Up with the wind

Here I am up at 4am. I'm up with the wind. It is blowing the trees outside

my bedroom window so hard it made me get up and look out to see if they

were coming down. They are pretty awesome when they blow like crazy. It says

25mph, but I wouldn't believe it from what I'm feeling now. I'm too wide awake now

to go back to bed, so I'm wandering the living room and trying to find something I

can fix or put away before I go back to bed.

See you in the morning.

It's almost sunrise

the wind is howling outside

still awake dreaming

I am linking this to

Helen's "Hump Day Haiku"

GRAPHITI

One of my favorite subjects for photography is train graphiti. Actually

I love graphiti of any kind period. These artists are the unsung heroes of the nights

and the underground. Every time I go down to the the marina in Bellingham, I find new 

ones on the boxcars. Some of these artists are so talented.

I am linking this post to

Cheryl's "Writing on the Wall" meme

Wash Day Blues

It's wash day again

skirts, shirts, pants, towels and skivvies

Coffee sounds good now

This is a picture I took of a friends backyard when she had just done

the wash. She lives in the hills in Humboldt county, California, over looking the

coastal mountain range. I also was able to go all over her property to take

pictures and into her barn studio. Check out the right side of the photo. There

is an outside bathtub. What I wouldn't give!!!

I am posting this to

Helen's "Hump Day Haiku"

OPEN

Open to the world

 away from wind, weather, noise

a place to repose

This window has been a familiar site on every trip I've taken to this

town. I love unique openings, both windows and doors. This one is quite pretty and 

has a history to go with it. I spent all of my college days inside or outside of this 

window. I either ate the wonderful food they serve inside or enjoyed the sunshine or rainy 

mist just outside it's reflection. I look forward to spring when all the perennials go in

and a blaze of color covers the walls, walkways and window seals of all the beautiful 

buildings in town. It gives me a feeling of safety and belonging.

I'm going to post this to 

Cheryl's "Writing on the Wall" meme

Fairie Imp

Little Fairie Imp

You hold my heart in your hand

And will forever

I am linking this post to

Helen's "Hump Day Haiku"

Art Journal Challenge

These are pages out of an art journal I am involved in on an Art Journaling site.

The challenge for the first two weeks of the course is "cowboys"

 This is the inside front cover of my very first art journal

and my very first pair of cowboy boots.

Page two is my aunt Rosie sitting her favorite horse 

This is my grandmother Nora and Me in my favorite cowboy hat. 

 This is Will Rogers on cowboys

This is my great grandfather Sam

I am really excited about this Journaling. It's the first time I've done it

and it is keeping me totally involved in my favorite activity.

Adams & Co

I chose this building for writing on the wall this week

because it's a building I've had in my portfolio since 1976.

I did a painting when I first got to Western as an art student.

It hung in my aunt's house for years and when she got tired of it, she

gave it to my mom and she had it up for years and now my brother Dan and

his wife Kerry have it. I really liked the painting. I think I'll do another one.

In fact, I've done several drawings and paintings of this building. I love old

buildings. It is not a family building, ie the Adams & Co. I've spent literally 

hundreds and hundreds of hours in the Colophon and Village Books and outside

enjoying the square and music they have often and public markets etc.

If you ask me where I'd like to go for the day, it would be here in Fairhaven.

I am linking this post to Cheryl's

"Writing on the Wall" meme.

Stormy Skies

Stormy skies abound

In this winter of our lives

Keep a steady wheel

I am linking this post to

Helen's "Hump Day Haiku"

European Streets

This is a piece of art I did for a client from England.
 It was for Biscuits (cookies) and Tea. It is the art for a header
 that would affix to a floor display to be placed at the end of aisles in
grocery stores. I really enjoyed doing this project as I love all the small
narrow winding  streets all over Europe that wind around and around until you come

to a small curio shop or a boulangerie (bakery). You enter the boulangerie, sit down
and enjoy the most luscious scones dripping in butter and a berry jam you can't quite
 recognize but consume with delight and a wonderful tea that you can remember having
on your trip through Turkey a few years before. When you step outside to return to your walk,
you find you are at the end of the street and retrace your steps, only to find another enticing
small hallway street to look for more treasures. You might even come to the end of a street
and find yourself staring at the most beautiful vision of wild flowers or
sunflowers that stretch for miles and on to the horizon.

This is the final header


Down this narrow walk
Walls above on either side
Filled with history

Up a tiny street
my mind filling with intrigue
my dreams say old world

Walls on either side
Drip with ancient history

Immerse me in dreams

I feel cobblestones
my mind thinks foreign intrigue
my mouth tastes old world


I am linking this post to Cheryl's
"Writing on the Wall" meme

Playing in my paints

This is a photo image of my new business card. 

I had fun taking all kinds of shots. This palette is about 47 years old.

 Got it when I got out of high school and started college. One of my special treasures.

 When I was young my Dad and Mom would get me art supplies for my birthday or Christmas.

 I didn't want anything else. I have some very old tools and some very new tools and love them all.

 I have some calligraphy pen holders that were my grand uncle's who was a commercial artist in San Francisco at the turn of the twentieth century. That's an extreme treasure. 

I had all my dad's architectural drawing tools until my son started showing an interest. 

He has inherited them. He is a very good artist but has a life in between he and his talent. 

One day I hope he will be able to enjoy it.

Paint gives me power

Over an endless blank page

And sets my brush free!

Houses Project

Another project, an offshoot of our ATC group in Bellingham.  

We have to create 12 house images, 4x6 max and 2 1/2x3 1/2 min. 

We can do any kind of art on them that we choose. 

The only parameter is they have to be in the shape of a house. 

(Any kind of house) Here are a few that I am in the process of finishing

No color or other goodies yet, but they are started.

International Mail Art Post Card Swap

In this project we had to create 10 post card images, 

front and back and send them through the mail. 

The idea was not to send them in an envelope so the postage 

would then become a part of the art at the end. It was really fun. 

And, it was fun to get them from all over the world. 

Here are the ones I sent.

 "Bacon & Peas"

"Bubbles & Braids"

"Checkerboard"

"Jack of all Trades"

"Magic Carpet"

"Red House"

"Zentangle - Black & White"

"Zentangle for Shoes"

"Blue House"

 "Green House"

Mail Art project - RAG Gallery

Being in an ATC trade group has it's advantages besides the monthly trades. There are always projects on the horizons for every kind of artist under the sun. They come up frequently and sometimes it's hard to choose. I finished this Mail Art Project a few months ago. Here are the two pieces I submitted. It was a hard one as the theme was economy. Very hard to think of something. Or, it was for me.

This is just a lunch being shared by two school girls. 

This is a painting of a few of my Grampa and Grama Adams post card

mail they sent each other before and soon after they were married.

Circa 1900 - 1920