(cross-posted from scheduliberated)

 Here's what I'll do here.

I'll post at least every year. 

Okay, it's my 73rd today and I'm going fishing in a bit. Just got led back to this (now understood as an) "annublog" by a post about a teacher friend's retirement from her teaching career and reread the single post here (cross-posted at scottmerrickdotnet); and I'm feeling pretty good about it. I will have completed my first year of "retirement" in a couple days. In a couple days after that, I fly to Spain with my lovely lovely for over two weeks of luxury travel and culinary and culture exploration (shoutout to RH Travel).

NOTE: If you're a web trolling miner for thievery, we have good friends living in our home to take care of our mean old dog, who is trained to take a leg off if need be. My friends are both martial arts experts and armed to the teeth. There. JK of course, but not.

I have to hit the lake but I do want to say here that I have had a wonderful year. I've completed a Peloton class on meditation, and one on yoga, both taken to refresh my dedication to both. The meditation one stuck as I am practicing daily. The yoga was surprisingly painful but I completed it, and I incorporate elements of it in everyday movements and in the care with which I approach them. I'm still cycling on the machine, but the discovery of classes I can take at computer was a good one. The meditation one may be life-changing for you.

I am painting like a madman (chronicled at scottmerrickdotnet), I've written songs, I've taken masterclass.com classes from John Legend, Futura, Santana, and Jake Shimabukuro; and mandolin classes from Sierra Hull at artistworks.com. I've blogged a bunch, and I've read/listened to a number of great podcasts and books, most notably many of Lex Fridman's long-form interview podcasts and my son-in-law's "You're Good Get Better" drumming jewel.

I've camped, I've attended a great concert at The Caverns (focused on my music crush Sierra Ferrell but with other great Americana folks) and several Finally Fridays from WMOT at 3rd and Lindsley. I traveled to visit my dear brother Ed at his home in Montgomery, Texas, camping in Arkansas on the way and staying with a high school friend in Hot Springs on the way home. Just last week my dear son Colin came into town and we fished, saw Caroline Polachek with Edith Cain at the Ryman, and brewery crawled and just spent good time together. I'm going to head up to his territory, Missoula, Montana, in September, for the Montana version of the week. 

In short, and I will be short, because the out of doors is calling and Lee Ann's alarm is going off, repeatedly as is her wont, in the next room--if you are interested in what scheduliberation looks like, keep up with my primary blog, easily found at scottmerrick.net. It's been up for a long time but this new leg of my life is grand, great, godly, and gee-wiz happy and I'm digging chronicling it. 

You fashion your own life, whatever stage it be, and don't let anyone slip you negative vibes. I highly recommend it.

Here's a work in progress, from a photo taken a month ago at Cheatham Lake Campground:

wip, "from the campsite", acrylics on canvas, by Scott Merrick, 2023

See ya,

Scott

Summer, here, and we prep for travel

 Well, well, well (again), here we are once more. Me and my imaginary readers. 

Wait. I know you're real and I know how grateful I am for you. Let me pop over to my online Gratefulness Journal to say that.

Back.

My boy Colin is in town from his hometown of choice, Missoula Montana. I am so happy to be in the same room, car, or Nashville venue with this centered, talented, and kind human being. I miss him every day when I am not, but I am happy with his decision to live in that beautiful place. I remember when I lived in Anchorage lo those many years ago I hardly spoke and never saw either of my parents for over 5 years. Thank god that's not the case with either of my magic children. Here's me and Colin at table in our Nations Nashville home:

scott and colin at Chez Merrique, courtesy of Tim Buell

And a pic of both our children, smooching on their beautiful mom, on our paradisial back porch:

Colin, and Miranda Lee smooching mom on Mothers Day

Why do I blog, still, after so long? It should be obvious: blogging provides a consistent wandering ripple throughout my years and helps me clear my head and honor my thoughts and those of others. Look back on some posts, from 2005 on, and see for yourself. Take a look at a short story, my novel (available on Amazon in both Kindle and paperback), my novella, or a post about the future of education, my bailiwick for nearly 30 years, an original song, or jump around for a poem or two. It's all there. As my dear sis-in-law Amy explains to my cherished wife, "It's his book."

That's a simplification, of course, as the blog contains most of my books, but I like it. Many of my links have gone dead, as platforms used for photo sharing, news sites, and other blogs have crapped out and been nullified; but I likely won't take up the goal of revising anything from 18 years ago to present. I prefer to be here now. It's my thing. But a perusal of past posts will reveal some trends and share some good past, and may be of historical use to the alien researchers who follow us. 

These past couple weeks I've been working on an abstract that I am as of yesterday calling finished. Why do so many of these efforts result in color studies and shapes that are full of motion and energy? I don't know, really, but I'm calling this one "terminal ascension," and it may be whatever it may be to you. I see things and suggestions of events and natural phenomena in this piece. My mentor, Charles Brindley, hasn't seen this, as I completed it at home. There is a lot underneath it, and a concentration on tensions of both texture and color, and I had fun with the palette knives and the brushes. I have promised myself to seek some softness and peace in my next abstract, but here is 

"terminal ascension", photo of 16x20 acrylic painting by scott merrick

On the more realistic side, a study of dusk at Cheatham Lake, my preferred local camping waterside, is underway. Charles has helped with this one with cutting insights on contrast and underpainting, along with color mixing suggestions. It's not finished but it is sneaking up on it, a process that is undercut every time I see something new in the iPhoto I took that delicious evening. I want to express calm here. Maybe that's the thing aforementioned: I work for expressing peace in my landscapes and my left-behind work, like "on the inside" and "rocky's ridge from rocky's ridge." Anyway, definitely a WIP, here is 

"dusk @ cheatham lake", photo of a work in progress, acrylics on 16x20 canvas by scott merrick

I'll end with a little humorousity (sic). My dear love-of-my-life was messing around in my studio closet, rearranging things as she will, and this painting on up-cycled scrap treated lumber (a medium I may well revisit) was maybe precariously propped up on the door trip above the closet door. I'm not sure how, but it decided to drop from its perch right on her noggin, falling to the floor. I'm not sure if it broke on her head or on the floor, but break it did. This one doesn't have a name, as is sometimes my wont, but, anyway, I propped it up on the floor and in between the two halves I placed a curio I purchased in a thrift store years ago, an incense burner just tacky enough to have caught my eye. I sort of like the staging and may do some media work to make it a permanent piece. What should I call it?

"untitled", acrylics on treated scrap lumber, by scott merrick

We are journeying overseas in a couple of weeks, for a couple of weeks. We'll be in Spain excepting for one brief outing into France near San Sebastian, staying in only 4 overnight hotels over a period of 17 days, and hopping from one to the other via train and plain. The trip was planned through consultations with the (highly recommended) RH Travel Design here in Nashville, and we are soooooo looking forward to it. It's all upscale accommodations and travel, and we both are expecting, literally, the trip of a lifetime. There are LOTS of food, wine, cultural, and art experiences built in along the way, along with ample down time to explore or just relax together. I'll be documenting, most likely, but don't hold me to that, and don't expect anything while it's underway. I plan to be here now, there, in my most present ways. Think good thoughts about safe travel for us--we are all in. 

For all the slum bag lurker thieves out there, our good friends Matt and Anitra will be staying here with our killer dog Watson, and the NCA alarm system will be in use. Don't even think about it.

To everyone else, regardless of your politics or any other enlightened or misguided beliefs, I hope your days will be good and that you will remain safe and well and alive as we roll around the center of the planet and circle around the good ol' sun.