Almost Ready

(Yeah, that's Tilda Swinton (again). She keeps popping up, this time on our ceiling. Don't ask.)
I'm almost ready to begin working in my studio again. Almost. I have loads of ideas, which I have been jotting down on envelopes and bits of scrap paper at work but I haven't been (seriously) in my studio for three weeks. I entered last Thursday and cracked my skylights and opened a window but just wasn't feeling it. And then my muses growled at me so I went out to do some gardening instead.
I guess it makes total sense. I worked so hard, doing three shows this late Winter and Spring, I know my artistic muscles just need a break. And it's been a good and well deserved vacation!
I know I've suggested that we artists are not factories and there is truth in that. But we do get asked (constantly) to "show only your newest and bestest work". Whatever!
So I'm obviously brimming over with new ideas (Womp Womp) and entertaining possible type-faces and fonts in my mind, but I'm not committing anything to fabric yet. I'm also toying with the next artist's book which will be an intense contemplation on income disparity. Lots to ponder there!
The other thing that's been keeping me going and making me happy (besides Bob and Robin and even cranky lame ol' Maggie) is gardening. Yes, we suffered mighty set backs from that blasted tornado paying an unwelcome visit, but every few days brings another load of logs removed from yet another garden bed and more liberated lawn. My shoulders ache tonight, but it was refreshing to be able to walk directly across the yard and not have to take an enormous detour around the felled giant of a pine tree. Hooray for Bob and the new chain saw!
I know it's obvious, but boy do I love plants and gardening. I have been constructing a birthday wish list and it's all plant material. I think I suddenly discovered all the cool colors and shapes that conifers come in: lumps! bumps! comes! shafts! pyramids! blobs! pancakes! It's exhilarating. I am especially drawn to round mounds this early summer. Maybe I've explored tall narrow forms enough for a while and realize I have no mounded evergreens at all. And space! I do have more space to play with now that those trees have fallen... endless possibilities.
Wish us luck.. The tree removal men are due on Wednesday. I don't even remember what the house looks like with trees resting on it. And we have a spectacular idea in store for the stumps... stay tuned!

Shanty Town

Just a quick posting to assure my friends and followers that, yes, we DO live in Shanty Town! The standing tree remnants (that is, trees that broke off at about 10 feet in height) made swell posts for an impromptu clothes line. You will recall that we had many things demolished/crushed/ruined/destroyed and buried in that tornado; the clothes line* was such a victim.
So being given lemons we made... well, we did laundry while the sun shone and Bob rigged up a new outdoor drying system that is really New! and Improved! as with fewer trees, we get way more light and air. The clothes dried in record time and (of course) smell great.
Just don't ask me to wash our fine hand washables in the stream!

* Don't get me started about towns that have residents that protest people drying their clothes outside. The idea that you need "Right to Dry Laws" is preposterous. Unless you're the CEO of a utility and materially benefit from people using incredible amounts of electricity and are hopelessly cynical and greedy, the only reason to object to drying clothes outside is aesthetic. And that's lame! I object more to black and orange mulches, often favored by suburban McMansion dwellers!

Picking Up the Pieces

Well it may not seem like it, but we are making progress in cleaning up our little yard of devastation. There is still a phenomenal amount of wood strewn about, but order is being imposed. Bob and I are beginning to resemble "knuckle walkers" as our arms are being stretched from carrying all that wood. We'll never have to purchase firewood again!

Truckload after truckload... but the lawn is looking okay after the logs are lifted and the saw dust is raked away. There has even been cause for cheers as- amazingly!- several shrubs and hostas and perennials survived (a bit twisted) but alive. And most of the rhododendrons and the mountain laurel are actually flowering despite being hidden beneath a canopy of destruction...
We also mourn the plants and trees that have been decapitated and crushed.

There is a lot more light coming into the yard, along with an odd optical illusion. The yard appears so much wider that our sense of where the garden beds begin and end is skewed. It's hard to describe, but when sitting on the terrace, the first garden bed should be fifteen feet to the left. Weird. I guess it's the fact that the trees that fell were so much bigger than they seemed. It's all very disorienting.

But we make sure there are rewards after all that hard work, like these tropical coolers concocted with the coconut rum that Bob received from John (of Beatrice and John fame) for his birthday. Mix in pineapple and orange juice and a bit of seltzer and add an umbrella and you're transported to the tropics. It also helps to dull the memory of all that wood moving, and maybe even explains why the garden beds are shifting.

