Things I’m learning in Artworld.
This is an undoctored photo of a daffodil. In my regular walking route in Three Rivers, I encounter a yard with several of these. Really! I used to think all daffodils were yellow – many different shades and combinations, but always yellow. Guess I was wrong!
I may have mentioned that I walk a lot. April 25 is coming, and my friend Nancy and I plan to walk 21 miles in Monterey. Nancy and I get together just once a week for our long training walks, so during the week we are walking alone. My walks are usually in Three Rivers. This provides a great deal of time to look at one’s surroundings, think, pray, mumble to oneself about how long it takes, use a borrowed iPod, plan blog posts, fret over the amount of work one isn’t doing while walking. . . a person could stay very busy while walking! Here is something that struck me this week – there are a number of peculiar items on one of my regular routes. Let’s start with Ruby:
Ruby is a boxer with a leopard spotted couch, complete with an awning for shade. This couch is parked directly along-side the road, and Ruby watches people go by. I make a point of greeting and petting her. If I happen to be wearing shorts, she will get up and lick my knees. Now, that is peculiar!
Purple, or “violet”, as it is more correctly called, is a color I haven’t liked very well most of my life. A few years ago, something changed, and I began to crave periwinkle, that almost blue shade of violet. Think lupine, brodeia, dutch iris. . . Someone told me that as we age, the cones in our eyes see purple better than when we were young. Oh-oh – is that the reason? (Brings to mind that poem “When I am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple”.) While on our photo trip over Yokohl, I was knitting a sweater in that wonderful bluey purple color; I actually asked Michael to stop next to a lupine so I could hold the sweater out the window and compare the colors. I was thrilled to see they were an exact match! (You just never know what will set off a color junkie.) I have found that to be a difficult color to mix, working only with the primaries, that has been a difficult color to mix. I finally asked Diana Moses Botkin about it, and she advised me just to buy a tube of violet! Wow – if she says it is okay, it must be! Just one other thing – I’ve noticed many men refer to burgundy or maroon as “purple”! I wonder why. . . can’t get a helpful explanation other than “It looks purple to me!”
Sweater colored lupine (ok, I might have messed around with the color in this photo!)
Periwinkle, the plant (also known as the dreaded invasive vinca major)
Virginia May Botkin, 82, of Visalia passed away Sunday, March 14, 2010. She was born in Visalia on June 18, 1927 to Dorval Wallace and Versa May Beamish. Because her parents were both deaf-mute, she grew up communicating with American Sign Language. Virginia and her sister younger Rosalie (Shiffert) loved to sing, and often performed together in the Exeter Lions Club Follies. She graduated from Visalia Union High School and married the love of her life, William “Bill” Franklin Botkin, a union that lasted 53 years until Bill’s death in 2002. Bill and Virginia reared their three children in Exeter, and she was a homemaker who particularly loved family gatherings and time in Mineral King. She enjoyed the music of Tony Bennett, Judy Garland, and more recently Michael Buble’. Virginia was preceded in death by her parents, husband and sister, and is survived by son William C. “Billy” Botkin of Visalia, son Michael (Jana) Botkin of Three Rivers, and daughter Laurie Metz of South Lake Tahoe. In addition, she is survived by a few aunts and uncles, many nieces and one nephew. At her request there will be no services. Remembrances may be made to the Mineral King Preservation Society, P.O. Box 286, Exeter CA 93221 or other charity of choice.
Here are my semi-wild cats, AKA The Brown Ears (to separate them from The Boys, Perkins and Zeke).
If their tails don’t show, I still can’t tell who is Butch and who is O’Reilly.
Cashmere has missed her second appointment to be spayed at the veterinarian’s office. If she has kittens, want one?
Now that Butch has watched me try to catch his Mom and put her in a box, i.e. try to murder her before his very eyes not once but twice, I doubt that I’ll ever get to touch him.
O’Reilly continues to be an utterly delightful little feline!
This is one of the most dreaded, misunderstood and boring aspects of being an artist. We artists, in general, dislike writing about our work. Obviously this doesn’t apply to me! But while I love to write, the artist statement gets me bowed up. I don’t do well with Artspeak, and I hate pretentiousness. This a.m. I read an article in the business/art magazine Art Calendar about writing an artist statement and realized it was time to update mine (yet again!) I’m still not sure if it is supposed to be a personal history, a personal philosophy of art, or an explanation. Regardless, here is my current one:
Art has been my fulltime profession for 17 years. Pencil used to be all I’d consider – it was the best way I knew to get every single detail in excruciating perfection. As my drawing students and customers asked for color, I reluctantly entered the world of colored pencil to record life around me. It didn’t resonate with me the way graphite did (and still does!), so 4 years ago I began to oil paint. As my proficiency increases, I’m able to focus more on light and color, and less on minutia. Although my medium is different, my favorite subjects remain: giant Sequoias, Mineral King, citrus, and Three Rivers. Tulare County is my home and recording its beauty is my goal.
It will probably be rewritten many more times as I learn what this is supposed to be and do. Mostly it is a requirement for gallery entries or group shows. Since I tend to be a maverick (as my college photography teacher told me back in the late ’70s), I can usually avoid this part of an art career. Yea! So, have a look at what is almost finished for the Zonta show (and they invited me WITHOUT asking for an “artist statement”):
This is a Valentine’s Day card drawn in pencil. (Have I mentioned that I love to draw?) It was done several years ago, and there are a few remaining at The Art Co-0p. May Valentine’s Day be all that you hoped this year!
Because I am the daughter, granddaughter, niece and cousin of farmers, weather has always been an important part of my life. I was trained from an early age to stop talking (mid-sentence if necessary) whenever the weather came on the radio. Dad did call most of the weather guys “weather-guessers”, and I have noticed in the past few months that a prominent weather guy on a prominent localish radio station refers to himself as a “metorolist”. Perhaps he isn’t a real meteorologist, or perhaps he is just in a giant hurry or even has trouble pronouncing his profession. . . hard to say, but I digress. What I meant to say is have a look at a Mineral King cabin as of Sunday, February 7, 2010. (Thank you, Evan and Karl!)
Have I mentioned that I am a technophobe? That isn’t exactly right, because I have been more of a techno-avoider. Turns out that isn’t exactly right either. Look at this list of items I have to mess with and recharge:
My explanation for #5 is this: Michael requested the simplest one for his birthday in 2009 (13 months ago) and has NEVER ONCE used it! Monday I had to walk 9 miles without my training partner, and the iPod was a real treat! It is difficult to find music that is the right tempo for my pace, but it was very fun anyway. What else did I do while walking? I thought about the secret giant project that has a tight deadline! Want a hint? Sorry, not yet! 😎 More will be revealed. . . meanwhile, look at this wall full of incomplete paintings and puzzle over why I am walking 9 miles instead of painting 24/7. The first person to tell me the correct reason will receive a small prize.
While away over the weekend, I learned many new things. Here they are as they pop into my head: