Upcoming Oklahoman Birthday

Doesn't that look like somewhere else... as in, "not Connecticut"? As previously reported, we had the dead and dying trees cut off at around 10 feet as we have a PLAN. (Oh just you wait...) Anyway, I have taken to calling our backyard "Oklahoma" (as in: "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOk-lahoma where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain...") because the ground is flat and parched and there are no trees on the left hand side. I expect to see oil derricks sprouting. It's pretty bleak, especially as  it's been so god-awful hot and dry.
Here's a really hard to decipher close up of the (above) blue walkway:

Those are all ants, swarming on the mosaic. It was kind of gross, but really interesting. I don't know exactly what they were up to, but there is still a good deal of saw dust on the walkway from the tree removal episode so maybe they were eating sawdust. It's hard to describe how many there were.
But returning to the subject of flat, parched, barren landscapes, I am interested to see what happens with all the available space I now have in the backyard. While I was at work on Friday, industrious Bob picked up/rolled off and carted away the remaining giant logs that littered our lawn. There is a clear path through to the horse fence (and large heaps of attendant brush). As mentioned, the upside is more room for planting things! I am contemplating a sort of mini-conifer border. Sort of like this, but on a more modest scale:

A screen shot from the Iseli Nursery website. They're in Oregon and grow some pretty spectacular things. It's the stuff of my dreams...

I should probably make a field trip there some day, like visiting Mecca if you're a believer. Well, I'm a believer in Nature and plants!
So I have been starting my coniferous adventures recently. Here's a "De Groots' Spire" that Bob and I purchased at (of all places) Home Depot. You know how I like those tall pointy things!

This puppy grows only a foot wide but eight feet tall. Ooooooooooooooooh! I like that! We also bought a half-price juniper plumosa aurea in Vermont when we were there last weekend. (I hijacked Bob and made him go to the Home Depot in Bennington. They had a great selection- all 1/2 price! I wish we'd had a trailer!) And a word to all family members who may be getting me "living things" for my rapidly approaching birthday: I did NOT purchase anything on the lists of plants I provided. Rest assured, any and all birthday offerings are welcome!!

See You in Hell!

Flaming day lilies to accompany the incredibly hot weather we endured this week! The flowers didn't seem to mind; possibly because I ran around watering and checking up on everyone. How hot was it? Do I have to remind you? The heat index- a new-ish gauge of climate changes real life effect on us all- was over 100 all week. Everyday was a 3 tee shirt day.

The containers look really good (if I do say so myself...) despite needing waterings several times a day. The lawn is a tad crispy in spots but can also be attributed to the massive amounts of trees/logs/sawdust that continues to occupy our time and energy.
And piles? Anyone want to see our piles? It's been so hot that there was a recess taken from all that dragging and stacking and piling...

Bob and I have taken turns hauling this pile from one area to another. We have lacked the energy or impetus to remove it entirely and take it out to the woods.

You see what we're up against! More piles; they will be with us for a long time. No wonder we're getting out of town for the weekend. Actually, it has more to do with Bob having a sculpture to install in North Bennington (VT) at an outdoor sculpture show. Here's a link:
www.nbossvt.org
We had fun last year and it will be good to get away. A friend (thanks Joe!) is staying with Lil' Robin the Good. I think she knows something is up and she is not impressed!

* The title of this blog was originally going to refer to both the protracted heat wave and the resignation of the evil Scott Pruitt as head of the EPA. (Don't make me gag!) But as I stated writing this entry, I realized I wanted to spend as little time as possible discussing evil motherfuckers like Scott Pruitt. Suffice it to say, there is a particularly hot 'n' steamy ring of Hell for him to occupy and there won't be any second hand mattresses or special moisturizers to make his stay in hell easier!

The Tree Guys Cometh

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayy!! The tree guys finally came to liberate the house from the precarious leaners and to cut down several other potential threats. They wedged a large truck in between the house and the vegetable garden- a tight fit!- and went to work. We found this most exciting!

This is from a slightly different angle, safely out of the way, showing the trees still on the roof and the other ones standing. (I'm inserting more pictures than typical in this post as how often do you have men in buckets swarming your house and trees??!!)

Here's a reminder of how dangerous these things were.

Going up! There were two tree guys: one went up in the bucket and hauled all the aerial stuff down. The other guy admitted to being glad he no longer went up in the bucket as he was afraid of heights; he has company there!

You couldn't pay me! Especially wielding a crazy chain saw!

They had to work together to rope and brace the tree that was leaning on the roof to the other tilted tree and cut off and lower chunks down (carefully!). They were really good at this. Only a modest chip happened to the end of our walkway and no shrubs or trees were harmed (A couple of perennials got driven over but there was no way to avoid that. And a whole lot more damage would have occurred if those trees had fallen on us or the garden!) I mean, this is a heavily gardened area and I'm relieved that I can get in there and weed and plant.

Half gone! You have to appreciate that that bucket is a good twenty feet up! Yikes!

Here they are from the other side, attacking the dead/dying row of pines and spruces. Yes, they were cool trees- looking all skeletal and "Californian" but they did prove dangerous.

Last one standing!! Our house does need a repair. (That's the next project...) It only took a couple of hours total and everything looked...

Oh no! It looked just like after the tornado!!

And... everywhere you look... more branches! More limbs! More cleanup!!!

And with all that work to look forward to, I don't know what Bob was so happy about! (Probably the very excellent fact that we no longer live in danger and we can get the house repaired and WE didn't have to remove the trees and risk life and limb!!)

We felt like such "homeowners", an unusual feeling for us. We traditionally do all our own work; quite interesting to be on the other end and hire people. I could get used to it! (Hahhaahha!!)

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?!?!!!??!?!?