Splash

Non-objective. Abstract. Acrylic painting.Tribute to Art Under the Umbrellas in Old Town, La Quinta. The season of art shows wrapped up last Sat. and I finally felt good enough to attend the last one, well, the last ones held in La Quinta. click here. Next month there will be an art festival in Indian Wells. Quinta is pronounced more like keynta than Quinn, in case anyone is interested. On my monitor the colors need to be darker . . . isn't that always the way?

quote: Why won't you run in the rain and play, let the tears
splash all over you? 
   Dave Matthews Band

Possibilities

 Two months until the end of the year and I've already chosen my word for 2011. Possibilities. 2010 was the year of Courageous, a word that I often wished I hadn't chosen, but has proven to help me through some difficult times. Helen Reddy's 1970's anthem, "I am woman, hear me roar," often comes to mind when I'm feeling less than courageous.  I have traveled alone three times including San Francisco, treated myself to dinner in restaurants, become friends with a neighbor, started to conquer my fear of going to the dentist, and numerous other things that I'm proud of. Courageous was a good word.

But, there are too many days when the world seems to be out to defeat me. Enter possibilities. We always have them if we choose to remember that they are endless

For a long time I've wanted to create a book of some of my photographs but it wasn't until I started collecting quotes about possibilities that the two came together. I'm pleased with the small book that I created to celebrate my youngest daughter's birthday; she'll be 40 next month which means that both of my daughters will be in their 40's. How did that happen?

"There are many spokes on the wheel of life. First, we're here to explore new possibilities," by Ray Charles is one of the thirty-eight quotes in the tiny collection. These are three of the photographs in the book shot in the 1980's using slide film with an SLR Nikon camera. I have boxes of slides and until I purchased an Epson scanner that has the capability of scanning slides it seemed that the slides were merely quaint artifacts. Artifacts that aren't aging as well as Kodak guaranteed.

 Both the top and bottom photos were contrast tweaked. The center photo is PSE8 manipulated. All of them were shot on the Monterey Peninsula, Pebble Beach, Big Sur, and Point Lobos State Park.

The book is perfect for gifts, including yourself, and is available at Blurb, see the side bar.

Quote: We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat. They do not exist. Queen Victoria

Manipulated Photos

Back in the dark ages, the 80's, when I had a darkroom, it could hours or often days to manipulate a photograph. This one is a window with torn curtains with a second image of clouds over it.

In order to get the blue effect split developing was called for. My notes on the back say, Selenium and blue, and I have no idea how it was done beyond that other than it took hours and hours to get a few prints. Fast forward to 2010 and in a short time one can manipulate images without breathing in nasty chemicals. Project #4 in Susan Tuttle's book, "Digital Expressions" is marvelous and in just three hours I had four new images from my photo collection.

Quote: To have peace and confidence within our souls--these are the beliefs that make for happiness. Maurice Maeterlinck

                   

