Sticks, Stones, and Paper Stew Blog

Plum Blossom

Beautiful sunny warm spring weather! What a JOY! It would be even better if I wasn’t stuck inside, fixing and clearing out old stuff left by renters from years ago. Who knew they crammed so much junk into the attic space? So far I’ve uncovered bags of clothing, an old TV/VCR combo, a stereo system, loads of gardening buckets, bags of some students papers, an artificial white christmas tree, and an incomplete guitar stand. Dave has been wanting a guitar stand! Maybe I’ll find the missing part in the attic today! Actually, he wasn’t thrilled with my find and now says he just wants a case. Personally, I wanted to hang it on the wall in his “man cave”, but that is too reminiscent of what my brother does, and no one wants to be that geeky! Anyway, the remaining items will be inventoried and taken to a donation site or recycled.

Chimney sweeper for the main house today and still some roof work to be done. Still more yard work too. Carpets will be the last thing to install. With luck, house #2 will be on the market before the end of March. By Friday I might have electrical quotes and be able to make a firm “yes or no” to the sale of house#1. I just have to keep the motivation going and sunny beautiful days really help.

Of course my brain is thinking about creating a hand-cut paper plum blossom lamp…… might be nice! April will be studio time. 😀

Sticks

If one doesn’t have supplies, one can’t create. Surprisingly, I had run out of wood from a purchase back in January. It takes 9 feet of wood to create one luminaria. Local sources are not terribly reliable and are horrible at consistent pricing. Time to start searching the internet for other options.

This is the green version. I’ve discovered a couple of things while cutting. First, this piece involves a lot of finicky cuts and takes a lot of time. Second, when the branching leaves are not grounded to the border, they can get tweaked in a bad way. See the leaf at the very bottom of the image reaching towards the frame? My hand almost ripped that part off as I was cutting in a different area. I now realize I have to map out how to cut this work in order to keep all parts safe. Once it’s secured to the vellum, it will be stable. Right now it’s a hazard!

The weekend was long. I filled in at The Arts Center Saturday while the rest of the staff set up for the big fundraiser event. Something Dave & I ate Saturday night made us very ill Sunday. No, not from the event. I’m guessing it was an overly organic salad. We also received the next round of negotiations for the sale of one of the family homes. I think it’s going to be a busy busy week with little art. 😦

Running around

Oh, what a glorious warm spring day it was! High about 66 F and sunny sunny sunny!!

This morning I went for a 3 mile walk with a girlfriend and the hell hounds. It was practically warm enough to shed the sweatshirt, but I didn’t. After the walk, I met up in Philomath with my sister to see the final days of the quilt show at the Benton County Historical Museum. Since it was International Women’s Day, it seemed like a perfect show to visit. The below quilt was one of my favorites. I’m not a fabric/quilty sort of person, but I really appreciate all the work that goes into each piece. My sister is a fabric nut. Maybe I should broaden that term to “textile nut”. If it involves fiber, she does it.

Back at home, the ornamental plum just started blooming today. Most varieties of daffodils are already up and blooming. My little clump on the back deck are getting closer. Only 3 buds this year.

Bring on Spring!

Geranium on the brain

I think I must be in procrastination mode concerning the Fox Sparrow print. Maybe I shouldn’t label it procrastination because in reality, it’s about mentally sorting how the two blocks will interact. I have to have a clear image in my brain of exactly what will happen before moving forward. Drawing helps, but not today. So, instead of working on the little guy, my brain decided to come up with a new lamp design. Simple, clean, and something I have been wanting to create (and had seen in my brain when I woke up this morning). Maybe it’s a carpe diem sort of day. Then there are the hell hounds sleeping outside my closed studio door. Yes, the door is closed for a reason. Earlier, it was raining and blowing like crazy, but now it’s calm. The dogs were acting like the weather this morning: crazy, running around, barking, and now strangely calm. I should be out walking them to reward the calm behavior. Maybe in a bit. Another promise was made to the birds to clean their cages before days end. Garbage pick up is tomorrow. This task can wait until later. It’s not pressing nor does it require daylight. Maybe I should just chalk it up as “one of those days” when my brain is jumping between 50 zillion ideas and can’t settle on one thing. Well, I guess I did settle on the wild geranium image, so it’s not a loss. Deep burgundy is calling or possibly a green. I’ll layout the image on a new sheet and then take a dog break. Dog walk at 3 pm. Birds before Dave comes home at 8pm. It’s a plan.

The finished image will be reversed (what’s black will be white).

The Fox Sparrow image will happen eventually.

Apparently cutting paper is today’s task.

Gosh, it would be nice to have a studio OUTSIDE the home to avoid all the distractions. Something to contemplate for another day.

🙂

Packing

After several days spent working on other painful non-art things, I’m finally back in the studio. It’s a feeling of bliss followed by “what do I do now?”

Today’s first priority: packing up an old friend. I had completely forgotten all the memories packed into the Postcard Quilt. Each art card was connected to very specific shows and influential local artist in my life. I saw clips of shows I helped hang, one of the first shows I curated, and artists I greatly admire. It was a fun examination of things past, mainly that transition period from school through graduation and just beyond. It’s good to have it safely packed with hanging instructions and the works. I wonder what other works might move out and find their own life this year…

Next up: getting busy with a certain bird print.

