Painting Pictures
one part truth,one part fiction
 I have always tried to paint, the imagination is there, but the skill, smooth glide and grace are lacking.
 I guess the same can be said for my writing, but I do not need to clean my keyboard very often with turpentine. There are two thoughts that have come into my mind this morning. Little things are sometimes amazing. The first thought (these are really paintings in my mind) that I want to put on canvas, will start in the morning. A red and grey morning, fog coming off the Ohio river, the sun trying to poke through the red and grey. These colors are the warm reds and warm greys of morning. The fog coming off the water is drifting slowly. We have the background, now for the action.
 Sunday morning at  Lock & Dam 50 on the Ohio river. The western world is in bed.  The young boys are delivering the Sunday paper. We are still in the same picture mentioned above? I am working the midnight shift on the lockwall. I have blown the horn once, which is the signal to depart the chamber. The vessel in the chamber is the paddle steam wheeler "The Delta Queen." She is painted white with gold trim, the Eagle is gold, and the paddle wheel is red. She steams out of the chamber into the morning fog playing ragtime music on her calliope, her paddle wheel raising more fog, her amber night lights sparkle in the morning light of red and grey. She disappears into the pink fog, into the eastern skies, I can still hear "Camp town Races.....do da do da."
 The next picture I saw this morning is not clear in my mind now. It was there this morning the thoughts pictured clearly. Avant garde comes close, whatever that means. I see deep blue water at sea in chaos, white caps throwing objects about, the black sky filled with flying objects. I see a stair case. The upper step is the deep blue sea in chaos. The lower step is calm blue-green pool of water. You can see a green lily pad floating at the edge of the canvas. Objects falling into this pool below, leave a ripple like rain drops. The objects from the upper pool are falling over the edge. Violence from above is falling into the peace below.  The lower pool absorbs all calmly.
 The top picture is true, sometimes you wish you had a camera with you on the job. I have not figured out the bottom picture yet.
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"Orders from a higher authority"

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Words & Graphics by Tomas