Monday, October 8, 2018

Stepping back from fb for... but the old bird is still here.



It's still a Red shed...                      10/08/2018
The Shed is still Red... 
We, Panguitch, have moved from summer to fall/winter, grey cloudy skies with rain and colder weather the past three days. Running the wood pellet stove, feeling the wood warm... which is different then electric or forced air heat.
Let's take a break... relax let the air out of your shoes...

Have been counseled by the Prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to take a break from social media... so i am in the process of deactivating my facebook account, it's a 30 day process till facebook deletes the account and it all goes away, i do not think at this point i will return as i did the last time i tried this... the noise and contention in the world is getting greater... will see how i feel in twenty five days or so. I will continue with this blog to let those who want to see what i am up to and share thoughts and ideas that are rattling about in my head, also post some of my ART and images as i plug along with ongoing projects. I will try to post here at least monthly or more if the head starts to run over... must keep better notes.

" There is so much incivility in the world today... I like the idea of our words being clear as a sunny sky and full of grace."            ---Elder Dieter Uchtdorf---


easing the bumps and mud...

 Now that most of the summer road work about town is done... at my house the fiberoptic line is installed and the internet is flowing into and back out of the house, so we had the front drive way to the street chip seal paved to avoid the winter puddles, mud and bumps to make for a smoother take-off and landing... and it saves me from tracking as much outside inside the house, that is on my skill list! I am sure the weather will do what it always does this time of year around here, change, from wet to dry, sunny to cloudy, and sooner or later snow depending upon the week or time of the month, we don't have seasons here, in name only, just changing weather, such is the the way of the high desert mountain valleys of south central Utah, and we do heat and cold all year long! 

#3 Shadow Box, collage, "Mother's Religion"       10/08/2018
A month or so ago my Sister mailed me a box of our Mother's saved stuff that she no longer wants to keep around, so i have now become the family record keeper. i understand her desire to "thin out" her closet and house, as i have been doing the same thinning... so far i have narrowed down the saved records to four file boxes of family and my history, organized, and its all game for my ART, of which you see a work in process. This is collage work applied to a wooden shdow box... assemblage work still to come. The images and the saved objects will come from the box of Mother's box to me from sister, Thank You. 
Keep a sketch book and journal, they will be the record of who and what you are for your children & grandchildren... write from your heART, personal feelings and the truth that you know... let them toss it away if they don't want it!

That does me for this time around, come back again if you desire, i may not have much to say but i should have something to say.

CHEERS


Monday, September 3, 2018

No words to sxplain it all... yet !

i have run short of words of late... 
but the shed is now RED...
James Surls has been in Cedar City...
a good visual feast... look up his work if you don't know him...
i like that life/time moves beyond me, even when i want it to stand still...
My children and grands get older even as i do...
Fun to watch the way they all go with their lives...
school, military, no school, work, jobs, jail, marriage and some just "I don't know what i want to do's when i grow-up..."
i have done all this stuff at one time or another...
but the Shed is still RED.
Red Shed... not the same as the house.         2018




















James Surls, SUMA      2018
James Surls at SUMA, Cedar City  
Three visits, drunk it all in...
sculpture & drawings...
not much of my own work getting done of late...
enjoying the summer monsoon season... wonderful wet smells...
watching our country fall apart from the top down... pride, power, greed and contention among our leaders and ourselves.
i keep reading the scriptures everyday, great insights into are day & times...
the prophets of old have seen our day and they show them to us in the scriptures... Book of Mormon and Old Testament...
no new tricks here... we can't seem to learn from history, and keep making the same mistakes. Remembrance is the key.

Ramdon arrangment, whitewash on Between Heaven & Earth...     2018
WildCherryWaterfall...
White Cheddar Cheetos Puffs...
A Chocolate Chip Cookie...
(Natural flavors with other natural flavors,
nothing ARTificial, all real.)
What a great Labor day !!
and a glass of water to wash it all down and pee it out later, but thats another story to be told later.
will try to get back before the end of the month.
CHEERS

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

What have you been doing... me rehab attic...

