beneath me sun

a new day. a new sun. a walk. clouds. a sticky piano. lyrics to songs i will never forget. like bruce cockburn's "when the sun goes nova". i find myself at the end of july with four new canvas to cover, and at this point, not a new idea brewing. i am just going to have to work it out. figure out the next puzzle and move on. ::beneath me trees:: worked out well. i was inspired by a conversation i had with my mother about making my trees fit into more of landscape. although i'm fine with trees all by themselves.

to change the subject and for the record. i have shopped at big lots-lots of times. but did not buy my bed there. my bed was a gift to me from the doctors that i used to work for. the bed and mattress came from kinder's furniture mall of all places. i remember feeling so overwhelmed by the options.

also, there are two very best ways to look at my art. i am consumed often with how much i continue to love flickr and i post a good image of all finished works there. see my side bar>to the right. secondly i have looked into getting or buying a website specifically for my art. i'm looking for just the right one. the right kind. until then you might want to look for me in the ava artist directory>here.

i better be off. i must begin a new piece now. now or never.

wip:beneath me trees

see more and progess

underneath II

okay i can say ::underneath ii:: is now complete and ready to be handed off to ms. heidi v. she can rename it of course, if she so wishes. it's my identification ways i suppose, to help me distinguish between each piece, not so much a title as a catalog of interesting words.

i feel like, humbly, that this was quite a successful piece, completion and execution. it's larger by a bit than the original number one underneath that sold previously at the last our clothesline art show. it wasn't until after the show, that heidi announced she'd wanted to make it hers and afterall could not. i told her "heck, i'll make you one!" "no problem!" and it really wasn't. but, i'm now eager to move on, to jet off and depart from the wood grain contact paper for a minute, i may come back, one day. it's the cutting out of the trees, thats so crazy labor intensive, not exactly sweat shop style but i can say my right hand might suffer, or does, and my neck. i haven't used an easel in a couple of years. my studio consists of my old locker trunk. i'm fine with that too.

eight weeks in counting, to another clothesline and boy am i gonna have to push the needle to a hundred and ten miles per hour. i have no real concrete idea in which direction to go this go around. the trees seem played out and yet, it's all i want to make, treescapes, my forest growing.

from where i sit i'm gonna procrastinate just a little bit and then it's off and running.

to water

there are summer days and then there are summer days. days in the middle of my parents backyard, looking up and around and finding myself infatuated with one single tree. a tree covered up in color, like nobodies business. the spectrum, mind boggling, i swear i took a thousand photos and came out with a dizzy head. after spinning in every direction, all i came up with was one wish, to be able to climb up into the tree and take a thousand more photos.

i wonder, if my neighbors next door, ever think of me. the very same neighbors who at eleven sharp, on the dot every evening, decide it's their time to practice for the slight chance american idol might be hitting up chattanooga for it's next hot voice. they'd never believe my tree and i wonder if we'd have anything in common. i cannot even tell if who i'm listening to, through one wall, is a male or a female. whichever, their laugh is hysterically scary. i can hear every bit of their conversation, between a twisted version of celine dion's titanic song, you know the one. it puzzles me how they repeat the same thing every single night and i seriously have to think if they have ever thought that someone might be listening, and would they care. would they be as inspired by my new favorite berry-full tree?

mysteries are just that. i let my mind wander and all it needs is even less sleep or water to keep the questioning seedlings from growing in my over active imagination. i've used my book as a means to keep a beat on my side of the wall to the music they play on their side. it's funny i do not think they even hear my book. it makes me feel better though. except it reminds me of how passive aggressive it all feels. i oughta swamp 'em with some of my bountiful csa. water their imaginations for awhile, see if they like mysterious vegetables hanging from their dorm roomish door knob.

i will be finished with a commission piece tomorrow afternoon and then i'll begin anew. my aunt has been married for thirty years and i'm going over to that great place to help her and my uncle to celebrate. i think about all the clothes i have piled up and how i should fix my dresser drawer, it seems like my last priority.

::dirt fortune::

i just completed ::dirt fortune:: for the upcoming arts & education council's art.a.ma.jig silent art auction. keeping it under wraps is practically impossible so i am giving my version of a sneak peek preview, for now. after the event i may show it off a little bit more. i was unable to snap a suitable image, i'll try again before i speed it off to get framed, or something. keeping with the tree theme you can well imagine my take on the events "fortune" theme. the event itself is not competitive, it's simply to raise money for the cause, a good cause at that. i am one hundred percent excited about the opportunity and feel honored to represent.
it is nerve racking, i'll give you that but, i feel good about what i've created. with ::dirt fortune:: i feel like my illustration skills came out and i found the same fulfillment in painting tiny as i do when i'm cutting paper tiny. i love the tiny rocks and pebbles that line the bottom edge, they're my favorite part and they express that dirt ought to be something we cherish, from dirt we came, right? and from dirt, a tree of gold, in my mind can grow.

