Huff & Puff work going on...

Do you see where it use to was...

A week back at work, some things are on the way out, not without some work effort, opening up some more space and ease congestion for who i am not sure...
after fifteen years of this the pattern is on the wall even as i paint over it, the bike donation wheel is gone and the Beaver display is a coming... open space for the greater numbers of visitors we have been seeing...
couple of hick-ups we don't usually experience
broken pipes in the rest room and valves not closed, thank goodness we are not in a boat or we would have sunk! calmness and a few well chosen "words" and all is well... not being so set in ones ways and willingness ti learn is a blessing i am sure, but there was some huffing and puffing work going on...

Weather huff,rain and puff,wind today, 4/8/217

This is one thing we are not short of here in southern Utah... weather, always something going on around us. this going back to work always requires a change of mind set, direction, and new/different routine...
the dog wants a sit down and i will be needing a nap...
Still torn between the winter aRt work and the going back to visitor work, ArT ideas & insights still flowing freely, more collages, assemblages, new "fish tins" are taking over, as the collection process takes hold and parts start showing up, sketch book pages getting filled, along with images being made...
#15then i go back and see previous work done and that adds a new bent to whats going on now...

#15 Collage, drawing. in process, still.

7.5 min quad maps as the base and drawings over the top.
this headache is kicking at my butt
the dog is banging on my leg
its time of a sit down and an i nap
no batteries hear aids out, batts dead...
the wind is still moving around out of doors...
the apple juice was good...
"choose the harder right, rather then the easier wrong"...
fills up the eyes & overflows the soul...
history is about telling stories...
lean not to our own understanding...
we must wrestle with the work...
let not our knowledge and truth stifle our search for more truth...

CHEERS

#15 Collage , drawing, lower detail.

Fish Print #3 old & then the new...

#15 Collage , drawing, upper detail.

nuff said, seeyalaterloveyabye!!

#13 & #14 && on to other work ethic's...

#13 Collage, drawing... upper detail

i can smell the sprinkler watering the back lawn...
it must be close to spring because the lawn was mowed last weekend, and now there are green patches coming through the brown winter grass.
we have had a warm pre-spring warm-up the past week or so, there will always be more cold, rain and snow before and into May, but for the most part the molasses is starting to come out of the winter boot. Why we are even duct taping the holes in the white plastic fence, with white duct tape of course!




going back to FS work this coming Monday, 3/19, in PP#6, then in two weeks computer access and back to full time physical work, 4/3, and prepare the Visitor Center to open Good Friday 4/14 for the Easter weekend. i must start now moving from winter/art work ethic... to forest service work ethic... early morning wake ups and on the clock by 0800 hrs. five days a week. This has been a very busy winter and it seems to have gone faster then past winters. I have completed 20 Collages since November of 2016, will need to sit down with all of the work together and check-it-out, the work has changed from the first too last, right now i have got to go move the sprinkler water in the back yard... the water is still winter cold even with the warm weather outside, great drinking water, but not for running through the sprinkler just yet!

#13 Collage, drawing. 2017

Well here is #13 full blown, its kind of a mix of the twelve before it, all the "kids" from the same family,  learning a little bit more with each one... the pieces are starting to become more personal as i look at them once completed... do not remember if i mentioned this before, each of the collages is 8.5" x 11"... have tried to have all the same size so i can use the preexisting frames (15) that i have... so no one of them has a permanent frame, unless it goes away to live with someone else that wants the frame. Although with my frame around the collage you get the "whole story" so to speak.

#14 Collage, drawing.  a work in process...

#14  still in process... all seven days of the week are here... somebody must know i am going back to work soon. The colors on the shield/sails are the four directional colors i have assigned to red canyon, the base image was made there... the ideas and insights for these pieces come so fast that i have to just get them together as a piece without much thought or thinking about it, or i will lose the idea, and am compelled to move on. There are also things that happen to the piece that i have no control over and so i keep working, over, on, and in most cases with it, i believe that comes from my clay background... no such thing as a mistake, learn, use it, and move on.

#14 Collage, drawing, detail.    "Friday"

Well this is "Friday" one of my sail people...
you can spot him/her/it in the image above...
the graphic image on the sail, and all the rest of the images on the days are quite spontaneous in the rush of ideas and insights...
"Sunday" is in the lower right of the collage and to me is a her... "Monday" above, "Tuesday" above, "Wednesday" to the left, and left again "Thursday" and you can follow from there... the black& white dotted line... came from a bygone era in my work, why here ????

