WRITING TOPIC - BIRTH ORDER

                          
                                                      

Birth order. Does it matter?

That was the headline, more or less, of a CNN article that came out last fall, which said that birth order may, in fact, matter a lot. That same month TIME ran its own take on recent hard evidence demonstrating “The Power of Birth Order.”

For example, firstborns are more likely to go [...]

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A Girl With A Curl & Her Pug, In Spring

Sony Pepperoni, pen and ink on graph paper, doodle © 2008
by ybonesy. All rights reserved.

 
Em, my youngest daughter, has been reading and writing poetry all this month with her third-grade class. She wrote two limericks and one haiku, and she carried in her Poetry Book a poem called “My hobby” by Shel Silverstein. She read all [...]

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Ode To A Pink Shoe

Pink Shoe, pen and ink and marker paint on graph paper,
doodle © 2008 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.

 
It’s not the first pink shoe I’ve loved.
The first would be a pair I bought for $3 at a garage sale. Nineteen-forties, pointy toe, with a bow. Still in the original shoe box.

“Love” is too strong of a word. That’s [...]

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Sunday

Industrial Strength Clean, pen and ink on graph paper,
doodle © 2008 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.

I went to a laundromat today
14 quarters per load
white towel with colors
it was my only white

Like the mom
and the boy
who likes to put the quarters
into the machine

They’re the only
whites in the place
Two women speaking
Spanish
sound like they’re
cussing out
the spin cycle

A black [...]

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A Year Of Living Dangerously

One Year Today, celebrating the one-year anniversary of red Ravine, pen and ink on graph paper, doodle © 2008 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
 

QuoinMonkey: I can’t believe it’s been a year since we launched red Ravine!

ybonesy: Me neither. It’s felt more like ten. (laughs) Just kidding. But I am amazed at how much energy it [...]

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WRITING TOPIC - TAKE A RISK

For anyone who lived in New Mexico in 2001, you will remember the “Madonna in a Bikini” controversy. Artist Alma Lopez depicted the Virgen de Guadalupe as a real woman wearing a bikini of flowers.
Many Catholics were offended, and even the Catholic Church protested, claiming that Lopez had turned the Holy Mother into “a tart.” [...]

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WRITING TOPIC - HAIR

Hair, pen and pencil doodle © 2007 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.

Maybe it’s the wind today. It’s a hair-raising wind. The kind of wind that would blow off a toupee or at the very least make the curly-headed among us look like we’ve been electrocuted.
Maybe it’s all the sickness around these days. Days spent in [...]

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New Uses For Spoons

Untitled, old watercolor doodle of spoon and ball, © 2007
by ybonesy. All rights reserved.

QuoinMonkey’s photo earlier this week of Spoonbridge and Cherry, 1985-1988, which came out in red Ravine post “White Elephants on Art,” reminded me of a fascination I once had with spoons. Their shape and size, the way they have a roundish end [...]

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I Am Grateful For The Alphabet ;-)

A   art, all things Art and Artist, absolute passion for Art, artsy-fartsy

B   billies, that’s what I call the Boys in my life: Jim, Otis, Rafael

C   children, my girls, chattering sitting in the same chair

D   daylight growing, Dad

E   evenings, eating dinner with my family more often than not

F   friends, family, fields (of dreams, of birds, of grass)

G   [...]

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Foot Fetish (aka Dirty Foot Tales)

My Right Foot, pen and ink drawing © 2007 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.

A few years back I found myself in San Jose, Costa Rica, in early June with my friend and colleague Gail. We decided to celebrate our birthdays our last evening there — we’re both Geminis — by getting full-body massages before dinner.
That day our [...]

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The Hummingbird Messenger

 
A Message for Jim, pen and ink, November 2007, doodle © 2007 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.

The first time it landed on Jim, he said he thought it was his brother David.
David was 15 months younger than Jim. His little buddy, his pal. David died of leukemia when Jim was seven.
No one talked about David’s [...]

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Flying With Strangers & Other Anomalies

         

Dear Person Sitting Next to Me on the Plane,
Do you plan to never make eye contact? I thought I was a cold traveler, but you take the cake.
BTW, that haircut is kind of silly. It’s so David Schwimmer on Friends.
Signed,
yb

       

Dear Person Sitting Next to Me on the Plane,
Why did you [...]

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WRITING TOPIC - EMOTIONAL VOCABULARY

 
Fed Up, pen and ink and pencil, November 2007, doodle © 2007 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.

Here is a test. For the next five minutes, list every emotion you can think of. Write as fast as you can. Don’t stop to think.
How many did you come up with? Ten? Twenty?
I could make something up and [...]

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Taking Jack To The Cemetery

           

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Death Of A Short Green Sweater

Green Sweater and Tunic, my current fashion obsession, pen and
pencil doodle © 2007 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.

I was one of those girls in high school who latched on to a particular look and didn’t drop it for a couple of years. My devices back then: painter pants, waffle stompers, and any one of my [...]

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Fish On A Plaque

Alberto Gonzalofishe, former Attorney General (appointed by George W. Bush) depicted as a fish on a plaque, doodle © 2007 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.

-Inspired by PRACTICE: Fish Out Of Water - 15mins

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What If Merv Were Chicano?

Merv García, pen and ink and pencil on graph paper, doodle © 2007 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.