For Artists Only

This is purposely a misleading title to this posting. Art- and art openings are NOT for artists only, but I think John and Jane Q. Public think that galleries are some sort of private club. I am repeatedly asked things like, "Does it cost money to go to a gallery?" "Do I need a ticket?" "Can anyone go?"
See that nice photo above, full of nice people looking at all that nice art?
They're all artists!
Nothing wrong with artists. Some of my best friends etc, etc... Conservatively speaking, 95% of my friends are artists and they're the greatest, swellest people around (funny, witty, smart, talented) but they cannot- and should not- be expected to buy art. And while I love my friends and the millions of new artist friends I meet, I want other, non-artist people to go to openings and experience my work.
This is one reason to show- to gain a wider audience for your work, with this widening audience (hopefully) leading to these individuals becoming buyers and collectors of the work.
My friends can visit my studio and see what I'm up to. I realize seeing the work in a gallery is different. I appreciate that they like coming to openings and getting a bit of wine and cheese and celebrating my work in a clean well lighted space; it does make the work seem complete. But I cannot- and do not- expect them to buy my work. So everyone leaves at the end of the evening and the work looks great but nothing changes. You get another line on your resume...
It's a constant paradox: how do you attract people to the gallery and separate them form their money? I suppose that's cynical way to put it but art needs to be collected. Galleries go belly up because the gallerist/director hasn't figured out the answer to this age old dilemma. Artists fight for the few positions in the stable of blue-chip galleries because there is a greater likelihood of success in selling work (which, of course, leads to being able to make more work...) Mid-level and entry level galleries stay open for maybe two, three years and close because of a lack of sales. It cease to be fun when operating a gallery means sitting in a lonely space, surrounded by work that no one wants to invest in and you still have bills to pay.
Several art dealers have stated to me recently that the artist should be bringing the buyers in to the gallery. I ask, then what's the gallery's part? If I had a slew of collectors that were eager to buy my work, chances are I wouldn't need a gallery.
I sure don't have the answer. I can make the work and attempt to round up the people who have enjoyed and purchased my work previously, and invite them to this show, and the next show and on and on. But it's a long slog! Even gallerists throw up their hands and exclaim over how hard it is. But we continue to schlepp our work to gallery after gallery and show after show... what's an artist to do?!?!!!??!?!?

The Trees of Destruction Party

The party that we convened to celebrate the untimely catastrophe that is our backyard was a huge success. Everyone seemed in jovial moods (maybe because anything erupting in their lives- like blisters or hemorrhoids- became trivial when they observed the damage first hand. The cake I prepared (store-bought sheet cake/ hand-rendered decorations) was like-wise success; only a small heap of it remains. Photographs were taken by party goers as I happily explained how I sat around yesterday afternoon whittling holes in pretzel rods and sharpening pretzel sticks and inserting them with some melted semi-sweet chocolate as mortar. Bob constructed a pile of logs:

It was remarkably life-like, complete with the trees that remain upright, but with busted branches and capriciously leaning companion trees. I wish the clean up of the yard was as easy as the clean up from the party!
Several friends tried to make grand entrances through the side gate where the most danger is. Don't ask me how they chose to clamor through the destruction; I can only imagine the tragedy of having friends die with trees falling on their heads! Fortunately, the only casualty was my favorite outdoor lawn chair:

And this has happened before! Seems it's like a party ritual that a chair must be sacrificed to the party gods!  At least no one was hurt and a rollicking good time was had by all. Even Lil' Robin the Good is exhausted and sound asleep on my foot as I write this. (Her doggo friend Izzie attended so she had someone to explore the ruins with).
Friends were so nice. I could see the sadness on their faces when they viewed what remains of our garden. But they were generous, too. They brought wine and food (multiple watermelons! multiple pasta salads!) and several even brought us plants (and even a garden center gift certificate) with which to begin to rebuild our gardens. We are touched by their thoughtfulness.
Today, it's nice that it's raining and we don't need to do anything. Maybe we'll just nap like Robin.

Nice Pictures

I don't know; maybe it's because it's too awful to contemplate the level of destruction and mayhem that has been visited upon our garden but it seems really hard to get "good" pictures. In this shot, you can see the magnolia was spared (thanks for something!) but that's my garden under all those reclining monster tree carcasses! And while I'm eternally grateful that bob and I and Robin and Maggie are okay, our yard and property are definitely not okay!
And as anyone who knows me knows, my garden is very important to me!!

Large sections of our yard look like this. Like Bob said, it's hard to know even where to begin cleaning up. Our friend Joe came over today and helped chain saw away a tree that crashed through the fence next to our neighbor's house and remove another large oak that fell near Bob's studio so that we can drive debris down and make a giant pile (or ten) in the woods behind Bob's studio.

So we have some damage to the house in the back. The storm didn't entirely crush our house- like some unfortunate neighbors!- but we can't get the tree down even with the skilled assistance of talented friends. The insurance people have been notified. We'll see what happens there. I know (and have been warned) that insurance "adjusters" will try and save the company money and try and get out of paying for damages as much as possible. But we're tenacious and I am making a list of all my plants and shrubs that were smashed. I have quite a lot of valuable plant material that is not salvageable!
How about one more?

This is a perfectly healthy spruce that was uprooted and toppled in Maggie's pasture. Poor Maggie was totally freaked out and has spent the last three days sort of hanging out in her barn. We removed a couple of smaller trees that fell in her auxiliary grazing area so that she could get out and graze as she's blocked by the above monster from the lower field. What a mess!

A Little Tornado, Anyone?

Yes, just your average glance out the studio window to see how Mother Nature has arranged your yard and trees in a charming- and unexpected- manner! This is just the first picture and posting of many to come, that document how messed up life at the BobnRita Ranch are.
Fortunately, Bob and I and the Dog and Pony Show are all fine. Robin thinks the backyard disaster is sorta fun (lots of trees to jump over/climb on/root around under) but Maggie seems exhausted and still freaked out (she was outside during the storm and was lucky to not get crushed by falling trees! Her barn was spared but she didn't want to be inside.)
More later, but that'll get you started. Hint: this is no where near the worst of the damage. I can't even look at the rest of the pictures now. Our garden is somewhere under a pile of giant trees.