How About Some Pretty Flowers?

Lovely, isn't it? A different variety of morning glory than we usually grow. This one is a picotee... I think some sort of Japanese hybrid. The weird thing is that only one vine looks like this and is blooming. The other two vines in the same container- ostensibly the same plant- have significantly different leaves and no flowers yet. Sometimes they get mixed up at the seed factory! Here's a shot of the whole container:

This vine is particularly floriferous, too! Everyday sends up a bunch of new blooms.

(Not a flower arrangement but a pretty pink drink. Bob put a couple of drops of Campari in our gin and tonic and a sprig of mint. It tasted delicious and was a perfect accompaniment to an end of day garden perusal)
So despite an erratic (read non appreciable) rain fall and consistently high temperatures (thank you, Climate Change!) some things have done super well in the garden. Most of the vines are sky high (except the honeysuckle: that is a mess): Cardinal Climber (Ipomoea x multifida),

Hyacinth Bean (Dolicos Lab Lab) and several varieties of Morning Glory- including that old trooper "Grand Pa Ott, (thanks to our good friend Roberta!). Also, Thunbergia (Black Eyed Susan Vine) is going great guns this summer.

But look at this amazing succulent. I bought it for the foliage but it started to bloom and it's spectacular!

A stunner! I never dreamed we'd get flowers that look like something from another planet or some undersea world. Let's face it: after all the insanity and evilness afloat in the world, isn't it nice to see pretty flowers?

(Gratuitous shot of the same succulent on the mosaic walkway just because.)

Over Heated/ Stay-cation/Expanded Birthday Version

Not sure what kind of insect this is- other than very large!- but it was adhered to our picnic table. This is how big it was: at first I thought it was a baby bat! I think the extreme weather has encouraged some strange Southern bugs to infiltrate.
Well, the hot weather has caused my brain to go on a stay-cation. It's so muggy and the air is so vile that thinking is nie-on impossible. Lots of vague empty spaces...
What was I saying? Oh yes, something banal about the weather. And it does seem that it's always like this for my birthday, whether it's celebrated on the right day or delayed for a month due to unforeseen medical episodes involving family member's faces...

But my birthday celebration was delightful! Good food and a splendid concord grape wine, lovely gifts including several choice hostas (Empress Wu! and Curly Fries), nuts, flip flops adorned with jewels, clothing, more wine; the list could go on and on and my family was most generous. Thanks to them all! Lil' Robin the Good was on her best behavior and soon took a real shine to my family, rolling around and exposing her underbelly like a trollop. But even she is crashed out on the floor now, trying to escape the heat as best as she can.

Bob's sculpture looks ready to be beamed up to another planet- hopefully one with nicer weather. We couldn't even see the (supposedly) spectacular meteor show last night as it was decidedly overcast last night and rained every so often. I actually woke up at 5:00 am and went outside my studio to see if there were meteor shower remnants to catch but no such luck!

And what else? I should have gotten this blasted, wasted attempt of a blog post up two day ago but the office (ie; the room in which the computer lives) is so hot that I haven't been up to a long enough stint to actually finish the post... you get the picture.

 So it feels like 104 degrees (according to the Weather Channel) and my studio is an oven and I'm retreating back to that air-conditioned bedroom. Sayonora!

Fortuitous Coincidence

Maybe you remember our shower curtain. Maybe you don't (you're forgiven). That's it above. It has lovely summery stripes. (The picture is a tad dark but I'm having trouble locating the "brighten" command in Paint Shop Pro and our Photoshop program doesn't work with Windows 10...the accursed Windows 10 again!) Anyway a couple of weeks ago, Bob and I were at a second hand store and I remarked that I wanted to get Lil' Robin a new water dish to put in the bathroom upstairs. (We had a couple of supremely ugly ones that neither one of us liked. Poor Robin was kind enough to with hold her opinion.) We both liked a particular bowl but it wasn't until we got it home that we understood why:

It matched the shower curtain exactly! (Those odd spots are water drops from my having washed it, not glazing imperfections). Robin seemed to like the cheerful bowl and we enjoyed the colorful serendipity. But then friends (thank you Sheldon and Louise!) gave me several pairs of socks for my latest birthday and as I selected a particular pair to put on, it occurred to me that the stripes looked eerily familiar:

Must be cosmic! Maybe we'll repaint the exterior of the house...

(Verbatim) Good Press!

Hey! This a really great article written by Susan Dunne. It's in the "CT now" part of the Hartford Courant. I like seeing my name in print. (And who doesn't?) I excerpted the parts about me...

