Fingerplay

"Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art."

-- Leonardo da Vinci

These are my fingers.

Finger faces 10-11-13

These are my fingers in disguise.

Finger faces in disguise 10-11-13

"In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine."

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"I'd like to see a flag made not out of stars and stripes, 

but rather fingers and knuckles, 

so that it could really wave in the wind."

-- Jarod Kintz, 

The Days of Yay are Here! Wake Me Up When They're Over

On the other hand

"These fingers of mine, they got brains in 'em."

-- Jerry Lee Lewis

A handful of zombie faces 10-7-13

"Try to have as diverse a group as friends as possible 

and don't get into the clique scenario."

-- Andrew Shue

"On the other hand, you have different fingers."

-- Steven Wright

This is my hand, disguised as a band of paparazzi-crazed zombies.

Seriously, they were all like, "Take our picture! Take our picture!"

(Well, it sounded like "Mmmwarrrrah ggghrrrllllll!" So I checked with Google translator and they were in fact saying "Take our picture!")

So I took their picture.

Hey, I wasn't about to make a handful of tiny zombies mad at me.

They may not have bodies, but I'll bet they can scuttle along just fine on those creepy, bony, over-sized arms and hands they have growing straight out of their zombie necks.

I wasn't taking any chances.

Besides, just look how happy it made them.

Giving insomnia the finger (actually four fingers because I hate it that much)

“Every time you come in yelling that God damn "Rise and Shine!" "Rise and Shine!"
I say to myself, "How lucky dead people are!”

-- Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie

Fingers with cutout faces, one in stitches 7-8-13

“Do you wake up as I do, having forgotten what it is that hurts or where, until you move? 

There is a second of consciousness that is clean again. 

A second that is you, without memory or experience,

the animal warm and waking into a brand new world.”

-- Jeanette Winterson

“I didn't want to wake up.

 I was having a much better time asleep. 

And that's really sad.”

-- Ned Vizzini, It's Kind of a Funny Story

A touchy subject

"Only a girl like this
can know what's happened to you.
If she were here she would
reach out her arms towards
you now, and touch you
with her absent hands
and you would feel nothing, but you would be
touched all the same.”

-- Margaret Atwood, "Girl Without Hands"

Self portrait 6-11-13

  

“I know it’s hard for you to allow yourself to feel this. 

You've gone so long training yourself to block the feelings and emotions out 

any time someone touches you.” 

-- Colleen Hoover, Hopeless

"When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us,

we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures,

have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds 

with a warm and tender hand."

-- Henri Nouwen

Gettin' my glow on

“Whatever you are physically...male or female, strong or weak, ill or healthy --

all those things matter less than what your heart contains. 

If you have the soul of a warrior, you are a warrior. 

All those other things, they are the glass that contains the lamp, but you are the light inside.”

-- Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Angel

 

Self portrait 6-3-13

“Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. 

No matter how fast light travels, 

it finds the darkness has always got there first, 

and is waiting for it.”

-- Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man  

“But you can't stay in the dark for so long. 

Something inside of you starts to fade 

and you become like a starving person, crazy-hungry for light.”

-- Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club

You're nobody 'til thumbody loves you

"Do not underestimate the power of the Thumb!"

                                                             -- Black Helmut Man, Thumb Wars: The Phantom Cuticle

Thumb face with cutout eyes, bandana and a cowboy hat 5-9-13

Under my thumb
The girl who once had me down
Under my thumb
The girl who once pushed me around

It's down to me
The difference in the clothes she wears
Down to me, the change has come,
She's under my thumb

Ain't it the truth, babe? 

-- The Rolling Stones, "Under My Thumb"

Tangled up in blue

 

“You can keep as quiet as you like, 

but one of these days somebody is going to find you.”

                                   

         -- Haruki Murakami, IQ84

Self portrait 5-2-13

 

“She had blue skin,
And so did he.
He kept it hid
And so did she.
They searched for blue
Their whole life through,
Then passed right by --
And never knew.”

                                                                                 -- Shel Silverstein, Everything On It

 

Oh, say, can you see?

"People are forever watching things. They should be seeing. 

 I see the things I look at. I am a see-er."

                                                                                  -- Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear

Self portrait 4-9-13

“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you 

because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places.”

                                                                                                      -- Roald Dahl

Don't let me get me

Who needs monsters? Usually I am my own worst enemy.

Self portrait 1-22-13

Keep your fingers crossed

I made this portrait of these "faces" as a birthday gift for my very lovely and super amazing friend Jill. Jill lives far away right now, so I couldn't give her a real birthday hug. I sent her this virtual one instead. Jill is one of (if not the) smartest, funniest women I know. She writes books. She travels the world. She drinks $3 Wal Mart wine out of a Harry Potter butterbeer mug. Jill is the kind of friend adventurous enough to ride on the back of my motorcycle when no one else will. I hope that Jill is my friend forever and ever. I have my fingers crossed.

Birthday hug 1-17-13