Sloth, Maybe?

I think it’s time I spoke about my “edifice complex.” I refer to my avocation with Lego models. It began on a day in late December, 2019, after seeing my least favorite Star Wars film, “The Rise of Skywalker.” I DO NOT LIKE THIS FILM! I was put off by its disjointed lack of structure and technique.   I was repelled by the unneeded return of a villain from the past.   I had seen it the day before with Susan and our two friends, Lily and Liz.   I was seeing it that day with Susan, her sister Mary Grace, and Mary Grace’s family, the Hansons. I DO LOVE THESE PEOPLE!  THESE ARE GOOD PEOPLE!   HONEST AS THE DAY IS LONG! At the Hansen’s place, I got to see Mary Grace’s elaborate Star Wars-themed Lego collection.   Collection is an understatement.   I saw set pieces of the Death Star trench, the Sarlaac Pit, the Battle of Hoth - I lose track from the top of my head the complex Lego-scape. PHOTO NOT AVAILABLE.  SORRY. Mary Grace and I had a civil disc...

All I did was enter the title above into the MidJourney site and this was the end result. What I actually wrote was "Inanna Arrives at the Emerald City."  I wanted to combine the Sumerian goddess' adventure with Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. What I got was an image of Inanna's silhouette from behind.  She pauses on a half overgrown strip of two lane blacktop.  Her objective is in the distance. Why does she want to go to the Amethyst City?  Is it her ultimate goal?  Does she wish to make a new home at this oasis in the wasteland of an abandoned interstate civilization?  Is it just a way station on an ongoing or even infinite quest?  Is she pausing to admire the city from a distance?  Is she simply walking past it?  What if the Amethyst City is just a ruin among many artifacts of the old world?  Perhaps in contrast it is a thriving metropolis? The technique of MidJourney wavers between the fantasy artist Roger Dean and the much deplored i...

As a teenager, I was a student majoring in "visual art" at the LaGuardia High School of Music, Art, and Performing Arts in Mid-Manhattan.  It's an unsightly block of concrete and glass hidden behind Lincoln Center.  Hidden within the unsightly block is a hive of painters, sculptors, pen and ink, charcoal pencil journeymen.  Included are students of the performing arts:  Dance, Vocal, Instrumental, and Drama.  It was and is where aspiring artists gestate. Some students continue in their artistic pursuits.  Others set aside their youthful pursuits to work in other professions - perhaps continuing in their passion as an avocation.  Others, like me, sought other avenues of expression, leaving our brushes, pallets, canvass and sketchpads to die on the vine. After I graduated from LaGuardia, I moved on to study film at Hunter College CUNY.  I had the passion, I learned the technique, but I did not have the connections to enter the field.  Undeterre...