That's it for this go around... the back yard sprinkler is click-click-clicking my name so i must move on...

Stop back by when you get some time and see whats
going on... till then    CHEERS

Sojourns into a change of season...

#11 Collage, drawing, " Bit's & Pieces" 

The journey into spring, summer begins...
the sojourn here in the high desert west takes longer...
it is more of a movement back and forth...
between winter to summer, it can't seem to decide...
nothing here moves in straight linear fashion...
after living here for years, and some a lifetime, this in and out weaving pattern becomes your way of life...
if you can stand it, if not you give up and move away...
i want to say the strong stay, but i am not sure that is even true... 
On staying one needs to adapt and work with the changing cycles of the countryside, hardly can one change the cycle of the high country desert...
it is stubborn here and does not give way very easy or at all... usually it is better to be flexible and follow  that in and out weaving of the seasons...
the environment is not always as it appears to be at first glance without spending sometime here... and most people don't have that kind of time to spend...

#12 Collage, drawing, "Elephant in the canyon"

Jumping into what i expect will be my final season working for the Forest Service in red canyon... then trying to figure out what to do with myself for eight months of a twelve month year will more then likely take this whole 2017 season to figure out, with hopefully multi-options come fall/winter...
i much rather like the term moving forward... rather
then retire-ment... sounds like stop... an old worn out tire with nothing left but a trip to the landfill... 
or driving around doing nothing and getting hit by a coal truck!    working till the end sounds better then,
sitting around waiting for the end, to move on.
The nice part of this all is that i don't see an end in sight only a steady moving on from one reality to the next, more challenges and opportunities to grow onto perfection...
i believe in Christ, so come what may.
Keep moving don't stop in the sand or the middle of a wash, stay ahead of the oncoming muddy wave...
get wet if i have too, but don't give up for nothing.

#12 Collage, drawing, detail...

Healing hurts, begins when we face the hurt in it's full force then grow through it...
Healing is active...we must be there, 
we must acknowledge and feel the hurt.
No conscience = no healing...
Cure is passive...
Healing is private...
Healing is a process of living while i/we face the pain.
Healing teaches... pain changes us... 
no pain suffered is wasted.
  We live life going forward...
we learn from life by looking back... 
Time is the Lord's.

#11 Collage, drawing, detail.

Not much about me or my ArT this go around, then again maybe a lot...
lots of insights since the last post...
always moving forward...
i always enjoy seeing images i make of my work, again insights i never notice as the work moves forward...

the dog wants to nap, soooooooooo
down for awhile and read a book...

CHEERS

Clothes pins, and a few odd ball thoughts...

This pretty much sums up the weak so far...
keep it coming on live... so i can duck quack
It's going to be a grand summer season...
looking for a place to turn around...
but the rudder gots no boat...
have a box of clothes pins if your in need...
skor, look at the milky way bars...
seven new planets, i'll stay here, thanks...
i would be 110 by the time i got there...
no thanks i will stay put...
new snow, no shovel, sun work did it...

do ya think i can just keep writing...
on this post and never post a new post...
will folks keep coming back and check for an edited post???

Rudderless... so what else is new...

This week appears to be getting ready...
for the next week... so i kind of get the rudder back then... 
2017 volunteer season at the canyon seems to be set... what a diverse mixed group this season will be... 
art ideas are still flowing just not getting onto the paper, or into the collages yet...

Sorry for the break had to wash up some dishes, get a chocolate fix, and think some more and shut off the pellet stove, it's getting hot in here...
This "new national government" is sure struggling to get their legs under them, but they sure got people in the streets walking and yelling, or is that screaming, i guess that depends on what side of the police line your on. 
We might have to turn the boat upside-down and use it as shelter from the coming storm...
unless ya live in California then just get a tarp and cover the boat and bail the bilge...

#10 Collage, drawing, in progress...

 Well so much for that chocolate rant... 
#10 here is taking shape... sure is nice living in the pink out here in the southern Utah west...
geology folks, i live in and on top of the Claron Formation or Tcp from the TERTIARY era...
the youngest rocks... pink limestone... hoodoos...
old ancient evil people left on the earth...
along with a bunch of us still here.
#11 Collage is blocked-up, also dealing with the geology, but no drawing on it as yet, it's more of a patch work quilt design more rips and tears cut and out patterns of bits and pieces of photo images.
is this  enough for now??  

2 Nephi 12:1-3... utah...

 Oh bye the way my morning scripture reading just gets better every day... 
always new insights and knowledge...
doubt not, fear not, it will all work out!
we live in a great country... 
we the people need to keep it this way...

