Today's a day for the Des Moines Art Festival. I'd wanted to go, but I think I'll end up missing it this year due to non-stop work for another two or three weeks and because my truck's in the shop. That's okay with me because next year I plan to be a participant in the festival. I woke up last night around 2 AM. No clue why, but I'd come home at around 7-ish and stayed up for an hour and then crashed. So I'm up at 2 AM, and the rain started to come down and by 3 AM it was coming down pretty good. I stood in my living room where my son, Nick, was half-asleep on the couch. I watched the show out the sliding glass door and decided to shut off the AC and open the door to allow the breeze to come in. In opening the door, I was greeted by rain blowing in through the screen. And then it occurred to me - the last painting that I'd started, the Botanical Center one, was sitting by the open window in my room. I walked to it and sure enough, the watercolor was a bit waterlogged. I think that's it for that painting. And probably best. It was an effort to make a picture-perfect copy of what I saw, which has its own charm and I've demonstrated to myself that I can do it, but it's not the direction that I want to take my art. I brought my watercolor stuff to work today. I thought it would make a nice break in coding a project management web site for Wells Fargo (a very hang-on-to-your-hat effort due to a cramped time frame, tall requirements, etc). I want to get something down and then go after it with the pen and ink that I bought a while back. I don't know if you've seen Strictly Ballroom, which is a favorite movie of mine. But today I'm reminded of it. | 
