Mississippi Kid

Alright then...that was Louisiana this week. Actually the place I stayed in Alexandria wasn't nearly so nice as that. Is there anyone here who doubts my slobbering devotion to Dixie? Well, even I have trouble making something romantic out of north Louisiana (as opposed to south Louisiana which is one of my favorite places on the part of the map that matters) I'm pretty sure those arrows are pointing east toward Mississippi...though given Byzantine layout of Alexandria (bypasses, three way stops off of frontage roads, loops to nowhere...loops...to nowhere) could probably just pick a spot on the compass and you wouldn't be wrong.

For me the arrows are pointing east-southeast through Alabama and Georgia into North Florida. I'm heading out, in the morning, to spend a few days with my Daddy...playing golf and drinking coffee. A decades old winning formula.

Provisions for the trip have been gathered...



Instead of the usual route that would take me down through Mobile, Alabama and along the Panhandle of Florida, I'm going first to Birmingham...then I'll wind my way down through Montgomery into the Wiregrass, with a swing through Georgia...just because.

I have my reasons, other than the fact that I've been making that same ride through Mobile for 25 years...namely Full Moon BBQ and the Birmingham Museum of Art. I had been under the impression that they had a collection of works by Jonathan Lasker...that was why I had originally made plans to go that way. I don't think his work is there anymore but...they have just reopened the African art collection (in the grand reopening was today)...so my plans are the same.

For the curious, Jonathan Lasker and African masks and shields have as much to do with my paintings as tractor trailers and firework stands. Which is to say, a great deal.

Gators

It's finally warming up in this bi---!
Our flowers should have come in a glorious burst and been gone by now. Instead there being petered out in splotches. We actually had a frost week before last.

I HATE THE COLD!...with a bleeding purple passion I HATE IT!

Yesterday...as I stood over the grill* babying a rack of ribs, I felt a trickle of sweat start between my shoulder blades and run a course down along my spine. AHHHH....Heat.

Heat...and Gators.

As Martha mentioned in the last post, me, my Daddy and the Boy, spent Friday on the golf course. There were gators everywhere.**



He tried to get closer but the gator swung his tail and disappeared in a splash.

You'll see he's still suffering greatly with the arm. They just put a cast on it today but, we wont' be able to see it...it's camouflage. It's probably not gonna be as angular as the splint anyway...so.

What? Yes I've been eyeing his broken arm for inspiration...I can't help it. It's an organic limb stuffed into a rectangle with a lopsided square at the end...there are fingers.



Obviously, I need some inspiration to flesh this one out...it's sputtering. Maybe I could talk him into breaking his foot.

_________

*It's actually a ceramic BBQ but since I'm trying to break some of you from referring to any metal bowl with a grill as a BBQ....

** We love the gators (I saw three of them this morning crossing the spillway) but they are a sign that our arch enemy is back on the crawl.

Broke

For weeks I've been hearing about this kids exploits on the monkey bars.



Evidently there's a platform leading up to the monkey bars at school. The first rung is right there above the platform. Pfffft. Fine for the mere ambulatory but an action hero needs a challenge....which jumping out to the second rung was no longer providing. So yesterday afternoon, he went for the third...


...and got a Popsicle for his efforts.

Animal

A few details from a work in progress...we'll call it Animal.

Here, if I had a way of communicating with YouTube, there would be an embedded video for the song Animal by Chrome. I'm still obsessing over Chrome...it happens sometimes.



I'm sitting in the mess hall at a booby hatch. A nurse comes in with his hollow eyed charges. He eyes me up and down and explains that he "needs" me to move to the other side of the room. He's down speaking to me...I think that's what it's called...emphasizing the last syllable of each sentence instead of tailing off. It's a technique used by army NCOs, prison guards and telemarketers.

"F---- what you NEED."

No...I just ignored him and came out into the fresh air. I'm not a patient there...I don't work for him...don't know him from Adam's house cat. There's ways to talk to people you don't know...that's not one of them. Especially not around here.

I'm not one yer patients...yet.



I will be though if I don't find an easier way to post.

An Actual Artist

Late last year I finally got a look at f-words art. F-word is the father of Godzilla and partner of our own Spliff (which is why I want y'all to tell him how great his work is but to also say a prayer for him tonight*).

He is an actual artist...in gallery's like...who sells paintings in these galleries.**



And...



These are from a series of Cardinals and, as you can see, they are fantastic but there was one in particular that i really loved...



...he is now in my office...waiting on a frame or something. He's just a little fella...some metric nonsense. Don't ask me I only speak human...he's about the size of an old polaroid picture.

Check out his work here.

http://www.darrinmadafferi.info/gallery.html

The work is very much to my liking...it suits my tastes but, that aside, it's just fine work.

*We're starting a new feature here on Low Cotton...a prayer list. First on that list is me of course. Y'all know the kind of people I have to deal with in my life..coughadamparsonscough...and then there's that taxing thing with Miro...never mind the tremendous blow it would be to the internet if something happened to me, the fallout for art history could be catastrophic...Cosmic in its proportions.

Darrin's gotta be second on that list though...considering what he's dealing with there.


:ducking: :0

**Y'all should know that I have been comissioned, by Martha...for the handsome sum of 40 dollars, to paint two images. I think she's playing me for a ho here...who am i kidding i would've done it for five bucks.