Amazing Art...

Got a lot crammed in this weekend amidst the mundane domestic tasks (duties as required). 2 highlights: Kim's bridal shower (she gets married on the 10th of June) and our art group meeting of Las Semanas. The shower was fun and sentimental; the wedding will be a teary-eyed blast when it comes around. Our friend Nathan and the bride to be, Kim are fortunate to have put trust in each other to let themselves fall in love. It will be a keeper. I think every now and then you go to weddings that you think that perhaps it shouldn't be happening, but this isn't one of them. We are all looking forward to it. This afternoon was our monthly get together for the artis group called "Las Semanas" and, wow! The suggested theme was altering and reconstructing dolls (hard to imagine what the outcome is, but you gotta see it to believe it and be wowed). I didn't go with the suggested theme because by the time I sat down to create, I already had something else in mind. I should bring my digital camera with me next time to take photos of some of the work. We're hoping we can find exhibit space at sometime to show our work. That remains to be seen as it does involve someon spending the time to get it organized; plus I'm not sure if we want to sell our work (ther'll be lots of "NFS" tags in this show). What a way to end the week, start the week, and end the month! Whew! FYI...image is a Polaroid SX-70 manipulation of some cardoon plants that grow on our campus at the University of New Mexico. Since it is a periannual (sp?), I go and 'visit' it each year. For this shot I had my Polaroid camera with me and took the picture and manipulated it right there on the spot (that was how I spent my lunch hour that day).

Traveler's Palm

That's what this image is; a Traveler's Palm with inverted colors. Things seem off centered today; it almost feels like something is off in the universe and having it's wave-like/ripple effect here on planet Earth. It tried to rain today (rain? what's that? we forgot what that is here in NM...), but all it really did was make my windows dirty on my car. Our son, John has only 13 or less dys of school left before 8th grade graduation. We can't wait for that to be over with! It's been a challenging year for so many reasons. Education should be a positive and enriching experience, but it doesn't always work out that way. Negative and abusive behavior knows no boundaries and a Catholic school is no exception. Perhaps, even a bigger target as it's easier to "hide" and not get caught. There are some days where I really would just like to retreat to some isolated area and not come out again until all the negative energy has gone away...this includes the energy that comes with being a parent too! Oh, to be a turtle so that you can just retreat into your shell when adversaries surround you. Anyway, back to the traveler's palm; it's on a beautiful piece of property in Haiku, Maui that used to belong to my sister and her husband. They have since sold it and moved on to Hilo. It is quite HUGE, and even on that enormous piece of property, it commands your attention. It's too bad they had to sell that property; it certainly was a spectacular retreat to go visit. Maui is a blast!

Crab cakes

Today is our 21st wedding anniversary. Went out to dinner, of course to a place called Terra over in Alameda. Great restaurant. Only reason why we don't eat there more often is because their seats are too hard on our backs! Anyway, we were early enough to get a booth. I must say, I have a penchant for crab cakes and often order them whenever they are on the menu. I've often thought I should do a review state wide of all the crab cakes offered, but am not sure if I want to subject myself to that kind of punishment. On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the very best, they fall at about a 6. It's good, but cetainly not the best. I would order them again, as I have before at that establishment. The other establishments that stand out by way of crab cakes would be a place up in Taos, NM that no longer exists (I think their name was Hawaiian Grill or something like that). Man, those were good! "Broke da mouth" as we would say in Hawaii. Next in line would be the Corn Maiden restaurant at the Tamaya hotel; very unusual. They use a quality lump crab meat which makes ALL the difference in the world. Lovely evening, lovely food, wonderful celebration of 21 years together.

I thought it was just April...

Wow...where did the month of April zing off to? It's all a blur. Handed in my research paper on the 12th and just got it back today. The grade was exactly what I thought it would be. For me, doing the paper became a personal triumpth; I learned so much and now I feel as though I am a little bit of an expert in Picasso's life from 1928-1937. So fascinating. Being a "printmaker geek", I had to delve into this time frame of his life when he was prolific in his printmaking output. Next Wednesday is our last class meeting with the final the week after that. I will be relieved to have that done and over with, although I really enjoyed learning and absorbing all that material. The instructor is very good with very high standards. Hard to clear the top of the bar and I suspect that few in our class are able to do that. This Sunday is our Las Semanas meeting. I did crank out a piece this week that I am fond of; a mixed media peice on an 8 X 10 canvas. If I ever get my own website up and running (on my long list of "to dos"), it'll be there. Anyway, I'm rambling. I look forward to meeting with the group just as I look forward to the once a month group meeting for ATC's. Lucky to live in a metro area that has just a vibrant, sharing community of artists!