My morning readings influence my art a great with the insights and knowledge that i can apply...
the out come is lots of visual ideas to work through in my daily sketch book and journal...

#11 Collage , blocked-up, in progress.

see ya on the next go around in a week or so... always looking for a better time and outcome...

keep an eye on that new Guy in the white house in the east...

sit down and let the air out of your shoes if ya get a minute...
otherwise press on and do it later.

CHEERS 

Presidents, teeth and collages...

                                                                                                                                                                       

Dead Presidents day is here with Monday being the day... February 20, 2017

Another holiday weekend about to start and end on a Monday...

the process of extractions swelling pain soreness and soft food to start March 2...

moving from real teeth to plastic teeth and a new lifestyle to start after two months of healing...

Back to work on March 19 and a new season opening April 14, Good Friday, Easter and the Resurrection...

The start of my last season of real world paid work... the best advice i have gotten so far is have plans B,C,D & E in case A does not work out... i am hopping that flying by the seat of my pants and trust in God will get me through what is to come... i have lots to stay busy, but got to get through this season first.

#10 Collage blocked-up an ready to get some work done...

kind of the blank canvas if you will...

still doing some studying on the matter...

The presidents most have gone by the road of history, and we are still running over them into the ground...

The teeth are still a bit in the future...

The collages, #10 & #11, are here now and itching to work on me and me to work on/with them... have to get them talking with me.

The bottom of this collage is a weaving  of two images together.

#11 Collage also blocked-up and ready to go somewhere...

looks like a offshoot of the Quilt Block Patterns of earlier...

lots of tear and layers of bits and pieces of my photo images...

Both of these collages have a base/start in geology and weather maps... and just might want to go wherever...

Burning up the wood pellets today with the grey overcast skies and threat of rain and more snow...

Got to go warm up and catch up on the crazy world news... don't have to be so concerned with the world...there is plenty going on

in our own country and the the knot heads in the Utah state government if thats what it's called...

Keep my head down... 

keep tearing glueing paper to cardboard...

say my prayers and trust in the Lord.

CHEERS

Looks good on the screen... new john seat works best...The next frontier...

The next frontier... box's full of stuff... clearing the shed...

     Well ain't this swell... six Quilt Pattern Collages complete, framed and ready to hang... nine Collages also complete, with a few more ideas in the hopper... framed and ready to hang, might not be a bad show...
Weather trying to warm up, most of the snow gone except on the north sides...
Uncertainty: is born of imperfect or unknown information. Pres. Nelson (12).
We are not to murmur against the Lord because of our afflictions/hardships.
1Nephi 18:16
Found a gray crayon on the floor of the church house a couple of Sundays back...
Waxie little bugger... good cover color, sure can't write or draw with a pen over the top of it.
Good addition to the sketchbook color scheme... dream in a grey cloud... morning clouds... Bright sunny blue almost clear sky morning... hard boiled eggs shelling easy today...
The smell of newly sharpened pencils, colored... daily words of the prophets, Nephi, scriptures... remember the Lord today... read & study... ordered some new fictional reading matter today, for evening mindless reading. Post office twice today... pick-up and delivery... Four hundred pounds of wood pellets into house... hope for warmer days... but it's still winter by-the-way... Tracing paper is great stuff, draw and color and it collages translucent so i have a cloudy background. Tracing paper drawings this morning... after AM routine... good stuff... James Gordon Costigan, my Father, was called Gordon by his parents as a young boy... now one of the  genealogy sites says Dad has a half brother because in a census record shows his name as Gordon... how to get this one straight ??? Scattered headache kind of day will have to wait for a Sunday to figure this one out... while all my day to day stuff is off the plate... 

Heart Dr. visit/ICD check an adjust...

One reason, doctor visit, gets you out of town and that turns into Oh... and we need this and that... new toilet seat, new music, Neil Young, lighted make-up mirror, art supplies, wal*mart stuff, always more then you go for, lunch with Sarah & Levi, my children, catch up on grandchildren activities...  great harvest bakery,  stop by the Cedar City Temple site, not much to see, outside mostly complete inside work going on, will be dedicated December 10, 2017. 
Heart Dr. visit all good, a few adjustments to ICD program, talk about a-fib and heart failure, which i do and am... back in six months for another check-up...
keep a daily log of how i feel... good and bad... then we can check against incidents recorded by the ICD at the next check... i am paced 98% of the time by the device implanted in my chest... living through medical technology... thank goodness have lots of work to still get done.

Six blocked-up... Quilt Block Patterns... step one.

