Shrub Border!

I should have taken a picture of this before I cleaned it up! It was a tangled mess of small saplings, rose brambles, barberry and just a general thicket of invasives and undesirables. There is probably a handsome case of "contact dermatitis" awaiting me, as I'm sure some of the vines I ripped out are slowly awakening poison ivy! Oh well...
I've been planning on creating a new shrub area for some time. Bob and I have collected a number of lilac suckers from several friends and we (spontaneously) purchased a shrub or two thinking of the future. Bob also had a few small flowering trees from my sister Beatrice having enrolled him in the Arbor Day Foundation. Those were healed into the vegetable garden and have grown impressively, making for a harder transplantation than we originally anticipated. The crab apple especially seems to have liked where it was residing and put up a fight at being moved.

Doesn't look that big but it resisted being dug up! There were a couple of dogwoods, too. One I planted out near a variegated dogwood we purchased last year. The digging in that area was so hard and it got to be late in the afternoon, so I put the other dogwood in the new shrub border. Sometimes, the path of least resistance is awfully appealing!

So it make look just like my shadow on a spot of earth, but there's a hole there waiting for a new resident. I dug and ripped and raked and dug some more- I spent the entire day outside, installing this new section of the garden. It's going to be nice, once we get the fence moved and put a new gate up at the end of a sort of natural path that leads through this former wilderness. Hey: we have friends who are down sizing and getting all happy about not having lawns to mow or gardens to weed. I just keep developing new gardens...
But look what the competition is!

We made a trip to the New York Botanic Garden last week, to deliver Bob's metal work that they sell in the shop there. (One of the horticulturalists said to Bob, "You're famous! Everyone wants your metal work!" That was cool.) But wandering around their 250 acres of trees, shrubs, perennials, bulbs and millions of specimens makes me so envious. Look at those flowering cherries above! And literally a zillion daffodils! Yikes. It was awe inspiring, but I hate to think of how many gardeners they employ. Back here at home, we only have me and Bob and Robin.

Tax Time!

It's hard to believe that that's my studio table. I decided that if I did my taxes in my studio, it would be impossible to ignore the mess and avoid doing them. I am pretty adept at finding other things to do...
Like raking leaves or even hanging out the laundry- anything but having to do my taxes! So, yes, I spread out on my studio table, knowing that I'd get them done as I couldn't use my table and work on my most recent piece. I trick myself occasionally.
It worked: I'm all done. I must have set a new speed record for compiling, adding, computing, correcting, refiguring and copying my taxes. I was seriously annoyed that I had to run upstairs three times (!) to go on the IRS website and calculate various evil and arcane equations. Who thinks this stuff up? As I relentlessly intone every year, the government is especially crazy to trust people like me to do their taxes. On the best of days, I struggle to do things like percentages and on the worst of days, even simple subtraction is a real mind bender. (Please never ask to see my check book.) And the inclusion of Premium Earned Tax Credits to account for my ObamaCare is especially challenging as there are inexplicable sub-categories and side charts. There is even a paragraph that I swear the IRS is saying something to the tune of: "Trust us; just multiply this number (that makes no sense) by this other number (Don't ask us how we arrived at this number; just do it.)" So far, I have always received a refund so I must be doing things right, either that or the agents checking my form feel sorry for me.*
What was especially irksome today was that it had to have been the nicest day this year- an amazingly nice day! However, I am on a course of antibiotics and am supposed to stay out of the sun so I had to ignore the benevolent sun and greening grass. It did force me to stay on task.
Here's something I can attest to. The IRS knows how tough doing taxes can be. They kept suggesting we go drinking after filing:

See? "Search current forms and PUBS". They're apparently recommending bars and drinking establishments in your zip code. Although I'm not supposed to have alcohol while on this prescription; I guess I'll have to delay my celebration!
I debated not sending in my tax this year. If the current Unpresidented resident of the White House refuses to release his taxes, then I feel like I shouldn't have to submit my taxes. I am disheartened that they are using our money to do terrible things like bomb Syria. If they asked any one of us for recommendations, I am sure we could come up with better ways to spend a dollar. For many years now, I have advocated for a multiple choice section on the 1040 inquiring as to where you want your taxes to go. Then we'd see what's important!