Community

Last Saturday was one of the larger community art events. The Howland Community Open allows anyone in Linn or Benton county to place one piece of their art on the wall (or on a stand depending if it’s 3D). It draws from all ages and backgrounds in the community to one place, The Arts Center.

This yearly event has been pleasing the community since the 1980’s. I started participating back in 2006 and have faithfully tried to bring something every year. Drop off time is limited to 4 hours. Here are a couple of photos from when I was there.

My friend Kat Sloma in the center of the photo.

Sarah K. working on straightening a work. Silly girl, it’s just going to go wonky when someone pounds the wall again. 🙂

Emily S., Walter B. & Marianna M. in deep discussion.

A fitting wall for my lighted pod. This was the wall/space I occupied for an installation. Of course, they might have moved it by the end of the day.

The show is up until April. I’m looking forward to seeing the completed show!

An extra space!

Postcard Quilt, 2008, Gale Everett Studio

No sketching today. Way too many things going on surrounding the computer. I’ve been in negotiations for sending the Postcard Quilt off to a new home in Colorado. It’s thrilling to know it will be greatly loved and appreciated for years to come. The quilt was an award winner back in 2008 at the Howland Community Open (at The Arts Center of Corvallis). Dave will be thrilled to repossess another wall from my art. Yes, it’s been living in his “man cave” along with the giant leaf coat, prints, and now pod lamps. Poor guy, he really is SOL for carving a niche for himself. The dogs, birds and I occupy everything! (insert wicket laugh here!) His space currently hosts many items from my parent’s home. Maybe this summer I’ll gather energy to move through the rest of it.

Yesterday, I went over to my good friend Cynthia Spencer’s house to use her dedicated photo booth. There is no way I could manage keeping a space free for taking images, but I really appreciate friends who do! Finally I have a few images that actually portray the luminaria lamps pretty well. Pod lamps are next!

Maple Leaf Luminaria, Gale Everett Studio

Matting and framing one print for Saturday. Yep, it’s time for the next Howland Community Open. Always a fun experience.

Back to work…

🙂

Squirrel?

grey2 This winter I resumed feeding the wild birds for the enjoyment of it. The cats no longer have access to the area since it’s regularly patrolled by the canine pack. The birds are abundant and new furry faces are showing up. We’ve had a few squirrels visit the deck and surrounding trees over the past few years, but nothing regular. Now one has figured out the free food location. How long will he survive with 3 overly enthusiastic dogs on his fluffy tail? I’m not feeling hopeful. Today he managed to escape the deck, run up the big Ponderosa pine and leap (a leap of faith) towards the scraggly branches of the cherry trees. I stared in horror as he fell over 15 feet before grabbing a branch. Whew! Saved for another day.

Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to train Moby about squirrels. To get his attention, all one has to do is ask “Squirrel??” or make their characteristic chattering sound. He makes a b-line to the door and starts searching the trees. Yes, kind of like Doug the dog in the movie UP. The focus is just as intense. Our last pointer was enthralled by cats. We would ask her “Where’s the kitty?” and she would search out our house cats and nudge them. At least she didn’t want to eat them. The neighborhood cats were a different story…

I spent about 10-15 min working on this sketch of a Western Grey Squirrel. It was fun to play large and set a time limit. That’s it for today. Back to estate stuff. 😦

Materials: 18″x 24″ rough newsprint, vine charcoal, Jack Richeson compressed charcoal.

Bock, Bock, Bwwaaaakkkkk!

Yesterday I spent several hours working through more estate stuff. I’m trying to get things ready for the accountant. The major burden has been going through all the donations and finding ‘real market value’. Can’t we just guess? Of course, I don’t want to piss off the IRS. I’ll be happy when Thursday arrives and the pile is turned over to the experts. Most items were photographed along the way to help keep track of everything. Pages of written lists too. So I had to go through all my photos on 2 different computers to try to double check anything off. There are some things still missing and I’m not certain where they went. Maybe it’s on the 3rd computer? I’ll find out later. Anyway, I ran across a photo taken on Kauai of a Jungle Fowl and decided to play with large sheets of newsprint, charcoal, conte and a Faber-Castell Pitt artist pen. What goofy looking birds they are! It felt really good to play on a larger format. Hopefully I can keep the sketching going for a while. What I really wanted was LOTS of color, but I held back. My brain really needs a sketching workout!

5 years

Wow! I have to admit that I’m pretty amazed to still be blogging after 5 years. If someone had asked me back on 20 Feb, 2009 if I had a prediction for what the future held, what would I have said? Probably something about creating art and loving my critters. I never would have guessed my work is kind of on the back burner at the moment while I try to help clear out my parent’s estate. I never would have guessed at the 200+ folks following this blog. I never would have remotely guessed at owning a psycho dog and taking on 2 others for 18 months. I never would have guessed at being where I am in life, and that’s ok. One can never plan for every little thing that comes to your doorstep. We don’t have a crystal ball to see into the future. Let there be mystery in life because it’s the journey that counts. May the next 5 bring on more art, crazy wonderful friends, loving family, and continuation of the 4 legged furry house overlords (and feathered ones too)!

A sketchy toast to the next 5! Cheers!

Newsprint, soft pastels and wine.