It's Been a "Lefty" Time

I did it again, I broke a part of my body again this year. Last year I broke my ankle fly fishing and that took a chunk of time out of my walking life. Well, this year I broke my shoulder (fly fishing again) and that has taken a chunk of my "art" life (right shoulder of course).

Broken ankles can heal slowly but they do heal and you can get on with your life. Broken shoulders also take a while to heal, BUT, big BUT here, the rehab to get your shoulder back to where it needs to be (movement, etc), is vastly different. They mostly do NOT do surgery for a broken shoulder unless there are lots of pieces and / or those pieces are moving around. So no surgery for either of my breaks but with shoulders the repercussions of not moving this complex joint much causes the much longer recovery time and rehab work.

It's the impact force that fractures the Humerus bone that gets transmitted into the shoulder joint and causes trauma to the soft tissue that's the real issue. I'm pretty lucky (expect for the break to begin with) in that since I've started rehab, my range of motion is doing pretty well. I still have more to get but thus far no roadblocks to full (hoping) recovery.

During my recovery, I've been using my left arm / hand for day to day activities, including any art I've been trying. Here are two drawing I've done with my left hand. Not too bad but I'm going back to my right ASAP.

My falls and resulting breaks where the result of high-force impacts that I'm not changing my behavior to minimize (my goal is zero falls now) these occurring again. It's one of those things where when you are younger you can risk hiking / fishing is specific spots as your bones are young and then to bend and bounce rather than break. I have strong bones as these where not low-force impacts that would indicate a density issue but wham-bam impacts that could take your breath away and search for the nearest ortho-clinic.

We live and learn, but sometimes only after a few lessons.

Comments

My Current Desktop and Happy Vining.

It's been a big switch when I quit my old procession (Software Engineer) and ventured into the unknown. So this is my current desktop. First it's a REAL desktop and not a computer screen. Second, I've had to learn a whole new set of tools. You would think a pencil is just a pencil and a paint brush is just a paint brush, but noooooo, they are tools into you mind and that's what needs re-tooling. The tactual nature of these tools and operation as much more rewarding (and frustrating too) than typing code in an IDE. That had it's incentive but that well went dry and life changes, so I changed. The pleasure of creating colors (no RGB involved) ad hoc wise is interesting. Getting the technique to merge them on paper is very tough. You do not know what you're going to get, so you just have to go with it. I'm glad that I can do a lot of other things instead of Software, but I hope that others in my past procession work on other pa...

3rd Try is a Charm

I've been trying to draw / paint these barns for a couple of years but never felt or got them right. This time I think they turned out right. So What went wrong before and what's right now with this drawing? This time, the light was right. It's coming from the upper right and the shadows just looked right. The other thing is the corn field on the left had to "be in season", otherwise it's just a plowed field. I had taken other photos from different angles but they never felt right. This angle has the road, power lines, corn field, etc. all leading to the right. The shadows on the lower right helps fill in that corner (don't forget about the corners!). The last part is trying to draw (ink paint maybe) the trees in the background. Not so easy when they are kind of a blob is green shades. So yeah, it's composition that is king. Many times I just don't see it until the drawing / painting is finished and when it's right it feels goo...

A Trip Abroad

Just back from our trip abroad as Asheville continues to recover from the hurricane. This trip has been planned for a long time and we almost didn't make it because our dog sitting business will be closed for a while. But make it we did and now we are back. We love Amsterdam. What a fun place to visit. So many things to too and do there. The weather was not the best but it did not have an impact on our visit. Just bundle up. Got some quick painting in while on the boat (i.e., Viking) as we moved from port to port. This painting is of a garden at a heritage site of windmills. I thought it looked nice. Nice time on the trip to de-stress from what was happing back home. We were fine back home but not everything is well with many others.

A Person, Artist, Software Engineer, Geologist.

Search This Blog