Pomona

Limited edition of 50, archival ink jet print, 11/2/2020

Sometimes, I wish that I was a tree.  No, I dont, for I am contented with my life as a human.  But, trees are some of my best friends.  The big trunked oaks around my home, pine trees, fruit trees, I could go on and on about my love for trees.  

There is a large oak here, must be six feet in diameter and i dont know how tall, 60 feet, 80 feet tall?  This is Grandmother tree.  Sometimes, I leave her offerings in a knot of the trunk.  

Another tree is Great Grandmother tree.  In the eighteen years that I have been here she has suffered from decrepitude of old age.  Large branches have fallen off during storms. She is covered with trumpet vines, embellished with orange flowers. The trunk is hollow, some critter lives in there.  An armadillo?  She perseveres, hanging onto life, in the middle of a mown field, between two creeks.  She has immense character, unusual beauty. 

Another tree is Dragon Tree.  A swamp Tupelo that has a 20 foot long, undulating, dragon like root at the edge of the creek.  

Tree women,  women integrated with trees, have tended to reappear in my art practice for decades.  

Pomona is a sacred wood nymph in ancient Roman mythology.  There were sacred groves of fruit trees dedicated to her in ancient Rome.

Floating Couple with Baby

Floating Couple with Baby

acrylic on canvas, 16x24", 2019

Floating Couple with Baby 

limited edition of 50, archival inkjet print, 2019

close up

 Shuffle into the Sunset

acrylic on paper, 16x24", 2019

There is a narrative to these pictures.  The deer is a guardian angel to the baby.  The pictures glimpse phases of life from loving couple, to baby, to death.  I made a folding brochure with images similar to these.

 Irma Thomas, Soul Queen of New Orleans

Poster, 1986

This picture came up on Face Book.  Commissioned by Irma, I created a painting that was used for the poster in 1986.  It was wonderful to meet and photograph her, such a legend!  She has this poster hanging in her house.  I still have the original painting and a poster.

Guide to Preparing for Your Second Childhood

 

 

 

 

Gidget, Gadget and Gizmo

 

 

 

 

  

Guide to Preparing for Your Second Childhood

 

My dear friends and family have expressed consternation concerning my consciousness.  They think that  concentrating on confusion has created conflicts in my cerebellum constituents. Or that I may be too entwined with confabulation to concentrate on concrete reality.

 

 I told them that I am in training for Alzheimer's disease.  Senile dementia gets a bad rap, it is seen as a disease with only bad consequences.  People do not realize that there is an upside to scrambled neurons.  

 

 

The Upside of Dementia List:

1.  If a person absent mindedly throws dirty dishes in the trash rather than washing the dishes, then said person will no longer be expected to wash dishes.  Score one for ditzy dingbats.

 

2.  People with damaged rationality are not expected to cook because of the danger of fire in the kitchen.  (Fire in bedroom good, fire in kitchen bad.)  If safety concerns do not terminate meal preparation duty then, serve this recipe concocted by Sandra Blair, Queen of Clones.  Here is the recipe, which I have adapted.

 

Ambrosia of Aardvark Recipe

For large family gatherings

 

Ingredients:  1 large brick of blue cheese.  1 large can of tuna.  1 cup of tabasco. 1 bottle of green food coloring.  1 angel food cake.

Preparation:  Mix the first four ingredients in a small bowl using a large mixer.  Frost the resulting goop on top of the cake.   

Presentation:  Wear a prom dress and put Amazing Grace, by Aaron Neville on Pandora.  Dance around the dining table with the cake on top of your head.

 

3.  If someone makes a request for a loan, said person asserts that the aliens visited yesterday and took what little bit of money was left after the spending spree for prom dresses and Mardi Gras costumes.  

3b.  If your wardrobe is boring, then use your credit card, or your son's credit card to buy prom dresses and Mardi Gras costumes.  These are to wear while gardening and shopping for groceries.

 

4.  My maternal grandfather had a history of removing all his clothes and wandering the forest nude.  That sounds like fun. And will be sure to alert everyone to said person's graduation from rationality.  I just want to be a Natural Woman.  

5.  Bob Dylan's grandfather Built a fire on main street and shot it full of holes.   This is a very good precedent, but I will pass on this demonstration due to inability to handle guns.

6.  If you, like me, want to build your own private bubble of denial, then this path of ironic idiocy will help. 

7.  How to simulate paranoia.  First pick a devil, as in "The devil made me do it".  Even better is "The devil made YOU do it."  Popular devils are:  the government, the president, the CIA, FBI, NSA (or compose your own original alphabet soup), the one percent elite, or the aliens.  Blame your choice devil for everything that does not go your way.  Have noisy arguments with the devil while everyone else is trying to watch TV.  

 

 It may come about that the family decides to put said person in a "nice home".  Said person may suspect this after hearing heated whispering in the next room.  What to do:  revert to so called rational behavior, call an attorney.  After a phone call from the attorney and after a week or two of exemplary in the box, coloring in the lines behavior then family will relax guard and said person can again be happily crazy. 

