On Octopuses

052407art1, a photo by megan_n_smith_99 on Flickr.

I was in the grocery store today and got involved in a conversation involving the pluralization of several words in English that have been borrowed for other languages. It appeared a number of people were drawn into this conversation. I believe it may have started over a question on the pluralization of the word uterus. I am not sure why anyone would need to know that, while standing in line at Safeway, but there was probably some tabloid story about mutant uteruses or something. I really wish the space next to checkout was reserved for things I am really likely to forget, like coffee, TP, half and half, and dish soap.

One couple believed that Uterus should be pluralized as uteri. Their example was that the plural of octopus is octopi. And I shall now explain to you what I explained to them and I am sorry if you are crushed forever.

The word Octopus is a a borrowed word -a Greek word. The plural in Greek is Octopodes. Since English words are generally pluralized by the addition of an "s" or "es", Octopuses is the correct English plural. However, many people try to pluralize it as Octopi, under the mistaken assumption that Latin words are pluralized by changing the a "us" ending to "i". This might make sense of Octopus WAS a Latin word, but it is a Greek word. Sadly Octopi is now considered "a correct" plural but only because people kept using it and would not shut up and so now the dictionaries have bowed to that sad failing.

( By the way, oktopous means "eight-footed," from okto "eight" (see eight) + pous "foot.")

Uterus, on the other hand (I confirmed when I got home,) IS from Latin, so the appropriate plural is Uteri, though Uteruses is also accepted in English. You may need to know this In the event that you need to discuss more than uteruses at a time, which may not happen every day or ever in line at Safeway.

I tried to see if Uterus meant anything interesting in Latin, like "small organ that hurts" or something but no, it appears to just mean womb, which I translate as small organ that hurts. And pluralize, as needed, as uteruses.

Palace of Dreams

palace, a photo by megan_n_smith_99 on Flickr.

I have here for you a page you can color. The image shown here, which I uploaded to Flickr, is a lower resolution image. You can downloaded the higher resolution page to color here.

There are a lot of details so I suggest you use fine tipped markers or colored pencils. Enjoy! And I'd love to see your results if you want to share.

Happy coloring!

Fire Bird & Making Time

Fire Bird, a photo by megan_n_smith_99 on Flickr.

First I want to share a link with you from Anne Lamott who I love to little tiny pieces. (but I leave all the pieces attached.) Anne Lamott on Finding Time.

Actually, are finding time and making time the same thing? Not exactly. I need to think about that. It's ironic that I am talking about this on my blog because it mentions how being hype-rconnected on-line eats at creative time. This is something I try to be aware of, and I've cut down my list of daily reads to make more time to draw, paint, read, heck even just sit. Sometimes just sitting is much more nourishing than say, reading Regretsy. Actually, Regretsy has gotten a bit less funny and a bit more mean and I am well served by sitting instead of reading it.

I am not saying not to connect on-line. I suspect many of my readers are loner-artists like myself who have had a hard time finding members of their tribe in their home towns but have connected with amazing people on-line. I am just saying to be aware of how much time you are spending and then decide if that's ok with you. I know I am way better off taking a 10-minute walk than, say, playing three games of boggle on my phone. Please don't tell my phone, it will be heartbroken.

So, having gotten through that.. Here is another of my paintings. I actually achieved a goal here - using less colors. I have so many great colors and sometimes I try to use them all at once and it does not always work. Or it works but the piece would be stronger if I did not use so many colors. I actually bought some new small-palette to use with specific carefully chosen colors. I use Daniel Smith watercolors. Some of the colors I used here are: Quinacridone Gold, Quinacridone Magenta, Quinacridone Burnt Orange, Cobalt Blue Violet, French Ultramarine and Phthalo Turquoise. I think there was a purple or 2 in there but I am not sure which ones since I mixed them. DS has some really nice purples.

Fire Bird
8 x 8"
Watercolor and ink on paper
Available on Etsy.

Pueblo

Pueblo, a photo by megan_n_smith_99 on Flickr.

I have been fascinated by the architecture of SW Native American tribes since I first saw photos - probably when I was in grade school. I have not seen any in person - yet. (Some are open to the public.) The Southwest is one of my favorite places and I hope I do get to spend more time there. So far I've only been to Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.

One of my favorite books is Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver. She describes her main character's first view of Pueblo architecture:

“It doesn’t even look like it was built,” I said. “It’s too beautiful. It looks like something alive that just grew here.”
“That’s the idea.” Loyd seemed as pleased as if he’d built it himself.
“Of what? The idea of Pueblo architecture?”
“Yep. Don’t be some kind of a big hero. No Washington Monuments. Just build something nice that Mother Earth will want to hold in her arms.”

I think that is a good description. Houses built from earth and stone, nestled in earth and stone.

Here's another quote, about Mesa Verde, one of the largest cliff villages. Pierre Tristam says:

" I would have never noticed them had signs not pointed them out from various cliff edges along the canyon. The dwellings seem fit only for misanthropes or outcasts, but were actually households that simply chose to use the environment to their advantage. Much of Anasazi* architecture, from pit-houses to cliff-dwellings, is logical blending with what’s already there rather than an attempt to outdo nature."

