The Higher You Fly...

"Last night I woke up. Saw this angel. He flew in my window.

And he said: Girl, pretty proud of yourself, huh?

And I looked around and said: Who me?"

—All lyrics below from Laurie Andersen, Gravity's Rainbow

So truthfully I'm pretty tired. It was a big week and a big weekend so far. Getting ready to go to Milano to videotape Samuel Eto'o. Short staffed and crunching to solidify plans across multiple countries and multiple organizations, refine scripts, review storyboards, advise student teams, prepare packages for partnerships, settle plans for once we get there, oh and there is the beta launch as well, and the MFA student selection, and the trustee dinner last night, and Champlain's graduation today. Graduation such a mix of celebration, and sadness at saying goodbye...

"Why these mountains? Why this sky? This long road. This ugly train.

"Well he was an ugly guy. With an ugly face.

An also ran in the human race.

And even God got sad just looking at him.

And at his funeral all his friends stood around looking sad.

But they were really thinking of all the ham and cheese sandwiches in the next room.

And everybody used to hang around him.

And I know why.

They said: There but for the grace of the angels go I."

I should have stopped painting about an hour ago. It was good then—in fact I felt very good about it. Cleaned my brushes and everything. The clouds and the parts of the trees needed to be more feathery and cloud like. Light needed to travel further across the canvas. A dry round brush and it was all good. With finer brushes I went back into the bird. Still good. Feeling fine.

So I took on the barbed wire. Jim and I went into the woods today and removed it from two huge old maples that had grown around it. The shape is wonderful.

I painted one wire, then another, and another. Still looking good. Should have stopped there. But it wasn't cage enough I thought. So I added more bars. That's where I lost it.

And he said: The higher you fly, the faster you fall.

He said: Send it up. Watch it rise. See it fall. Gravity's rainbow."

——Laurie Andersen, Gravity's Rainbow

There is no Control Z in painting. Let's hope I can reclaim it tomorrow after a good night's sleep.