cobaltika

today’s delightful discovery

oops!
i forgot to mention that i finally got some images up
from the wonderful Benini Sculpture Ranch in Texas,
made last month.
go see if you like!

LA was great. i loved being there, hanging out in betsyWorld. the time went SO fast. we did so much and had so much fun. i didn’t want to come back. hell. i never want to come back lately - to my HOT, smelling-like-rotten-cat-food apartment, with my poor half-dead cat await. knowing i won’t see my family again for MONTHS … boring! lonely! sad! at least there is my bed with the smooth summer duvet and the spinning ceiling fan. and clean underwear. and a poet in the city. at least there is that. all is not awful.

i decided to travel *very* lightly, with only my daypack. i felt like a vagabond. it was fun, being so light. but i had lots of outfits! and a reading book and a writing book and only my little SamboCam. no electronics except for my phone, which i had to keep turned off most of the time because i didn’t bring a charger. i came home with one dollar in my wallet.

but it was all so good. i wrote all the day-to-day details in my paper journal (gasp!), but some of the high points were: the play (of course!) - so impressive, seeing Betsy’s school friends again, meeting Fee’s parents, public transportation, sleeping like a log in Betsy’s bunk bed, Koreatown, David, the Best Fish Taco place in Los Feliz, Trader Joe’s in Hollywood, snacks and wine with Betsy, more sleeping (not even disturbed by the taco truck on the street playing music and calling orders until 3am), the weather - never too hot, cool at night, the Fashion District, downtown, the Craft and Folk Art Museum, the beach! in Santa Monica, handmade pizza, Fee, chocolate cupcakes, etc etc. i felt so happy there. hanging out with my girls is just the greatest.

lots more pictures here!

tomorrow i fly to LA! hooray!
i am going to see my Betsy and her first Hollywood play!
it will have to be a quick trip, just the long weekend, but i am so happy to go. and i am going to stay in her studio apartment and sleep in a bunk bed! as it is a theatre weekend, there will be lots of running back and forth and all around, but we will play *something* on Sunday, her day off.

then i have to come back and really hunker down, stay home, make art, not spend a penny.
the party is over… the savings almost gone…
but it has been such fun.

orange things seen while walking
it was steamy & hot & rain still threatened,
but i knew i would be a crankyMonster if i didn’t go
move myself
so i took my camera & a plastic bag
& it was good.

i realize i haven’t said/shown much about Texas since returning. i realize i haven’t said/shown much about *anything* lately at all. i remember when almost the first thing i would do after returning from anywhere (even a walk around town, practically) would be run to the computer and make a picture story. i was so prolific. now i see blogspots full of that stuff all the time and i feel … redundant. i’m trying to think of a new way of documenting, but i’m not quite clear yet what it will be. close maybe. to be honest, there is not much to document lately. such sameness. i’ve put myself into a strange little shell.

speaking of blogspot. i’m SO sick of cleaning up the spam comments out of my site journal (wordpress). they are the only comments i get on that journal, for the most part. ha. maybe i should treasure them. so i have been thinking about dumping wordpress and taking up my blogspot journal again. and being like every body else!!! (don’t worry, i will keep livejournal. even though i hate the ads, i LOVE the little lock… heh.) anyway, if anyone has anything to tell me about the quantity of spam comments on blogspot, i would be interested in hearing.

so, about that picture. i meant to have a slew of them to show by now - and maybe i still will, soon. it is from the Benini Sculpture Ranch in Johnson City, Texas. the piece is Gemini, artist is Peter Mangan, and even though i don’t do favorites very well, this is one i liked best. all the squares of glass with objects fused into them, hanging. oh!

i was a little hesitant about suggesting the sculpture ranch for a “field trip”, afraid there would be lots of kitschy things like the big metal longhorn, etc. but i loved the idea of all kinds of sculpture being out in the hill country and it turned out to be quite awesome. everyone agreed. it was a beautiful piece of country and you could drive or walk as you wished, all over. a variety of pieces were scattered about, in a most pleasing way. Texas hill country is really beautiful. and it smells SO good. the check-in point was a HUGE gallery, with an extremely fine bathroom. most of the paintings were Benini’s, with the newest ones being the most pleasing to me. there was something very joyful about them.

well, back to reality - another gray day, laundry, the Red Pieces on the artTable (*finally* working on them again), embracing summer’s heat, still not walking enough, avoiding food, watching a dying cat, re-learning visualization, crushing fear’s wicked head.

next weekend i will see Betsy. in LA! i’m really glad.

things seen while walking this week
(mission for extreme weight loss in progress)

a battered yellow flower of unknown species

dozens of record albums melting in the alley

the first orange daylilies

a small red wagon

the path by the river (but no snakes. whew.)

george w. bush