cobaltika

oBoy! tomorrow is the day. i leave long before the crack-o-dawn in the little rental car that i will pick up this evening, for which i have hoarded my paypal funds (thank you etsy shoppers!!!) for a couple of months to pay for - gas, i will have to cross my fingers. family have promised room and board. i should be ok! i am so excited. it seems so long since i have seen them all, Margaret! how i wish Betsy could appear, too, but it would have to be a magical spell to happen. it will be one of those crazy driving sleeping in different beds almost every night kind of trip, but that is fine. i am just glad to go. but i dread seeing the ill-effects of the drought at my mother’s house.

i rather miss writing and rambling here. sometimes i have things to say but no way to say. at least when i am in the mood. after one-quarter of a year now in my new lifestyle, i am slightly disappointed at my productivity. perhaps with the onset of autumn, my favorite season, a transition is at hand? i am wondering what i shall do for my October Project. i have a small plan but whether i can make it work - i am not quite sure - we’ll see when i return?

i am still feeling very happy and well, despite the fact that the financial stress is a bit rough. i have no regrets. (ok, maybe once in a while around 1am when i can’t fall asleep?) i feel healthier and more present. and grateful for the smallest things. i don’t think about the future very much and have pretty much put my head in the sand about The World. it is too exhausting and depressing to dwell on. for now anyway.

ok, bye! i will be safe, thank you!

just a little announcement that there are NEW and
MORE images available as prints in my new little etsy shop!

click to go if you like!

what fun. usually i have a monday workDate with computers and coffee with the famous & talented traci which is always productive and pleasant. this morning i am having one with the poet in Kansas City (and it was actually *his* idea!). i have not been dizzy for almost a week! yay for my chiropractor! later this week i can go see my family in Texas. good things abound!

the old mill - cedar point kansas

the old garage or ?? - cedar point kansas

tallgrass prairie national preserve - kansas

it was a good weekend. my poet and i escaped for a couple of days to the prairie, getting (completely) lost on dirt roads, re-visiting old ghost towns, visiting a new ghost town (that was more meth-labby than ghostly to me. eep!) and hiking on the prairie in flower forests. i was only dizzy once and did not eat any potato chips or salt. i am trying to be good and healthy, as my body seems to be not as cooperative with sloppy treatment as only a few years ago i could get away with. i wish i could make proper photographs of the prairie. it is a wonderland out there and my images will not show it. many varieties of sunflowers, pinktipped grasses, red sumac, white asters of all sizes, prairie broom, some kind of blue lobelia, blazing star, thistle, goldenrod and so on and on and on. damn it was gorgeous. i wish you could see.

then betsy turned 24 yesterday. how does *that* happen?? so quickly?

i think this is my new favorite house picture. it is so perfectly altaristic. i know exactly how i can use it. i have been scouring my images for the more altaristic ones. i need them. it is such a struggle to make the bigger pieces. in the meantime i make tons of new small ones. and little bizness cards. it was fun to take them to the city on Friday night and leave a few on tables in galleries, where the Big Artists had their nice printed postcards. by the time i came back to the front, they were gone. i liked that. but still … i want to do the big pieces. it is terribly frustrating. to be so fearful. maybe this new house picture will inspire me. it also reminds me that it will soon be time to resume Mean Little Places! oh!

it was a very solitary weekend. i felt a little crazy, but luckily i talked to my sisters, my mother, my poet and even … BETSY! man i am so glad i sold the iMac last week and now i can go see Betsy in LA at T-giving time. Margaret and i are flying there. we will stay in a hostel and we will probably all have to eat peanut butter, but so what?? it will be GREAT!

today i am so delighted to be wearing my shabby Elf Boots again! hooray for fall! i wish to get my cowgirl boots nice and broken in, but it is so hard. i hate the getting-there of nice wabi-sabi boots. also wearing my two new favorite thriftShop finds - a black 2-layer floaty skirt - and a white embroidered and tucked shirt that looks Edwardian (to go with all the Englishy DVD’s and mysteries i have been devouring lately). i wish they didn’t still smell so thriftShoppy though - i’ve laundered them at least twice.

a little notice that there are new pictures for sale …
really beautiful ones (if i do say)
(click to go, if you like)

clarification : re: artLooking

i know i know - i sounded like a narrow-minded judgmental ass when describing the exhibited art last night. one of those people “i know what i like…” of course it is true to a certain extent (for *everyone*, even though it is not cool to admit it). however, when i visit some of the biggest galleries in town, i hope to be delighted and informed and view a variety of work. i can’t understand why if the galleries on either side of you are showing face-specific art, why you would want to do the same instead of being unique? thankfully, Sherry Leedy gallery chose to be unique, even though i wasn’t excited about the exhibit of primary-colored stripes. probably if i had taken the time to look closer, i might have seen something amazing.

and there *was* some charm. in the Kemper Crossroads was a (yes, portrait) photography show, wherein a (yes, recent KC Art Institute grad) exhibited very large C-prints - most self portraits, that were terribly quirky and odd. a fairly plain girl, she painted her face and involved herself in scenes, such as a christ-in-manger scene, that were just hysterical. very pleasing!

in the Blue Gallery (also filled with … yes … portraits), was one large (yes … portrait) that i appreciated for both size and use of texture and marks, that were unknown to me. something new to study and wonder about. in another large gallery, hidden around a corner was a HUGE mixed media piece with RESIN on PAPER. that was awesome, as i didn’t realize resin would work with paper. it was stunning and textural.

so. i don’t particularly *hate* figurative art, although the human as subject is not my favorite - i can certainly admire it, if the work is conceptually interesting or the process is enchanting and mysterious, sometimes if it is just clean and pure - a photographic portrait can be so beautiful. but last night, it was in such abundance and not particularly crafted in a way to inspire, that i felt … well … a bit tired of it - quickly.

see? it was hard to say all of this is Photoshop. heh. i was trying a different way of posting, a way i used to do. it seems time for something new, but i’m not sure what it will be. well, onward. it is football day and the stadium speakers are warming up - LOUDLY - i will want plenty of music at the artTable today. and a nice long walk.

and now for something entirely different…
and my apologies to readers who also work on a dinky bootleg wireless connection