New Project! (Equine Activity Inspired Edition)

 

Here's Horse #1 stopping by to say "hello". Maggie is essentially a large lawn ornament for these past several years, occasionally indulging in her new pass time, "Collapsing Over While Sleeping". Such fun! She looks like one of those small toys whose legs bend in wonky angles when you press on the underneath of the stand:

Hahhaahaha! Especially entertaining when you're considering she's an 800 pound beast. We run around clapping our hands and yelling her name in an effort to get her to right herself. Never a dull moment. But where I going with this blog?

Here's Horse #2. Hi Neko! (Love how I captured that live action tail!)  Anyway, this post is more pertinent to her, as I ride Neko and I am currently attempting to expand my riding area. Here's what it  looks like at the moment:

It looks like a huge flat expanse from this vantage point, but once you're careening around at high speed, atop a deranged beast (that's Neko's department) it looks a whole lot smaller! So I have considered for quite a while now how to expand our riding horizons. I debated surreptitiously moving, under cover of the night, our property line/fence line; our neighbors would never know, right? No... I suspect that's illegal, along with being pretty un-neighborly behavior! So I am undertaking expanding into the scrubby, woodsy strip to the right (in the picture above).

Currently, it's a pile of wood, still left over from that tornado of several years past:

and a mess of poison ivy, bittersweet and adolescent trees. (Probably ticks and snakes, too!) But does that stop me? Not on your life; I'm made of sterner stuff! I got the my tools together: loppers, a rake, hand pruners and my wheel barrow. (I had to move a pile of compost that I had deposited here, thinking it was "out of the way". Ha! As soon as something is placed in an "out of the way" location, a better use for that particular spot is found and you have to move the first stuff. I think Bob and I specialize in this!)

Anyway, three or so hours later, I had made good progress. You can actually walk behind the pile of wood, and Bob's going to fire up the ol' chainsaw and remove some of the larger trees. We're also happily digging out rocks and some pesky stumps. Like I said, never a dull moment!

Spring Break

It was so warm, so sunny, so NICE that you could almost forget that it is only the beginning of February. And whether it's a slightly late January thaw or an aberrant benevolent snap, it really doesn't matter... it was beautiful weather.
When I checked the thermometer, saw that it read a hair above 60 degrees, I removed our thermal window cover and let the sun and warmth stream in. It made me feel so much more optimistic and want to do things...
Perhaps I overdid, as today I can barely walk. I went (horseback) riding for the first time in over a month. It felt both oddly familiar and strangely odd to be aboard a fuzzy 900 pound being. The riding part came back to me quickly- thank goodness or my riding instructor would probably have brandished a quirt about my ears!- but my muscles felt savaged and resistant, and that's despite my exercising diligently at home! Riding calls into play all manner of interesting muscle groups; inner thigh and lower abdomen particularly. It feels good to work these areas, but not so good that sitting still for a few minutes makes getting and crossing the room a uniquely torturous adventure.
Adding to my soreness was my enthusiasm to cut back some of the grasses and perennials in the long border. The birds have no doubt eaten all the seeds they're going to eat and the plants are shattered from beatings of ice and rain. They look messy so I lopped them back and dragged them away. Now my shoulders are protesting...

Maybe that's why my latest WTF sculpture is green- a longing for spring. I am excited about the second kind of Spring Break I'm celebrating here. My work is  being included in a booth at the eponymous art fair (Spring Break). This is something I have wanted for years. My work was almost taken to an art fair a few years back and I was sorely disappointed (more soreness!) when my sometimes art dealer (hi Ellen!) decided not to participate. (Let's be real: art fairs are expensive and peculiar, a very complicated aspect of an already complicated contemporary art market). Many people express disdain and contempt for art fairs; truth be known, they are like shopping malls for art consumption. People stagger around, ostentatiously absorbing Kulture and impressing each other with their conspicuous "good taste". But as an artist, you gotta love the exposure! Holy cow! How many eyes will fall upon my work?!?!?? I'm psyched.
Another good reason to throw back the curtains and enjoy the nice weather!