Getting By With a Little Help From My Friend

Trail Guy and I set up the booth at the Holiday Bazaar on Friday night, quickly and efficiently. There was enough merchandise, and it looked pretty good. I didn’t take pictures of my booth, figuring I’d get some on Saturday with the morning sun coming through the full-color Chinese Pistache trees visible through the window, which was the back wall of my 10×10′ space.

Then I went home and developed a fever. Well, phooey. Why during my busiest weekend of my busiest month?? Life is not fair. So, instead of doing a show, I did a No Show.

A lifelong friend offered to work my booth. What would we do without our friends?? I thought to myself, “Self,” I thought, “I will NEVER get out of her debt”.

Another friend said, “Real friends don’t keep score”.

Being a Questioner, I thought about that. My conclusion is that we have built-in scales of balance, and without actually keeping score, we can tell when we are being taken advantage of, when someone is a moocher or a user. I hope we also can recognize when we are taking advantage of someone else and put the brakes on thinking we are entitled.

It is so hard to be on the receiving end of giving, so much easier to be a giver. Probably has something to do with my innate need to be self-sufficient.

No one is completely self-sufficient. We all need a little help from our friends. Thank you, MKACD! 

Three Rivers Holiday Bazaar

THREE RIVERS HOLIDAY BAZAAR

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2022

9 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Veterans Memorial Building

43490 Sierra Drive

I will be bringing these items to sell:

  1. Paintings of Mineral King, Three Rivers, and Sequoia
  2. 2023 calendars Mineral King HIKES (available on website)
  3. Notecards (including designs that don’t appear on my website)
  4. coloring books: Heart of the County (also available here)
  5. Mineral King Wildflowers books (only a few remaining)
  6. Original pencil drawings of Wilsonia cabins
  7. The Cabins of Wilsonia (also available on my website)

 

Odd Job Accident

Little Bucky was patiently waiting his next coat of paint in the painting workshop.

When he was dry enough, I flipped him upside down so I could paint the underneath parts. However, I forgot that one of his antlers was not attached to his head. It fell out.

I photographed it, texted Ignacio, and confessed.

Little Bucky was a little dismayed, but he appeared to be used to only having one antler.

Phooey. Why did I say yes to this job??

Ignacio suggested superglue, so that’s what I did. I also asked him if he still had the other piece from when it broke previously so I could glue it for him. He didn’t, and asked if I could make him a new one!

When I said, “From what?”, he replied, “Wood”. I reminded him that I am not a carver, but work in pencil, oil paint, and murals. 

Maybe I should have added superglue to the list.

 

Two Odd Jobs

By “odd jobs”, I mean unusual requests from people simply because I might be the only artist they know. I am also an artist who tells the truth (“Nope, can’t do that!”), doesn’t overcharge (“I’ll aim for 3 hours at $30/hour and if the job isn’t finished, I’ll call you for Plan B” —Reply: “Only $30 an hour??” — me in my head: “Phooey, the last time I quoted a job at that price, the person said I was too expensive!”), and returns phone calls (“Send me photos and I’ll let you know if I can do this”).

Odd Job #1

This was a request to paint a sign for the Baptist church on the backside of a church member’s own sign, a traveling sign to be used if the church sets up a booth or an exhibit at a community event, such as the upcoming bridge lighting. 

The job required a great deal of measuring, sketching on paper, taping, guessing, writing with blue chalk, then erasing and rewriting, all before painting. I am not a sign painter, so this will best be viewed from the back of a fast horse when completed. I didn’t set up the final version to photograph for you because I did NOT want the paint to run. (Besides, I didn’t want anyone else to ask me to paint a sign.)

Odd Job #2

Ignacio brought me his small resin deer to paint. It was really hard to guess an accurate price, so we decided that I’d paint the front, and if I hadn’t used up his budget, then I’d paint the back. If the budget was used up, then the back would simply be a solid brown color.