Rita Valley is many things: a wage slave, a bottom feeder, a loser. She admits this.
"I don't make my living off my art. People ask me if I sell everything in my show. I say no, that's not why I do it," Valley says. "I see that look on their face, 'What a loser.' So I say fine, I'm a beautiful loser."
Valley, of Southbury, puts these phrases at the center of off-kilter tapestries. Several of her pieces are on show now at Real Art Ways in Hartford.
Her mix of materials is odd: silk with pleather, plaid with pictoral, accented by fringe, chains, streamers and other doodads.
"I like materials that are alternately beautiful and repulsive. It's beautiful but also kind of pushing you away," she says. "If they were just pretty, they wouldn't be interesting."
Her bleak phrases are not melancholy but humorously ironic. "I've never done a piece saying, 'Have a nice day.' I'm really repulsed by overly positive, knee-jerk modern philosophies," she says. "When someone says, 'Everything's just great, be happy,' I think, 'Really, come on.'"

"Loser" is one of Rita Valley's tapestries on show at Real Art Ways. (Rita Valley)

WAGE SLAVE, DISTRACTED DRIVING and SURFACE WORK are at Real Art Ways, 56 Arbor St. in Hartford, until Sept. 11. realartways.org

Bob's List

Bob never ceases to amaze me! He told me the other day that he had concocted a list... a list of some of the things that he'd been planning to do to the house. This was a marvel as we've made so many lists and done so many things, but so many more remain to be done. And as was discussed in an earlier blog posting, so many projects revolve around so many other things being done first. You know the complications; it's a home owners version of that old song about "the knee bones connected to the thigh bone, the thigh bones connected to the hip bone" and on and on. In this case, the starting point has to be my closet at the top of the stairs...
So this is what occurred on Sunday in really hot weather. We went to Home Depot and purchased lumber and plywood and metal tracks for closet doors. This will start the construction ball rolling as once the closet is complete, I can move my clothing from downstairs in my studio annex. That will enable a move of art supplies and a cabinet out of the living room and into the studio annex. The moving of the cabinet will free up the actual front door. Yes, we have one of those! So...
We came home and I volunteered to be the demolition crew. Bob gets to do all the building but I love a good mess. So I donned protective gloves, face mask, safety goggle and full body armor and went to work tearing out that nasty old sheet rock and decaying insulation and wood from where it was hiding behind a plastic sheet and a large painting of mine. The wonders and many uses of modern art!
What lie beneath was really pretty bad. I think I featured a horrid picture several years back when I attacked this area with bleach and attempted to stabilize a disaster created by the previous owners failing to deal with a big leak in the corner of the upstairs dormer. I carted away several contractor's bags of moldy sheet rock and pieces of stud that dissolved as I touched them. No kidding: we barely had a wall at all and there was day light showing through and yellow jackets coming in. Such fun when it's 90 degrees and stunningly humid!

But Bob got to have all the fun the next day when he suited up and repaired and replaced all that punky wood with fresh new 2 x 4's and pieces of plywood to shore up the wall. This corner had needed attention since we moved in so it was  good to just dive in and do it. Poor Bob worked all day reinforcing the wall. But it looks sound now.
The next step is to install new insulation and replacement sheet rock. Then Bob can frame out for the actual closet. There will be a shelf space up above to store blankets and bedding.

Here's his list. Lousy shot, but good things will come of it. Progress is being made.

This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

There's been so many things going on lately and our computer has been so messed up that I haven't written a blog posting in ages, despite there being so very many things to report on. Therefore, I promise to compose- in rapid fire fashion- at least three updating posts. I am certain that everyone is on the edge of their seats in anticipation.
First, allow me to state that the photos are illustrations depicting just how weird life with a puppy can be. I don't really notice anymore that our furniture has taken a decidedly odd turn, but to others who visit, our living room must look very strange indeed. Upturned tables and chairs decorate the seating areas of several chairs to discourage Lil' Robin from sitting on or chewing off cushions.

