Mat Twassel: Blog

And thanks very much to Ashley for contributing a celebratory poem. I'm on vacation this month, with somewhat limited computer time and sporadic internet, so I'm grateful for the help in filling the slot.

I posted "The Price of Gas" and "Free Parking" this morning. While there's no real connection between them, I enjoy what congruence there is. "Free Parking" is a poem by Ashley, which I illustrated, but really it's the other way around, which is to say I did the picture a month or two ago (and I've forgotten what spurred it), and Ashley did the poem inspired by the picture. Sometimes it works the other other way around, which is to say someone sends me a poem (or a story) and I do an illustration for it. I enjoy these sorts of collaborations.

Mink Versus Marigolds

Yesterday I posted two stories with elderly main characters (Mink at the Blue Coyote Café and Marigolds). The codes are pretty much the same except Mink is illustrated. After one day, Mink is whomping Marigolds in the download count by almost two to one. (2725 to 1462). Should I take it that SOL readers prefer animals to flowers?

My story today (Canceled) features neither animals nor flowers, and the characters are not elderly. Possibly I should have put mystery in the story codes.

Recently I read Chris Bohjalian's new novel Hour of the Witch. It's set in Boston around 1660 and concerns a young woman who is battered by her well-to-do husband but is unable to get a divorce. The mentality of that society disturbed me. I'm glad I didn't live back then. But I have to wonder if people living 400 years from now (assuming there are people) will think the same thing about people living in 2021.

Yesterday I was thinking about colors. Perhaps like most people, I recognize appealing color combinations and unappealing color combinations. But except by trial and error I'm not able to "create" appealing color combinations. I have to see it to get it; I can't visualize it out of thin air. There are perhaps a few exceptions, and some of these relate to sex. I can picture (and with pleasure) the colors or a woman's nipple and areola, the delicate hues of her vulva, the shades of her anus. Shows where my mind's at, I guess.

This morning my illustrated story "Condom Capers" appears here on SOL. The story owes to some suggestions by ChewToyHuey. Thanks ChewToy!

In my two little stories today, rain interrupts picnics. The picnickers make the best of the situation.

I hope your Sunday is full of sunshine, but whether it is or not, have a great day!