wip

work in progress.  currently pending effortts;  revisited attempts and new stuff.  I work through the palette.  when a color comes up that fits in with works in progress, I go through a progression.  here is some wip.

Pleasant Valley shed

14" x 11". Board.

warming the greens.

making clay

Making Clay

Every spring its time to reclaim scraps and trimmings.  About 70 gallons by volume this time.  I like this because it feels like free clay. At least it does after the muscle soreness goes away.  Next up - platters.

contrast in styles

Its a bitch day, with an Oklahoma rain falling without comment; straight down; sometimes hard, sometimes not.  I've been in neutral for a few days; waiting for a new inspiration or a new deadline to take hold.  So there has been time to look sideways, to change perspective, to see the possibility of change.

Now, yesterday was a day. Simply because, to my astonishment, I found out that "American Modernism" (and here I'm using a term of art historical reference) is considered as abstract art.  Of course, I heard it from an expert in the field; who has been making a living buying, selling and speaking of this stuff.  We were in a room full of the stuff, and had been for an hour when the statement was made.  It hit me like a slow moving train car:  with sudden and irreparable force.

It was a sudden obviousness.  "Make something of your own.  Use new tools."  And they had, those American Modernists; exuberant producers of the new. So that's what the big deal was.  Now I guess everything is post modern - in the style of this or that.

So I came from the room thinking of collecting as a confluence of value, availability and investment.

And I had some fun painting.  Here is a side by side image of two still-wet paintings. One, the ranchos de taos church, is oil on 12" x 16" canvas.  I got some of the light in there. Every home needs a good rancho de taos painting.  The other is oil on board, unmeasured, and is titled "Bitch Day".

Shout out to Kain.  I'll try to fix the filters for comments.

more than one Red River

Yes, the Red River provides small protection for Okies in place from a possible southern invasion.  Why else line that tentative ribbon of water and sand with obstructions reminiscent of Normandy beaches?  From my days hitch hiking across the US in 1975 and 1976, I remember another river of the same name in Minnesota.  At the time it had swollen to inundate miles of prairie next to the road beds.

Another Red River rises in the McKenzie Mountains and eventually flows past Inuvik, NWT  to the Beaufort Sea and the Arctic Ocean.  We crossed at Tsiigehetchick, NWT. (Silly Chick is my mnemonic aid).

Here we approach the Arctic Red River, or Red River of the North.

Tsiigehtchick is on a hill to the right of the promontory in the foreground.  Raven was snacking on something rabbit like and very dead lying in the road bed.  

Tsiigehtchick's two churches.  One replaces the other, but I can't say which one that is.

You can't run a ferry without a bulldozer. And you can't run a free ferry without government dollars.  The ferry workers greeted us in French.  

Riverside view from the ferry.  Not many roads, so boats are the order of the day for summer transport.  

hung by the coffee with care

The paintings were hung first monday in march.  The back room no longer available to hang paintings, so the 30 I had made available were plenty to fill the walls.  I didn't bother to change the lights, just hung most paintings in the best light available, grouping them loosely by location and color brightness.  Some just got hung in the dark.  I made a box into hanging shelves for display of mugs on the wall.  Mugs for sale went in the front of the store to the right of the cooler. Not the best location for sales, but there you have it.  It is hard to find unused display space in the shop.  As far as the paintings, There are scenes from Oklahoma, Canada, Alaska.Colorado New Mexico, Texas, Scotland and Spain.

I sent around 100 email announcements and got some replies from friends and customers.  About 30 hard copies went in the mail to family and friends and others.  Late in the week I drove around town to drop some announcements at galleries and shops that I thought might have some interest.

On friday we went to the art crawl in the 'north of downtown' district.  Lots and lots of people; lots and lots of art; lots and lots of media coverage.  The Voice listed my event and my presence, so today I spent a couple dreary (cool and cloudy) hours sitting outside the show with sculptural work on shelves.  Thanks to art, karen, randy, hannah, paul and an unnamed talkative guy for helping pass the time.

Me praying for a sale.