I scooted the deer to the edge of the workshop, opened the doors for better light on a cold and overcast day (we went from summer to winter in about a 2 day time period this year), and started messing with colors. He isn’t pinkish in real life; thank you for your concern for Little Bucky’s masculinity.

I wasn’t sure of the colors – where it is light, where is it dark, etc., so I turned around to see.

Yo. Could you please rotate for me so I can see your tail?

After tossing a few acorns to get this doe to rotate, I was able to see the colors on the backside.

Thanks. You can go now.

Then I worked on Little Bucky until my hands got too cold, my nose ran, and I couldn’t rotate him without smearing paint. The face will have to wait, as will the odd pieces of resin at his feet, along with his ears, tail tip and antlers.

Do artists in other places get asked to do these odd jobs? It might just be the privilege of being an artist in the small rural foothill town of Three Rivers in Tulare County.

Twelve (Non-Thank You) Reasons to Hand-write Notes

This is the most current drawing of the no longer open Kaweah Post Office. This card is now available on my website; the older version is only available only in person IF any remain. (The original drawings have sold.) 

Reasons to write notes besides saying “thank you”

  1. Here is the $11 you spent on postage sending my sweater to me.
  2. This magazine article reminded me of you.
  3. Here is the recipe you asked for; I wrote it out so you won’t have to waste printer ink.
  4. I found this old photo of us in which we look like underfed children.
  5. I made you a bookmark.
  6. Isn’t real mail fun? 
  7. I forgot to tell you this when we talked last and it is so important I want you to have it in a format you will keep for awhile.
  8. Wish you weren’t moving to Colorado/Kentucky/Texas/Oregon/Angola.
  9. My printer is out of ink so I decided to use a pencil.
  10. I miss you.
  11. Our post office is terrific and it is good to buy stamps from them so they stay in business because if they don’t where will we mail things that need to be weighed first, like calendars, and packages of notecards for sale, so here is a note just because.
  12. Here is a happy surprise for you—real mail in your mailbox! (Thank you, Louise!)

This is the older version of the Kaweah Post Office drawing. When these cards are gone, this design will be retired, just like the post office itself. 

I bet you can think of a few other ideas yourself.

Let’s keep this quaint method alive of showing people that we care!

Five Different Reasons to Send a Note

Everyone loves to get real mail, and as Crane Stationery used to advertise, “No one has ever cherished an email”. (This was before texting, which has made email look personal and handcrafted.)

The other morning I wrote a bunch of notes. A list had accumulated of people I needed to communicate with, and each one needed to be handwritten. Sometimes email just doesn’t do the trick.

As I carried them to the mailbox, it struck me that each note was written for a different reason.

  1. Thank you
  2. I’m sorry for your loss (any of my cards, blank inside, would work for this).
  3. Get well soon (any card with a blank interior will work for this)
  4. Happy Birthday (nope, none of my cards actually say this inside, but I have great confidence in your ability to write those words)
  5. An invitation (I used a blank card for this too)

There are many other reasons to use cards and hand-write notes to people.  

I’ll give you some other ideas tomorrow.

 

Lazy Listicle of Distracted Thoughts

  1. The acorns have been raining down from the live oaks in our yard and attracting herds of deer. One morning Trail Guy counted 16 in the driveway. (Deer, not acorns)
  2. This painting needs a title! Any suggestions?
  3. These 2 5×7″ oil paint on panel paintings are drying. There are 3 more, but these are days of distractions,  falling acorns, broken things, a rush pencil commission, RAIN, and yet another odd job.
  4. This big guy was focused on acorns and water. There is a tub on the other side of that rock that the deer come to (and the turkeys and the cats. . . probably some others we don’t know about). Such is life in Three Rivers in rural Tulare County.
  5. My wonderful webdesigner gave up two hours on her day off to begin figuring out what keeps going wrong with my website. This was her only day off in the busiest week she has had since pre-Plague. There are still some mysteries, but it is mostly functional at this time.
  6. Many years ago a former neighbor gave me this juicer. This year it wouldn’t work, AFTER we picked a 5 gallon bucket of pomegranates. Someone told me about a repair shop in Goshen, so I navigated my way to Breck’s in a ferocious rainstorm, and they gave me hope. Now my hope is that it can be repaired quickly, because in spite of not paying for it initially, at $90/hour, I will be paying for it now.
  7. In spite of November being my busiest month, I spent a day on my tookus, watching a live workshop of many demonstrations of art realism. During the boring ones (I KNOW how to draw!), I packaged notecards. During the other sessions, I took notes.
  8. I also took photos. This is how the light looks on one of my studio windows in the afternoon.

