A strange and mournful day

Possibly a lot of us Boomers have Simon & Garfunkel song titles running through our heads. But they were, among many others of course, the bards of the generation. I still listen to the Concert in Central Park CD quite frequently.

But I would have come up with that title anyway, because today is a strange and mournful day. Today, in Boston, tanks topped with heavy artillery rolled through the streets of nearby Watertown...all in search of a single, supposedly armed alleged bomber.

Note: Alleged. He has been caught, questioned, tried and convicted only by the American military, media and the hundreds of thousands who sat still for being locked down in their homes to catch one, single 20-something man they were told killed and maimed their fellow citizens. One might well ask what happened to the presumption of innocence first codified in England and accepted--even lionized--by the former colonies. One might ask. And one will ask a bit later today on my Cafe de Flore blog.

At the moment, despite all the totally scary totalitarian happenings in my once-and-never homeland, I had to find something to love, something to celebrate, something to feed my soul.

I found paintbrushes. I have oil painting brushes by only three manufacturers; Winsor & Newton, Daler & Rowney, and ProArte.

Anyone who has heard me wax poetic about the quality of Winsor & Newton paints might expect I'd be enamored of their brushes. I am. They work well. The sort of ergonomic shape of them does, I think, make them lighter and easier to handle than others.

Daler & Rowney brushes are acceptable. They work fine.

But the ProArte brushes are, in themselves, things of beauty. They work well. I particularly like their filberts, which clean up better than most. But I love the look o them The handles are of wood, highly polished and somewhat impervious to being loaded down with dribs and drabs of whatever color I'm using today, yesterday...Their color is mahogany, with little flecks of black. The polished surface reflects an almost textural quality, but they are smooth as silk. I simply love the look of those brushes.

Maybe that causes me to be more careful in grabbing them in grubby mitts; maybe it causes me to take an imperceptible bit more care when cleaning them than I do with the Winsor & Newtons or Daler & Rowneys. Maybe.

I won't, probably, go and buy only ProArte brushes from now on, now that I've discovered how fine they are in a very personal way. That would be a bit OCD, really. I do like them.

Well, OK then. If I have a choice, I'll pick up the ProArte, OCD be damned. I refuse to be hemmed in by a drive not to seem OCD.

I just like those brushes, so there.

ProArte Filbert, my favorite brush. (ProArte website)