Spring Block

After a miserable winter here in the Northeast U.S., we've been grasping at every possible sign that spring is here - the crocuses, the tiny sprig of green that appears when snow melts, a greenish blush of grass on the lawn, a warm sun, bugs, abandoned hat and gloves. Today, the first real day of spring, was a cruel disappointment.

Waiting

Snow again. All day. A wet, cold, sticky, clean-off-your-car and get-your-hair-soaked snow.

Yes, it was pretty, but pretty is as pretty does.

Bleak view

This was a grim beginning to spring, especially with thoughts of the misery in Japan and now a new war begun that's not really a war, so we are told.

In the studio, I'm stuck remaking my work again. It feels like I'm going around in a hamster wheel. Oh, I'm glad to have a commission to make a larger version of a piece I have already made, but on the heels of my repainting of a painting, it's not really any fun - especially since I can't seem to recapture the mood of the original. I spent all day prying up elements and replacing them with different ones that were more like those in the original piece. I'm still not there and now I have to hustle to get to the photographer's.

As I look again at the pictures in this post, I see that I have a central foreground block in each of them. They epitomize the way I am feeling. I am concentrating so much on what's right in front of me that I'm not seeing what lies beyond. It's seeing the tree instead of the forest. Oh, look - I've just made a post that teaches me a lesson even as I write it.