Daffodils

I am now on Flickr

Check out my new Flickr page! Yay! I am so excited. I tried Picassa for a long time, but I could not get the hang of it. My photos were all organized in a dumb way, (I think that is called 'dis-organized')and the Blogger interface never worked well for me. Maybe it had something to do with Firefox, I don't know. Regardless, I am now happily on Flickr and invite all y'all (both of you) to come on over.

the late winter garden

The daffodyls this year are just great, I was more dilligent with the bone meal this last year, and Payoff! yay.

I love the pale yellow petals, with the bright cup.

This witch hazel is one of my favorite shrubs in the garden. It smells like orange blossoms. Fantasic on a winter day

.

My sister gave me this hellebore. It starts blooming in January and has blooms through April. A must for any NW garden.

Carolyn's pictures from Form-Space-Light opening

Here are Carolyn's photos of my opening. Fun was had by all.

Good Morning!! It's the kitchen floor!

So this oughtta wake me up in the morning. Pay no attention to all the crap all over every single counter.

Pictures from my opening

This is the first wall as you enter the gallery.






Diedra and two guys I don't know...






Three of my favorite people: Carolyn, Scott (Hi Honey!) and Jay (Thanks Jay!).







There were alot of people through, this is actually early on, there were more people later. Someone told me that all the other galleries were dead, that my opening was definitely the party that night.







Here Sara is looking at the hoof! Hi Sara!





I didn't get very many pictures, I was busy working the crowd, I talked so much I actually got hoarse (no pun intended).

Finally, pictures from the Flower and Garden Show

I took pictures of things I wanted, like this Red Twig Dogwood



and this Indian Hawthorn -- it looks great paired with the lavendar

Verigated Box Leaf Euonymous


This Chief Joseph Lodge Pole Pine has beautiful light green needles, and I just love it, but it would get too big for my yard. Oh, and this photo is sideways. Huh. how about that.

I am totally re-doing my front garden, and want more structure to it. And plants like these are the way to go. Now all I need is money and an army. Of gardeners, you know, not a real army. Army men tend to shoot things. And you have to buy their clothes for them, and I really can't afford that. 

I have a show opening March 3rd

I have a show opening March 3rd, at a new gallery in Freemont called Light-Form-Space. The opening is from about 5 till 8 or maybe 10 or one.


It is titled "outside of a horse"

Scott designed the card, so it looks great.

The show runs until March 31 --

The gallery is open on weekends and by appointment, so if weekends aren't good for you, gimmie a call and I'll make sure you can see it.

So I had this very extensive, linked post

and then my computer crashed. @#$@%.

Anyway
I go the cutest, darlingest little tree called a Chamecyparis obtusa caespitosa (Hinoki Cypress) at the Flower and Garden Show last week.

It is currently 2 inces high and will get around 6 inces high -- I had links to lots of other examples of this very rare variety of Chamecyparis, but I am out of time here, so you will just have to look it up yourself.

My current favorite painting

Ok so here is a close up of that painting I revived that I started early last year, and didn't know what to do with.

I have this Kleenex box I have been carrying around for, honestly 15 or 17 years or so. You can see it in this picture -- it is the scrap you can see directly above the horsehead. You can't really make out what is going on, though....




So, yeah, whatever -- this kleenex box has bad painting of flowers all over it, and I just love it. So I am going to paint the kleenex box flowers all over my horsehead painting.


Yeah, so queen of blurry photos here. This is a rose, in case you couldn't tell.















This is a study I did of a tulip for the painting. I was afraid to paint the tulip, actually--I have never done a tulip. But I just knocked it out in like two hours, super easy.

The rose, on the other hand took about six hours. And I have painted a million roses. I think I may switch to tulips.

This is currently my favorite painting. I am just enjoying working on it. But the one I am working on is always the favorite.

I is for ifilm.com

Ok, this is a little insight into my psyche -- this is my Internet Alphabet. Here's how you can generate your own alphabet:

Type the letter 'a' into your location bar, copy the first URL that your browser autosuggests as a completion; repeat for letters 'b' through 'z'. Enjoy the horror.