*And I'd like to add that it helps when you fill out your return in at least three different colors of ink from at least four different pens. I am sure the attending IRS agent thinks I'm "unstable" to put it mildly. But one pen ran dry and every time I went upstairs, there was a different pen at the ready...

Garden Clean Up and Othe Innocuous Postings

Nice clean garden beds! The wonderful warm, sunny (maybe a little windy!) weather begged me to begin the vernal ritual of garden clean up. It is so good to see tiny nascent leaves exposed and
bits of green shoots and snouts poking up. I start to recall all my horticultural fiends...

(There's my helper Lil' Robin the Good, overseeing my efforts and making sure that I don't miss random sticks and leaves. Actually, she photobombed me- appeared out of left field!) It took three full days to chop everything down and rake it into sizeable piles. I confess I haven't picked up all the piles yet; tired of lugging tarps through the gate...
We still have one small ridge of snow in the shadiest section of the yard, but Robin and I ran through it a few hundred times and tried to scatter it so maybe by today it will be all gone. Who needs a reminder of winter?!?!?
Bob and I are finalizing our seed orders and are hopeful that we'll have a beautiful and productive season. We'd better as we committed to being on a garden tour- in the end of August, which means we have to make the garden look good for an extended period of time. And what's blooming in the end of August?!!?! And we're on the tour the same day as a man who is a Master Gardener and probably has a gardening staff (with names sown on the pockets of their uniform tee shirts, no less) and I'm certain the tour will be in for a huge comparison shock. But we do have exotic sculpture and many "Items of Interest" to view.

I splurged and bought two really nice urns to adorn the soon-to-be-constructed terrace area. Many of our old planters- mostly half rusted cooking pots and the like- were simply falling apart. Don't worry: we still have a good assortment of weird containers, but I liked the color and size of these. (And they were a hopelessly good buy!) I know poor Bob is very busy working and making metal work for heads of state and royalty, but I just can't wait to start pulling up decayed boards and ridding our world of the rotting "deck"; remember, there was good sized clusters of grass growing in it last year.
The back of the BauHaus Chicken Coop will look amazing once that's done...
(You will notice- and be thankful for, no doubt!- that there was not even one reference to The Orange Menace in this entire post! He and his evil henchmen are busy destroying the environment and signing executive orders to permit the dumping of toxins into our water and rolling back regulations to allow the use of hideous pesticides... we are happy to be growing many of our own vegetables!!)

A Very Busy Week!

Yes, that's me and my fellow women artists being interviewed on WPKN, a local very independent radio station. Thanks to Debbie Hesse for the invitation- and the photograph! We were all radio neophytes (and quite nervous initially!)but settled in and had a delightful hour long discussion of art, music, politics and Nasty Women in modern day America.
On my way to the radio station, I was enthralled, listening to public hearings into intelligence gathering and the evidence coming forth about Russian meddling in our recent election- shades of Watergate! Yes, I was one of those youngsters who couldn't get enough of Senator Sam and the rest of the subcommittee as delved into nefarious Nixon White House doings...
I had work to complete for my inclusion in the show "Mincing Words" curated by the artist (and organizer of wonderful shows) Martha Lewis. Hangers to be affixed, work to be delivered- the typical pre-game details. And this was at the same time as trying to get the car repaired, go to work, finish a collage for another fund raiser auction.
Not to mention Maggie still needs additional TLC because while her hoof is on the mend, she needs to regain the weight and strength she shed while hurting. Maggie actually broke into a trot and then a bit of a canter yesterday so I know she's improving. And of course, the extra attention that Maggie gets requires me to lavish more focus on Lil' Robin (who waxes jealous...). No wonder I run around like a nut before leaving for work.