Discharge experiments

Thiox has entered my life, thiox discharge paste that is lest you think something else. I couldn't get my head around the information that I read on-line and in numerous books but Dear Rayna gave me a simple recipe and if I had followed it the first time, well, I needed a break from the broiling garage, 95 yesterday and even standing directly in front of the portable AC I wilted. I assumed, incorrectly, that if I put the fabric with the discharge paste on it under plastic that it would remain damp enough until I could steam it, after all I do that  with DSP. Wrong. The discharge paste only worked in small areas where it was heavily applied; the brownish/tan areas evident in a few of the examples are from the first go-around. The fabric was rewashed and a new batch of discharge was mixed up and rather than take a chance that it wouldn't work again I erroneously doubled the amount of thiox. Over-kill isn't necessary in this instance. The steaming worked fast and, what? I was expecting white or off-white due to the fact that the few bits that discharged on the first experiment had gone white(ish). A yellow cast? Not too thrilled about that but okay, maybe the discharge paste will improve some Kona muslin that was part of a parfait batch; I'm not impressed with the Kona, very lackluster. Stripes are interesting, aren't they? There was a little bit of discharge paste left so I sponged some onto a fabric that had laughed at bleach; who knew that bleach doesn't work on all fabrics? The Thiox worked but the discharged color is a green/grey, not particularly appealing. Around 12:30am I tossed the fabric into the washer and watched some TV. Some sort of documentary about the Rolling Stones was on Jimmy Fallon, is that the guys name? He follows Leno, anyway during a break I pulled the fabric out of the washer and surprise, the yellow cast from the Thiox was nearly gone and only white, tan, and little yellow remained. My guess is that only a little Thiox is necessary in order for the discharge to work. The fabric is from Dharma, they claim that it will discharge and it does. The recipe is:  1/2 tsp thiox and 1 tsp of soda ash to 1/2 cup print paste. Dissolve the thiox in a bit of hot water first; ditto with the soda ash and add them to the print paste. (apply to fabric and immediately steam or iron; from what I understand the iron should hover just above the fabric, it's the steam that activates the discharge paste. I steamed the fabric for about 10 minutes.) It's good to use a Darth Vader mask, though, I didn't! Claustrophobic here, I did use a dust mask and might break down and use the DV one. I did, however, open the doors in the garage and pray to the Dyeing Gods for good ventilation. I use Rayna's print paste recipe from her stellar book, "Create your own hand-printed cloth." Info about Thiox can be found here:

Odd dreams last night, from the Thiox or from watching a film about the Stones when they were in exile living in France? In any case, I'm in love with thiox and am hoping that the temps allow me to experiment some more. The weather report is that by this last year there had already been 5 days of 100+ temps and so far we've only hit 98 twice. Gosh, like I can tell the difference!

Quote: You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need. Rolling Stones

Happy Mother's Day

I believe that mother's are courageous.

This digital image is still in-progress, but for now it's gone as far as I know how to take it. The background is a scan Parfait dyed fabric and the cactus bloom is from my garden.

Quotes:

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie. ~Tenneva Jordan

Hundreds of dewdrops to greet the dawn,
Hundreds of bees in the purple clover,
Hundreds of butterflies on the lawn,
But only one mother the wide world over.
~George Cooper

Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs... since the payment is pure love. ~Mildred B. Vermont
The sweetest sounds to mortals given
Are heard in Mother, Home, and Heaven.
~William Goldsmith Brown   

A suburban mother's role is to deliver children obstetrically once, and by car forever after. ~Peter De Vries

More Nuggets of Joy

Don't you just love the close-up feature on digital cameras? Two years ago I bought a tiny cactus at the .99 store. The tag said that it was a spider web variety. I now have six plants of this fast spreading low plant.

Tomorrow seems to be the day that the gardeners are going to come and pull out the remaining ground-cover so I can get that area planted.

Seth added my tip to his Sunday Secrets, nice surprise and thanks for stopping by. I think that I'm proudest of my 52 projects that I did last year. They can be found in the Labels category on the side-bar.

Courageous is another embossed metal piece stitched onto needle punched fabric.

Quotes: Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day. — Henri Nouwen

The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud. Coco Chanel

Still Raining

What a strange view out the bedroom window. Rain splattered window, the mountain ridge peaking out between layers of clouds as the sun set. Terrestrial perhaps? It was one of those times when I couldn't grab the camera fast enough. There are ponds/pools of water all over the back yard and still the rain continues. Is the end in sight?

I've always been envious of those who have design walls for their fabric art, that is until I came up with a makeshift one. The cork board is 24x36 inches and is perfect for the small sizes I work on. These two are for challenges. The background fabrics are from the marathon screen printing session I did last spring that ended when the temps rose to the high 90's in June. The square on the green piece, left, is an altered line drawing of a brain. The challenge, from Three Creative Studios is the word "puzzle." I'm immensely puzzled as to why three people that I love are all brain injured. How can that be? Stacy, my 41 year old daughter, suffered from infection after infection when she was 22 months old and her temperature was entirely off the charts one day, enough so that she was left brain damaged. Mom has Alzheimer's, and my guy had a major stroke in October. And there are times when my brain doesn't seem to work as it should, but I'm pretty certain that it's brain fog related to FM. I've had brain fog off and on for my entire life.