(I mean really. "E on line? Jesus is Savior? When the heck did I go there? UPN??? I am so embarrased.)

http://www.airamericaplace.com/

http://www.blogger.com/home

http://www.cruel.com/

http://dot.metrokc.gov/roads/index.cfm

http://www.eonline.com/

http://www.fox.com/arresteddev/

http://www.google.com/

http://homestarrunner.com/

http://www.ifilm.com

http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/

http://kneetoe.blogspot.com/

http://www.landmarktheatres.com

http://www.metrokc.gov/kcdot/roads/cip/default.aspx

http://www.netflix.com

http://oldamericancentury.com/index.htm

http://www.painthorsejournal.com/

http://www.qwantz.com/fanart/11.gif

http://www.centeredriding.org/

http://www.sayulita.com/homes/olavista.htm

http://www.themorningnews.org/

http://www.upn.com/

http://verba.chromogenic.net/archives/2005/01/cameramail.html

www.wsdot.wa.gov

http://www.xenodochy.org/ex/thirteen.html

http://www.youtube.com/

http://www.zogby.com/

What I've been up to

Ok, I know these are sort of blurry, but if I waited for a perfect photo, I'd never post anything. This is very small, about 4 x 6"















This one is 18 x 22" and still has a long way to go. I started it back in March 05, and finally figured out what to do with it, so picked it up again.

Ceilings are great

Ok, So Scott put the ceiling up in the living room the other day. It makes such a huge difference. I always thought the ceiling was sort of low in there, but it is probably 12 feet. Maybe.











So here is a view of the sink area, you can see how much counter space there is now, and also see the red pendant lamp over the sink. I think it looks great.








This is the view of the fridge and stove, and you can see the little ufo track lighting.














Scott and Jake in the kitchen.

View from the Athenian

One of Scott's pieces.

This was out on a shelf in the living room, and I took a picture. This is a great piece.  
 

the hoof is finished!

Finally, I have finished the hoof. It is white crackle, with a pink hoof. oh, and it looks like the leg has been cut off.

The Kitchen Sink! And Christmas!

Here's the long-awaited picture of the sink-area of the kitchen. It is a little cluttered, but if I waited for it to be perfectly clean, no pictures would ever be posted.

I decorated the tree this weekend, and as always this year's is the prettiest one.

Here's a dirty little secret. I am a Trekkie. Not even a Trekker, but a Trekkie; you know, the ones looked down upon by the other 40-year old computer jockeys at the DragonCon. Not cool enough for nerds. That is bad. But I love my Hallmark Collectable USS Enterprise Holiday Orniment. It has flashing lights.

This little bird is one of a pair I got from my Grandma Franz. You clip them over a light and they glow what ever color the light was. They are porcelain. I like them.

Blog Against Racism

Today is Blog Against Racism day, so I will use today to relay some anecdotes about racism in my life. As you may or may not know, I have some native american somewhere in my foggy past, enough to know by looking at me that I ain't white enough. While I hardly think I have been discriminated against in my life (I live a charmed existence, mostly) I have encountered attitudes from people from time to time, letting me know that there was something wrong about me, and they didn't want me to think I was getting away with it or passing or anything.

I have just picked two incidents, inconsequential in the long run, but startling at the time. The first was from Middle School, this incomprehensibly evil kid named Robbie took it as his personal mission to make my life a living hell. He had a ton of names he called me; "Chink" and "Jap" were his two favorites for a long time -- (he didn't know I was indian, and I didn't think setting the record straight so he could call me by the correct epithet would help) . Then, I think, as an outgrowth of "Jap" he started calling me "nazi". I think because the japs were our enemies in WWII and so were the Nazis, so what the hell. He did this as a matter of course in front of Teachers and the Principal and the lunch ladies and no one ever thought to stop him. Did I mention this was in Texas? Of course it was. A ton of other things happened over my not being white enough, but that will have to wait for another time.

The other incident happened on September 12th, 2001; you know, The Day After. It was the end of the work day; I was rushing for my bus, and wanted to go to the bathroom really quick before I went out to the bus stop. I had a backpack on, and as I was rushing into the bathroom, the bathroom at my work, where I had worked for the last two years this lady sort of hysterically shouted at me (paraphrasing here, I can't remember precisely) "are you supposed to be here?" "What are you doing in here? What is in the bag?" Now I know on 9/12 we were all freaked out and everything, but that lady wouldn’t have batted an eye if I had been a blonde.

