Thursday, January 27, 2011
Friday, January 14, 2011
Deep snow
Snow was still falling Wednesday, January 12th, when we headed out to try and clear things up a bit. Donna is keeping warm while shoveling in her dayglow orange coat. Late Wednesday was clean-up from the two feet of snow. There was 22 + inches at Bradley Field, south and west of here. The "shallowest" snow in a trough formed by the wind was 16 inches.
Yesterday we strapped on snowshoes and made our best effort to create some new paths for Rosie. The video doesn't show her making her own paths, diving like a dolphin. In the paths Donna and I created she blazes around, looking for all the world like a racehorse on a track...and running out of track fast.
Each time we go out all we can say is "AMAZING". Trees look shorter~ I look shorter...how can that be? Oh cruel world!
Monday, January 10, 2011
To Fall From the Sky
There have been several incidents of birds simply falling dead from the sky in mass quantities, thousands at a time. Fish and crabs are also affected...creating a disturbing series of events, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8244044/Bird-deaths-timeline-of-the-mysterious-bird-deaths.html
events and news that are now eclipsed by the Arizona shooting tragedy. That is as it should be but it all feels just a bit apocalyptic. It leaves a queasy feeling in my belly...what is to be done?
In the same vein there was a news clip of a meeting between officials in Louisiana and one man was shouting that they had gone easy on the fish and game people, refraining from releasing photos of how bad things still are in the heavily oiled coastal areas. Since I am cataloguing images for use in artwork about the oil spill I know there are more photos to be had. I have no doubt some are not being published and it isn't for the good of the public.
I hate to be paranoid, but who can be trusted to monitor these wildlife and environmental knowns and unknowns? With deadly events spread across multiple US states and even to other countries, no one thing can explain it all. After the bird deaths I saw an environmentalist interviewed on the Today show. He made us all look like idiots, raving that animals are dying everywhere and quoting statistics for manatees dying in the Florida cold. Yes, he was correct, but he didn't come close to answering questions or making observations regarding the bird deaths.
Bird falling dead from the sky resonates in some dark way. Mass kills happen in natural ways...lightning and hail for example...what kind of natural disaster kills fish AND crabs AND birds in seperate mass incidents? I await scientific answers.
As for another headline: Arizona Talk Radio Hosts Deny Responsibility
I lived in Arizona when the new kind of rabid talk radio was born there and the heated rhetoric always sounded like a call to arms. I think any strong pacifist or champion of free speech would find the airwaves out there challenging and someone with a distorted fear or hatred could be fueled to violence. To me only true thing is that readily available firearms increase the likelihood of deadly tragedies.
Other frightening news this month, seperate incidents of alteration...the erasing of words from classic literature and the airbrushing of historic images. One was rendered by an "authority" on Mark Twain and the other museum mounting a show with World War II photos.
Curiouser and curiouser...
In the same vein there was a news clip of a meeting between officials in Louisiana and one man was shouting that they had gone easy on the fish and game people, refraining from releasing photos of how bad things still are in the heavily oiled coastal areas. Since I am cataloguing images for use in artwork about the oil spill I know there are more photos to be had. I have no doubt some are not being published and it isn't for the good of the public.
I hate to be paranoid, but who can be trusted to monitor these wildlife and environmental knowns and unknowns? With deadly events spread across multiple US states and even to other countries, no one thing can explain it all. After the bird deaths I saw an environmentalist interviewed on the Today show. He made us all look like idiots, raving that animals are dying everywhere and quoting statistics for manatees dying in the Florida cold. Yes, he was correct, but he didn't come close to answering questions or making observations regarding the bird deaths.
Bird falling dead from the sky resonates in some dark way. Mass kills happen in natural ways...lightning and hail for example...what kind of natural disaster kills fish AND crabs AND birds in seperate mass incidents? I await scientific answers.
