Patti Gibbons Art

I subscribe to the dictionary.com's WORD OF THE DAY. I love getting a new word each day, seeing if I know it, and if I don't, trying to figure out how I would use it in a sentence, in my classroom, or like today, in my blog. Some words roll so easily over my tongue and bring to mind creativity and light. Bri-colage. Empyrean. Pastiche. Then there are those words that lurk and hang on the tongue like black strap molasses....furtive, moil,impugn. Today's word was disconsolate. Synonyms: bad, black, cheerless, cold, comfortless, cracked up, crestfallen, crushed, cut up, dark, dejected, depressed, desolate, despairing, destroyed, dispirited, distressed, doleful, down, downcast, downhearted, dreary, forlorn, gloomy, grief-stricken, heartbroken, hopeless, hurting, in pain*, inconsolable, low, melancholy, miserable, put away, ripped*, sad, somber, sorrowful, torn up, woebegone, woeful, wretched. Well, after reading that, if I was not disconsolate before I read it, I certa...

I have always wanted a gazing ball. Back in the 1960's the backyards of my neighbors in Long Island sparkled with these mercury glass like spheres. Magenta, teal, silver. I was entranced by their beauty; they were like large Christmas balls that people put outside to celebrate summer. For Mother's Day Larry bought me a silver one. He wanted to place it where I could see it from my studio window. I joked with him and said.."when I am in my studio I am working, I am not staring out the window!" He put the ball outside my window anyway, between the rhodadendron and the little "Zen" garden. Today, for the first time in a week or more, I spent some time in the studio listening to an eclectic mix of music and working on some projects. As always I was deep in thought while designing and producing, when I stared out my picture window into the yard. There stood my gazing ball...reflecting the life around it. I smiled. I felt soothed by my childhood memories a...

Preface: the other day my friends and I were talking about how as children most of us were never taught the proper names for our genitalia. We had all kinds of nicknames for them. Many parents today choose to use the correct terms. I live in both worlds. It still has never felt 100% comfortable to say penis or vagina but it sure doesn't sound as silly as some of the other names we have called our "private parts". Fast forward to tonight: I was giving Alanna a bath. I told her to wash her hiney. She washes and says,"I washed my back hiney." I told her to wash her vagina too. She looked and me and said THAT IS MY COOTER. I looked, and shook my head in disbelief. I guess that is what her mom calls it, and I just said, "ok, it is also a vagina." She looks at me and says.."it's my va .... va.... vacooter!" I almost howled. Then I had a flashback about how my brother and I came up with a nickname for penis--- it was (now are you ready for this....

I posted earlier, and am too tired and crampy to post much again, but I had to post these pictures from my Memorial Day Afternoon barbecue with Alanna and Megan. Megan is a Veteran of our current disaster of a war, and rather than march in a parade, she opted for a quiet afternoon in mom's backyard, having a few beers, eating some food, and just hanging with family and a few friends. Thank you Megan for your service to this country, even though the government has not served YOU as well as you have served them. Thank God for community and friends who will indeed take better care of you than the Veteran's Administration does. I hope this changes for our Veterans!!! Alanna in her coy sweet mood, and Alanna when Mimi (me) told her not to play with the gazing ball, and upon this request Alanna screaming "I DON'T LIKE YOU ANYMORE". To bed, Patti

I may have used this little watercolor before in a blog, but it so captures the essence of my beloved Catskills. I miss the mountains. I hated them when I was a teen as I was transplanted from Long Island, a place where there was tons of kids in a block to hang with, into a hamlet (A HAMLET - not even a town!)in the middle of nowhere, with trees, chipmunks, and other wildlife to converse with. I hated my life back then. I was depressed, and, with good reason. But now, as an adult, I yearn for the coolness of the forest, the smell of the pines, the sound of the wind when it roars down the mountains. I wish I had the privacy that I once had..where you could walk outside with nothing or everything on. Last night's party at Judith's house was splendid. She lives off Route 28, one of the main routes through the Catskill Mountains, in a log style home, with a terraced waterfall and pond full of thousands of poly wogs, surrounded by woods and bordering on state land in the Catskills. ...

It was the opening of the Farmer's Market in our little city in the Hudson Valley. I love strolling down the closed off street and buying things that I can't find elsewhere such as homemade quiche with salmon and leeks, or fabulous cheeses, black currant juice, plants. There was not much produce as the season is slow this year. (my peas are still only 6" tall, I only got one spinach plant, and not much is progressing in the garden), but to stroll and see old friends and feel the energy of an open market is always fun. We got some more gardening done. At this time of the year the outside of the house always looks far better than the inside! The winter snows can hide a multitude of sins, so that we can concentrate on the inside, but spring/summer/fall is a time where most of my energy goes into making our small city plot a garden full of flowers and organic edibles. Larry planted all of our cannas which are multiplying out of control. When we dig them out this fall (and they...

So the ante has been upped with my allergies. Not only do I sneeze,cough,have a voice that is several octives lower making it sound like I am changing sexes (now isn't that in interesting thought- I would be a very scary man) but my eyes are running, giving me the appearance of being a sad sad weepy woman. And, even though I have had PLENTY of reason to carry tears in my eyes, I am not the crying type. My day yesterday was stressed. I tried with all my might to get the yearbook done and the final copy on three supervisor's desks. Computer freezes, constant program crashes, file problems etc. made it IMPOSSIBLE. I sat at my computer for 6 hours non-stop and finally had to give up and tell my two students who were feeling the stress with me that we did our best, and we will resume next week to finish it up. Turn off computers and I zoomed to the foot doc who assured me I am healing fine and I only have to keep the bandage on another week. Anything after a tri-malleolar frac...