Poison Ivy

Bokusho - Dansu (dance) 43x36

It's Baackkk! What devil plant pops up just after dogwoods and azaleas have finished a riotous spring display? Especially in woodlands that have seen little or no interference for many years? You got it! It's the one downside to this adventure of reclaiming a lakeside, woodland residence we sold and rebought after 20+ years. My memories of total body, itchy exposure back then will never fade. So I've been taking utmost care as I rip out the long vines that run underground and up trees. Even so, I've got it again. Just one elbow area, not the big coverage... this time!

Just wanted to pass along a couple of helpful hints to battle the itch. Sometimes spit helps if nothing else is available and a spot is beginning to vibrate. Have been told by the 'good ole boys' who take down trees for us that a Clorox bath prevents an outbreak, it seemed to do the trick for me on a finger exposure once, and today I tried black coffee because I was in the middle of something and didn't want to go looking for cortisone cream (which is useless for me anyway.) Twice now, a few drops of coffee has caused the itch to completely cease within moments!

Tying in to this conversation in ways you might not get at first, is the above painting, also recently completed. I'd been trying to work stripes into this series ever since a saw a loooong horizontal striped sumi-e painting in a Korean restaurant some months ago. The next time I had the ink and rice paper out, I pulled some long stripes to see what I could do with them, but nothing computed until I tore them up and went back to the grid. I really like the way it turned out, but look at it closely for a few moments... it vibrates! Or 'makes your eyes dance' as we used to say about certain patterns. Hence the title as well as the tie in to vibrating poison ivy spots.