyone! I do love that song no matter who sings it.
And weatherwise, yes, we feel it here in the (allegedly) Sunny South, too. 12F at 6AM Tuesday. This crackin' cold jolt should finish sweeping out the old and bustle in the new as our new Prez takes charge like a no-nonsense parent cleaning up after an irresponsible babysitter...

Fortunately this fantastically warm, soft and deeply gorgeous scarf by Femminismo which I won (fair and square!) keeps me going on bone- numbing walks with or without the Girls here and there. Thanks for working such splendiferous wonders with those yarns, Jeanne. Truly you could set up shop and thrive anywhere, no matter the economy.

Not a self-portrait as much as the feeling here with this Blue Portrait entitled appropriately enough "Blue". Misty Mawn has certainly inspired me with her January suggestions, hints, tips and nudges on her blog. One day, she gave us blue. And then, there was self and self-portraiture on her blog. And I simply closed my eyes and dove in, and this is what happened next for me.

This is rendered on 140 rough, cold press with coloured pencils and crayon. My drugs of choice...

When I was younger... okay, okay, when I was actually young... Joni Mitchell's songs were like personal anthems to me on many occasions. Blue, her 1971 iconic album, kept me going through college, fraught with so many dangers (midterms, boys, finding one's own voice while realizing 'whoa, that can get me in trouble' and doing it anyway!).

Blue is also a favourite colour, as it contains so many varieties of itself. And its very essence fits into our vernacular. As I'm a wordsmith, that's important to me. When we are sad, we have the blues; we sing the blues. "My Blue Heaven" is a song (and a movie) which comes from a term that means a relationship or a situation that can feel like the greatest thing in the world but still makes you miserable. There's a multitude of pop culture and iconoclastic views regarding this word, this colour, this feeling.
This blue.

I made a tough decision today. It's not a happy decision but it's the right decision and most times, right trumps happily ever after in my house of cards. Needless to say -- you guessed it, it's made me blue. It left me a little down, a little bit cold.

I won't make ArtFest '09 after all. But everything will be all right, I'm sure. There's next year, hopefully; and there's a couple other fun things closer in I will manage to attend.

Funny how one door shuts and another opens. So I will sit tight during this cold season and about the time everything heats up, brightens up, the flowers blooming and birds on the wing, something close will show.

There's Craftstravaganzaa, you know. Don't forget I almost entered it last year. This very well could be the year I pop off and do something crazy like enter my work in a very public place.

And, as usual, here's that old orange cat (blue's complement on the colour wheel, by the way), still waiting for you-know-who to settle down beside him on a cold winter's night in Dixie.

Faithful to the end. Don't cry for me, Orangeatina.




Take care.
Candace