calling for courage

When I was a child, my grandparents and my aunt and uncle shared the work of a man who taught everyone how to drive cars and tractors, and hunt and fish. He kept the cars and trucks running and the barn full of drying meat and fish. He was from Canada.
He also taught everyone how to shoot, and take care of guns. When I went to Girl Scout camp, and later other private camps, I shot 22's and was sponsored by the NRA as a Junior Marksman. My ex-husband and I always had a 22 around, and when the boys were little, a BB gun. I still have a BB gun, having discovered in California that coyotes, while not bothered at all by the BB's themselves, hate the sound of the gun cocking. The air compression must hurt their ears.
So I have been encouraged lately by the signs that Congress might actually do something in response to the Newtown killings. Even if it's only to close the loopholes in the purchase process by requiring all sales to be given federal and/or state scrutiny and to limit magazine size. I consider that a brave move on the part of all of Congress.
At the same time, there seems to be a "one step forward, one step backward process" happening. And I am reminded of the dreadfully negative power of the NRA. It is simplistic to think of them as just another lobbying group. Why? Because they have guns, and they unleash the bully inside many gun owners.
All of a sudden, Senators and the President get poisoned letters. Bombs go off, killing 3, on Patriot's Day in Boston. I'm sure that the homes of many in Congress who support these new measures of gun control, are being patrolled by pickups with gun racks filled. Sheriff's are being called to protect and warn away threatening people. Fingers are being pointed as if they were guns, at people walking to work in government. The children of Congress people will be threatened at schools, and after school. It happens; it happened to me.
So don't be fooled by the suave-talking dudes from the NRA. They may talk a good game, but underlying their smooth talk, is the ultimate threat: if you don't do as I say, I WILL get you, one way or another.

What we all need right now, is the courage to do the right thing - not a simple task in the face of such opposition, but absolutely necessary!

*The painting above is of an old friend who inhabits the wilds of Weld, Maine, in the summer, and California in the winter. He is not half as tough as he looks here.

Hanging Pics

Returning from California, I was over come by a blizzard here in East Boothbay. I was scheduled to be a part of a 3-person show at the Damariscotta River Grill, with an opening on Wednesday, March 20, but it started snowing that Monday night, and snowed ferociously all Tuesday when we were supposed to hang the show. Happily, on Wednesday morning, the snow began to stop and I bullied my car out the driveway and on up the road to Damariscotta where I hung the show with Greg Laderer and Lettie Chieu Husson. It is a pretty wonderful show. Here are some photos:

These are a pair of 'late bloomers,' flowers that lasted through the first frosts and were pretty rough and tough. So I painted them with palette knife and thick, rich paint, thinking of van Gogh all the while. The top one was the advertised one of mine, and is on postcards, if you'd like one.

On another wall are more flowers, and then more:

These are not great pics, and there is a whole wall of Valentine vegetable posters, plus several of the original paintings of Veges, and some landscapes. So, if you're in the vicinity, do drop by the River Grill and check all the paintings out, including Greg'e and Lettie's wonderful landscapes... The food is great, too. The show is up until April 30...

lovers point

Sometimes a photo triggers such a strong positive reaction, that it is impossible to try and duplicate it in paint. So I did it in ink and wash, from a slightly different perspective.

IT's been wonderful being out here in California, even though the weather has not always been like the above photo. IN fact, it has been chillier than usual except for the few days when it has been toasty.
Lovers Point in Pacific Grove is not historically meant for romantic lovers; it is so named because Pacific Grove was begun as a chatauqua community, or summer community, founded by the Methodist and Epsicopalians of the Bay Area. They were, in fact, lovers of Jesus, and the point was where they would gather on Sundays.

Despite the attractiveness of the water off Lovers Point, it is as cold as any water in Maine, and usually only children go in without wet suits. Surfers wear their wet suits while surfing there, and wet suits are worn in the annual Triathlon here. Once, in the entire time I lived here, 13 years, I went swimming - when El Nino brought the warm waters of Baja north along the coast, and the water rose to about 68 degrees. IT was tolerable then, but it certainly isn't now.

Soon, I'll be back in EBB, where the water will be snowy and cold still, and not nearly so blue. BUt it will get better, and bluer, and then summer will happen. I can't wait.

snowstorm!!!!!!!

