Where I've been and what I saw there...

I'm home from my week away with a couple of artist friends. We were in Maine for an 'image collecting' trip, to fill our cameras, our sketchbooks, and our empty inspirational wells for the winter ahead. It was a first trip to Maine for all of us. I came home with close to 1,000 pictures in my camera, so am going through them slowly to see what's there. It is helping me re-live the trip. So- what does an artist look for and see on a trip away from home? Well, probably a lot of what non-artists see, plus maybe quite a lot more. This became apparent to me when I saw how fascinated people were by what we took photos of. Also, we could all three take pictures in the same area, and even of the same things, but they all looked very different, each taking on the vision of the artist who collected the image to work from, as we all have our own preferences.

On the day we left, we flew over western Colorado and eastern Utah, making our first connection in Salt Lake City. The flight was an early morning one, and the sun was just coming up, hitting the mountain ridges from one side and making the barren high desert look like sprawling dragons resting below us.




Our next stop, with a long five hour layover, was JFK in New York City. By the time we ate dinner (or was it lunch - we seemed to only have one real meal a day on this trip), the sun was setting over the city. The sky was incredible, with criss-crossed contrails and back-lit clouds, and planes coming and going as the sun went. I got this shot of a food service worker loading a plane, which my husband says looks like an airline ad. I will probably paint it eventually.


And can someone tell me which bridge is in the background of this shot?


On that first day, I also took a lot of other people shots, as I love painting people. By the time we got to Portland, Maine, it was dark and we had to find our cabin in the deep Maine woods. By the way, Maine, do you know what road signs are and how to use them? I can show you a number of places where they would be really helpful! So no more photos that day, and it was well into the next day by the time we located the cabin and got settled in.

It is good to be home. Booker has grown a ton in the past week! He thinks my bags smell wonderful, as they were filled with shells and beach rocks.

(Needless to say, all images are mine - which means I'd prefer you not use them without asking for permission. And they've not been PhotoShopped --- yet.)

Illustration Friday: Flying

The Illustration Friday topic today is Flying. I will be flying to Maine very early in the morning, but that's actually the part of the trip I'd just as soon not think about. I am not a happy flyer. So I am posting this little oil sketch I did yesterday afternoon, of a guy who rides past our house regularly. He may think he is flying, but he is "Mostly Coasting" (which is what I have titled it.) It's just 5x7", oil on masonite.

For those of you who have been keeping up with Booker's progress and deeds, he is growing so much, that he looks like a small dog now, instead of a puppy. He is even starting to have some 'big boy' plumes on his tail! Craig took him on a short hike in the high desert west of town yesterday, and took these photos.


He is, however, 'in the doghouse' with me, because I had to pay the library $40 to replace a book that he ate a page out of. It is the only book he's ever attacked like that! I wonder who had had it before me?

The fall colors are reported to be 'near peak' where we are going tomorrow! So, for the next week, I'll be shooting lots of gorgeous and, hopefully, inspirational photos. My husband informed me that I now have the capacity to take about 8,000 high resolution photos. Yikes! He shouldn't have told me that!....

Just FOCUS!!!

Here it is October, a week into it even, and I still am only at a bit beyond the halfway point of my tapestry. So why is that? I could offer excuses, and I'm sure I could come up with a lot of them, but the truth is, I have been trying to focus. Obviously, I've not been focusing on the tapestry. But I have come to the clear understanding that I can no longer do everything I want to do, so I'm prioritizing. And the top of my priority list is always the thing that seems to be hollering the loudest at me at the time. So I try to focus on that one thing, and not worry and fret about the things I'm not able to get to.

In the past month I have focused on getting the Connections exhibit wrapped up. Thanks to ALL of you who participated in it in any way! The tapestries are on their way home to the artists, and we can all look forward to the next one, in 2011. Start planning your entries!

I also made the choice in June to become a part of a gallery that requires a one year commitment. They want my paintings, so I have had to spend a lot of focused time painting and framing, etc.

Of course, we also brought Booker into the family, and he demands a lot of my focus. More than anything else right now, in fact.