Shadows on the work table in the morning...
from still life on the studio windowsill..
the starting place of most of my days... the work table that is...
reading, writing but no arithmetic, never liked it in school why start now... thank you for my SPL-130 display calculator and google the formula and i am good to go... Have been doing a lot of rehab work for my heart & lungs, some would call it exercise, it works and i am feeling better...
now with the monsoon season here upon us i have been waiting for the shed to dry out so we can paint it...

as you can see white caulk spots and a star shadow to be covered, then remount the wall do dads... i think red would be a great color don't you?, that way it will stand out from the rest of the house and neighborhood...
we have a twelve year old grandson who has never painted a building before so lets give that experience to him... kind of like the "Tom Sawyer" and the white washed fence... i wonder if he's read the book?   We can talk about it as we work together among other things... come on wood dry out.

Have been making images about town after going to the post office each day with Mr. Deeks, he loves the ride about to check on the neighborhood cats & dogs... then back to home to get some Art moving forward and log the images... and a documentary project i am also working on about the new building (5) being constructed, new houses & businesses, in town... we are moving forward contrary to what the county commission says, that the county is dying and wants/needs more government  "help", or quite possibly they have a personal agenda... i don't know the entire "story".

There are always ideas and inspiration coming along that keep the work going, here #4 Wood Panel, collage, with an assemblage shelf for that found object  "collection" that i have floating around the studio in boxes & boxes... then when i need to work my hands and knot so much my head i still cut cut, punch and sew leather pouches... cash storage pouches and small ones from the scraps...

I also have 11 "Two Cent" pouches from previous projects that i want to recycle into these new pieces... each is a small leather pouch with 2 pennies inside, you know my two cents worth... kind of like this blog gets sometimes... it's hard sometimes to keep my opinion to myself, thought i try to have and open mind and heart to new & some old ideas... i have been more centered on finding TRUTH and allowing opinions to flow down my back and choose to not be offended by them...

This is my Month of July statement here at the homestead... old glory and my Navy combat flag...
like my neighbor across the street says. "life is good in Pangtown"...

Speaking of the monsoon season we had a wonderfilled early morning, 2-3 am, thunderstorms moveing through the valley this morning... what a show, awoke to a flag flapping, flashes, thunder, wind, rain... moving from east to west... the whole experience through the open bedroom window... oh how i love these episodes, the sound & smell was grand until i fell back to sleep an hour later!
enjoy your summer while it lasts... it's a short one here in Panguitch...

CHEERS 

Friday, June 8, 2018

new work and moving forward... me too !

#2 Wood Panel, collage, work in progress
Getting close to home with this piece...
maps and influences things i ate, old & new...
all this in between visits with the Pulmonary rehab folks in Cedar City twice a week... 
along with the other summer projects that are coming my way, also some new Dr. appointments and follow-ups coming along this month... still actively carrying my camera about making images to document what i see as i move about...
Also reading the current Philip Pullman novel " The Book Of Dust" a great story teller, a good no think read just & enjoy...
Nice cool evening tonight, as are most summer nights here in the high mountain desert west...
The quilters are in town this weekend, so down town is busy with people...

#1 Wood Panel, collage, drawing...

Still working on #1 Wood Panel, taking it's time, liking what's coming out of it...
Have given myself a seven day break from fake, Fasting from my social media page, wall or whatever it is...
nice to get away and follow the council of the Prophet to the youth of the Church... 
some days i feel/think like the kids then my age catches up with me... 

There is something about sticks and found objects that are painted to change how the appear and are seen...

Painted sticks, real but not...

These will be added to the shelf wood panel pieces... more to find and colors to add to the  painted  white gesso... on them now...





Here is what's to come as the month moves forward...
CHEERS.

Thursday, May 3, 2018

Long forgotten... Now new again.


Self-portrait, postcard image, collage, self-made frame.         2002

Let me start with a self-portrait form 2002 that i found in a closet down stairs along with 13 other framed images of my early work. Also with that stash 10 shadow box's from 2006. 
The ongoing process to simplify and rid/recycle work or frames into/onto current work goes forward. This piece caught my eye again and i brought it up to the studio and hung it on the shortage of open wall space that still remains, the red eastern wall.





