We’re still wearing masks and practicing the covid health guidelines; we’ll continue to do so as long as the scourge is still around. We’ve been on a flower-planting binge and the place is looking brighter thanks to Freddie’s choices of annuals and unusual perennials, some of which are downright tropical. Some are compliments of the magnificent Genevieve Flynn Garden in Brookside.

The May g-sculpture opening at the Hilliard Gallery was postponed, and post-postponed to First Friday in August, so there’s that. Working on piece number fourteen which is an homage to Franz Kline on a car door. His strength of line and energy just blows me away since I first encountered it in art school. Then, piece fifteen is a much more complicated work about eight feet tall with a cross made of a very old shotgun, a chrome crosspiece, a big clockface, topped with a raven. The base is a heavy rusty old piece of machinery. This will be the signature piece for the show—I hope it’s as theatrical and darkly compelling as it is in my mind’s eye. I thank Steve Graue for the shotgun and clockface. He’s the proprietor of the New Lancaster General Store & Winery.

The first twelve pieces are wall hangings, industrial abstracts, and I was pleased with the results. I ain’t done yet in this sculpture game. Number thirteen is titled “Open Mic in the Crossroads” (not our Crossroads, Robert Johnson’s Crossroads) and it involves an old breadboard radio receiver and some vaunted legendary blues artists (Chester Arthur “Howlin’ Wolf” Burnett, Nehemiah Curtis “Skip” James, Robert Johnson and Lemon Henry “Blind Lemon” Jefferson).

Not to sound too woo-woo or twilight zonish here, but I was barely conscious of doing these things until done. Except for some heavy lifting. I’d like that semi-fugue state to last throughout the preparation for this show. The theme? For Sale. Not mystical at all.

Two more books coming late fall. A third poetry collection titled “I Was In The Vicinity,” Pski’s Porch Publishing, and a book of essays titled “Chickens One Day, Feathers The Next,” from Black Opal Books.

A nice blurb from Whitney Terrell (The Good Lieutenant) a favorite author, reads, “Guinotte Wise’s essay collection, Chickens One Day, Feathers The Next, is a rollicking Harley Davidson ride down a fascinating and vibrant Route 66 of American culture. Vietnam, jazz, art, advertising, horses, publishing—it’s all here. Wise embraces his subjects with gusto, humor, and the full-throated awe of a writer who has lived one hell of a life. If you love the late Jim Harrison’s work, you’ll want to read Wise.”

More great blurbs from authors Suanne Schafer and D.K. Smith whose books are available on Amazon and other sites (and great reads for your summer TBR list).

The latest books will join the first five on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and other sites, maybe a bookstore or two as well. Perhaps some libraries.

Bit of a wet blanket for an end to this: summer’s here, and people are sick and damn tired of social distancing and safety-first type thinking about covid-19. But it’s still very much with us. In Miami County alone, the stats on the covid map show a 3X increase in cases in the past two weeks. The following is an excerpt about something called “reactance.”

 “Behavioral scientists have long studied the idea of reactance, a concept pioneered by Jack Brehm in 1966. In his words, psychological reactance refers to the idea that when individual freedoms are “reduced or threatened with reduction,” people tend to be “motivationally aroused to regain” those freedoms. That is, when you tell me what to do, a part of me feels compelled to do the opposite.” I can sure relate to that. But in this instance I’ll stick with the guidelines.

Stay safe.