Quotes: Dr. Seuss: I like nonsense; it wakes up the brain cells.
Irish proverb: You'll never plough a field by turning it over in your mind.
Albert Einstein: Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.

#51, Many, many moons ago

Many, many moons ago in a Galaxy far, far away, well it does feel that way sometimes! I remember reading "Passages" by Gail Sheehy way back when I was interested in such things. I didn't understand how life could change so much but after all I hadn't lived as long as I have now. My life at times feels alien to me; kid, student, wife, daughter-in-law, mother, ex-wife, new in-laws, working at jobs I loathed, ex-wife again, and then finding my way back to art first through off-loom weaving, photography, and finally to where I am now which I like to think of as abstract experimentation in a variety of mediums. It's a good thing that we can't see too far down the road, well actually, we can't see down the road of life at all. We leave a trail of events behind us that shape who we become on any given day. If only I'd known that with age comes some wisdom that wasn't afforded to me when I was younger. What wisdom you may ask? One thing I know for certain is that nothing stays static long enough to give up our happiness for. Now if I could just remember that on a daily basis perhaps I wouldn't drive myself so crazy with anxiety.

While looking back at the 52 projects I am shocked that so much has happened in a span of a short time. One year can seem so long when entering it and so short at the other end. This time last year we had just gotten word that Stacy was on a kidney transplant list something that we'd worked toward for nine months of physical and endless lab tests. She'll celebrate her first year with her new kidney, an awesome gift from a donor, on Oct. 28th. We went through Melanoma and the scare of the unknown and came out of that experience with a second miracle, no spreading of it anywhere surrounding the eradicated area. Mom on the other hand continues to disappear into the Alzheimer's abyss and I continue to daily mourn the loss of my mother and try to gracefully take care of the stranger she has become. The gift of a trip to Italy was a much needed respite and visually/culturing exciting seven days, I was blown away when I left mom and Stacy in the capable hands of my youngest daughter and her husband; I was overcome with pride, I had raised a marvelous young woman who continues to astound me. It was truly a remarkable year.

Components: hand-painted fabric base, water-downed black fabric paint. Using a hand-made stencil three colors of paint were applied with texture tools including hand-made stamps. Haphazard machine stitching around the circles in the hopes that the moons would stand out from the background.

Quotes: Buckminster Fuller: When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.

Carl Sagan:
If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.

#45 of 52 projects

It looks monsoonal outside, but the temp is still ridiculously high. 115 today with some humidity so it feels more like 120, or so the weather cast person informed us. I'm positive that I never wanted to know what temps this high felt like! It hurts, that's for sure. Every time the AC doesn't sound right I start to panic! We'd have to pack up and head west if the AC died, or the power went off.

Components: Altered photo, went for an aged look. Dyed fabric background, grey and red with some bleached muslin showing through. Machine stitched. Rust dyed cheesecloth.

This one is in honor of Christina's love of horses, one of many things we have in common.

Quotes: The essential joy of being with horses is that it brings us in contact with the rare elements of grace, beauty, spirit, and fire. ~ Sharon Ralls Lemon

One reason why birds and horses are happy is because they are not trying to impress other birds and horses. Dale Carnegie

Disintegration - moving on

This papers looked untouched, but they were out in the elements since Feb. I made three bundles of them and pulled away some debris in the compost bin and in they went. What am I expecting? Worms to gnaw on the paper, stains from garden clippings and/or vegetable waste from the kitchen. Time frame: July 1, or later. I need enough time to create a piece. I'm moving on to more fabric dyeing and returning to the 52 projects.

