Sulfur is not a candy. I feel like that isn’t said enough.

Today, as with all days, has been a day. There have been ups and downs and even a sideways or two, but also as with all days, I blame only myself for what has occurred. (No reason to blame anyone else.)

I am currently outside, (which is very uncomfortable for me,) typing on a laptop to show my solidarity with my wife, who is gardening. There are bugs out here, which (when they can fly) incite a strange, spasmolytic, ninja-response in me. If my ears are buzzed, I fly into a frenzied attack---FULL BERZERKER MODE---causing damage to everything around me (excepting the bug, which usually flies away laughing.) The SUN is also my enemy, as it likes to feast on my flesh. It laughs and points as I scooch around the old, round, wire, moss covered picnic table (the kind with the hole in it where you stick an umbrella) hunting desperately for shade. Meanwhile, as a massive germ-o-phobe, I am LOATH to touch the greenish table or the cat-fur-and-cobweb encrusted chairs. (Apparently, our deck is a swinging cat night-spot after dark.)

Mariah has a pair of office scissors with which she is currently “edging” the brick walkway from where we park in the alley to the back deck. The two orange kittens (devils) are just inside the sliding-glass door, mewing in protest of my typing and climbing the screen looking for a means to escape the house and come dance of the computer keyboard. My left arm is sizzling and smoking slightly. I’ll have to slide anti-clockwise in a few minutes to avoid complete combustion…

So how have you been? Good? (I hope so.)

In a non-whine, here’s a piece of artwork that I created this morning for no reason other than I needed to make something. (I’ve never been bored in my life. I’ve been FRIGHTENED, but that’s not the same thing… No. It isn’t…)

“The Elephants…” by Richard F. Yates

[Sharpie on reclaimed cardboard with digital embellishments and color.]

The point of a piece like this, first and foremost, is to inspire laughter. I am amused by the clumsiness of the elephant, by the odd words (which came first, but honestly have no CONSCIOUS meaning), and by the unknown effects of the color combinations. Every piece like this is an experiment, but it’s ALSO filled with recurring symbols: the moon, the U.F.O., the “road,” the “t’s” which inevitably become crucifixes. About the only things missing from this image that often show up in my work are a snake and either a halo or horns on something in the image. (It's odd... Even though I am no longer a religious person, the POWER of religious symbology still informs my artwork.)

Then there are the IMPLIED concepts, like the fact that the elephant is PINK or that the road isn’t STRAIGHT (as my roads USUALLY are.) I’m a creature of habit, so when something is drawn DIFFERENTLY, it usually means something. (I’m no psychologist, so I’m not sure WHAT it means---but I DID read one book by Carl Jung, so I’m also, obviously, an expert at interpreting symbols.) (It ain’t good…)

[Back to NOW. I have had one of those little zebra striped spiders crawling on my arm (I tried to encourage him to explore elsewhere---I like those little guys), and I had a fly buzz by my head, and I smacked my hand on the metal table and punched the computer trying to defend myself. Luckily, there seems to be no damage done!]

At some point this morning, Mariah went shopping (she wore a face-mask because she doesn’t want to catch the ILL and accidentally give it to our granddaughter!!!), and while she was gone I wrote a 13 minute freewrite on recycled paper that I found in a pile of old stuff. (The paper originally came from the print shop where I worked for a couple of years trying to learn how to screenprint. I was not good at it. Too short to get the proper leverage on the squeegee with the press that we used…) (Does any of this have to do with what I wrote during my 13 minutes? Perhaps…subconsciously… YOU decide, without adequate information, and let me know!)

Here’s what the two pages I wrote looked like. (My brain is moving slowly, lately. I would normally have gotten twice as many pages written---but since I’m on all of these medications now, the price of getting old, my cogitation comes more slowly and unevenly. And I was ALREADY slow BEFORE having to take a handful of pills every morning and every night!)

What were we talking about? Oh yeah, the freewrite:

If, for some reason, you can’t read the words on these images, here’s what I wrote:

(1)

[17 May 2020] 13 minute freewrite (on recycled paper)

Another 13 minute freewrite… Pshshsh… I’ve got IMPORTANT things to do! (Ha!) Like showering! Stuck inside suits me fine… Why “13” minutes for my freewrites??? I don’t know. Because I have an intelligent posterior, and people are bothered by the number “13.” Say it’s unlucky. It’s a PRIME number. That’s neat…

My two favorite numbers are 23 and 13 (both prime.)

I don’t know WHY I like these numbers… They’re just numbers. Meaningless…

Unless we (I) GIVE them meaning. They can BECOME scary, funny, or mystical, depending on how we THINK about them or associate them or give them little fangs…

(BING! Turn the page…)

(2)

Never ever ever have we dared to try to do the deed we wished we’d done. Darn…

(That… was something. Paper is thin sliced tree or plant flesh… Mulched and… bleached…)

Screaming from outside the window. Sounds like a little kid. Why is it okay for kids to scream---but not for ME to scream…[?]