This was the door I usually use to go in and out of my house. This was the sight I found on Saturday morning after 24 hours of wind and snow. All the doors out of my house, except for one were blocked like this. The one I use the least had had the snow blown away from it, so that is where I first tried to get out.
However, in order to shovel out this door, I had to fight my way through thigh high snow. At one point, I contemplated lying down and rolling down the hill. But then I thought I might not be able to get up again.
I finally made it to this door, and shovelled it out, and then I shovelled the deck, and then a path to the driveway, should it ever be plowed. Then I went to bed after the second day of storm.
This morning I awoke to brilliant sun and a plowed drive. I have never been so happy to be able to drive out the driveway. Cabin fever came early this year, but didn't last long.

Valentine Vegetables (and One Fruit)

In the beginning of my single life, I bought a leek and found a perfectly heart-shaped gingko leaf in its middle. So I started making valentines with messages from the vegetative world. This one was, "In the middle of the strangest places, you can find your valentine."

The next year, I found an onion with its roots intact. The message here, I think, is that, "Through tangled roots and deep inside, even an onion has a heart."

These carrots caused me to become more graphic. This one is called, "Heart's Desire," for obvious reasons.

Keeping with the theme, these parsnips float for me above a Marc Chagall-like landscape, i.e wintry and Russian, like where and when they grow. But I love them, so I call this, "Parsnips a la Chagall."

"Squashkin" is an aberration, but I painted him for the friends who grew him. And squash is a simple vegetable, good to eat and easy to grow, like love.

After a silly and dangerous fling, I cut open this apple and found this perfect heart. So what I said was this, " He sliced open an apple and found my heart." But the apple turned out to be rotten.

So this year, I found this perfectly shaped shiitake in my local food coop. "Out of the mud and muck of life, a perfect shiitake can grow." Though I am thinking that the mud and muck of life resembles chocolate this year.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



portfolio images

With my new camera, I have been retaking photos of older work, in my first attempt to put together a portfolio. The above photo is one of my favorites from California, called Chualar Rapeseed Field. Chualar is an old farmer worker community, in the middle of the Salinas Valley. The mountain is Fremont Peak. Sometimes I call it, 'Chualar Rape.'

'Where Once He lived' is a Tombo pen and ink sketch I did on my cousin's boat one hot day in the cove across from Castine, Maine. An old fishermans hut is barely visible in the undergrowth. No one has lived there in a long time.

'Foggy Dawn' is one of 4 watercolors I played with trying out large scale watercolor images. I love the mystery and romance of wet watercolor painting, and consider this a real Zen moment. It was in a Los Angeles watercolor show in the mid-2000's.

'Old River Dory" is an image I have worked on to try and add drama. But there is something quietly majestic about the dory shape that adds its own drama, so I've failed in several versions of this. But this one seems to be ready to go, as dories always are.

'Linekin Bay Island' is a pen and ink image from my cousin's porch in Bayville, Maine. There are several versions in some color, and in black and white. I love island images even though no person is an island. It sometimes feels that way.

Back in the Salinas Valley, I spent a lot of time up at a ranch above Soledad, where friends were planting and developing a vineyard. Grapevines have the most amazing shapes when they are pruned for growing wine grapes, and against the hills and mountains of that Valley, they have a special drama.

"Carlos" came to a costume class in Pacific Grove dressed as a golfer. Some people let him be a golfer, I think I saw something deeper. He was actually a Mexican radio man. His life was not simple.

'Cowgirl' came one day to a class in Carmel. She was quite shy though quite famous as a rider. She lives now at the ranch in Soledad. But she more than fills this screen.

'Yankee Man' teaches math at Cal State Monterey Bay, but his heart remains in Weld, Maine, on the shores of Lake Webb. Tumbledown Mountain is in the background.

That's enough for now. I've been at my son's 38th birthday party which he gave with his niece's, my grandaughter's 9th birthday. It was all very happy and fun...

To be continued...and on www.artcollectormaine.com

3 views, 3 paintings

I've been working on 3 paintings, of one view, in 3 different media. By putting them out on the blog, I hope to be able to better see what's effective and what's not. The view is of the mill pond just below my house, with Scrimpy Lewis' red lobstering dinghy in the foreground.

The above image is a water color. The next one is oil on raw linen canvas:

I guess the difference in sharpness would be the difference betwween a photo (oil) and scanning the image directly into the computer (watercolor). I'll have to play with that with my new Christmas camera! The next image is an acrylic painting on canvas, and will have a different tonality entirely:

The camera does seem to have a foggy effect...I guess I'll have to retake a number of photos of my work, in order to get them to be as crisp as the first watercolor is. Let's hope it works.