Quote: Moving on is a simple thing, what it leaves behind is hard. Dave Mustaine
Sometimes the cards we are dealt are not always fair. However we must keeping smiling and moving on. Tom Jackson.

Celebrating Earth Day

Screen print.

Celebrate Earth day:

Quotes: Every day is earth day. Anonymous

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. Native American Proverb

I'm not an environmentalist. I'm an Earth Warrior. Darryl Cherney - Smithsonion, April 1990

Happy Valentine's Day

#23 of 52 projects is a couple of days ahead of schedule. Hearts within hearts.

Components.: Red chiffon needle punched onto black kunin felt with a heart shape cut out of the center; I love the way chiffon ends up being distressed by the embellisher. Commercial fabric flecked with red hearts that was rust dyed with a metal heart. (The metal heart is metal flashing.) Copper wings with a patina, a purchased tin heart, and a tiny copper heart also with a rich turquoise patina. I tried to edge stitch this piece but the sewing machine didn't take kindly to the layers and kept freezing up. Oh well. (click image to enlarge)

Quotes: I don't understand why Cupid was chosen to represent Valentine's Day. When I think of romance, the last thing on my mind is a short, chubby toddler coming at me with a weapon. Author Unknown.

I claim there ain't
Another Saint
as Great as Valentine.
Ogden Nash

Who, being loved, is poor? Oscar Wilde

Belated Halloween and Transplant!!

Week #7 of 52 projects is a tad late! I have a good excuse. Hold on to your seats! On October 28th the phone rang at 8am and the sweetest voice I've heard in a long time said, "We might have a kidney for Stacy, don't let her eat anything and we'll get back to you in a few hours after more checking is done. But it looks good enough to put you on notice." Being that I was in a deep sleep when the phone rang I wasn't positive that the phone call was real, especially when I assumed that it might be the local hospital calling with the pre-op info for R's surgery. (hopefully, he'll have the postponed surgery on the 21st.) I didn't know what to do but felt that if we started packing we might be disappointed so we only took showers and tried to figure out why mom was more confused than usual. (Sadly, mom is now closer the last stage of Alzheimer's and has no clue when she started living with me.) I phoned my daughter and SIL and they began to make plans to meet us at Loma Linda Medical Center to pick mom up. At 11:00 the phone rang again, "Come on in! It's a go. We're 99% positive that in a few hours Stacy will have a new kidney.

It's a 1.5 hour drive to LLMC and it was the most emotional trip we've ever had. Who was the donor who died during the night? Tragic!!! We arrived at LLMC at 1:45 and were immediately whisked into the room that would be Stacy's for the next week. A team of 7 asked a million questions most of which I couldn't remember answers to! My brain had left the planet. The surgeon , young from Nigeria, was fabulous and kept putting his arm around me and in a soothing voice led me through the questions and the information he needed to tell Stacy and me about the transplant. Stacy's veins had shut down meaning that the 20 or so vials of blood they needed to check everything out couldn't be drawn! My heart sank. But Dr. O..... quietly said, "Go and get a dialysis nurse to come in and use Stacy's catheter, lots of blood can be drawn there." DUH!! Her blood tests were quickly evaluated for possible infections etc. At 4pm Dr. O said all that it was time to re-check the donor kidney from a young man that was compatible for Stacy.

At 5:15 Stacy had finally entered a place of peace and was able to tell the OR nurse that, "you're going to cut me open, put in a kidney, sew me up and ship me out." Leave it to Stacy to simplify the details. I always fear that at the last moment Stacy will say, "Nope, I'm not doing this and want to got home!" She seems to know that even though she's scared she needs to follow through. (I'll write more about everything on my other blog.) But, we've had lots of complications and the kidney hasn't woken up yet so she's still on dialysis. I had never heard of the term "sleepy kidney" which is actually (ATN) Acute Tubular Necrosis but it isn't rare and can last from 2 weeks to 3 months!!! Talk about needing patience. There is always a chance that the kidney won't wake up, but as of last Tuesday the ultra sound showed enough improvement for the doctor to tell me that it's just a matter of time before it wakes up. We're counting on it!

