cobaltika

what i did to the stone cemeteryLadies

now on ETSY

i liked the images very much, but of course i wanted to decorate and play with them. i tried some of the new borders i have been working on. i have been having fun with those borders. mostly i have been using lots of reds, pinks and lime greens, with splashes of yellow. but not for the stoneLadies, of course, that would be far too jarring. i’m not sure why i am feeling so colorful. it must be a phase. my biggest problem is what to put within the borders. right now i have many canvases and paper pieces with cheerful borders and empty insides. the same thing used to happen when i worked with textiles. nothing inside. god i hope they are not reflections of ME. sometimes i wonder…

anyway. lots of new stuff and still lots of springCleaning stuff on my etsy, if you like.

this ends our public service announcement.

now i will go to the city.

stoneLadies in the prairie : pawhuska OK : april 2010
click for WAY MORE (if you like)

finally i am having some fun with the images. i have waited two and a half years to go to this cemetery. when we first came to this Pawhuska, that long ago, it was in the midst of an ice/snow storm and we were unable to drive up the hill to the cemetery. this trip, we made it to the cemetery. i was only slightly disappointed. i had the illusion that there would be WAY MORE stone ladies - in proportion to the large number i saw at the much smaller cemetery down the road in Hominy, which we were able to visit through the ice that year. there weren’t that many stone ladies, but they were lovely ones and i was able to pluck them out quickly in the cool morning before we left Pawhuska. the light was a bit more garish than i prefer, but hey, i can make my own light. the poet sat and watched the birds while i shot ladies. we saw a bluebird. it was nice.

the poet and i went away for a small adventure. it had to be somewhere cheap, close and crusty (so i could make pictures of old buildings, etc). also somewhere with good weather! our first choice was too far, our second choice had thunderstorms predicted for the weekend. so at the last minute we decided to go to Pawhuska Oklahoma, on the Osage Reservation. a good pick! there was much hiking at pretty parks, including the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, where bison roam freely (including on the roads), there was a poor old town to photograph and wonder about, a cemetery with many angels, wildflowers and sunshine. it was refreshing.

there will be more pictures of course. but now … time to return to the grindstone!

oh. i see. it seems i only like to work in my online journal if i can sit in bed on the weekend mornings and do it? hmmm. so here i am again. it is cool enough that i could put my flannel nightgown on this morning. i’m glad! my mother just made it and sent it a few weeks ago and i was afraid i might have to put it away without wearing it very often. King Tubby is curled up next to me. he sleeps a lot now. i thought he might have arthritis in his hips, but now a big lump is obvious and i’m afraid he has a tumor or cancer. he does not seem unhappy or in pain though, even if i touch the lump, but content to sleep in his favorite places and eat as much as he can get away with. he has developed a funny way of running with his limp. spending big bucks at the vet is out of the question, but if he begins to seem miserable i may have to think of some options. right now i won’t think about it. he is old. no one/thing lasts forever.

i forgot to write about last weekend’s nature adventures with the poet. we went to the Pear Forest again. it is a walk by the Little Blue River, but i think the best thing about it is the Pear Forest. we have seen it differently and i definitely wanted to go last weekend, when the pears were all blooming. it was quite wonderful! last spring, when they were blooming, it was also snowing. that was pretty good, too. and in the autumn … mmmmm! we also saw a shiny brown snake. then next day we went to Weston Bend park and had a fine hike, but discovered eating pancakes and no protein for breakfast is a bad idea. we counted 13 woodland wildflowers. all very beautiful. i love the ones called “…wort”

as much as i like walking in nature with the poet, i have to say i don’t really enjoy making nature pictures very much. sometimes i try to abstract the natural elements, but mostly … it’s just not my thing. like the images of the Pear Forest. it is almost impossible to show the magic of the place. i liked it best with that aqua metal trash bin in the foreground. i do try to capture some of the wildflowers, so the poet can identify them later, that is a good job. and i realized that i can’t rely on my babycam, so i am not going to sell my bigcam after all. i *need* a viewfinder when i am doing macro’s. especially outside. that is all there is to it. the one below was lucky, but that is all … lucky. most of the wildflowers SUCKED.

time to get more coffee and go wrestle with the artTable.

the house behind the museum : kansas city missouri

hmm. i wonder if i am going to start being one of those once-a-week-maybe journalists? (i still hate the terms “blog” and “blogger”) remember when i used to be just slapping shit here everyday? sometimes two or three times. wow. maybe my life was more interesting? i know i was fascinated with capturing scenes. so many pictures. a little too much whining though. i’m glad to be done with *that*! i miss the pictures though. i still have a great fascination with seeing, but i don’t feel quite as compelled to capture these days. i guess that could change at any time.

i have been working on some odd things at the artTable, struggling somewhat, but don’t feel like sharing them yet. nothing is quite working out. sometimes i wonder why i don’t just give up - look at all the mess i could get rid of! - but i can’t.

spring is so pretty. but i am glad for a rainy, cooler day today. maybe it will settle the pollen down a little. the oak has overwhelmed. everything itches, eyes, ears, toes, the mole on the back of my left calf. it is crazy. i know i know. i should just take a pill.

it seems i have recovered from my temporary obsession with Twitter and i am glad for that. what a timeWaste. really. i could not find one bit of value. i am already suffering from information overload. aren’t we all? Facebook is just as silly, but since my family are there, it makes it worthwhile. i still read LJ frequently though. and when bored at work can tear through an outrageous number of blogspots. i have also been reading 6 to 8 books/month. scary? i think so, too!

i feel ready for a sea change.

tulipTree : lawrence ks : spring 2010

everything is becoming quite lovely. everything is blooming like crazy. the birds are making a huge racket. even though it is back to being cool (thank god. i was so NOT ready for 80 degrees already), i sleep with the windows cracked open so those noisy friends can wake me. they start so early. and of course there is plenty of sneezing, thanks to all of the treePowder. funny, even though everything is so lovely, i have been a little grumpy and almost depressed. some of the reasons i know but am avoiding, but i think it is also partly because the sweetness of spring passes FAR too quickly and then for months and months there is nothing but HOT SUMMER. my most depressing season. every year i hate summer more, though i try hard to embrace the season. it is such an uncomfortable time for me. ugh. well, i will worry about it when it gets here. which i keep saying about everything. i have started to worry about the future, too. like where am i going and what am i going to do next year when i finally escape here? the idea of seeking a new job fills me with dread. and of course i will have to. and where??? i am guessing i will end up in Texas, but it is SUMMER there for most of the year!! ugh. i’ll think about it tomorrow! right now, i will just wander around and look at the Pretty Things.

i thought i would just go ahead and get it out of my system.
things with forsythia.