Countdown to the end of 2016...

Hot in the sun... cold air...

Not the end of the world yet... 

but almost the end of this year... 2016...
the big presents under the indoor tree day is done...
it was white outside and knee aching cold...
the wood pellets have been burning all day...
for days, with temps in the minus degrees at night...
some days not above 32*, clear, blue, bright skies...
back to the every day food of life...
done with the eat all-day rich holiday foods = lbs....
everyone got their manual can openers...

and twenty five year shelf life emergency food...

we got emergency fire starter kits... 

for some reason we all can't stay awake all night as 

in years past, even with day time naps...

and they can't play games without at least ten bodies...

they don't quit with a winner, usually over when all the...

cards to the game have been gone through... 

needless to say lots of laughing, loud voices, and the usual 

family around the table banter... good to have them home.

Half the roll gone before the flame out...

Birthday boy two days before the CHRISTmas day...

The seven-zero this year...
i do hope this seven-zero is better then the 70's i went
through about thirty years back...
i can already tell it's going to be different in lots of ways.
b-day gifts rarely come...
for the big gift day i did get a hank of slick black leather...
and an Art therapy book, do-it yourself... coloring book...
two options on the coloring book... inside the lines, or
outside the lines... depending upon the day and mood...
The most intimidating gift of the season is three blank journals... but all the pages have lines on them...
thats more scary then a blank page with no lines !!
i really have a hard time writing on lined paper or pages.
it feels so formal & form like... don't get it wrong !
i feel like i can only write on every other line...
so i have space to add or make changes...
new things for my seventh year...

New day dawning through office window screen...

Sooooooo back the making leather bags...
daily post office runs with the Deeks dog...
writing & drawing in my sketch books...
trying to stay warm...
and now some Art therapy each day to sooth
my overactive mind...
daily morning scripture reading to keep up
with the Lord and His desires for me...
those morning reading have the ability to
change the course of doing and thinking
of a day and influence the "work" i do in a
given day... food for though so to speak ...
sparks to/in what could be an otherwise dull day.

"I know what LOVE is because of YOU"

see you all in the next year    CHEERS...

Snow on ground & P-38's by air...

snow moose in the window...

         Always trying to get to the heART of the matter, some days are harder then others...
have been a homebody the past couple of weeks... today 11 degrees at sunrise along with snow on the ground and a very biting wind... the window snow moose is back along with a bright blue sky above. 
A whole load of P-38 can openers arrived, morning post office run, so all the kids and grandkids get one for their CHRISTmas stocking this year... one of those bet ya don't know what this is gift. Now most our food comes in milar sealed bags and freeze dried!

Not my heart... mine is used & damaged...

The old heart had lots of work done this summer, ya know you have had a lot done when the hospital staff greets ya on a first name basis... i am thankful for for the great work they did for me. No new stints, but i did get a new ICD Pacemaker with all the bells and whistles and then an ablation so that everything works great. Bottom line... i feel much better... back for a check in February...

So as i was saying... the window sill guys are hard at work on getting ready for CHRISTmas
along with the rest of town... the place is dead
no places to eat open, everyone making the mass exit to wal*mart sixty-five miles away.... cause it's so much cheaper there, don't forget the gas $$$ and the two hour round trip drive and the icey roads over and 8K mountain. BUUUUUT it is nice to get out of town every once n awhile...

Out the river lane looking north...

The weather is cold with not a lot of snow yet... but it is coming sometime after the first of the new year... hopefully we will get the bulk of the snow at 7K and above, because during the melt in the spring it will run bye us at 6K and we can take whats needed for our spring & summer needs. shoveling snow has been declared not heart healthy... just saying.

add one match this year for 70.



          Then i can hang out with the family companion for the Holiday and we can all stay warm and enjoy the kids and grandkids... Merry CHRISTmas and have a good new year... " come what may and love it..."

                                                                                CHEERS.

Mr. Deeks... come on lets go sit down...

Collages & Ruminations 2016

Collage # 7

 Lots of HeART work this past six months, all stable now, the visitor season complete, now trying to get some much needed ideas out of me head...
Collage work with all the images i have from the season past, also going back to ideas/images i worked with back in 2011...
I also want to start writing more again this off season, combine the writing/images in the same piece... 
i think i will deactivate myself from FB, there seems to be more verbal contention there since the election, and a lot of that seems to be more false information then i desire to wade through... makes one start to wonder if these folks are really "friends"... but i was the one that asked most of the 135 to be my friend... and most of them i only know through FB... maybe that's why i don't have many friends outside of the social media network. it's a superficial friendship at best.

Collage # 3

So this is a good time to bring about some changes that i can have some control over... and we can watch what happens with the new political team for the next four years... after all somebody voted them in office, and with the grace and mercy of God they might just get something right.
So again lets bite into another peanut cluster, look up at the CHRISTmas tree and remember what this CHRISTmas season is all about the birth of the Savior and Light of the world...
Lets get back to basics and stop complicating and creating so much contention in this world... life is a test to see/prove that we will obey the Savior...
and remember we are Spiritual being first and we human/ physical being next... thus we are Spiritual beings having a physical/human experience. 

Sketch book idea for Collage # 6

Drawing/Writing are they the same thing?  marks on a paper or page, some of the marks being easer to understand/read then others...
sometimes i like the black and white marks of a sketch better then what i may turn it into later in the finished piece... I love to draw and have for most of my life, my next love is to color inside the lines... and on rare times ignore the lines and spread color all over everywhere... i think my love of color within the lines has come from my building/construction background... there is more then likely more to it then just that... but i don't need/want to go there now.

Collage # 4

Ya know that peanut cluster was pretty dry... and some of this swing to get back to writing is getting pretty dry also...
drawing/writing are much the same, to get good at either one  i must practice every day, both are mechanical skills... both also take practice moving ideas or knowledge from head/heart out and down an arm to fingers and the mechanical device, pencil/pen, to make the mark on the paper that is the same as the image in head or heart.
Both skills can be very abstract or very true to life depending on how i choose to use/practice them...
Some people always what a meaning for my work... and ya know some days i don't know what that meaning is myself...
Foe sure my work is about what goes on around me on any given day,week or month... because i try to use the process of observe, listen, discern, then speak/draw/write... so my max time limit or deadline on a piece is about a week, depending on where that falls between sunrise and sunset.

Collage #2

                       
This here, Collage #2, is the first completed piece, completed at the end of my working season of November '16. This collage started with a little girl, the one on the white horse, and her family in the visitor center coming up to me with a travel magazine saying this is me!... said i; well autograph it so i can keep it here to remind me you where here... she was so excited... That is the image in the top part of the collage, the remainder of the collage are the bits and pieces collected during the remainder of that week.

The remaining two collages, #5 & #6   posted below are other pieces i have completed since being off of my seasonal work at the visitor center... during my work season i do pieces called RUMINATIONS that are photographic images i make from around the visitor center with computer generated text as a vail over the top of the photo image. i usually create 12-16 of these per season dealing with feeling and thoughts about the ongoing season at the time.
So again drawing/writing/photo images...
collage & ruminations...

Collage# 6

Collage # 5

Rumination # 16

 CHEERS !!