Staring at the Sun

And a well timed vocabulary lesson

The Greek word for sun, helios, was one of the root words we learned in our vocabulary class this week—along with the Latin words for sun and moon— sol and luna¹.

A picture I sketched while eclipse viewing …notice our parasol²

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Some people have the ability to organize their days down to the last minute, and a daily planner is their secret weapon.

I am the exact opposite.  I completely lack the ability to utilize a daily planner.  I get all claustrophobic and rebellious seeing my days tucked neatly into little boxes.

I apologize for reposting this picture, but as you can see, I’ve not used this daily planner for its original purpose.

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Because I homeschool my kids and I am aware of these particular flaws of mine, I buy curricula that are already put together for me. All I have to do is open up to the day’s lesson and follow the instructions. I don’t usually look ahead, so helios, sol, and luna were a marvelous case of surprise serendipity. I didn’t know they were coming.

A pair of eclipse viewing glasses in my hand

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As we were watching the eclipse—our faces upturned not unlike heliotropes³—another heliocentric surprise burned its way into my thoughts. Staring at the sun— I remembered there was a song of the same name by The Offspring that I used to like; that I used to have— and it was flooding back to me word for word.  I found it on the internet, played it…and fell down a rabbit hole of musical nostalgia that ended in feelings of deep regret and utter lunacy⁴ at having thrown out my CD collection years ago because it was taking up too much space.

All my music lives here now.

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Listening to some of my old favorites, I had to laugh because I heard the same independent and defiant spirit that I still feel kindled in my heart, and though it has caused me some trouble, being quietly rebellious has led me down a good path most of the time. And I have to wonder if the music ignited that spark or if I recognized in the music the comfort of a kindred spirit that understood why I can’t make plans in little boxes or do what I’m told.

Speaking of boxes…. We are studying cubism: Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. We never made it to Paul Klee last week so he’s back on the menu today. We picked up some helianthuses⁵ for our still life practice, too. Our art class is the only course that I have put together myself (cobbled together from different sources and books) and I am immensely thankful for the talents of those who organize and write curricula; making it easy for someone as unorganized and unstructured as me to teach.

Thank you for being part of my scribbles and my glee over our fun and well timed vocab words (full list at the bottom, if you are curious). I’m hoping to squeeze in a little heliotherapy this weekend with an outdoor sketch or two. I hope you have a beautiful weekend, and I couldn’t resist leaving you with a few pieces of my sun and moon art…

Heavenly Bodies, woodcut, 2004 (sun and moon in boxes!)

Guess I’ll follow me, I said. Mixed media, 2020

Moon Dreams, Mixed Media on wood panel, 2023

The Moon Lends Me Her Calm (sold)

A thought he swung quietly along on the night. Mixed media, 2021

If you’d like to browse more of my art, my Etsy has originals and there are a few more links to stuff here.

-Jenn

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Full vocab list:

1. English From The Roots Up by Joégil K. Lundquist is the book we use. It’s awesome.

2. Parasol: from the Italian parare- to ward off + sol . I had no idea/never considered the sol at the end came from sun. I thought this was a very fun discovery!

3. Tropos = turn, generally referring to plants that turn toward the sun as it moves across the sky.

4. Moon induced madness- I have used this word my whole life not knowing it was derived from luna. It can also be used as just plain old madness.

5. Sunflowers