Here look at these and what would you do with em??? each block is 6.75 inches square all pattern parts are photo or printed images... 

Will get back later... it's been a long day i am tired and am in need of some mindless reading then to bed...

was warmer today then the day before but more snow maybe Saturday...

much to see and do...

CHEERS

Snow and a full head of steam...

Quilt Pattern Collage #1, block-up, work in progress. 

POTUS has been running full steam ahead this past week... 
well it has also been a busy week in my neck of the woods, even if it is covered with snow and cold... burning the wood pellets from morning till bedtime and working to stay warm. 
have been getting some aRt work done this winter since i deactivated my FB account...
may restart it again in the spring when i return to Forest Service work and some of the anger, contention, and angst of the new POTUS settles down a bit...
have had lots of new ideas to work through,
much of the work after the block-up running along by the seat of my pants...
and i am for the most part liking what comes out in the final pieces... it's just knowing when to stop.

Book of Mormon 1Nephi 4: 6-7

                     Sunday January 22
Grey cold windy day... good church meetings...
the press and the POTUS fighting each other...
give the man/office a break... allow him to work without always poking at him in the cage.
he was voted in to do a job, weather we all like it or not, allow him to do that work...
the press knows this one will kick back at the pricks and jabs at him...
contention is the work of the devil to divide us... stop poking at him with your sharp sticks.
Wow i missed the cheap postage stamps... the price when up today to .49 cents per letter...
more snow coming over the next few days...
keep the pellets burning... stay warm and shovel
the driveway...

Looking north up the Panguitch valley...

               Monday January 23
Blowing snow storm all morning...
shovel driveway to get some sun melt...
blue sunny sky afternoon, some melt going on
out for a drive in the good afternoon light...
assemblage ideas for the quilt pattern block collages, bottle caps, beads, small leather bags
making images with G-5 camera...
getting dizzy in-between all this...
taking naps with the dog (2) am & pm...
never got to the post... tomorrow...
lots of snow so far this winter...
looking forward to a wet spring full of wildflowers!

Looking east across the bench to Sevier Plateau...

                    Tuesday January 24
Mostly cloudy morning... no new snow...
no driveway to shovel... post office today...
my first social security check...
change from paper check to direct deposit...
seal a wooden frame for collage #9...
heat turned up window open fan on...
cold day but sunny enough to melt some snow
work on the collages today... assemblage...
beads, drawings & bottle caps...
finger prick blood test tomorrow am...
expecting sub-zero temps tonight...
big pill bill at the drug store, deductibles...
snow building up in the mountains...
melting snow = water down in the valley...
starting to think volunteers... for spring...
watching POTUS work each day...
Still lots of contention coming from the east...
"bad" weather on both coasts...

#2 Quilt Pattern Collage, Assemblage.

                 Wednesday January 25
POTUS is steaming full speed ahead...
smashed pennies, beads and bottle caps...
trash can out to the curb for pick-up...
cold clear sky day 5* at 1000 hrs....
pro-time finger prick... cold fingers...
quilt pattern block ideas flowing...
working with what comes to mind...
found a bottle of found art-a-facts...
have to keep new ideas on work table...
and keep all options open... everything...
is on the table...
an old metal filling fell out my mouth...
shell buttons, glass beads, chicken bones...
punching holes in coins... thousands of beads...
more polyurethane on wooden frame...
another busy day in the vacation office.

#4 Quilt Pattern Collage, Assemblage.

                   Thursday January 26
The trash was picked up early today...
cold grey day, high temp 22* sum sun...
Volunteers starting to look for summer work...
sewed up #4 QPC this morning...
buttons & beads on #6 QPC...
two more QPC to go, #1 & #3, just blocked-up.
Some work better then others, signposts...
Think i will sit on these last two awhile...
pellet stove running, burning wood all day...
good phone call from my Sister today...

Funny small cardboard cards, with photo's glued on and glass beads, buttons, smashed pennies attached to them...
What in the heck is this all about???
keep going one will jump up and out sooner or later... put them in frame and that isolates them from each other and the world around them...
kind of like dressing them up and sending them out into the world or school or some such thing as that... or maybe i am just getting tired of them and need to sit back and look for awhile... ya think?

back yard snow... so much for melting.

And today is:          Friday January 27...
POTUS is into the new job for seven now and has not quit...
the day here started at -5* clear blue bright and sunny...
Cedar City Temple will be dedicated Sunday December 10, 2017.
no matter what is going on in the world around me my "world" still moves forward with or without me...