P.S. I might have knitted a little bit too. . . it wasn’t Zoom and no one could see.

P.P.S. (that means PS #2) I hit a skunk on my way home the other night. Didn’t know it until I got home. Felt something, but didn’t smell it until the car was in the garage. Well, yippee skippee. A skunk is easier on a car than a deer. 

 

Painting Three Rivers

Did you think I forgot these paintings? Not a chance; I have a little bazaar coming on November 19 in Three Rivers and need some appropriate merchandise (besides just 2023 calendars and cards and coloring books.)

Did I think you forgot them? Not gonna let you forget—don’t worry your pretty little head about that.

One:

(Please, do not sing about this.)

It is now finished, drying, and awaiting a scan so you can see the colors more accurately. The title is Alta Peak/Moro Rock View. (Yes, I know it is brilliant and clever and original.)

Two:

Just a bunch of yellow grass couldn’t possibly take that long, could it?

Yes, it could and it is. It isn’t titled yet. Perhaps “Yellow Grass and Live Oaks” would be appropriately creative and original. . .

Three:

Mixing colors for this one has been fun. My paintings tend to be all greens, grays, and browns, or nothing but orange (poppies and oranges, over and over).

How about calling it “Three Indian Grindholes on the Middle Fork of the Kaweah River in Three Rivers at Sunset”?

Nope. It is only an 8×10″ oil painting, so there isn’t enough room on the back of the canvas to write all that.

Part of the business of art is coming up with good titles. I’ve got some thinking to do.

P.S. Happy Birthday, Laurie!

 

Making Three Improvements

Improvements

I brought home the paintings from Silver City that didn’t sell over the summer. My good friend helped me evaluate them honestly. I need the opinions of honest good friends, regular people rather than Educated Artist Type people, because regular people are my customers.

First:

Remember this?

I redid it like this:

Immediately someone said, “I want that!” However, I know her pretty well, and she is a talker and a dreamer. It ain’t a sale until money exchanges hands, and no money exchanged hands. So, I added a flag.

I’m certain that was the missing element.

Second:

Why didn’t this sweet little 6×6″ of aspens along the Nature Trail sell?

Because it didn’t have wildflowers!! (After this photo, I repaired the big red blob and changed my signature back to white).

Three:

Why do I still have this little painting of alpenglow on Vandever?

Because it wants brighter colors and more detail, of course.

The business of art requires honesty, realistic looks at sales and what customers want.

P.S. They’ll look better when scanned, and even better in real life.

 

Painting As If I Have a Deadline

After finishing three more 5×7″ oranges on easels, they sold within days. The director of the Mural Gallery asked for more, so I set up an assembly line to get the first layer on the panels.

That was sloppy business. I prefer to work with exact, tight, precision, so I moved back into this 8×10″ painting of a typical Three Rivers scene, and got serious about making it as accurate as possible.

Then I got a call from a man for whom I had done an odd job this summer. He has a deer, which has faded from the sun, and wondered if I could freshen it up. He was able to provide a photo of it when it was new, which will help me get this done right. I said yes, and then we had to figure out how in the world I would charge him for this odd job. He told me what he paid for it initially, we figured out how much he was willing to spend, I told him how many hours that would cover, and then we made a plan. I will paint one side only, keeping track of my hours, and if there is enough time and money left in the budget, I’ll paint the backside. If not, I’ll just paint the backside plain brown, no detail. 

The cats aren’t a fan of this guest in their safe room. I expect they will adjust soon.