 If said person is unable to dial the attorney, then never mind,  when said person is really far gone then he will not mind the "nice home" and may even think it is a fancy hotel. As Julie's Mom believed when the maid came to clean her room.

PS Note

I may or may not have published this in 2015.  I am a dinosaur, tech is a challenge for me.  Anyway, I came across it today, while perusing my blog. It made me laugh, so I am now publishing for what may be the second time.  I am glad that i found it, because i needed to review some of these important techniques.

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

Guardian Angel

Inkjet print, signed, archival, limited edition

 

Three Point Yoga

 Three Legged Dog

photoshop, 9/15/2020

In Sankrit this yoga posture is named, " Tri Pada Adho Mukha Svanasana".  

I think that this style of figure shows "tribal" influence.

I took yoga classes for about twenty, twenty five, years, from the 70's into the 90's.  I seldom do yoga sessions now.  But, at times, I am aware of my body, like when I am waiting for the coffee to brew, and do Mountain Pose, just standing straight and balanced with deep breathing.  I used to do Mountain Pose while waiting in lines.

I can still touch my toes.  I was never able to do a head stand without propping my feet against the wall.  The yoga practice that i did is still benefiting me.  I think that it taught me more self awareness, and more awareness in general.  The practice taught me what little poise that I possess.

These days my exercise is gardening.  This is a nice work out for my age.  Bending, stooping, hoeing, shoveling.  Sometimes i think that i should do more yoga, then i think, that i should not should on myself.

Silver Creek Nature

The Nature of Silver Creek

Egrets and Creek

photograph, photoshopped, digital, 2020

Water Ripples, 2020

 photograph, Photoshop,

signed, archival, limited edition print

Blue Heron

trail cam photograph, Photoshop,

signed, archival, limited edition, ink jet print

My dog, Harpo

 on a trail by the creek

Trail cam photo and Photoshop

                                                                      Doe on Sandbar  

                                                                       Trail cam photo,

                                                              worked up with Photoshop,

signed, archival, limited edition inkjet print

                                                                    

Wisteria in Full Bloom

Photograph and Photoshop

I am so blessed to live in this  Louisiana jungle and share it with friends and family.  We have trails through the woodlands and swamp. I am not exaggerating when I call it a jungle.   Nature is potent, growing in wild tangles.  There are oak trees that are 6' in diameter and I guess 60', 80 feet tall.  This exuberant nature feeds my spirit with joy. 

Nature supports my art creations.  I make art almost every day.  Nature and art creation nourish my spirit.  I can feel the peaceful flowing soul energy of Mother Nature when I walk the trails.  

Wildlife here includes:  many deer, wild boar, beaver, armadillo, raccoon, rabbits, squirrels, frogs that throb the air with their songs, multicolored lizards, salamander, and box turtle.  Water turtle and fish in the creek. 

 A symphony of birds, including blue heron, large and small egret, king fisher, owls, hawks, a large and a small variety of woodpeckers.  The hummingbird feeders bring amazing, tiny, jewel colored birds, that zoom swiftly among the trees.  

And Snakes, most are not dangerous. Cotton mouth moccasins are rarely seen.  I feel an adrenaline fear rush and back away slowly.  I tell the children to watch where they put their feet and hands. 

The creek feeds into the Bogue Falaya, which flows into the Pearl River, and Honey Island Swamp.  A relatively, sparsely populated green corridor runs more than a hundred miles into the Gulf.  I have examined it on Google Earth.  It is a migration corridor for birds and other critters.  Eye witnesses claim to have seen Big Foot in Honey Island Swamp and along the Pearl.  I am on the look out, but have not seen him yet.  

Two inch benign banana spiders make webs that shimmer in the dappled sun light.  Occasionally, in the spring, mosquitoes bite.  Graceful butterflies of many colors.  Dragonflies that are black, accented with iridescent pthalo blue wings.

Such beauty, an embarrassment of riches.

The children like to kayak to a sandbar where we swim.  Sitting on the sandbar we hunt for fossils, agate and Native American artifacts.

We planted moso bamboo in 2006.  This plant can GROW!  It covers maybe half an acre now.  Sassafras, (historically used to make rootbeer and file for gumbo ), grows as a second story under the tall bamboo.

It took me a long time to get here.  I grew up moving around with my Air Force Dad. I moved around quite a bit as an adult.  Trying out different spots.  When I got close to retirement, I searched for my forever home.  

January 1, 2002, my family and I tent camped on our new land. My forever home.

I lived in a tent while my sons, brother, nephew, and friends, built the house.  I moved lightly into the house before it was closed in.  A bird nested in the woodwork framing.  We sat in the area that was to be the living room, the walls were up, but had no windows or doors.  Devoted Mama Bird flew over our heads, back and forth to feed the gaping beaks of tiny babies. 

I self identified as an Artist in 1980.  My family also built me a studio.  I create almost everyday, following an evolving stream of inspiration.  A few themes migrate into my work at different times.  Primarily nature and luminous women. I am a spiritual seeker, art maps out my seeker path.

 I am blessed with a satisfying way to experience life on earth.