Do Whales Have Cyclops Friends?

I wanted to start the day with something different. Away from the cruelty of man and towards the sea of whimsy I ran.

My painting of a pink whale and his sailor friend had been sitting, nearly finished but the sailors face was all wrong. I just wasn’t satisfied. This morning I had a flash. This sailor is a one-eyed critter. One eye, one big eye, that is open to both worlds.

This pair are very friendly. They love to float on the waters, slip through the tides.

As I drove to work Saturday after four days off (ah, delight) I was thrilled by the sound of the thunder and amazed by the massive and frequent lightning strikes. My pleasure in nature’s rad display was short lived when the two columns of smoke, one to the west, one to the east, brought me crashing back to reality. Fire. It’s part of nature, too, but people want to live in forests where fire is meant to alter the landscape, Shiva-like, destroy and create.

I spent the day keeping track of fires, electrical outages, and one chimney imploded by a mighty bolt. And then the air began to fill with smoke outside. The upper Sacramento Valley has had its share of polluted air already this year. Still most of us have it so much better than some folks where it’s water that is the mighty mover.

Look out! We aren’t going into the pits today.

Tipsy, here, is a friend I created a couple of years ago. He came out a cat of his own. Fond of fish and with a 19th Century style.

A lovely lady in Quakerville, PA. bought a Tipsy print this week. She inspired me to make a set of Tipsy postcards.

That’s what occupied most of my time last week. I got deep into choosing images I thought would work in a 4×6 format.

I love the idea of handmade postcards being sent all around the world. They will be touched and handled and find their way to their destination after having been marked by postal workers or I guess it’s by their machines these days.

I sent my daughter, Jessica, the first one to go through the U.S. mail. She said it arrived with bars on the Judy Garland stamp. Now I want to mail one of my cards to everyone I know and even people I don’t know. If you are reading this and would like to be part of my project to spread my postcards to the four directions just email me an address at constance.dillon@gmail.com. Don’t be scared, It’s not a scam and I won’t come to your house or send you junk mail.

Former colleague Shannon Calder has a very nice postcard related blog. She has people send postcards with poetic messages to her and she posts the messages she receives. Anybody can contribute so visit her site and get in on the word sharing.

Check this out peeps:

I was shopping at Grocery Outlet and saw these three Mary Kate and Ashley perfumes for sale.

 I think I like them! Next time I’ll check out the scent and let you know what it brings to mind.