The Labrat

NIGHT
Friday night set hard in my brain, it wasn't that I couldn't think of an idea, it was that I couldn't think at all. My brain had all the mobility of chewing gum forever parked under a table in an old diner. I had painted Thursday night and all I had produced was a tiny piece of crapolla. The dried paint on my pallet plate was more interesting. I was tired and feeling grey, but the new theme word was "night" and it was now time to work on it.

Brain dead, I dutifully started drawing, it was easy enough, I can draw crap in my sleep, I drew crap. It was perfectly acceptable crap. I hated it. I looked at what I had done, and found it boring, unimaginative and trite. The gum in my head hardened further. I went outside and looked at the midnight sky, Orion rising in the east. What would the night be without stars? What people looked at the stars and saw giant men with clubs, flying horses, bears, lions and bulls? Who were they, what lives had they lived, what had been important to them? What had been their dreams?

Daytime is busy with all the everyday work and worry of the world but night, night is a time for dreaming. The work of the day is over, night gives time for visions, for thinking of the past and of the future, of seeing things that aren't really there, yet. But what would the night be without the moon, the stars and the ancient constellations which make visible the dreams of the past?

Stamps, United States Postal Service®

The wonderful, talented people of I-Friday had done their job. I had spent much time in the past couple of weeks viewing their dreams, I had been surprised, delighted and many times, been in awe of what I had discovered. Now those visions were dissolving the gum in my head, I felt it go with a pop. The stars of Orion had ignited an inner fire, and I had an idea that wouldn't be trite. I knew what I wanted to do and it would be fun, and if I've learned anything as an artist, it is that when you are having fun, the work isn't trite or boring. It might not be well thought out or perfect in execution, but it has a life of it's own.

I spent the night working on my "Night". I offer you the constellations found in my pallet, my visions of what I see after the work is done.

The Nightplate......

See if you can find all five of these in the plate.