Sketch book ideas: bowl & vessel... 
"tight like unto a dish..."
also past objects i drew and made...
this bowl image is not of my making, just a collected idea that i came across... 
always gleaning ideas from around me.





Current work in process: 
#1 Wood Panel, collage, drawing, detail.
This is the start of eleven wood panels, size 11"x 14", that i have started working on.
Working on/with these wood panels is better then a cardboard or canvas substrate that needs glass and frames... This also allows me too return to Assemblage & Constructions that i use to make... i also have box's of found objects that need some using up...
i have always been a builder at heart... since i was a child growing-up, ceramics in college, then shadow box constructions, out of school, All seems to be coming full circle.















Wood Panels, blank, with shelves, #2, #3 & #4...
current pieces in the very early stages...
gets the old juices running, mixing with new ideas...
new insights come each new day... 
so the possibilities are endless...
collage, drawings, paint, scratches, found objects...
those already found and some yet to be found...
try to be positive to combat the negative and contention 
going on in the world today.
my Art is a reflection of me and the world i have around 
me i in retirement... another hard lesson i am learning...
it is getting easer now that i am past the date i should have
been back to work.




As of 5/3/2018
Wood Panels #1,#2, #3 & #4...
with some "edgy" colors...
the sojourn through my world of ART continues...








CHEERS










Monday, April 2, 2018

Back again with new & old...Blue, sunny, wind of change...


Blue, sunny, windy morning... spring in the aire... 4/2/2018
Have not quite digested the Easter experience... yet...
may take some time.

Along with some active engagement with the changes...
that took place...

More to come on this subject.

New work 2018, left...              Old work 2017, right...



As for the new and the old work,  the new has stalled as
of now, the old is complete and has become one of my "signposts" to compare with where my thought process was as relative to the experiences of the past year and the new stalled work here...
i also have 10 additional pieces in the finished and incomplete states... my usual work is start to finish then move on to the next piece... this new direction might be the result of "retirement'' from my everyday working life... not sure about that yet either...



Northwall office toolbox is full 4/2/2018


So as both you and i can see... the box is full, it has been more full, but i have been uncluttering  as of late, that is a result of "retirement".

So the search for my grounding in our contentious & "noisey" world, in which we all live and deal with each day...

I do not desire my ART to come out as a reflection of that noise, contention & meaness
that i observe and experience going on in the world about me/us.

This takes me back to my to my opening statement... more digestion and action on my part...  more to come.
The box is full and my imagination is running mostly 24/7... lets see where it goes.

Thank You for stopping bye again.

CHEERS








Monday, March 26, 2018

No fooling...


Red rock box on the back deck... 2018
Will be back with a new post after Holy Week and the Easter Holiday...
So come back and look me up after April 2... no fooling.















above and above #1 Wood Panel 2018
                                                                                                                                 CHEERS...

Friday, March 2, 2018

Oh... what will i do ?

Selfie... by my hand,  Feb 2018


it's a clear blue sky very windy day...
keeping my eye out for the desert  blowing past the windows...
the dogs asleep on a sun patch by the back door... Adoublechocfudgebrownieshouldjustaboutdoit.


march 2 1430 hrs.  go ahead read the original...

why should i rewrite it here...
just read the original handwritten version...













Quilt block pattern...
#9 Collage, quilt pattern block-up


CHEERs for this day.







Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Reading... writing & mud pies...


www.potterboy.com  books and pottery..
Ben Behunin a good friend of mine makes mud-pies and writes books among other things going on in his creative life...

Me i  read each day... and now try to regroup my creative life since retirement is upon me...
it's like trying to find a new new "job" after working for the last fifty years...