Every day has been fraught with stress as we deal with side effects from the powerful anti-rejection drugs, numerous small seizures, need for transfusions, coma-like sleep, dialysis and other fun things.

Side Note: Stacy went onto the national kidney list on Sept. 15, two weeks later we received a newsletter with the staggering numbers that as of September there were 77,055 patients listed for a kidney transplant. On Oct. 28th Stacy received a donor gift just 4 days before her birthday and one month shy of 8 years of being on dialysis. Yes, it's surreal and won't sink in until she's off of dialysis!


Isn't this ATC amazing? Jan L. from TextileChallenges sent it to me; I had joined a swap. It was waiting for me when we returned from LLMUC, I always forget the university part of the name! It's a teaching hospital so I felt like we were in the middle of a Grey's Anatomy or ER episode!

My piece is: light grey and purple needle punched together and cut to resemble a city skyline. Further needle punching to join the skyline with the black felt background. The yellow moon and wispy clouds are roving. I also did some machine stitching.

Quote: "The age of miracles is forever here. "-- Thomas Carlyle

"We are miracles. Each of us is an absolute astonishment. So whether you believe in miracles or not, we still are. We still partake of 'miracledom.'"-- Ruby Doe

52 projects. Week #4

52 projects, what was I thinking? My state-of-mind was at an all time low this past week and everything seemed tedious, unsatisfactory or just plain lame. Staying in bed wasn't an option so I forged ahead in the only way I know how which is to pretend that everything is okay until it is.
This morning I was finally able to turn off the AC that has been running non-stop since the end of May. Amazing how nice it is to feel a breeze coming through the open windows!

This piece started out by simply tossing some yellow netting onto a reddish painted dye-na-flow painted piece of canvas fabric and trying to figure out how to attach it without the embellisher. All of the black lines are machine stitching, some straight stitches while others are layered with at least two stitches overlapping creating a new stitch. All of the yellow is netting. Once the stitching was done the piece was cut to fit onto a 5x7 inch piece of light-weight denim that had been edge stitched using the new foot attachment Bah! Just bloody awful! More stitching with black thread to incorporate the netting piece with the blue denim. A little better. Out to the garage to throw some paint on; my motto is if all else fails grab paint! After adding black dots and lines of red, both of which greatly improved the piece, I deemed it fini!

Quote:It's not so important who starts the game but who finishes it. John Wooden

Joseph Joubert. Genius begins great works; labor alone finishes them.

Week #3 and a Bonus

In Jeanne Williamson's book "The Uncommon Quilter" one of the things she explored was netting. I often save the netting bags from lemons, onions, avocados etc, but had never used them. I nearly tossed this piece when I became disgruntled with it, but one of my "rules" for the 52 projects is that I can't toss anything out. What a dilemma! Netting to the rescue, not that I think this piece is award winning, but at least it's more interesting. What started off as a piece of rust dyed fabric with machine stitching in the lighter areas went awry; I had to remind myself that each project is an experiment and not a perfect piece. I couldn't figure out how to get the netting to stay in place but after going around the edges with black thread I discovered a close match of red thread and was able to zigzag some of the areas down. Probably the best thing about this piece is the lumpy area of netting near the right bottom where the bag comes together and left an open area where it frayed.

I never use napkins in my work, I have no idea why not, but one from the Montecito Inn with Charlie Chaplin's image on it worked quite well on a rust dyed piece of canvas fabric. Two more Chaplin images taken from a note pad along with postal-type rubber stamps and viola, an antique looking postcard. The reddish fabric is dye-na-flow painted. The fabric has lighter and darker areas, just the distressed look I love.

Quotes: Laughter is the tonic, the relief, the surcease for pain.

Nothing is permanent in this wicked world - not even our troubles.

Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself.

