KIHON and KATA

Iaido in the backyard dojo. A hummingbird friend was visiting the feeder (and watching me), so whenever he came down to drink I froze in place until he went back up onto a nearby tree branch. My calves were cramping by the end of training.

Working on kihon (basics) and kata (forms).



Bonk! Learning the movements of uchi chiburi, the "strike blood flick."



Letting gravity do its work and swing the sword into position, while switching hands.



Resheathing the sword.



Practicing kirioroshi, the downward strike. I'm working on keeping it straight. The left hand is power; the right hand is control.



Tōrei, bowing to the sword.

HAKAMA

I ordered hakama (pleated pants) that are traditionally worn over a full gi (uniform) during iaido. I needed to take them on their initial wearing in the backyard dojo.



Nukitsuke, the drawing cut.



Kirioroshi, the downward cut.



The beginning of noto, resheathing the sword.



Thrusting of the sword during kissakigaeshi, a waza (techinque) of a different school of iaido. But I enjoy practicing it.



Practicing drawing the sword. Living out Miyamoto Musashi's notion of sen (initiative).

OCTOPUS MURAL

The templates were problematic. They didn't quite fail, but they weren't adhering properly much of the time. That meant that I had to put my magic painting chopsticks to use to hold the templates in place while spraying, which is more complex than necessary.



This large tempate worked much better than those for the arms.



A silicone paint brush made it easy to add acrylic suckers to the arms. (If you look closely, you can see some "fuzziness" here and there at the edge of the arms, rather than the crisp clean lines I planned. But, ultimately, it worked. The fuzziness added an element of movement to the arms.)



Trying to get the eye just right.



Coraline has a seventeen-foot lead on the orcas in pursuit.

"Coraline," Montana BLACK spray paint* and acrylic paint** on painted retaining wall, approximately 18" x 54".

*Code Red, Lollipop, Pink Lemonade, Kicking Yellow.

**White, Black.

OCTOPUS TEMPLATES

I've been commissioned to add an octopus to an existing underwater mural on a driveway retaining wall. I'm working in a medium (spray paint) and at a scale (18" x 60") that is pushing my comfort zone.

So I'm "cheating" a bit, creating Contact Paper templates to help keep my lines clean and controlled. We'll see how it goes...

BULBS

Getting bulbs into buckets and flower beds today. Liatris. Canna. Gladiolus. Calla.

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But, the first step was getting color-coded bamboo-skewer "locate flags" constructed so I know where bulbs are and what they are until they grow and bloom.

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Also spray paint and metal stencils...

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...so that buckets can be easily identified even if and when they are moved about the yard and garden.

SWIM FREE

Preparations.


Carving block number one. Octopus body.


Carving block number two. Suckers and wave motions.


Carving block number three. Eye.


Inking.


Printing the first layer.


Print and block.


Octopuses in many colors of water.

HEAD of a POET

For the past few weeks, I've been haunted by "Head of a Tramp," 1896, by László Mednyánszky. It's a painting I discovered while seeking out images for a work project. I knew that it needed to be translated into chalk, but wasn't sure what its final form would look like. Then I started seeing the painted head in my dreams and it began to transform.


I asked The Child to photograph me in a post mimicking Mednyánszky's painting. I laid out a concrete board with photocopies of the painting and the photograph as references and started placing down colors of chalk that I felt would contrast well against the tan and beige of the concrete panel.


My original plan was to make the coloring fairly realistic, so I laid down complimentary colors for skin tones, in order to build upon them and obtain shadows and shading. However, I was intrigued by the purplish-blue skin, green-and-black patches around the eyes, and bright green lips, so I left them alongside the more realistic colors of the the hair and clothing.

I'm rather happy with the Fauvist flavoring of this piece.

Perhaps now this tramp and his poet doppelgänger can stop haunting my dreams.

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"Head of a Poet (Self Portrait)" by Troy's Work Table. Indoor chalking for Friday 23 December 2016.

Sidewalk chalk, charcoal, and chalk pastels on concrete board.

THANKFUL

Thankful for wiener dog pillows.

(Although The Dog doesn't seem too fond of being one.)

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Thankful for turkey butts stuffed with aromatics—onions and fresh herbs.

Heading into the oven for round 1, for initial crisping of the skin.

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Thankful for turkey salon treatment—foil and color.

Heading into the oven for round 2, for a couple of hours of heating up the carcass and letting the juices and flavors find their way into the meat.

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Thankful for Duvel Belgian Golden Ale to accompany turkey dinner.

Ten years ago, I had my first Thanksgiving Duvel. I wasn't fond of it.

Five years ago, I was still drinking Duvel for Thanksgiving. I tolerated it, rather than enjoyed it.

This year, and my eleventh time with Duvel as my Thanksgiving ale of choice, I can definitely say that I have "come around" and look forward to its pairing with turkey and cranberries, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing and rolls.