You get the idea. It has probably crossed Bob's mind that we live "differently" than many of our friends (that's their problem!) but to my mind it's simply a stage we're going through. And who wants a living room that looks like everyone elses? House and Garden hasn't threatened to pay a call any time soon...
This posting is driving circuitously to the subject of Robin the Good and I successfully completing our "Family Manners" Dog Class. (Fans have been clamoring for updates!) I think this was a positive experience for both of us: Robin seems to have benefited from her canine and human interactions and I got to see her blossom. (that is, when she wasn't curled up in a pathetic heap on my feet wishing she were anywhere else.) I also got to accidentally offend several people, including the grumpy woman to whom I exclaimed, "My, that's the biggest Husky I have ever seen!" To which she snarled, "It's not a Husky!" Hey! I got asked if Robin was a Flat Coated Retriever, and I didn't bite their heads off! There were several entertaining (or embarrassing) moments as when the instructor held our dog's leashes- one at a time- and we went to the far end of the space and called our puppies. They're supposed to gallop off to their beloved master/mistress without hesitation. Robin went first and ca-roomed back to me so fast; I think I expected all the other dogs to follow suit. But the little Beagle Ulysses wandered off in the opposite direction as his hapless owner called frantically. The giant (ahem) Not Husky sat and barked at the instructor instead of coming to his crabby mistress and the decidedly challenged (or deranged depending on your viewpoint) gargantuan overbred Labrador Sassy just sat there. The instructor gently prodded this oaf with a sneakered foot but with no result. One test successfully completed!

(The dark blob to the left of center is Robin, surrounded by her bizarre collection of "toys".) I will allow that Robin was great at the coming-when-called episode, but proved less convinced by some of the training operations recommended- like touching her nose with a dog treat, then touching MY nose with the treat and saying "Watch!" to get their attention. I'm not sure what Robin thought, but I am imagining it's along the lines of, "Oh no! Rita really has lost her mind this time!" Robin was much better at practicing at home and found class sort of stressful; many distractions and loads of noise! (Including that a "correction" used on our puppies was a sound that then instructor called "EEEENNNT!!" This was described as "the sound of the buzzer on a game show when an incorrect answer was given". We therefore spent many fine minutes waltzing around the room with a constant barrage of high and low pitched "EEENNNTTTSS". To a person outside the door, it probably sounded like some sort of faulty machine turning on and off. Robin did learn how to growl, which I viewed as a major accomplishent. One of the jumbo-tron dogs thrust their giant, drooly snouts up Robin's butt and she responded with a delightful throaty, "RRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrr".)
 I also hazard an opinion that the instructor wasn't keen on Robin as she was the only mixed breed dog in the class. I know that many people are pure-breed snobs and think any dog not acknowledged by the American Kennel Club is worthless. The instructor was nice enough but he couldn't seem to remember Robin's name and he seemed to hurry over us when doing exercises. I do know that two of the dogs in class were also pursuing private lessons with the instructor, so perhaps there was the added monetary element. A lot of good it did, as those two dogs were the worst in the class.
The class also deepened my appreciation for my beloved mixed breed pooches as Robin was among the better behaved students (not firing off non-stop howls or barking at the top of her lungs or dragging me across the room like some dogs that will remain nameless!) Some of these pure bred dogs are like awful hyperactive children: zero attention span and idiotically spastic outbursts.

There she is... our little scholar. All tuckered out! But smarter! And better behaved! And good! (Don't you love that carpet? No worry of spills and leakage here!)

Perseverance Furthers

(Just one of the many inscrutable moments to be found in our gardens. And I thought it was appropriate to put up a picture of something art-like but not actually art because (and this is a good thing) many of my most recent pieces are out in shows.)
Ahem! Yes, just in time for my birthday (that would be the 20th of July in case you're contemplating sending cards or exotic gifts!) I am finally in a show at Real Art Ways. This is a major event as I have attempted to show there for a good portion of my adult life. I guess it signifies that perseverance furthers (as the I Ching would tell us) and that sometimes just plain old being alive long enough pays off. It also helps to have friends who are artists and curators and who really like your work...
So despite having fallen victim to a mildly vicious summer cold- which everyone at work thoughtfully explored before passing it along to me, I am happy to be approaching 60 with an artistic milestone to celebrate. Hell, I've been making art a long time!

Wow! That's my name. It isn't an accident or a mistake. Earlier this week, a friend sent that along. (Thanks Elly!) I guess it reinforces that I really am having a one person show. And here it is- or a sampling of it:

Hey! The installation view that David Borawski (aforementioned artist/friend/curator) sent along last night actually appeared! Now you don't have to go see the show. Only kidding! I think I'm excited...
And people have to show up as there's two other shows opening that same night so there's bound to be overlap. Even if other people get lost looking for the bathroom or buying snacks, they will eventually stumble into my show.
I trust this last picture will show up; I looked at the preview page and it appeared as an un-openable icon. Too busy to try and figure out why. And too fed up with computers to want to bother!