A day without laughter is a day wasted. Charlie Chaplin

Week #2

What a workout! The weekly life-stuff nearly got in the way of creating this piece! Too many health issues to deal with causing a near collapse under the weight of it all.

Anyway, the background is a piece of 5x7 inch ochre color Kunin felt. The center area is painted pellon with machine stitching, a strip of gold netting and a dried Plumeria flower that has been dipped in gel medium to preserve it. The edge stitching was so problematic that I ended up covering it with dimensional paint, black, with highlights of Treasure Gold. The piece is backed with canvas fabric which did help the felt from going wonky like it usually does, but the stitches were awful! A friend recommended a Satinedge foot that hopefully will improve the edge stitching. I think that a lot of my problem has to do with eye sight.

For Paul Newman, you will be missed!
Quotes: People stay married because they want to, not because the doors are locked.

Who's to say who's an expert?

You can't be as old as I am without waking up with a surprised look on your face every morning: 'Holy Christ, whaddya know - I'm still around!' It's absolutely amazing that I survived all the booze and smoking and the cars and the career.

You only grow when you are alone. Paul Newman

Blue Lagoon

Okay, the idea is to formulate a plan of attack that might just get me out of the doldrums. (where did that word come from? I have no idea what the origin of the word is but it seems fitting. pl. verb A period of stagnation or slump.
A period of depression or unhappy listlessness.)

The latest fascination, besides Kool-aid dyeing fibers, is Breakdown Printing aka Deconstructed Screen Printing. A member of my group brought it to our attention and it immediately captured me in its web. (lots of info by googling it) So, I purchased the book by Claire Benn & Leslie Morgan and have ordered the DVD by Kerr Grabowski. Armed with some info I've also purchased polyester curtains and stretcher bars to make the printing frames. But as mentioned many times, the intense heat is keeping me out of the studio space in the garage. This is a messy process and one that should probably be done in the garage. But, I can prepare screens, mix dye, and have fabric cut and ready for that one day when the temps might just drop to a doable 90-something, whenever that might be. We used to tell our photography students to always be prepared to print in the darkroom so that when the time became available there wouldn't be hours spent preparing to print. I've gotten out of the habit of prepping or pre-planning projects and right now just getting fabric soda ashed, dyes mixed, and tools ready might be the only thing I can do. Always be prepared!

When I started to think about stagnating I dragged out some paintings that weren't finished or needed some redoing and discovered "Blue Lagoon" a piece that has gone through so many transformations that practically none of the original colors exist. I have a feeling that working with fabric can also end up that way, covering up, layering, and using the first idea as a foundation for the finished piece. A good foundation might be what it's all about along with not becoming too attached to the first layers. I know that when I love an area of a painting so much that I can't finish the piece I need to put it away until the love ebbs and I can either use that precious area as a jumping off place or completely cover it up. In the case of this painting I covered up an area with Tar Gel so that only some blue from the bottom layer remains. For more texture I tossed on some clear plastic beads to the layer of gesso which is something that I might do again.

Quotes: The creative process is a process of surrender, not control. Julia Cameron.

Shutting off the thought process is not rejuvenating; the mind is like a car battery - it recharges by running. Bill Watterson - the creator of Calvin and Hobbes comic strip.

Direction-less?

