This morning my main goal was to work on all those blue flowers on the tablecloth. Ach –– they were driving me crazy! It made me think of the time I spent 5 days up on a glacier in Peru with two friends. We were attending some big religious festival (honoring the glacier god and the apus — the mountain gods). It had taken a 10-hour bus ride, a night in a tent, and then another full day of hiking up into the mountains, chewing on coca leaves to fight altitude sickness. There was one particular melody for the festival and that was played constantly, 24 hours a day. As soon as the sun went behind the mountains, it began freezing. I’d crawl into my tent to find ice on the walls. This was back in about 1995. I remember laying in my sleeping bag, freezing, wearing every scrap of clothes I had, thinking IF THERE WAS EVER A PLACE TO LOSE MY MIND, THIS WOULD BE IT!!! Oh yes. And every hour, without fail, an M-80 would go off, shaking the tundra. Fortunately I’d thought to bring earplugs or I wouldn’t have slept at all. How I wanted to leave! But how the hell would you get back? Just lay here and breathe. Nobody’s hurting you. You’re safe. You’ll live.
I thought of that freak-out feeling today when I hacked away on painting those blue flowers. Just breathe! You’ll live!
Occasionally I had to take a little break and paint something else, like some of the glass objects. I also took a walk out into the swamp with Picasso to clear my head. Here he is, keeping his Momcat company.
Margie Guyot Art 