“Firecracker diver” in progress

Acrylic on four 12”x10” canvas boards. Chinese call firecrackers “exploding bamboo” because hot air trapped inside bamboo will explode. Black Cats are gunpowder paper cylinders that explode on a noisy string. When I was a kid, I bought lots of these.

We had to drive over two hours to cross the state line to buy them. That involved a trip to Stuckey’s for gas and a chili dog or another.

As with all fine art, there is a journey in development, just like in the movie Airplane. I worked on the script. John Landis could say the same. I need to add the narrow black script in the Black Cat panels that says…whatever I want it to say.

I need to work on the hands, mouth, and skin. There is some specs script in the yellow. I need to fill in the red rectangle with a ChatGPT short answer. I need to add a splash of bright green and bright violet to the left panels, finesse the scripts on the right panels. I will be busting out some masking tape to create perfect straight lines where needed. I will finish this over the weekend.

What I like about the I Ching is you go to it with a question, a stirring within the firmament. In Christianity, you go to the knee with a private request to a God you made up in your head. The reverberations of the “answer” is to guide you to the next question, and so back to the I Ching again. Limited utility.

How can world peace be achieved? I set no deadline. “Clarity changes to progress”

I have zero time. Also, my hands split open and were bleeding because of the cold. Two weeks later.

Skin tone, deep crazy reds, made the cherries worth stealing. Shaped the cat eyes and ears. I need to balance the tone of the shadow on those thighs, said John Singer Sargent, maybe.

That script on the right side will delay the completion of this painting, this expression of my agony. The spider leg scripts on the left will balance out the composition. Enjoy.