Cedar City Temple, Nov 15 2016

I Hope that all is well with you, thank you for stopping by...
CHEERS

On the Eve of Change... Friday January 20, 2017

Friday the 13th, Panguitch, Utah 2017

Well change is coming...
promised or otherwise...
change is the one thing we are always sure of... 
the movement from one day to the next for one...
the Country change is coming from the east, again...
this country has always changed from east to west...
change follows the sunrise...
once the easterners become westerners then comes the difference of opinions...
how long does the east to west change take ?

The toy story moves on...

       


  A large empty hole is now in the basement where all the kids toys, that they did not take with them, were stored... discovered while looking for something else... so that was a day relocating them, the toys, to new homes/owners who wanted them.
Getting a new leader of a free world country is not much different then clearing the basement of the old toys... only the new leader makes some folks mad and another group happy and they were all just looking for a change... i am not sure we will know for sure what we each got until some time after the new guy moves into the eastern white house.  i for one am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, pray for him and his group and watch the blues and reds switch sides from the past eight years of change... they all want to get  what they want but none wants to give-up what they have... it's funny how the guy going out always looks better then the new guy coming in... ChanGe.

From one cracker to another... here comes change...

      The big country change comes tomorrow, Jan 20th 2017...
"...come what may and love it" !!

So the power struggle will go on...
Kindness is the essence of greatness...
we are in need of more kindness...
hang on to hope... 
love thy enemies...  along with your neighbor...
the Lord's hand is in everything...
continually hold fast to the iron rod...
we have been scattered & gathered...
diligently seek for peace... i know that God loves me & you and this country.

Quilt Pattern Collage #1, selfie, 2017

       I always feel better/comfortable with change when i have some control over it...
in the past two weeks some new inspiration over came me... with the recent collage  work i have been doing and the strong quilt tradition here in Panguitch, it all begins to effect me... so i searched out eleven quilt block patterns, then questioned a local quilt expert, and expanded them to the size of 6.75" x 6.75" square on graph paper, then transferred the pattern to cardboard and cut out the cardboard pattern pieces...
i have six different quilt block patterns...
using the photo images i created myself...
i cut out a quilt block pattern and collaged them together to create a  juxtapositional photo collage... 
i now have six of these blocked-up quilt patterns complete and will "live" with them for awhile and see how/if to work on them some more, which i am sure i will...
they appear to me to be in a very "raw" state and lack something... at this point not knowing what that change will be to create the finished piece...
so like our country on the verge of change, so am i on the verge of  another change...
"come what may and love it..."  
Cheers to the "new" folks and the President in the east...

Cold Rain Snow and Work...

 The nice thing about rain...
it runs off the driveway, no shovel...
but then it gets dark and snows...
the wind comes up blows the snow to the neighbors yard... they shovel...
then i get to shovel in morning...
or hope for a sunny clear day above freezing to melt it away...
thank goodness we don't get double digit inches of snow at once...
it's just been really cold...
burning through the wood pellets to stay warm... about 200 lbs. per week
getting some collage, drawing, and assemblage work done...
the dog would rather nap with me then watch me work.

Drawing/ideas for collage work...

Spirit figure drawing ideas from 2011 work... to be used on top of sat maps then colored in... staying in the lines of course, of course along with some outside the line scribbling just so it don't look/feel so tight...some times i just scare the heck out of myself... usually on grey overcast Mondays... oh my gosh that's today!
Some days i just have to get out the house and drive around with the dog till the car gets so hot inside we can't stand it...
always take the camera along so we can make images... like the rain on the windscreen above... then return home and make drawing like marks on paper and fight with the dog to not take a nap.
Some days the the work flows others it's a fight to get it out

Does rebellion come because of unbelief ?
Migration=movement from one region to another...
This is the longest i have been in one place my whole life.
It's nice to have paper and colored pencils and tools...
the days are still too short and nights too long.

#8 Collage, drawing, assemblage, detail

Tin can lid, dried chicken bones,
sinew, glass beads and date pit...
on top of college of weather maps,
along with drawn migration route from southern California into southern Utah...

E.T.G.C.G.T.T.  ???????
meekness and lowliness of heart...
Charity is something one becomes
well that's the Bears Ears...
look not behind thee.
ask God for Truth...
FB deactivated...
keep a record by my own hand...
the Lord does not command us to do things without a way for us to accomplish what he asks.

get out my older canon G5 digital camera and start using again...
potstickers and rice for supper...
nothing on TV and finished reading my current books...
more to come later after i catch-up on some good sleep.
                                                                                                     CHEERS