The Random Collection

I wanted an expression of a mood, and I think I got it. I also think I'm far too familiar with this mood.
See the Beyond Madness Webring Homepage. They have taken this image and have framed it far better than this, and have made it actually useful for a good cause. I can't ask for anything better than that, and I consider it an honor and a blessing. (There as of 8/2001)

Cylinder: Scribbles forming a cylinder

Doodling while on the phone, letting out a lot of pent up nervous, frustrated, mixed-up energy. (It's a long, personal story.) I don't know why, but this piece appeals to me in a seismograph kind of way. I think that, if the aikido people are right about living calmness = relaxed, infinitely small, infinitely rapid vibrations, then this shows the confused, messed-up, tense, unhappy, circular nature of my thinking. Yes, a seismograph of a long mental earthquake. I wish I were joking....

Attempting to capture the happy, exuberant eagerness in the expressive eye of a dog. I was thinking mostly of a particular dog (long passed on, alas), but I think most dogs have that glint of joy and hope that speaks of living 100-percent in the moment.

Which reminds me: I learned the antidote to sullen misery is hope. Which means hope is something we need to fight to find, to keep, to grow, to give away (a key part of keeping it). We have much to learn from the happy dogs of the world. And maybe much to give them too (I should walk the dog...).

rei (at) art.net

or

rei (at) mit.edu