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Various and Sundry Thoughts on Stuff (both personal and professional)

Pippin likes his people to be at home.

I’m in a bit of a holding pattern, waiting for several things: the Mineral King road to open, a week-long plein air painting trip to Monterey, the indexer to finish repairing the index on the TB book, and my show, Simply Home, to open.

Tucker loves the unmowed lawn, which is part of one of my gardening experiments.

What’s a person to do while waiting? Stuff, both personal and professional. (What word did people use before “stuff” became a ubiquitous filler?)

Oh-oh! Where will Tucker hide now?

Personal stuff: enjoy being home, work in the yard, do some work on the landscaping at church, read, organize some messes, hang out with the cats, you know, just stuff.

Such a sorry excuse for a pomegranate. The tree has not produced a single edible normal sized piece of fruit in over 15 years.

Professional stuff: my art has been retrieved from the Silver City Store and also from the Mural Gallery. This means that I have to change information on my inventory lists, and put card packages away.

Finally, some time to think about and design a calendar for 2025. This will be based on the upcoming show, Simply Home. Yeah, yeah, I KNOW that people care more about Mineral King than my art, but I am trying to earn a living here. (My farmer dad used to say that he “scratched his living out of the dust of the earth”. Maybe I just scratch mine out with pencils, or smear it out with paint. . .) So, because I am an active citizen of Realville, I have ordered fewer calendars than in previous years. This means if you snooze, you lose, unless the demand warrants a second order.

Why is my vitex tree blooming in September? Why is it called “vitex”, which sounds like some sort of nutritional supplement?

Oh that’s right—it is time to design a new Christmas card. Yeah, yeah, I KNOW that fewer people send cards every year, except for those flat ones full of tiny photos of themselves doing glorious things throughout the year. Not me. Each year I design a new card and send them to my drawing students (and a small handful of distant friends), using the United States Postal Service.

And while putting away the paintings that did not have a chance to sell at Silver City, I studied them and decided that they each deserved more attention.

More tomorrow on that.

6 Comments

  1. Put me down for 4 calendars – Virginia McKee

    • Will do, Virginia. Thank you!

  2. Personal Stuff: You forgot knitting, you fiber artist, you!
    Put me down for 2 calendars, please!
    If your Christmas cards are like your note cards, and you sell them, put me down for a package of those, too, please!

    • Sharon, I didn’t mention breathing either.
      OK on the 2 calendars.
      The Christmas cards are closer to 5×7 in size, blank inside, and a package of 4 is $20. Still interested? I can email you the design privately, because my students don’t get to see it until it lands in their mailboxes.

      • I would like one package of Christmas cards, please, and thank you!

What do you think?