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

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 !!

Fathers Day 2016 & thoughts from/about me Heart...

With Fathers day this year me heart is full...
Grateful that i have a good Father...
thankful that i tried to be a good Father...
Grateful that Levi is also a Father and growing...
being a Father makes us all different people...
it was and is a lot of work... but makes us all better people.

 James G. Costigan, my Father...
Maggie, my sister...
me, 8 years old, 1954
moving to California, the land of my upbringing, an eastern born child but a western raised child to an adult.
A product of my parents with a western outlook on life. The west is the best i believe. The wide open space of the west made for a  great expansion of ideas and greater possibilities that have shaped my life into who and what i am.

Me and Levi, Escalante, Utah May 1999. Me at age 53 and Levi a cool 13... me trying to be the best i could, sometimes i wish for a do-over, but then he would not be who he is now. Levi has really turned out to be a good son/person in spite of what i did to/with him.
He has departed the small Utah town we raised him in and is now living and working in Cedar City, Utah.

This is Levi, now 30, with his daughter my granddaughter Layla at 3, she is going to be a head turner when she gets older... i hope  that i taught him well because he is going to have his hands full.
Wow thats four generations right there...
Oh and of course there is Sarah Rose... my daughter and Levi's big sister now 36 and her two daughters Ruby Mersadies and Alexis Ann.
They also live in Cedar City.
Not real far away but none the less i don't see them all near enough.

Then there is still me now at 69 trying to figure out what i want to be when i grow-up or get old whichever comes first.
i write everyday, something, work most days, make images everyday, read the the scriptures everyday, to give the day a leg up, draw and scribble, color inside, but mostly outside the lines, and try to call it ArT...
Hang some of it on the wall and get bored with it and take it down when i don't "see" it no more!!
Have come to believe that my ArT is just for me... it's kept me mostly sane, with a few slips here and there along the way, it's always been fun making marks on clay or paper and coming back to look at it all! It's nothing but a signpost to show me where i have come from... cause i sure don't know where i am going.

Down but not out of the game yet...                                                   June 2016

Sill more tunnels to pass through with only a peek as to what's on the other side... faith keeps me moving forward... i have always been a builder of some thing or another so each time i travel out of town i stop and have lunch while watching the work progress on the Cedar City Temple...

Lots of doctors to see in the coming weeks as me old HEart is wearing down and i have to have me batteries replaced in the ICD and hearing devices... never had many toys as a child that needed batteries but now i need them to keep me hearing and beating.

Getting old is sure a new education process, i am grateful for doctors who learned it and can explain

it in terms i can understand, mostly !  Cheers to the journey and will be back with more as the results come in.

                                                                                    !! CHEERS !!

Wind and noise in my head...

The wind has been howling here for days...
after all the wet weather we have had this spring...
as with most things in life this year, a bit un-ordinary...
even the shadows on the desk/table top are not the same...
my otherwise quite life is now filled with "new" sounds...
hearing devices have created new confusion and frustration...
what do i want to hear and not, i hear more from behind me then in front?!
it crackles, buzzes, and sounds tinny, and i can "hear" every cough, sneeze and
breath i take, and it feels best when i take them out every night!
now their beeping at me to charge the batteries !
Literally blew over into cedar city yesterday...
got a cold slimy chest rub...
for an echo look at me "rotten" heart...
had a mex fix for lunch...
then blew back over the hill back to Panguitch...
all be it with are now well groomed dog...
test result will come sometime next week for me heart...
everything else is pretty much up front.
Waiting to hear about an appointment with the heart electrician...
time will tell, hope to be back to work soon.

RUMINATIONS #11 2015

Cheers.