As for another headline: Arizona Talk Radio Hosts Deny Responsibility
I lived in Arizona when the new kind of rabid talk radio was born there and the heated rhetoric always sounded like a call to arms. I think any strong pacifist or champion of free speech would find the airwaves out there challenging and someone with a distorted fear or hatred could be fueled to violence. To me only true thing is that readily available firearms increase the likelihood of deadly tragedies.
Other frightening news this month, seperate incidents of alteration...the erasing of words from classic literature and the airbrushing of historic images. One was rendered by an "authority" on Mark Twain and the other museum mounting a show with World War II photos.
Curiouser and curiouser...
January Thaw
It has been too long since I sat down to write. It was a good Fall/Holiday season, getting work out and getting around with it. It is time for all those January chores but there are some good bonus activities...new art shows and wedding planning. Then not so great new activities...Donna's job search and wrangling with the former employer. Sustained cold here has meant indoor nesting, but we get out with the pup and our snowshoes, a gift last Christmas, are finally getting some use this year. In fact, it was possible to snowshoe all but two days since the December 26 blizzard. Snow falls and stays, unusual in the last couple of years.
My thaw isn't the temperature, it is a melting of the casing that seems to envelope my brain when the holidays are past and winter is totally set in. There is new work and a new office in which Donna and I can work together. We yanked out our old desks, which nearly filled the room. Instead we put together a couple of Ikea pieces and refashioned an 8 foot countertop along one wall for us both to pull up to the computers. For the first time we have an event calendar we both share. THAT has never happened in the 7 years we have been together! An Ikea sofa table is serving as an office credenza and we have more bins and baskets for storing stuff than ever before. The whole thing is painted a Sea Sage green and the room is far more calming than before, especially with Rosie curled up in my grandmother's old pink chair behind us.
I have to be honest and own up that I have let Donna's working from home interfere with my art-making productivity. It is too easy to keep tapping away on the computer next to her and less easy to tear away and make work, which has put me a bit behind for a late January show. I have a new Gulf Oil Spill work in progress although these are just for art sake, I am not quite sure if anyone will want to own one!
It always seems that when it comes to distractions the art-making is the biggest loser, the easiest to derail. When I was working here by myself I simply put on my headphones and went for 5 or 6 hours at a time. I ignored the phone and the door and anything else that got in the way. Anyone who is self-employed understands there is far more to earning a living than simply producing whatever it is you sell. Sometimes I look up from my morning e-mail it is nearly noon. Time to start setting a timer to be sure I move away from the computer.
But the computer led me to a very cool person just this Saturday. Just in one phone conversation, after some rapidly exchanged e-mails, helped us pull in to focus a whole different project~ a delicious distraction if there ever was one! So I am off to manage multiple priorities. All right, truth told, ATTEMPT to manage...
My thaw isn't the temperature, it is a melting of the casing that seems to envelope my brain when the holidays are past and winter is totally set in. There is new work and a new office in which Donna and I can work together. We yanked out our old desks, which nearly filled the room. Instead we put together a couple of Ikea pieces and refashioned an 8 foot countertop along one wall for us both to pull up to the computers. For the first time we have an event calendar we both share. THAT has never happened in the 7 years we have been together! An Ikea sofa table is serving as an office credenza and we have more bins and baskets for storing stuff than ever before. The whole thing is painted a Sea Sage green and the room is far more calming than before, especially with Rosie curled up in my grandmother's old pink chair behind us.
 |
| 8 X 10" scratchboard in progress |
 |
| sketched first |
It always seems that when it comes to distractions the art-making is the biggest loser, the easiest to derail. When I was working here by myself I simply put on my headphones and went for 5 or 6 hours at a time. I ignored the phone and the door and anything else that got in the way. Anyone who is self-employed understands there is far more to earning a living than simply producing whatever it is you sell. Sometimes I look up from my morning e-mail it is nearly noon. Time to start setting a timer to be sure I move away from the computer.
But the computer led me to a very cool person just this Saturday. Just in one phone conversation, after some rapidly exchanged e-mails, helped us pull in to focus a whole different project~ a delicious distraction if there ever was one! So I am off to manage multiple priorities. All right, truth told, ATTEMPT to manage...
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