(Another shot, taken by the station manager, Steve Constanza).
Bob and I were jubilant and celebrated the rethuglican defeat of their non-replacement of ObamaCare. Hooray! You can't take away benefits and give a tax break to the wealthy and expect to pass a cruel and unusual law (that the Unpresident doesn't seem to have read...) Can we nowpush on to Single Payer Universal Coverage, please? Instead of pandering to the Tea Party turned "Freedom Caucus" who didn't think the absurdity proffered went far enough... yeesh!
And then the truck screwed up as we dropped the car off for brake repairs, essentially leaving us transportationless. Thank goodness for our good friend Joe who ferried us to my opening in New Haven yesterday afternoon! I was able to drop off my work for the auction and then we were all free to enjoy a crowded and boisterous opening and dine on Japanese food afterwards. A good night!
But I experienced a funny moment when I went into my studio the other day and my walls were entirely bare. It was shocking! I guess it's good to have a bunch of your work out in the world and empty space to fill up with new art.

The 900 Pound Patient in the Field

Yup! That's Miserable Maggie and her delightfully abscessed hoof. Here's a close up:

Swaddled in the ol' standby remedy of Epson salts and iodine mixed into a poultice and slapped into a disposable diaper and strapped on with duct tape! My poor Mexican pony!
Maggie started favoring her foot on Thursday.On Friday, in the midst of a spontaneous snow storm and swirling winds, she was really down for the count. Her leg was so retracted upwards to her belly that I began to fear that she had ruptured a tendon or broken a bone. And when I came home from work, she wasn't even standing: she was laying full face down in the snow and mud. I thought she was a goner.
I called the vet on Saturday and Hallelujah! They have Saturday hours. Since Maggie had made it through the 6 degree night (with a minus zero wind chill) I was pretty sure she'd survive, but the vet came and confirmed our diagnosis of a particularly deep and nasty abscess. So once the hoof was wrapped and she had consumed a couple of sizeable horsey pain pills, crushed and camouflaged in molasses and grated carrot, I was relieved that she didn't require a bullet to the forehead. I am happy to report that two days later, she's actually walking a way that resembles walking*- just in time for a Bombogenesis or Bombodelic or Bombolicious (something like that!) storm! (A sudden drop of 24 or more milibars... whatever that means.)
 So we await Stella and already have four or five inches of the fluffy white stuff. Our house is warm (that's another story) and Bob's going to make a pork roast and we have a coconut cake (looked like a snow storm!) and a box of wine. I think we'll survive! Here's a picture to warm us up and cheer our flagging winter-weary spirits:

I am a sucker for the primroses that all the supermarkets sell at this time of year. And these were marked down! The weirdest part to me is that they are actually hardy and if I don't kill them with intermittent over watering and allowing them to dry out and wilt, I can plant them out if Spring ever arrives!

* You have to imagine a 900 pound beast limping on three legs- not a pleasant sight!

This is Why We Do Art

One reason to make art is to respond to the world. Let's face it: the world (at present anyway!) is pretty messed up and very confusing. Making art can certainly be a way to order your thoughts, express concern, channel outrage (or even hope!) and at the very least, vent some pent up steam. Since The Orange Menace ascended to the throne of The Unpresidented, artists and writers and musicians (and yes! comedians!) have been venting and expressing and that's a good thing.
The piece above is a case in point. The phrase "kompromat" is Russian for "Compromising Material": essentially blackmail. I made this piece as a way of commenting on all the information pouring out about the present administrations ties to Vladimir Putin and the Russian government. Let's face it- there is plenty of evidence that the election was hacked and influenced with the "help" of foreign agents. And there is that disturbing dossier full of weird allegations about "golden showers" and other compromising materials...
I worked with gold and other sumptuous fabrics as both Putin and The Donald enjoy luxurious shiny things and a life of opulence. And I wanted the piece to reference heraldic banners as the present administration clearly sees itself as an imperial presidency. Let them eat cake, indeed!
I also employed semi-Cyrillic lettering that was still easily readable but looks vaguely foreign. I thank the curator of the show "Mincing Words" with suggesting the word "kompromat"! The perfect word at the right time. (Thank you, Martha Lewis).
It's worth remembering that Russian artists have labored under restrictions and censorship for years. Speaking one's mind during the Soviet Era was seriously dangerous and artists daring to produce music or art or books that were considered decadent or not for the glory of the Russian people or government were banished to Siberia or killed. Things aren't much better recently; think of the Russian rock band Pussy Riot. They were jailed but continue to make art, music and revolution. We consider these events occur in distant countries, under repressive regimes... until it happens here.
I am deeply horrified and troubled by the rise in hate crimes, the repression of a free press, the belief in fake news and the passing of bizarre laws (such as the one in North Dakota that was to allow drivers to run over people if they were in roadways protesting. Yikes!) Our democracy is being sorely tested and our rights are being eroded. (Why is it that the rethuglicans only like to protect SOME rights- like the right to bear arms?) I think- no, I KNOW- it's an especially important time to exercise our freedom of speech.
So... the only response possible is to make art. Viva La Revolution!