so we'll see how it fits in with the rest of the "fortune" pieces. i won't think about it anymore.

this weekend was incredible. for making art and spending long parts of the day with my family. i cannot imagine being alone or ever feeling lonely. my life is much too full, what with a family tree that just keeps on growing. my nephews bring a joy i can't quite express, all three of them are these tiny growing branches that allow for this light to spread to us beneath on lower branches. my aunt lives in an old log cabin predating the civil war, surrounded by the mountains, its a blessed place, a haven and refuge. all around us on the fourth, neighbors shot off fireworks, filling the skies with grand light displays, aside the booms and bangs felt like we might as well have been in the middle of some minor artillery battle at dusk. i wanna spend every weekend there.

the week ahead looks hectic. i've got a few pieces to create for the clothesline jury next weekend. i have never made three new works in 5 days before. i think i'll shoot for 8"x10" this go around. i took a whole bunch of photos of my mother's garden. we decided to submit them to a local televisions garden of the week contest. i've posted a few on flickr. if she wins i'll laugh. really laugh.

summer soup

the stove is calling my name, like the growing heaps of vegetables in my refrigerator. a summer soup must happen. i am waiting for it all to come magically together though, the motivation, the inspiration, the recipe, the right moment, the-the. i have it all, the corn, carrots, broccoli and onions, maybe tomorrow morning? i barely cook and live alone and like honey toast and granola. for six years all i shopped for were breakfast foods because my mid day meal was provided via the doctor's office and those super drug reps. thanks to them, most food became a burden with so many names. not to say i wasn't grateful in a some small way for the provision but the bad out weighed the good, if you know what i mean, for me at least it just wasn't healthy.

last friday i went on a bit of a shopping spree and found two pairs of black flats that actually fit. they've given me blisters though, but, it's just that flip-flops weren't going to cover it for me this summer. i am sure that most of you "have it all together". i am often shocked at the fact that i am beginning to have some things together, not just finding shoes i like, in my size. oh i'm not as concerned about fashion, although i'd like to find some rocket dogs in my size. i was thinking more along the lines of money and how money has played a primary role in how i define and project myself. it's obvious right, the moolah topic. who doesn't think about how the dough defines them? i have never felt like the amount of money i had in my checking account had anything to do with what was really going on in my life. it seems to me the middle of the road is the best here, i mean, in debt or poverty, having not is all one can think about. in wealth and riches, having much has it's own entirely different but similar problems, right? i also know extremes are extremely general but, i guess i am thankful for the middle.

over ten years ago i left chattanooga and moved to california. i left quickly and without much thought, with over eight thousand dollars in debt. within six months i was back and living with my folks, go figure. i had no intention of staying nor of paying back what i owed. a week passed and before i knew it, i had a job at cvs and walked there everyday, every week i handed my paychecks over to my dad. ha! who does that? i mean how embarrassing, absolutely one hundred percent humiliating all the way. to say the least and to make my point, one and a half years passed and i moved out with all debt paid back, all of it. it didn't feel all that great back then, no balloons or streamers, no party or new car. i didn't even feel like i had had anything to do with the accomplishment. i continued to ignore the whole mess, from beginning to end. needless to say bad habits are hard to break and debt, no matter what kind, is tempting and sneaky slimy, no matter who you are and your intent. the money battle has been difficult at times for me to overcome, but you know now, i am just in the middle of the road, no debt and pretty thankful for the mercies. thankful that my heart and mind has been won. i was struggling last weekend with other things and talking to my mom in the middle of the night and she was reminding me of some of my accomplishments. gosh. i cannot believe i actually, seriously forgot about the eight thousand dollar pay off, easily a thing of the past.

i hope i can break the habit of relying on gm food and high fuel calorie food and learn to provide and make myself some yummy summer soup. i hope that the mercies are just as great and that in my learning i never forget the other things i have overcome. i owe changing my habits to myself and to those i owe and to my local farmers.

have a bright and merry fourth of july people!

oh blog a minute

my travel mug hasn't seen a good scrub in over a week. i rarely run my dishwasher, i pack it full, like my garbage, the garbage my parents offered to take to the shoot, last night when they were over. i cannot stand throwing just half a garbage bag full down the shoot, such a waste. i mean if you're gonna waste, waste a lot at once, not these piddly piles of stuff. this past week has been much like a re-fresh of my heart, in so many ways. many ways better left unsaid. i finished reading the chosen, exactly by the first of july but not exactly on time for book club. which was great anyway, although it is seriously difficult getting a word in edge wise, which i don't mind at all, at all.

i have now begun to pick up animal vegetable miracle by barbara kingsolver, before bed and sleep, and am enjoying it. i plan to spend the rest of my evening working on "fortunately". i have been studying the roots of fortune and hope to mingle them with the gifts of the spirit, doubt it's gonna work but, i'll give it a good try.

do you all have anything to say?