From my commonplace book:

I finally had to cancel
the rest of my appointments
and go home for the day.
I was distracted,
and that’s when you run the risk
of leaving the perm on too long,
or cutting the bangs too short,
or putting the crimp in sideways
and your life
isn’t worth
two cents.
Sisters will forgive you a lot,
but do not
f@ck up their hair.
—Pearl Clege, What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day

Well, guess what I learned today?

The term grawlix refers to the series of typographical symbols (such as @#$%&!) used in cartoons and comic strips to represent swear words. Plural: grawlixes. Also known as jarns, nittles, and obscenicons, grawlixes usually appear in maledicta balloons alongside the comic characters who are uttering the oaths. The term grawlix was introduced by American comic artist Mort Walker (creator of Beetle Bailey) in the article “Let’s Get Down to Grawlixes.”

I was already entertained by revisiting the excerpt above from Pearl Clege’s novel, What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day. Then, bonus: new vocabulary—grawlixes! maledicta balloons!

On my easel:

Using techniques and information gleaned from the Michelle Nyberg class that’s inspired my recent work, I want to try my hand at a few more pieces, this time with light value backgrounds, so I marked off some 4 x 6″ spaces on a sheet of watercolor paper and got busy painting, layering, marking, and printing.