"A January Fog will Freeze a Hog"December 30, 2022

A mild and mister mid-winter morning brought that old Appalachian saying to mind today. At first I couldn't tell if my windows were dirty from the midwinter snow and rain and wind or if it were really foggy outside but a trip to the back door with my Husky/Lab Uma quickly revealed that we had a January fog. I love FOG, the mystery of it, the soft focus like looking at the world through a veil or a sheer curtain, the softness of it. Although I love a fog, it didn't inspire me as yet to walk my dog. I had chores to do - but - I didn't get them all done because I got DIVERTED!

The topic of this post is the POETRY OF DIVERSION. Despite the fact that I have forged a compromise with my poetic and artistic soaul to avoid allowing too much diversion into my day, nonetheless, I do believe that diversion and the drift of the dreaming mind is the well spring of much of my creative work - whether painting, poetry, or writing of any kind. One of the things I lament in the modern of life of children is that they are so scheduled that they rarely have th eluxury that I enjoyed as a child which was long afternoons, regularly of unscheduled dreaming time to read or draw or simply study the ants on the sidewalk. And I did study the ants on the sidewalk and the crystal pebbles in the alleyway at the end of our street in Philadelphia, and the similarly unscheduled, unleashed and roaming neighborhood pets who dropped by to visit with me.

So, today, in the midst of one chore, I got diverted. I had been searching the attic for more blankets to take to the man who helps the homeless and I ran across some photoalbus that DO NOT belong in the attic. I know how they got up there, though. Periodically if I am having company, generally it is my daughter, I round up my clutter in the living room into a storage tub which I then put into the attic. The albums were recent ones filled with photos for projected projects: photos of local train stations, local theaters which are now gone, mixed with current photos of family get-togehers, my brother's Joe's birthday. And I found an old old art piece. That was very DIVERTING! It was a rough handmade canvas bag onto the front of which I had sewn some plastic covered items: a postcard with two photos from the black and white photo strips you could get in machines at the seashore, of Lavinia, aged one or two on my lap, and on her father's lap. Above the photos of us were a postcard from the seashore bought that same day, and shells collected from the beach that day. This 'pocketbook' art piece was in the mid period of my pocket book art series.

The first pocketbook art works I did were when Lavinia was born. I bought a bunch of items at a 2nd hand store for their fabrics, silken lingerie, a faux fur collared top, something in velvet, curduroy, satin, and each of these items I cut into a square. In the middle of each square, I sewed a fabric pocket and into each pocket, I put a fun object for discovery, a shell, a plastic animal toy, an interesting button, and so on. I sewed all the squares together into a kind of book and I sewed a long strap to the spine to make it a carry item. I called it "Pocket book" and it was for Lavinia to play with, to enjoy the wonderful variety of fabrics and to find the wonder pieces in the pockets. She loved it. Somewhere in some trunk in the shed or the attic it sits now along with two Vietnamese pajama outfits from my brother sent to my sisters, some Turkish slippers I sent to my sisters while I was traveling, and some little dirndle dresses I made for them when I lived in Germany.

Anyhow, that pocketbook was in the 1980's as was the seahore memorabilia one. The most recent one was the one I entered into the BRAVE 100 Show at Eiland Arts in 2019 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Passage of Women's Suffrage.

So I got diverted by these albums and the canvas pocket book and it took me time traveling like Billy Pilgrim in SLAUGHTER HOUSE FIVE, one of my lifelong favorite novels by Kurt Vonnegut. He so captures how time travel can be so real it steals you right away from the present.

Against my better judgement, I sent a photo of the seashore pocket book piece to my daughter but it wasn't a good idea because I think she finds these kinds of interludes intrusive and interfering with her present life and mood. I have learned that I should save these forays for my Journals and friends and for this blog, after all, each of us have our own 'state of mind' and it is, in fact, kind of intrusive for someone to impose theirs on yours. I am kind of sorry now that I sent that photo and text message to her.

Anyhow, that dreamy state of diversion, for me, is the fertile field from which comes the emotion that drives the inspiration to make or paint something. It seems that it was the perfect diversion for a January foggy day too. Hope you have plenty of open space in your life for a day of dreamy diversion!

I will be back for the New Year, this is just my entry for New Year's Ever. My next one will be on RESOLUTIONS!

Happy Trails, Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com (for comments, avoid the comments feature here as it is polluted by robospam)