*Anasazi was not what the Mesa Verde dwellers called themselves. Again from Pierre Tristam, Anasazi is " a Navajo word that means either “The Old People,” according to the great historian Samuel Elliot Morrison, or “enemy ancestors,” according to writer Alex Shoumatoff (the Anasazi were the Navajo’s sworn enemies), or “ancient ones,” “ancient foreigners” or “ancient enemies,” depending on which National Park Service brochure you read."

I believe it is now PC to call the Mesa Verde builders "Ancestral Puebloans" since the Pueblo tribes are descended from them.

And so, I have painted my idea of the Pueblos, caught between earth and sky, suspended, rising from the earth with swirls of dust.

Pueblo
8 x 8"
Watercolor, colored pencil, and ink
Available on Etsy.

Mehndi Roses ... & Thoughts on Writing

Mehndi roses, a photo by megan_n_smith_99 on Flickr.

I read a lot of books, and listen to a lot of books, on writing and creativity. This year I've read and/or listened to:

Floor Sample by Julia Cunningham
The Great Failure by Natalie Goldberg
Long Quiet Highway by Natalie Goldberg
Grace Eventually by Ann Lamott

& I've read some autobiographies:

The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie by Wendy McClure
Sickened by Julie Gregory
Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls
Candy Girl by Cody Diablo
Cherry by Mary Karr
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson

& my am-reading or to-be-read (or reread) stack includes more Julia Cameron, More Anne Lamott, and more Natalie Goldberg.

I find it inspiring to read books on creativity, and I have found more the kind of books I want to read about writing than about visual arts. And I used to write, and I still do a bit. I am working on a non-fiction project at the moment. But I have known for a long time that I wanted to write more and be more open. Various things have happened over the years, and there has been some inertia or something... the end result being that while I am very creative and spend a lot of time creating I am not feeling very connected to a creative community. And after close to a year and a half of looking for a job I am more motivated than ever to see how or if my artwork or other creative endeavors could support me full time, because that would be my dream job. So I've been trying to understand a bit what people connect to on-line. It seems to me that a lot of what people connect to is a personality, as much as the product of that personality. And I don't have that sort of personality. All of the best of what I have is already in my artwork - I am not sure what is left.

I have been reading all year though about writing and thinking I would like to write more open and honestly and connect to people with words and not just images. I've noticed that all of the most popular blogs (that a lot of people connect to) seem to be connecting mostly with words. The exception being web-comics. So Maybe other people don't "read" pictures the way I do.

Well these are all things I am thinking about. If it goes well you may see more writing from me here. We'll see. I know I struggle with a lot of things many people struggle with and might connect to: creative block, depression, a difficult time finding balance between various aspects of my life, living with chronic pain, etc. But I'm nervous about being honest about those things. Even though I don't think anyone should be ashamed of those things and I admire people who are honest about those things. Well. We'll see.

Three Birds

threebirds, a photo by megan_n_smith_99 on Flickr.

This is the most recent watercolor I have completed, though I am working on some other things, including a series that no one has seen but me. I'm enjoying that series but also struggling a little with the line between doing a body of work and being "too repetitious". that repetitious bit is possibly my inner critic talking.

I recently finished two very different books about old growth forests - or what little scraps are left of them, anyway. Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock and Winter: Notes From Montana by Rick Bass. They both made me want to go out to the woods. But not today, it's been pouring for hours. I had read Mythago Woods before, years ago, and it was not a strange as I remembered it being, but I think I had a high fever the first time I read it.

I really need to do some chores today but I hope to paint too.

Three Birds
8 x 8"
Watercolor and Ink
Available on Etsy.

Just a Little Ammonite

Ammonite, a photo by megan_n_smith_99 on Flickr.

It's so sad that ammonites are extinct. They had such an interesting structure. Though not really surprising since 98+% of all species that have ever existed are now extinct. You think it could not happen to us? Well, ask Geological time.

The closest living relatives to the ammonites are cephalopods - squid, octopuses* and cuttlefish. They are less closely related to nautiluses - though they do resemble them.

Here is a little tidbit about the derivation of the name, from Wikipedia:

"The name ammonite, from which the scientific term is derived, was inspired by the spiral shape of their fossilized shells, which somewhat resemble tightly coiled rams' horns. Pliny the Elder (d. 79 AD. near Pompeii) called fossils of these animals ammonis cornua ("horns of Ammon") because the Egyptian god Ammon (Amun) was typically depicted wearing ram's horns.Often the name of an ammonite genus ends in -ceras, which is Greek (κέρας) for "horn"."

The first ammonites appear during the Devonian, about 400 million years ago, and the last species went extinct about 65 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous, also called the K-T boundary.

The K-T extinction is the most famous mass extinction, but not the only one, and not even the biggest. The biggest was at the end of the Permian era. I could probably go on and on about mass extinctions, even before I started studying geology and paleontology my freshman english 101 paper was on the K-T mass extinction, I am sure that was a 1st, I think my english teacher enjoyed it as a refreshing change of pace. That's what you get for letting students pick their own essay topics. Maybe I will go on about them a bit later, but I am feeling under-the-weather this week so I leave you with this painting of an ammonite.

*Please don't get me started why the plural of Octopus is not Octopi. It has actually become acceptable via common use but it's just so wrong.

Ammonite
4 x 6"
Watercolor and ink on arches 140 cold press paper
Available on Etsy.