Wow~ great month, good show!

I was grateful to fall into a one-woman show as artist-of-the-month at Aetna, here in Hartford CT. Lots of people in our geographical area have been employed by some big companies, but not me...so the whole place seems HUGE! I have come and gone through the loading dock a number of times and the conduit for cold drinking water has to have a 3 foot radius. But stuff is selling nicely and people there have been so great. I hadn't advertised two of the pieces anywhere else because they are so new...and now they are going to live with someone else! I couldn't be happier!

Morning Mayhem

I have no one to blame but myself. I have suddenly moved from garden maintenance straight into full harvest and I don't own any canning jars! I am pretty sure my mom will share her equipment, perhaps even pass it on. After 50 years of gardening and canning the folks are just about finished. But that doesn't mean there isn't commentary. Moments ago I heard my father's farm cart pull away from the front step...and there it was...

Drive by squashing

I took the pup out for our morning stroll yesterday and caught the man circling quietly about the compound. He warned me I had cucumbers to harvest. It seemed impossible. Perhaps there is one, I thought, but I was so very wrong. 10 more for our house and 7 for Mom. The father was not mistaken. I believe I have underestimated the capacity here.

Over the weekend Donna and I caught up to the garden...or tried to. It took a lawnmower and much hand weeding to get us back into shape after weeks of heat and no rain and other priorities. I was sure I had harvested well enough to skip a day. But no...we are to the point of daily harvest. At last!!! The moment I was anticipating since March! And how could I have been so unprepared?

I pictured how the days of August would be. I would roll out of bed ready to face the day. First, get Rosie out. Let her run around pretty well and then we would pitter patter around the garden selecting succulent veggies for a gourmet supper. The way I love it...breakfast from the tomato vine. Back to work in the studio all day and another walk before making dinner...cut through the garden gate and just brush against the tomato vines and the basil...pick some flowers for the table.

Okay. I know no one but me is surprised how different reality is. This is the actual way the day has gone:

Get up early to shower.

Take the dog out to pee before the trip to camp...doggy day care.

The dog won't pee. If she holds it maybe I won't leave.

I take her back inside.

I rifle through all my various bags for keys, grocery lists, coupons.

This is the activity that tipped off the dog of my imminent departure. 

Again!  I have allowed the cell phone to die without charging.

Borrow Donna's phone for the day.

Drive dog to camp.

Drive Donna to work because in order to be environmentally responsible AND avoid a car payment we have become a one car family.

Drop my darling off and head to Hartford.

The inevitable traffic.

I pick up my friend Cathleen and we head to Whole Foods to shop and have breakfast.

I find MORE than what I need at Whole Foods. A $9.99 vanilla bean? One bean? Really?

Cathleen and I sit down to eat and we can't have a conversation...

there is a raucous meeting of men behind us and we are both hard of hearing.

Load up groceries and head to a store that has a coupon and sale on frames.

Wander around calculating, finally putting some in the cart.

Helpfully pull things together for the cashier while I should have been searching for my credit card.

Watch the line become absurdly long for 9:00 a.m.

Give up the search. Pay cash.

Hit the bank for cash...not sure if the bank HAS cash after this week on Wall St..

As I drop Cathleen back at ArtSpace an alarm sounds.

In my car.

????Low fuel? I have never seen that giant orange square before...and did I mention the alarm?

Ha! I can beat those high gas prices with my Stop & Shop gas rewards!

Drive 10 miles to Stop & Shop gas station.

Wait a long time in line.

Get to the pump and find I do not have the new fancy purple card that gives the gas rewards.

And then there is the alarm...and the line.

Pump 5 gallons and called it a fill up.

Go to grocery store for items that were too pricey in Whole Foods,

stuff I need to put up crops from the garden.

Scan and bag my own groceries as I go and head to the self-check-out lane.

(In high school I got paid to check groceries)

Coupon dealy-doo keeps yelling "coupons full"

Does anyone else in the store find that

know-it-all talking witch of a cash register speaks very loud?

Live cashier helps but not without a subtle but unmistakable 

adults-are-SO-stupid eye roll.

The woman in the machine insists I slide a coupon into the slot...

A coupon that is in fact IN the slot.

The woman in the machine takes back my discount, only it seems she is more quiet with the stealing-my-money part.

Try to catch the eye of eye-roll girl.

Race out of the store and throw everything in the car...I have frozen stuff...gotta beat this sun...

Look for the receipt and realize in my haste I must have left it in the store.

Head back in...and slowly realize I do not have a receipt because

I LEFT WITHOUT PAYING!!!!!

Run faster, searching for cops or other authorities mobilizing.

Think about my defense...

Skulk into the check-out lane and find the woman in the machine has not stopped talking to me,

despite the fact I was long gone. This is now a good thing.

Finish and pay, retrieving the receipt that PROVES I saved $17 in coupons

and quietly exit the store.

As I am getting in the car I look at my "gas rewards" total.

They have started my gas rewards over again. 

I have no gas rewards.

Head home, unload groceries.

Look down and find frozen fruit pop melted 

in pink blotches all over my new white shirt.

Soak the shirt...

And here I am. I am not making art. I am not pickling cucumbers and making cucumber soup. I am not walking the dog or strolling through the garden. In fact I am actually paying someone else to wear the dog down. I haven't started dinner. When I am through here I think I will have spent a good chunk of my afternoon whining on a blog no one will ever read again if I DON"T MAKE SOME ART and get it up here. And in a little bit I will head out to pick up my sweet wife from work and my sweet dog from camp.

But life is good. My sweet dog is always glad to see me. My sweet wife never, ever says "whatever did you do with your day??!!" and she likes it when the three of us stroll through the garden together and she never minds when dinner is late and she is happy to help cook and still clean up. It could be so much worse....the woman in the register could have been my only friend today...but I had Cathleen and Jane and sunshine with lower humidity and rain for the garden last night.

Sure, I am behind in work and chores...but what good is growing stuff if I don't stop and drink it all in?

Installed at Aetna

There is a gallery space outside the cafeteria on Aetna's Hartford campus. Artists selected have a month to show their work and give a gallery talk at the end of that month. I took 23 pieces and hung 20 because that is how many cables there were to the hanging system~ a typical rail with hanging wires system.

Hopefully I can get some feedback about two new pieces I made in late July. I love mixed media and collage but I rarely include those pieces in shows. After the hydrangea-all-over-everything for Barb and Nate's wedding I was burnt and bored with plain old drawing. I made myself a challenge: new pieces that fit in a #10 envelope...you know, regular business size. I have a ton of odd envelopes hanging around, gluing themselves closed over time. The idea was to send thank you notes but...I liked one of the pieces too much to send away! 

There are a number of pieces in the Aetna gallery I have not shown before. August 21 I am participating in a plein air painting event at Valley Falls in Vernon. I haven't painted outside with anyone else in a while and I am wondering if I should get on my horse (so to speak) right now and join the Tolland County Artists' Association Tuesday Painters. They won't be too far from here and I can figure out if my approach to outdoor art will be too bizarre. The Valley Falls area is near and dear to my heart and I want to be sure to make something there that will sell~ a portion of the proceeds go to the Friends of Valley Falls.

All right. With just a few chances at a dry run with other painters I had best get my shy self over there. We will see how it goes...