I’d like to scream sometimes, too. Two… To… Sound is weird. (It betrays me quite often.)

If you can’t trust your ears OR your eyes---what can you trust? Rationality (as we know it) is based on FAITH that our senses can be trusted to judge OBJECTIVE FACT---but we KNOW our senses can lie to us. Is this proof that there IS no objective reality---or just that the MYSTERY is a product of filtering and error… The STORY is all we REALLY have…but the story is probably a TRAGIC ONE. [Ghost]

I admit it. That got darker than I usually go. (I think of myself as an UP person.) HOWEVER, because everyone’s senses are faulty AND an artist is the WORST person to say what their work means, I should submit that my wife read this same freewrite a few hours ago and said it was very funny!!! I’m not sure how to take that so I’ll just laugh about it! (Ha!)

In OTHER news, I uploaded a new work of CRYPTO-ART this afternoon to MakersPlace, where the nice and friendly folks over there tokenized the work for me (on the Ethereum blockchain. I’ve mentioned this before, that I would LOVE to be able to tokenize my own NFT digital collectibles with the HIVE blockchain, but I have yet to figure out how or where that can be accomplished.) This new work of art is being released as a single, unique edition of ONE, and it will not be reprinted. First taker gets it, and collects it, while the rest of the world WEEPS tears of bitter disappointment (while “Disappointed” by Public Image Ltd. plays in the background.)

To see this work in its native habitat, you’ll need to visit my MakersPlace store / slash / gallery, where I have somewhere between 50 and 60 (give or take me being an English major) works for humans (and other entities) to gawk at and snicker. (Please remember that I am HOPING and INTENDING that my artwork induces laughter, so don’t feel bad if that’s what happens. Snickering, chortling, spit-taking, and slightly confused/slightly angry “HUH?”-ing are also appropriate.) Without dropping more words to bother you, here is my most recent work of crypto art:

“Fortune (Your Home is a Pleasant Place…)

And here’s what I wrote to try to convince folks that they needed to BUY the NFT:

I was presented this motivational fortune by a cookie that I consumed a few days ago, and the message seems oddly appropriate to our current times (and to me, personally!) In this case, the fortune proves DOUBLE accurate. (However, I'm still waiting for the "handsome stranger," the "success," and the "great deal of money" that I will supposedly inherit from a wealthy relative, which have been promised by previous fortunes.)

Besides this message being true in a straight-forward sense, I DO enjoy being in my home, the ART-GUY in me sees a DOUBLE MEANING in the text. I also DRAW HAPPINESS in this home. Happiness for me, at least, if not at least AMUSEMENT for a few other people. (If you disagree, I am willing to fight you for the right to make this assertion in the alley. Fight in the alley, for the right to say my bit everywhere, not JUST in the alley...) (You should probably be aware: I'm short, but scrappy! And more than a bit unbalanced...)

(That degenerated quickly... I guess I'm about a half-a-bad-day away from MAD MAX.) And that's why I draw a lot---to keep my head on an even keel. I get the monsters OUT, so they don't take over!!!

[P.S. - Paper fortune cookie fortune on napkin with digital drawing, embellishments, and color. The creatures' images have been used with their permissions!]

If you are wondering, YES, I ALWAYS BLATHER ON LIKE THIS, even when I’m trying to sell something. My THEORY is that having all these words to read creates a sense in the viewer / reader / potential collector / victim that they are getting to KNOW ME a bit---tasting my personality, you might say---through the text. (Jorge Luis Borges discussed this very concept in a short piece he wrote called, “Borges and I,” in which he rather quickly and succinctly expresses his position that the “Borges” that people come to know through his writing is actually an elaborate fiction, and he ends the piece with the statement that he’s not certain WHICH of them wrote that particular essay. The guy was brilliant.)

[Are you still with me? I’m almost done. Don’t worry!]

I had a couple of other things I wanted to talk/type about, but I’m already at 1,700 words, and I can’t expect folks to follow me much further. Let’s just skip to the last thing on my list…

Last night, before Orpheus (the Gaiman version) took control, I wrote myself another note on the Kindle. (It’s turning into a fun bedtime activity…) Here’s what I sent:

Again, if you can’t read it for some reason, it says:

16 May 2020---

I did some stuff today, but did I do enough?

Then there’s a little ghost, who I think looks somewhat skeptical. The implication (if I’m allowed to read into this) is that the ghost of me, looking back on that day in the future, might not think I did everything that I could have. Therefore, I tried to do MORE today… But I’m still not certain if it was enough…

To quote Robert Smith from The Cure, it’s probably “NEVER ENOUGH.”

Okay…you’re free to go! Later!!!

---Richard F. Yates
(Primitive Thoughtician and Holy Fool)

[P.S. - This post was originally published a few hours ago on my HIVE blog. I gave myself permission to reprint it here!]

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