And this week, as I get ready to leave for Maine on Saturday, I have been trying to spend some time learning how to literally focus with our new camera. I want to come home with images to paint and to weave, as well as to remember a wonderful trip with good friends.

So the key word is FOCUS!


(I took the top photo in my rearview mirror. The lower one is one of many available to customize at txt2pic.com.)

Monday is for ...

full Moon over my neighbor's rooftop...
Mammogram, Migraine, (no photos available - are you kidding me?) and Melodious Matrons. (The womens' group I lead sang at the homeless shelter this evening.)


Also Maine, which I'm getting ready to travel to at the end of the week. And Moose, which I hope to finally see while there!



Most of the day was pretty wiped out by a fall migraine - which I always forget about, until I start getting them again. The season change with the incoming weather systems brings them on. I hope they don't go to Maine with me! Well, tomorrow is another day. Tuesday can't be for 'migraine,' can it? Tuesday will be for Terrific Tasks Totaled up!... or some such better-day-than-Monday thing.

I don't know why....

SOLD

... but for some reason I have really been wanting to paint a cow. Well, a picture of a cow, at any rate. So today I did! It's small - just 5x7". And it just took Booker's naptimes to do. Fun! I will call it "Outstanding in Her Field."


Another thing I have been doing is knitting baby sweaters. Among our acquaintances, babies come in flocks or herds or litters - well, not litters, because they all belong to different families. But there are half-a-gazillion babies due in the next several months in our church family. So I've been knitting tiny sweaters whenever I sit down to watch TV. This one was from a cardigan pattern, but I did it in sock weight self-striping yarn, so to keep the striping somewhat even all round, I had to change it to a pullover, then had to put an opening on the raglan shoulder seam, to make pulling-it-over easier on Mom and baby. I also had to knit three sleeves for this sweater, not because the sweet little baby will have three arms, but because Booker got hold of one of the finished sleeves and ate a hole in the middle of it. I am very careful where I put my knitting down now.

So no weaving again today. But tomorrow my husband is off, so maybe I can sit and weave a bit while he plays "Booker-dad." Then I'll plop down in front of the PBS National Parks episode to begin another baby sweater tomorrow night!

More National Parks...

I have not ever been to an 'ugly' National Park. Last night, Ken Burns' series talked more about Yellowstone and Yosemite, but also about Mesa Verde, here in Colorado. It is an amazing place, well worth preserving. In fact, I live fairly near to several wonderful places. Here in Grand Junction we have the Colorado National Monument, and Burns talked about how those came about, as well (Thank you, Teddy Roosevelt!). Several weeks ago, I went with two of my grandchildren on the train to Rocky Mountain National Park, and they became Junior Park Rangers there.


The tapestries here are ones I did (in my 'travel sketch' series) of some of Utah's gorgeous parks. The one of Zion is of the "Great white Throne" which towers above the park. The one of Bryce National Park is of the amazing 'hoodoos' covered with a dusting of snow, which is how we saw them in April several years ago. And the one below is of the Arches National Park in nearby Moab. I am especially glad that these parks are protected, because there is no doubt in my mind that they would otherwise be totally ruined by now. As it is, some spectacular petroglyphs in the Arches were vandalized with paint a number of years ago, and were permanently damaged. What is wrong with people that they do not see the value and necessity of Beauty?

Each of these tapestries are 8x10". They were all mounted together, and sold to a private collector (and, presumably, a National Park lover).

Highly recommended!

I sat down and watched the first episode of Ken Burns' "National Parks" on my local PBS station last night. I can't praise it highly enough! The photos, old and new; the soundtrack; the research and historical information, all told so beautifully...! Everything about it makes me proud of our National Park system, and thrilled to be one of the 'owners and stewards' of such beautiful creations.

I have woven several small tapestries of several of the National Parks. Above is the one I did of Yellowstone a number of years ago. It is 8x10".

Below is a small oil sketch I did of Yosemite, which I saw for the first time two years ago. Those are the two first parks and the ones covered last night. If it broadcasts in your area, watch it!