Not knowing at the time what I’d use them for, I cleaned up some of my old paint jars as best I could. What a job that was, tho, and I wasn’t sure it was worth all the effort. It took days of soaking, and then lots of scrubbing, and scraping. None ever came completely clean.

I decided to leave the covers off the glass jars after I had transitioned the paint into the smaller plastic containers, and let the paint inside dry completely. <–better idea!! I think the vibrant red gives my studio an artsier vibe, and will brighten up photos I take at my work table. What a showoff the color red is, eh?  

Wow! I’ve never read the back
of Golden liquid paint before.
Scary!! 

I’m excited to finally have found one way to reuse the glass jars that used to hold my paint. I have a collection of oil pastels, which I store in a flat wooden box. The jars are going to keep them within arm’s reach, sorted, and not rolling all over the table. I need to organize them better into colors I use most, and least. For some reason (Murphy’s law or perhaps, kamma? lol) whenever I’m looking for an oil pastel the only one I can ever find is purple or dark green..both are colors I don’t use much in my work. Of course, right? 

Every so often I look down at my work table, and think..ah..so pretty! Wouldja look at that build up of layers. Can you tell I use light colors more than dark? 

Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks.
Plutarch

I hope you have a lovely peaceful Monday. 

Reading: How to do nothing by Jenny Odell – I thought I wanted to listen to this one while I was working to encourage me to take time off..I’ve been hitting work hard lately, but this was another book I couldn’t get through. I tried. I really tried..like, at least 5 times I tried. But, the pretentious, know-it-all, shaming/degrading tone it was written in, and the bitchy, overbearing tone of voice of the woman reading it was so cringeworthy. It literally gave me a throbbing headache. I returned it to the library app without finishing it. 

***

I think I heard about this next one from my favorite youtuber, Haiying. Thank you! I always sit up and take notice when people mention the books they’re reading. I’m a nerd, what can I say? Anyway..

Malcolm Gladwell The Box set – there are three books in this series: The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers. It’s going to take 21 hours to listen to all three, and I’m only 3 hrs in. So far, so good, tho. The man reading the first book has a pleasant voice, and doesn’t give me a headache. lol Lots of statistics on testing human behavior, which I love because well, like I said, I’m a nerd. 

Haiying is also reading a book by Dan Ariely, which is on my list to read now. I might have already read it because I’ve taken his classes online from Duke University. Such a cool guy. If you ever get a chance to take his classes, do it!! If you’re a thinker type, you won’t be sorry.  

Another one I just started to listen to last night  – Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World That Wasn’t Designed for You

Study of neurodivergent women—those with ADHD, autism, synesthesia, high sensitivity, and sensory processing disorder—exploring why these traits are overlooked in women and how society benefits from allowing their unique strengths to flourish.

I find this one extremely interesting because they studied women only. Most statistics are about men, so this is refreshing. 

American Seoul: a memoir by Helena Rho – this is an Amazon prime book this month. I don’t usually read memoirs, but none of the other books offered looked at all interesting. Why are the free monthly prime books usually so dark in nature??? Is there a way to change that setting or something?

Anyway, this memoir is free this month, so I started reading it. Wow! From the very first page, it sucked me in, and I read half of it in one sitting. I hadn’t even planned to drop everything and read, but I did. Really love how this woman writes, and how she can weave the past in with the present so effortlessly. I can’t wait to read more of her books in the future.