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Thankful for New Belgium + Ben Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ale with pumpkin pie and snickerdoodles?

The desserts are excellent, but the beer is a strange one.

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Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, an American Golden Ale by New Belgium Brewing Company and Ben and Jerry's.

12 ounce bottle served in Lagunitas mason jar pint glass.

6.0% abv.

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The pour is a clear honey yellow, with virtually no head.

The nose is very light and of both roasted malts and chocolate.

The tongue is a bit of hay and a bit of biscuit, and then is "all out" chocolate chip cookie dough.

The mouthfeel is mostly medium, although it leans toward being thin. Due to the flavors and the connection to Ben and Jerry's, and therefore ice cream, I keep thinking the mouthfeel should be thicker.

If this were a stout, then these flavors might work better for me. But since it is a golden ale, and the flavors taste artificial, it doesn't quite work.

This beer isn't bad, but its weird enough (in an off-putting way) that I wouldn't want it again.

GRASP

Step 1. Photographic "sketch" for "Grasp/Star Hand."


Step 2. Pencil sketch for "Grasp/Star Hand." Pencil on paper. 5 1/2" x 4 1/4".


"Grasp/Star Hand" by Troy's Work Table. Tempera paint, sidewalk chalk, and chalk pastels on chalkboard. Tuesday 17 May 2016. 22" x 22".

A layer of tempera paint is applied on the chalkboard in the shapes I want and allowed to dry. Then I add details in sidewalk chalk and chalk pastels.

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Each step gets a bit further from "in real life" and as it does flattens out a bit more, but I love each of these steps it its own right.

My muse had insisted that I chalk another larger-scale version of "Pluck" in sidewalk chalk at Frost Park, but I had something else in mind. I was very unhappy with the resulting chalk piece, but I should have known better than to disobey my muse. Anyway, she requested later in the day that I do a companion "hand" piece to "Pluck," so I did. The muse was happy! (And so was I.)

PLUCK

Pencil sketch of "Pluck." Pencil on paper. 4 1/4" x 5 1/2".

The muse was pressing on the notion of the Titans and the tasks to which they were fated—Atlas holding up the firmament of heaven; Prometheus stealing fire from the Olympians; Kronos eating a stone thinking it to be his infant child—as well as two non-Titan mythological figures that I conflate with the Titans—Sisyphus eternally rolling his boulder up a hill, only to have it roll down, whereupon he has to start again; and Tantalus, reaching for fruit he can never quite grab.

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"Pluck" by Troy's Work Table. Tempera paint, sidewalk chalk, and chalk pastels on chalkboard. 18" x 22". Thursday 12 May 2016.

So the orb for me is that which is plucked, be it fruit or fire or cosmos or stone. The hand doubles as instrument of plucking and pedestal. It seems as though a tree.

MAKING CHALK

[1] The Child and TWT are making our own sidewalk chalk. 2 to 3 tablespoons of liquid tempera paint + 1/2 cup of water + 1 cup of plaster of Paris = our base.


[2] Each bowl of base we make allows us to fill three soap molds (white on left) or two toilet paper tubes or homemade cardboard molds (colors).


[3] Finished chalk, dried for 24 hours, on one of my small lap chalkboards. It's waiting for concrete!

NOODLE BOWL

I've had many recent reasons to be thinking about noodles. First, I recently watched Blade Runner again and was amazed how many shot there are of Deckard (Harrison Ford) sitting at noodle stands in the rain-drenched dystopic Los Angeles of 2019, fiddling with chopsticks and slurping up noodles. Second, I subscribed to the the new Lucky Peach food journal, whose inaugural issue will focus on ramen. Third, friends were recently telling me of their own love of noodles and the opening of a nearby noodle house. Fourth, The Wife has been watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution and encouraging the entire household to eat healthier.

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Prepackaged noodles probably aren't exactly what The Wife had in mind, but I figured moving from Cup O Noodles to firing up a wok at work for my lunch needed one or two intermediary steps. Therefore, I found myself perusing the natural food section of our local grocery store. I stumbled upon the noodle bowls and bought a couple to try.

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I assumed the noodles would be dehydrated, but instead they were vaccum-sealed. This allowed them to be softer and to need less cooking, which meant that they were closer to what I would get in a restaurant or from The Wife.

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The Korean sweet chili noodle bowl was very good. The Hokkien noodles were pliable yet firm. The gochujang red chili paste reminded me of one of my favorite sriracha sauces. It was much healthier than what I often eat for lunch, although I noted that it was still high in sodium. However, it felt like progress. Plus, I was able to play with chopsticks, which I realized I am not very adept at using.

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[1] Korean Sweet Chili Noodle Bowl by Annie Chun's All Natural Asian Cuisine.

[2] Cardboard removed reveals the lid.

[3] Lid removed reveals vacuum-packaged Hokkien noodles, dry topping packet, and sauce packet.

[4] One cup of water added, heated, and drained leaves behind a wonderful lunch.