Merv Griffin: OK, my little pajaritos, do we have any requests?

Someone in audience: Y volver, volver, volver…

Someone else in audience: …a mis brazos otra vez…

MG: Coños, babies, come on, I’m not Al Hurricane…let me play you una cancioncita about my [...]

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Because “Arrivederci, ybonesy” Has A Nice Ring To It

New Mexico-based painter and photographer bloomgal64 sent me an email note a few days ago with these words in the subject line: “An Italian ybonesy.” At first I panicked. Oh no! Some Italian has absconded with my nom de plume and now I will spend the rest of my blogging life explaining, “No, no, you see, [...]

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What If The Southwest Guy Were Chicano?

Southwest Guy: Oyé, ven aquí por tu regalo gratís…
Traveler: ¿Qué cosa gratís?
Southwest Guy: Es un t-shirt *muy* bonita…que te doy después de que you fill out esté application de tarjeta crédito…
Traveler: ¡No quiero un feo t-shirt de Southwest, hombre!
Southwest Guy: Espera, hombre, you can die it black, man, and wear it camping!

-Related to post What [...]

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What If Madge Were Chicana?

You’re Soaking in it, pen and ink doodle on graph paper, doodle © 2007 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.

Madge: Ei, alá, you’re so-king in it…

Client: ¡Chale! ¿De véras?

Madge: Sí, hombre, te digo la verdad.

Client: ¡Oralé! ¿Qué pasó? Was there a ganga at Dollar Store?

Madge: Bitche, how did you know??

-Inspired by Topic post, Cleanliness.
-Related to post, Everything [...]

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Bethanny, On A Diet (Again)

            
Bethanny and Grapefruit, pen and ink on graph paper, doodle
© 2007 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.

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Maybe A Dog

This year at my daughters’ summer camp, the art instructor used sketchbooks. She said sketching was in keeping with the theme for the camp, Look To This Day. I think what she meant was that sketching was quick. You capture what’s in front of you — a hand, a tree, maybe a thing floating in [...]

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PRACTICE: Las Dos Chicas

Las Dos Chicas, pen and ink on graph paper, doodle © 2007 by ybonesy.
All rights reserved.

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PRACTICE: Breakfast At Beto’s

Breakfast at Beto’s, pen and ink on graph paper, doodle © 2007
by ybonesy. All rights reserved.

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Postscript Neruda

Jim went to the Taos Solar Music Festival for the weekend; I stayed behind with the girls. I needed to get us ready for a week-long trip of our own. Besides, I enjoy time with them alone. We ate soupy spaghetti for dinner, and they slept with me. I woke up throughout the night, although nothing [...]

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El Agua Es La Vida

-Reflection of La Llorona, ink and watercolor © 2007 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.

-From Topic post, Water Wings.

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Nine Rituals I Own, Past And Present

-Holding My Breath, watercolor and ink painting, © 2007 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.

Holding my breath when I drive by a cemetery, else spirits of the dead will invade my lungs. (Present. Given to me by my husband. Something he did as a child. Now it belongs to our family.)
Checking all the locks on doors [...]

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Old Lovers

-Viejos Amantes, ink and watercolor painting, © 2007 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.

-Related to post Marriage, Not Prozac?
-from Topic Post, Rich In Ritual

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They’d Be The Graceful, Leg-Lifting Type Dancers

-Word of the Day is Flamingo, doodle © 2007 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
Riding in the car yesterday, me, Em, my best friend. My friend says, “The flamingo festival starts this weekend.”
“FLA-MEN-CO,” Em corrects from the back seat. My friend and I look at each other, burst out laughing.
“Whaaaat? Nanny always says it that way [...]

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How I Spent My Summer Vacation

The girls are off for the summer. This morning I head out the door for work. “Whaaat?,” they cry, “Whereyagoin??” I tell them I have to go to work. “Wer-erk?, but it’s summer!!”
This happens every time they don’t have school. Presidents Day, Fall Break, snow days, teachers’ in-service. In their minds, all the world revolves around school.
I wish it [...]

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WRITING TOPIC - COFFEE BREAK

This week sit outside one morning. Take your notebook and pen and your coffee or tea or glass of water. Drink the whole thing. Take your time. Try not to think as you sit. Use the time to clear your mind of all the thoughts that invade. Use the time to just be. Notice how the drink tastes. Notice what’s in [...]

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Back Of The Napkin

This weekend red Ravine passed the 10,000-views mark and, well, we wanted to shout out to all you readers: Thanks for clicking! We went live on April 7, and we’re having a blast.
What all this has to do with Back of the Napkin? Nothing, except I happened to doodle on one. But that’s the beauty [...]

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Practice: Santo Nino de Atocha

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Ten Things I’d Do This Morning If I Had Time

My 15-minute practice on Place; that topic post is due today
Walk through the house next door and sit in each room; we close on it today, and tomorrow it will belong to someone else
Draw the hummingbird that’s been buzzing around in my head
Go for a walk on the ditch behind my house just so my [...]

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One Journal, Ten Thousand Journals

I’ve been wanting to do a post on the power of journals for some time now, ever since I read this article in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers. It’s about Brian Singer’s 1000 Journals Project. Here’s the gist: one thousand journals are sent into the world. Some are sent to friends. Others are [...]

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