Head First Over the (gasp!) Fiscal Cliff!

As I mentioned to all of my Facebook-abiding friends, I love phrases like "The Fiscal Cliff". Someone dreams up these slogans for some dire event on our horizon and that's all you here for a few weeks or maybe months. Like "credit default swaps". Or "QE2" (which I initially thought was that big cruise ship). As quickly as they spiral into virality, they flame out and no one ever utters them again. When was the last time the phrase "zombie bank" crossed your lips?
So it is my (self appointed) role as Guardian of Today's Meaningless Phrase to immortalize these terms in works of art. (See the detail above; I'm in the middle of this piece and I'm psyched! I could use a week or so off from work to complete it). Other works are to follow and are in process on my studio tables. "Sequestration" is next up! (Who invented that? I was on the Internet checking on how to spell such a monstrosity!)
I am certain we all appreciate that these disasters, financial and otherwise, are all cooked up by Congress people with nothing better to do than create games of brinksmanship. All are zero-sum exercises that neither this side nor that will "win". I just hope that President Obama holds his line, does not capitulate (as he was far too willing to due during his first term) and drives those crazy republicans over the edge. Why is it that people with the least money and the most to lose seem inspired to believe the lies and self-serving policies of the greediest rich? At present, the republicans want to raise the age of social security, raise taxes on all of us (underachievers!), eliminate things like mortgage deductions and doom us all to penury so that they (who never need rely on social security or medicare) can keep more of their filthy lucre. Now why there hasn't been a revolution is beyond me; I suppose Fox News, TV in general and shopping at the malls for Xmas has trumped any real concern for "our future".
But hey! At least it gives me fodder for my artistic mill. Now I need to go check the spelling on "sequestration".

What's For Supper?

This is what happens when you send me to the store! I return with Evil Donuts! (And to make them even evil-er, they were marked down! Well, at least I'm not crazy enough to pay full price for food nonsense!)
I am hungry and I am wondering what we will eat as Bob isn't home yet and he is the Master Chef. As we have covered in previous postings, I eat and wash dishes; Bob pretty much cooks serious food offerings. I can be counted on to provide, yes, comic relief and non-regulation delicacies such as cookies, cakes, muffins and fruit. I can prepare fruit!
In any event, it was a nice day and I finally got warm after several days of bone chilling dampness that made me want to overeat something fierce. Made me want to eat... evil donuts. (We did put the donuts in the oven and they were far better slightly warm.)
So Maggie the Horse has eaten, Jules the Dog has eaten. What's for supper?!!
A footnote: (several hours later): I actually made dinner and we had (canned) vegetable soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. Sounds like grade school!

New Horse, Old Joke

Welcome to maggie the Horse! Not a great picture, but what a sweet little horse! Just what the doctors ordered! Maggie is so much the opposite of Crispin: small(er), dark (almost black), a mare (vs. a gelding) and cheerful. Crispin seemed grouchy- or at least preoccupied- much of the time. And he wasn't happy on his own here, always pacing and looking for a friend (other than me). He was uneasy being ridden "in the wild" and as I don't have a riding ring, Crispin and I had an awkward and unsatisfactory arrangement. Like a bad relationship! Neither party is terrible, just wrong for each other. I am assured that he's happier now, back in a "stable" environment.
Maggie on the other hand, is quiet and sane and thinks things over before reacting. I have to seriously consider my safety while doing bizarre things like climbing on the back of a 800 plus pound animal and galloping off into the sunset. I don't have an extra eye and I'm not looking for pyrotechnics and extreme sporting events... just a mosey up the trail and the occasional joyous canter. I think I've found a partner.
Fortunately, my tack fit Maggie just fine. She's smaller than Crispin, but not that much so Crispin's girth is simply up a billet hole or two. The bridle was funny, though. Maggie has a very long face so I actually had to drop the caveson and check straps down for her. But the bit fit fine. (Reminds one of the old joke about a horse walking into the bar...)
The vet is coming to check her in a week or so and we're hoping for a clean bill of health. In the meantime, I wish the weather would cooperate and give me a couple of warm(er), sunny days. It's been darned chilly riding the last couple of weeks!

Hi! Where Have I Been?