Does this fungi have a purpose? Here it is hotter than blazes, 114 yesterday, and in the garden I spotted this crop of fungi happily growing. There is absolutely no reason why this plant exists; it isn't edible or especially decorative, though, I was captivated enough by it to photograph it, so why grow? Pain has kept me awake for too many nights again and when that happens my mind wanders into dangerous territory. Was it impulse buying that brought on a frenzied need to buy an embellisher and new sewing machine at the International Quilt Festival, or, is there a yet-to-be-determined need that led me to these two machines? I don't seem to have a direction, there is a glimmer of a few possibilities such as redoing my wardrobe and enhancing/embellishing tired shirts and giving them new life, and I'll be needing tote bags to carry groceries home in, but outside of that I don't have a plan or direction regarding all of the experimenting I've been doing or likely to do once the machines arrive. So, why in the world do I keep experimenting with new to me processes and techniques? Without something to create I know that I would fall into a deep depression so maybe that's reason enough to continue to follow the journey I seem to be on. But then, what do I do with all of the things I create? I can't imagine that there is a need/market for anything I enjoy creating regarding painting abstracts, felting or working with fabric and how many swaps can a person do? I love receiving trades and surprises in the mail but after a while they end up out-of-sight when something new comes along. How many of us enjoy the process and don't care whether the end result is usable or necessary? How many of us continue to try the latest making-the-rounds technique rather than ask ourselves, is this something I can use in my work or do I simply want to be part of the in-crowd that is exploring a particular process like Kool-aid dyeing? Or, is it my mood that is questioning everything right now? I have a feeling that I'm just rambling while attempting to find a reason to continue creating . . . Isn't just being interested or curious enough of a reason? Probably.

Quotes: It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process. Max Eastman


In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility. Eleanor Roosevelt

Amusing myself!

Sometimes one needs to find amusement whenever and wherever one can find it! The sauna-like-conditions haven't been conducive to evening watering (the drip system doesn't cover all of the areas, yet!) so I took my camera outdoors with me and took a lot of photos. I love close-ups that I can manipulate, but thought I'd share these instead. This yard has only been in for 16 months. Some of you may remember seeing photographs of the bare bones which in this case is horrible desert soil! Everything in these photos has ended up here after a lot of sweat; to say the least I'm quite pleased with the results. Upper left, the vine growing up the pole of the pergola that shades my bedroom and the dwarf lime tree. Upper right, the view from outside of my bedroom looking to the west. Bottom left, basil waiting to be made into pesto. Lower right, The mounded area outside of the dining room/great room which is also under the tree in the pic just above it.
White oleander nicely back lit. A cactus I brought with me from Monterey. Notice the two babies in the front of it, this plant multiplies like crazy!
A palm tree in the front yard next door, back lit. And a grape leaf in full sunlight. I doubt we'll ever have any grapes, but the vine is doing quite well.


Quotes: The real character of a man is found out by his amusements.
-Joshua Reynolds

The mind ought sometimes to be diverted, that it may return the better to thinking.
-Phaedrus

The only way to amuse some people is to slip and fall on an icy pavement.
-Ed Howe

Urban and cirque inspired

The urban inspired piece on the top was completed two weeks ago when I was still feeling optimistic; the cirque inspired piece was nearly finished at the same time. I couldn't sleep last night, the second sleepless night in a row, so I finished the bottom piece. The scan is a bit off, the lime green isn't as yellow as it appears. The scan also didn't capture the depth. Notice the line on the left that runs through the circle, that's a surprise. The circle was added after the lines. Nice when surprises happen!

I have great friends. Wait, make that outstanding friends! One sent me in the direction of Eckhart Tolle's earlier book, "The Power of Now," which as it turns out is exactly what I needed now! Thank you Maria!

Ready for some humor?! Mom received a jury summons in the same mail that carried the news about the continuing saga for the kidney transplant evaluation. Can you just picture an 81 year old woman with Alzheimer's on a jury who doesn't know where she lives or what day it is? The devil in me nearly decided to take her on the appointed day, but the good daughter wrote the letter explaining that I'm her caregiver. Both of us have now received summons in the last two months, I imagine that Stacy will be next!

For those of us who run out of bubble wrap to pop there is another way!

Tina sent me this! Make sure that your speakers are on. I had a blast popping them!

http://tinyurl.com/ytszm

Quote: And how do I get to that point of realization?
When you surrender to what is and so become fully present, the past ceases to have any power. You do not need it anymore. Presence is the key. The Now is the key.

How will I know when I have surrendered?
When you no longer need to ask the question.

Ekckhart Tolle - The Power of Now