Process of a Painting

I wanted to do a night scene, so I painted the wood black. 

Then I decided to paint a firefly, because I love fireflies. They make me happy in a quiet sort of way.
So I spray painted the middle. And then I thought about how they always light up as they make their way up
from the ground, so my eyes always see this sort of trail of light underneath them. Which is why I also spray painted
a line going down--- and at this point, I worried that people would think I was painting a nuclear bomb
explosion. 

I printed an actual photo of a firefly to draw from, and attached it to the corner of the wood.
I do this a lot, sometimes to copy exactly, and sometimes just for a guideline. 

I was thinking of the tall grass and how it looks at night. I added some color because this is
my painting and I can add things that aren't really there. Also, at this point, you can see that my
scale is completely off. If a firefly this large appeared in my life, I would assume someone
dropped an LSD tab in my coffee today. Again, though, it's my painting and I don't care. 

Then it needed a cat. I had no intention at all of including a cat, but
the muses insisted. It makes me think of Teresa, our boy cat named after
the comic genius Teresa Burritt (who is female). Teresa prowls the night.
May the Frog Blog rest in peace. Long live the Frog Blog. 

This painting, which looks better (more in focus!) in person will be going to a local show on December 5th. If you happen to be in Wisconsin (or Northern Illinois, like Wheatbread Johnson) on the 5th of December, it's at 4 PM- 8PM at the Old District #1 School House in Mount Horeb.  And you are all invited to come and witness my nimrodic powers (my powers , as they may be... perhaps not as great as Wanda Gág's) in person.

Le Chat est Revenu

Teresa the Cat has returned! He showed up exactly two hours after BAH said,

"What we need around here is Teresa, to eat all of this Opal Tasty." [Opal Tasty is beef liver.]

"Oh, no, Teresa isn't coming back. I think that was really her I saw seven miles away."

"Him. You think that was him. Teresa is a boy."

"Him."

Here is Teresa, feasting on his beef liver:



Teresa Burritt could have some, too, if she should return. We would give her a fresh plate. She could even come inside our lame house. Come right on in through the window.

Whatever Happened to Teresa Burritt?

I've been trying unsuccessfully recently to ignore the absence of Teresa's Frog Blog. Not only is the Frog Blog now private, and, as far as I can tell, open to no one, but she stopped writing * her comic.

You have to wonder what happened. Honestly, I said it before she disappeared: she had the best blog ever. It was a mixture of strange and beautiful, of honest and terrible, unique, feminist, and always, above all else, highly entertaining and funny. She seems to have an obsession with words and their origins, something I also am intensely interested in. It was her influence which led me to start telling my students that I wanted them all to be bibliobibuli.

I had some email correspondences with her of a personal nature. I named a cat after her. The cat has since disappeared- at about the same time the blog disappeared, now that I think of it. My recent email to her was returned.

What I wonder now is:

1.* Is Teresa okay?

2. *Will she be back?

3. Did we frighten her away?

4. Is it okay to rip off her ideas, if she isn't around? Because I never felt it was okay before, but if we can't even look at old entries of her blog- can I then become the queen of lame? Not a queen, no. But a minion. May I be a minion of the lame, Teresa?

This is the last comic she posted at Gocomics:



Sort of a frustrated kind of thing. And there is an owl. Is it a clue? This one is from March 24th:



I shared this with friends. The internet has no sick days.

In my heart of hearts, I think we hurt her feelings. And I think I understand. The internet is unforgiving.

* Update 4-13-2017: Teresa Burritt is alive and doing her Frog Applause comic. Her Frog Blog is still down. 

Unrelated news

Teresa the Cat is a boy. A boy named Teresa. I never knew before because he never got really close to me before yesterday. Teresa is our outdoor cat who adopted us maybe a year and a half ago. Teresa might be considered feral. I named Teresa after the author of the Frog Blog. Teresa of the Frog Blog writes the comic "Frog Applause

," which is a really good comic.