Only at BobnRita's BauHaus Chicken Coop will you see something like this! I am lucky (you don't know HOW lucky) that Bob bakes fresh homemade bread every week. The house smells wonderful and nothing beats pulling a fresh French stick apart and spreading butter that melts as it's being applied... Sorry Wonderbread!
Sometimes in chilly weather, the dough is reluctant and doesn't rise well. Bob then searches for the warmer parts of our house, in this case my studio as the wood stove is there. (You can see my table oozing bits of collage material). The pedestal was optional, but it made for a better picture and freed me to use my table.
But it's been busy what with Thanksgiving and work and studio work and the arrival of the New Horse, aka Maggie. More on her in a later posting.
So good intentions aside, we've been involved in the business of preparing for winter. I planted tulips bulbs (including some exotic red parrot forms that I have never tried before. Damn I hate waiting for spring!) and weatherizing the windows and getting fire wood. Cold weather and drizzly days drive me indoors to other projects. Hopefully I'll be a bit more diligent in my bloggery...

Creativity is Flowing

I partly attribute my recent spurt of studio enthusiasm to my participation in New Haven's annual City Wide Open Studios. There's something about involvement with hundreds of other artists- many friends- and the attendance by loads of willing audience (almost 1000 on Sunday!) that just plain feels good. Where else can you get so much contact and feedback? I rarely sell anything and even less frequently get asked to show because of random curators, critics and kunst- hustlers that happen to hustle through, but hey! It's good clean aesthetic fun.
On a happy note, though, I seem to have broken through or somehow overcome my past years inability to make collages. Let's face it: my eye injury is major and traumatic and my vision has resolved into a very odd mash-up of scratchiness and blurriness and imperfection. But it's mine! And I can remarkably do a weird variety of things. Until a few weeks ago, collage wasn't one of them.
But then I started pestering whatever part of us creative people that creates. I have a persistent urge towards a particular subject and look of that subject. Just had to do it! And it's working out splendidly.
I certainly don't see any better than I did a while ago, but somehow I'm working around and through that obstacle course that is my present sight and I am able to cut up small pieces of paper into meaningful shapes.  So stay tuned. A new book is in the offing and it looks great. The above shape fell onto the corner of my table and I immortalized it as a flake of creation.

All the Things to be Thankful For

I made a wreath to bring to Mommy's house for Thanksgiving. I hardly think I'm jumping the gun as too many neighbors already sport Santas and reindeer and lights, lights, lights for that pre-mature Xmas feel. And, yes, I acknowledge my wreath is lopsided and not one of those perfect circular items available at LL Bean. In fact, it could be referred to as "artistic" as anything vaguely lumpy or irregular is!
My list! of things to be Thankful for this Thanksgiving Day:
Barack Obama is still president. Hoorah! (That's a big one!)
My horse trade seems to have gone well. Just got a report that Crispin has a "girlfriend" and the kids like his rocking chair canter. (It was his best asset!) And Maggie the Horse? Just what the doctor ordered: small dark and very quiet. She's a good little horse.
Bob and I are happy and healthy and semi-solvent.
Jules. He's such a good dog- even when he's bad!
My mother (aka Mommy) still is able to live at home and be there for Thanksgiving.
My sisters and friends are good people and not some crazy tea party nut jobs.
The weather's nice; not sleet and shit falling from the heavens.
I didn't eat too much today...

Pink Sky at Night...

I am posting several beautiful pictures- taken as you might guess, a week past when we had that brief dalliance with a Nor'Easter. There was snow! And a lovely sky... I went outside to play with Jules and we were leaping around, tossing snow balls and facing east. I turned back towards the house and was totally blown away by the color of the sky. Fortunately, the miracle that is digital photography did it justice.

Our house looks covered in raspberry jam!
This posting is a way for me to chill out and cool down as there is smoke (the very color of that sky) billowing out of both ears. I feel so frustrated and my circuits feel overwhelmed.
Work has been tough; another auction squeezed in and lots of time constraints. My sisters and I trying to deal with the continuing dilemma of our aging mother (aka Mommy). The endless horse saga and my wondering why on earth it's taken so long to swap them out. And the general feeling of no time just for myself...

And so I get off the phone a while ago,  my lunch gone cold and I reach to pull the shade down as the afternoon sun was in my eyes. The shade leaps off it's bracket and crashes square onto the dining table- how it didn't hit Bob or I is a miracle! And as if that wasn't enough, I missed my chair when I sat back down and landed right on Jules (who was asleep under my chair). He cushioned my fall, for which I am grateful, and he sprang to his feet unhurt, but I scared him (and Bob and myself). No harm done! And I think it forced some of the days bad energy out into the cosmos.