There are times I have had racist reactions to people, and for that I am sorry. It is something I think every American struggles with every day; and I for one, am going to keep fighting those impulses.

The Kitchen!! Woo!

Here is the Before Photo, right after we bought the house.

Then, the fridge and oven were on the other side of the room

Ok, now; moving right along... (ok it has been 4 years. Stop quibbling.)



Here is the kitchen with the drywall up, and no cabinets yet.

The sink is left of us in these photos. I need to take a picture of that, too. It is hard to tell what is going on, really.

And here it is with the counters in. The counter doors are being difficult, but I will keep you updated, gentle reader, I know how you worry.

It turns out I will do anything to keep from going to the gym.

It turns out I will do anything to keep from going to the gym.

Even go look at art.

If you need to avoid anything this month, you’re in luck, because there are some great shows out there.

I actually started out going to the post office (the holiday stamps are out!), and I had every intention of going right to the gym after I got back. However, I remembered Fay Jones was showing at Grover/Thurston this month. I have quite a soft spot for Fay Jones, she curated me into my very first art show, it was in Bellingham and that is all I remember about it, except that she chose my dear friend and wine drinking partner Carolyn Zick to win that show. I feel like alot of what Fay has been doing lately has been by the book for her, dutifully painting sailors dancing with women in polka-dotted dresses. This body of work, however, is beautifully nuanced and chock full of narrative content. A friend of mine told me he went to the opening, and his companion said to him: "I want to go, these paintings make me feel stupid." (ed note: no comment.) Jones usually paints on paper, but in the larger pieces she uses some specific Japanese paper (of course I didn't write down the name) that is the color of parchment. This buttery golden color is a great unifying factor behind the brushy sumi ink and acrylic. You can see where she restates features and moves things around as collage pieces, only to paint them out in the end. The top corners of the drawings are pierced through many times, recording her taking the painting up and down as she worked on it. All this evidence of touching the paintings gives them a melancholy--it gives it human characteristics. They are fragile and resilient all at once.

I also want to encourage you to go to Pacini Lubel, there are two very nice shows there. In the first gallery is the ever more noteable Adrian Arleo. Often skill in a medium can overshadow emotional depth, or the message is not serviced by the facility with the material -- in other words, people are often craftsmen or story tellers, but rarely both; Arleo's figures convey novels, while rarely dipping into the melodramatic, and are hugely skilled. In the back gallery at Pachini Lubel, Eric Bashor's pallet-knifed oil on linen is also on the must see list.

Now get out there you knuckleheads.

David Tallitsch in LineAge at The Drawing Center

My good friend David Tallitsch is in a show called LineAge at the Drawing Center. AND the show was reviewed by the New York Times -- yay!

In 2004 he collaborated with the poet John Ashbery to create Ignorance Of The Law Is No Excuse, a limited edition of 200. I have long been an admirer of David's work, and you can see examples here and a lot more here.

Clay horse parts

First off, I don't know what is up with the formatting and don't have time to troubleshoot, so forgive the annoying format.

Here is the clay horse head I have been working on. It has 3 coats of Milk Glass glaze on it, and I am ready to start painting.

This is the hoof-- it is made of porcelain -- the head was Vashon grey. The porcelain is much smoother and easier to work with.

Hoof view two. You still can't see the detail on this -- I painted the hair on with slip.

The begining of a drawing, this'll be very different when I get done with it. And yes, it is a threat.

Barbeque Table

table top

I have a little metal table I use next to the bbq. I painted it a while back, and am just now getting to posting.

Bbq table

More importantly, Scott and I went on a pizza binge this summer, getting the pre-made Larry's artichoke, sundried tomato, chevre, pesto pizza (EIGHT BUCKS!! NO LIE), (and also the spinach, feta, roasted pepper, portabella); loaded up the briquette starting thing, (if you don't have one of these things, get one) and 15 minutes later, you are ready to go. Put the pizza on a pan, close up the Webber and in another 15 you are in heaven.

I know it is a little late in the barbeque season, but you gotta try this.