A Girlie Dog

Yes, that's Lil' Robin falling through time and space in her (wildest) dreams! And a fine time for a (very unscientific) exploration of sex differences in girls and boy dogs. Your actual experiences may differ*; but a year in on harboring a female dog and I can assure you there are some differences.
I consider myself a card-carrying feminist, so I don't believe in dressing my dog up in pink bows or silly sweaters with tutus stitched to the bottom or talk more (or less) "baby talk" to her... (Oh please! Talking baby talk to the dog just happens!) I guess what I'm trying to say is that I believe myself to be somewhat unbiased. Background-wise I have had more males than females: Woofie, Archie, Charlie (for like a two weeks, poor thing!), Frank the Dog and Jules as opposed to only Ricky and now Robin in the girl department.*
First, I do subscribe to the basic premise that it has more to do with how you raise/nurture/handle the dog than some inherent traits, but I do observe some temperament variations. The boy dogs seem easy going in a funny way; not "goofy" as I've read other dog people describe it, just more relaxed and ready to have fun. My two girls seem to "worry" more; Robin suffers from a bit of separation anxiety and this could be (and is!) breed-related, but it fits with Ricky who nearly lost her marbles when we boarded her once. If you gave Ricky a biscuit, she would wander miserably around the house, moaning to herself (I think she was searching for her abandoned mother dog and her eleven siblings.) Very pathetic!
I think they're more naturally protective, too. Robin barks when people come to the house and is not as welcoming to men that enter. And she is definitely more guarded and more suspicious of people and dogs on our morning walks. Jules (and Archie and Woofie) used to love everybody. It's interesting that neighbors remark on this to me and I respond, "They're different dogs!" Perhaps more of this is personality than sex...
Robin also is more measured in her affections. She is extraordinarily affectionate, but when she's done, she makes it clear and moves on. She seems discerning (but this could be that she is a Sagittarius, like Frank the Dog with whom she seems to share other character traits. Yeesh! Has anyone out there studied Astrological Signs in dogs?!?!?!)
Funny enough, I think Robin is more rough and tumble in play. Boy, she's ferocious with the sticks and balls outside- she'll caroom around the yard at a million miles an hour and then POW! body slam you when she runs your way. Very physical, although she's also incredibly willowy and graceful. (Remember, she has high cheekbones and very long legs and is slim and I call her my Supermodel.) And then she prances across the yard and poses. She also sulks, pouts and preens. It occurs to me that she's more outwardly feminine than I'll ever be- that's a strange thing to ponder!

(Robin, rearranging the cosmic furniture.)
Our next door neighbor likes to comment that girl dogs are much smarter than males. Granted, the dog they have now is denser than a door knob (they'll be the first to admit it!) but all of my males have been smart. But I think that that's the single most important attribute I look for in any dog, regardless of make, model or year... or color or gender or size. (Although I do tend towards the mid-sized, silky coated, wavy pendulous eared setter/spaniel/retriever end of the canine spectrum and have never been drawn to terrier/hound/pit bull or herding types.
This is only a years worth of evidence and based on more boys than girls so check back in with me. But Lil' Robin keeps surprising me with her opinions on things and you can definitely see the gears moving between her (silky) ears!

*Let me know your experiences.
*And I'm not weighing in on the intact vs spay/neutered controversy- yet! There are definite differences along with politics. My dogs have all been "factory equipped" so to speak- with no weird or undesirable side effects. Don't get me started...