SPLASH, Cornel, Oatmeal and ?

Thanks for being patient while I took a little vacation. I hope you all had a nice Memorial Day and are getting geared up for the summer. Texas is my home state, but there is so much new in the area I'm in, I just kinda get swept away...art galleries, antique shops, garage sales, neat little knick-knack shops and gorgeous country...rather mind-boggling.



Now, the next time anyone asks you if you know anybody that lives close to Oatmeal, Texas...you can tell em: "Yeah, there's this old coot artist named James Parker from around there". Real place. Real small...actually a coupla flakes and a few raisins.



I have so much to catch up on...painting and blog visiting and posting and what not, I don't really know where to begin.

SO..........

Michelle Burnett, being the wunerful, wunerful person that she is, awarded me the SPLASH award. When she first told me about the SPLASH award, I figured maybe she was giving me a hint or something, and went and took a shower. However, it seems that the award is for an alluring,amazing, bewildering, impressive, and inspiring blog. Great superlatives, but you left out weird and wacky. Thank you from the bottom of my gizzard, Michelle...big hug the next time I see ya :-)



And I have selected these talented artists to pass the SPLASH to....

Darlene Twitchell Cathyann Burgess

TWEEDLES

Mona Conner Dyanne Parker

And.... Cornel Gingarasu, who I also chose for the Noblesse Oblige.

Two weeks ago, Sheila Tajima awarded me the
Noblesse Oblige....refer to THE NO BLOG (just click)

for all the details. Deb Keirce also bestowed this
delightful award to the Windows to the Words Challenge. Thank you Deb, for the award and the
flattering comments (blush, blush). I have chosen Cornel Gingarasu to pass this award on to, because
of his remarkable photography/art blog.

I love to recognize bloggers and artists whose work is "something else"...those I find that step outside the boundaries and offer original, inspiring, off-beat, and just downright enjoyable material on their blog. Cornel does that in a big way. Hailing from Romania, Cornel mixes exquisite photography with humor, spirituality, sensuality, and some really deep stuff that frazzles my little philosophical brain. I have, with his permission, posted one of his works, from a few weeks back, titled "Silent Meditation", below...


There is a written work entitled "Desiderata". It begins "Go placidly amid the noise and haste and remember what peace there may be in silence". One thing I have become painfully aware of in recent years (maybe just cause I've got older and crankier, but I don't think so) is the level of noise in today's world. And the inability to find silence. Noise wears on the spirit like sandpaper on a graham cracker. It's a subject I could expound on for hours on end. But I won't. I'll save it for another time and place.

Below is a Work in Progress...maybe. Don't ask me what it is. I'll let ya know what it is when I figure out what it is.

Remember...only 5 more days for Windows to the Words, Sunrise/Sunset.
And the next blog...tomorrow....is GOING TO THE DOGS!!!! But you probably already knew that. Cya down the road.

Thought for the Blog... " I've had a great many worries in this life...Most of em never happened." Mark Twain