November 2013

I have decided at this time to use my blog for writing and posting images of my various artwork that might go along with the writing. Writing has been a love of mine for many many years...one might say I found my writing voice before I found my painting voice.
I am a narrative painter. My paintings tell a story. If you look closely at them they will tell you a story about something. Something going on in them.
The painting below tells a story about the farm people.
Every crow and everyone is talking about them.
What have they done?
Are they a modern farm couple or a vintage farm couple.
What is their life? How have they lived.
Do the crows have the answer?
Listen, look and learn.
The crows tell it all.

November 5, 2013

Whoo, Whoo, Owl call in the early morning hours.
Awakening me. Calling me.
I feel akin with the sound.
At one with the Owl.
Is it calling me?
Thanking me?
Warning me?
I wonder.

Do we keep an ideal Owl habitat?


No chemicals here at hodge house.
Not even in the water seeping underground.
It is hard to keep it as we found it.
We do not do that.
.We are definitely here......
Phone, electricity, satellite sending sounds into the Owl world.
Whoo, whoo, Owl call in the early morning hours.

November 2, 2013

Fog,
The old mans beard looks very Gothic in the fog as it hangs without the slightest hint of really letting go.
If it does let go it will fall to the branch or earth below and become a part of something else....
We must all wait for the fall from one level to the next and hope that the fall is gentle, the journey and pain we experience is a part of everyday  life.....
Sometimes the journey is just the experience  itself which is enough.
Random thoughts on a page going here and there and here and????

November 4, 2013
Once, when I was a small child, I found a snake in the corner of the field in back of our house. I don't know what kind of a snake it was as the rattlers themselves never came below the canal. I guess they didn't need to come down because the canal was a large source of water for them and the hills above that were full of things for them to eat, produce their young, and lead a quiet life. The fields below the canal were always being cultivated and they would have been disturbed...so they didn't need to come down past the canal unless looking for adventure.
Anyway, I was not supposed to be that far away from the yard and playing with snakes was not allowed. But the adventure for me was seeing why I was not allowed. I remember poking the snake with a barley shoot and then picking it up. It had a large swell in its middle as it had been eating little bird eggs and babies in the barley field where they continued to make their nests as if it was never going to be harvested and harm them in the least...the birds not the snakes. The birds never seemed to learn not to do that and the harvesters would eventually fold their nests into the center of the grain bins and alas into the cereal bins. Must remember not to eat cereal.

November 1, 2013.
Wind howling, twisting around, through and over the tall pine trees.
The powerful old firs twist, shake and sway with each change of the wind.
I step outside and the cold icy air fills my lungs and touches my face,
 making me glad to be alive. It feel wholesome and pure.
The wind winds its way around me and chills my skin through my thin blue tee shirt.
I am swept away with the damp chilly night air and the lonesome howl somewhere north.
The cats usually rubbing and winding, raise alert little heads to the sound.
We are all alone, alone, on this cold chilly thrilling night, with the sky overhead and trees reaching up and up.
We look together, listening to the howl, to the lone howl to the north.
The alert little feral cats rub once more against my leg, longing for a handout on a freezing October night.
Look out cats I say. Don't be a handout to the lone howl to the north.

Another year has past and still not using the blog. I am hoping that will change.
I have an opening coming up at the Manic Moon Studio Gallery in Spokane Wa on April 13/14th 2012 with Melissa Cole.
The theme of the opening is the sea or the wonders living in the sea.....Some Things Fishy.
I was just accepted into the Little Spokane River Studio Tour which takes place on September 29, 2012. I have no idea where I will be but hope to get that posted when I do.
We have the 4th annual Creative Spirits Auction on the 14th of April at the Blanchard Community Center. I will be there to welcome everyone and see that all goes as planned. We have so many wonderful people helping us out and I know it will be another success. The proceeds from the event go to pay for our free children's summer arts program and to sponsor others to our adult classes at the center in Blanchard.
This past year:
I have been teaching both children and adult art classes this past year off and on.
I have been working on oil paintings, acrylic paintings and wood painted sculptures.
I have been involved in many art openings and functions.
I have continued to run the arts program at the Blanchard Community Center.

Art Opening at The Art Spirit Gallery

I attended the Harold Balazs, Robert Grimes, Tim Ely opening at the Art Spirit Gallery in CDA last night. It was a wonderful show. There were many artists there as well as the gallery owner Steve. I have known Steve for many years as I used to be in the gallery. It was an amazing display. It will be up until April 2, 2011, I believe.
Visiting galleries or places where art is shown is important for any artist on many levels. One should get out and see what other artists are creating and how they put their artwork together...how they present it to the public. That is an important element in presenting your own art. At the Art Spirit Gallery the work is always shown at its best. It is a beautiful gallery and each piece is hung to show it in the best possible light. It is amazing to me how Steve always has so much art hanging in such a way that it is visible from many different angles. The art pieces never seem to be lost because of another and they are grouped in pleasing ways.
On another note I have been working on a series of paintings I am calling up close and personal. They are of faces up very close and larger than life. I am painting them on the recycled wood from the local furniture making business. I am starting them in acrylic and will be finishing them with oil.