An "Omenous" Morning

"Down the Hill" 9 x 12 Chalk pastel on flat canvas
Click here to view large or purchase  
I'm not a superstitious person, although I was as a child.  In fact, I probably would have been considered an obsessive-compulsive, as I believed that if I wore certain things, or lined my dolls up a certain way, good or bad things might happen.  Thankfully, I've grown out of that stuff.

We live in a rural area, although we are close to civilization.  This means that once the freeway sounds die down at night, we get to hear an abundance of owls.  My mom once informed me that hearing an owl means that someone is going to die.  I explained to her that we hear them every night, and we were still here.  If anything, the owls were a blessing because they helped keep the mouse population down, and less mice hopefully means less rattlesnakes.  This is typically my reaction to such beliefs.

I'm not above the occasional attack of foreboding, though.  Our usual favorite market was out of bread yesterday, so I went around the corner to a market I'd never shopped at to see if they had any.  They did, but the market was so dark and full of unsavory-looking items, I had a claustrophobic reaction and had to get the heck out of there, fast.  This left me feeling jumpy the rest of the day, especially since I tend to panic in larger stores rather than small ones (if you want to torture me, take me to a Wal-Mart!)

Fast-forward to this morning, when I cracked open a couple of eggs for breakfast.  Two yolks slid out of one of the eggs, prompting an immediate internet search for whether or not the egg was safe to eat (I'm already a pretty squeamish vegetarian when it comes to eggs).  Of course, there are plenty of superstitions about a double-yolked egg: anywhere from imminent death in the family to marriage to good fortune in the form of double blessings.  Since I'm already married and don't want anyone to die, I'm going to accept the double yolk as a sign of good things to come. 

I already feel quite fortunate in my painting journey these days.  The painting above was done with chalk pastel dipped directly in water and layered with dry chalk, and I am finding this method to be perfectly suited to my current painting needs (dries quickly, little to no dust, can pick it up at any time and fix mistakes with a little water). 

I don't know if the double-yolk superstition includes anything about eating the egg, since I do have to be careful with cholesterol I gave the extra yolk to the pets, who quite enjoyed it.

If you'd like to see more of my latest works, visit my fine art website.

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