Reading is how i feed myself each and every day... scriptures first think every morning...
news, good & bad, then books, i have a list of six at this time, and at the rate i read that could be for the next year... and at present as i said i am trying to get the creative juices running first then flowing, again. i have always put my creative energy into my work, ya i got caught in the i got to have $$$ trap, and i did not have much faith and hope in the full time creative avenue thing...
Then Ben comes along with in my case a book on what to do with the rest of my life...
this type of read for me it's best to know who's writing, ya know background and stuff... Ben i know personally so he is that person for me, he makes me think and ponder about things and become opinionated if you will for or against what he has to say balanced against what i read each day and what i know to be truth.

Ben's book my scratchings and one of his mugs...

Check out Ben's web site if you ave an interest or need for some good reading and some great pottery, he has eight books, this being his latest, and they are a great reads... and  lots of pottery... 
Enjoy... if you please.










#7 Collage, drawing, 2018  "Past Present Future"


As for me the search goes on...
looking for ways and always creating something...

CHEERS

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

What February already...



TV from the sky... along with lots of other stuff
big learning curve...
cold winter so far with no snow...
lots of brown grass about the yard...
new visuals and sounds for the new year...
retirement will not be realized till spring...
only this year not returning to "work"...
















Collage #5 detail  still a work in progress...
giving away our public lands for nickels & dimes...

the state of Utah wants all the federal controlled land 
in the state...

i can't imagine how they can control it any better...
especially with the folks we elected to run the state...


















#6 Collage 'drawing, watercolor 
also still in progress...
Ya can't walk as the crow flies in this country






no matter what i do time still passes...


somedays are better just napping with the dog

he's always game...

this is mostly one way country...
one way in, one way out, no loops...
besides they make ya dizzzzzzy !!

CHEERS


Monday, January 15, 2018

CHEERS to the Day 01/15/2018









Time, year, month, day, hour, the captured moment...
sit down to catch my breath after walking out of the medical clinic...
look around and find this "painting" at my feet...
many surprising details as i study the make-up of it...
someone else's work, but what a composition the camera made of it.



Cutting cardboard patterns of windows this morning to use in/on/with future collages...
Mr. King Jr. day, the usual office's closed for the day...
how many people really know why they might have the day OFF...

TV on for no one, not even the dog to watch... sound effects...
clipping finger nails that i never use to have...
dentures fit well but makes it harder to bite my nails short...

Pellet stove keeping the house at the right temp for a warm winter day...
one hour cinnamon rolls being constructed in the kitchen... smell...
trying to get some collage work going... sifting through ideas, big and small.



Christmas through New Year's collage complete...
have to put together some blanks to collage & draw on
eating cookies for lunch... feeding the dog as well...

waiting for final Retirement $$$$$....
waiting for call to pick-up new car...
waiting for the snow to fall, late this year...

some days are more exciting then others...
usually a nap about this time of day...
retirement takes patience...

Cheers to this day...
everyday is a holiday, except Sunday...
that is still the Lords Day.
CHEERS





Monday, January 1, 2018

a few new years thoughts 2018...

NEW YEARS DAY 2018...
one drive about town this morning...
everything is as it was the day before...
even thought i went to bed before the witching hour of midnight...
the change in the new year is more with me personally...
no "job" now retired and looking to that change...
trying to deal with that issue for the first time in my life...
it sure is different then quitting a job...
it's a different way of seeing and interacting with the world about me...
many things to do, but with a different mind set...
and of course still things "expected" of me to do, personally, and from 
those around me... do i stay with old habits or create new...
still working with the retirement process to fall into place...
that process does not work at my speed or way of getting things done...
must take a hint from the dogs life... patience and a nap... and keep
my finger on the heart beat of whats coming and going each day...
stay close to the truth of life, read scriptures each morning to set the tone
for the day and then work from there...
seek for help, ideas, inspiration from our higher source each day...
keep my daily journal and sketch books current each day and look for 
new daily patterns to work on some art...
brown winter grass outside, new roof half on, holiday lights to get down...
new tv to mount on the wall, old furniture to pass on, and new to come
into the house, waiting for a car to cross the pond, short cut across 
the panama ditch and land in california and come to utah...
other then these few things to wait and act on, nothing to do...
again as i have noticed before change is the constant in life...
learn from yesterday live today and hope for tomorrow...