Art and Then Some

Mullet Ascension

2012-02-06T10:00:00.000-06:00


Mullet Ascension 8x10 watercolor

I think I'll have to redo this painting one day. I sort of got distracted by my hairstylist friend and her style. It was so much fun and so easy to work her shop and her into this painting. I was so excited when I came up with this idea. A levitating mullet! And my favorite is bringing in the modern to reflect the iconic painting. My favorite is the flip-flops on the floor, explaining why the client is barefoot as he floats away. I think I was getting tired of formal lettering too. I just wanted to be funky. It's still Latin and this is the correct Latin, on the authority of a real Latin teacher, Erin Baldwin, thank you SO much for your help. It's been so fun scheming with her. This Latin phrase translates to: "Bless the hairdressers, whose purpose it shall be to produce mullets". This is the first painting her knowledge was able influence.

I still like this painting and I'm really happy with it but it might be a bit of a stretch to get the Biblical reference. Or maybe it's just perfect. Discuss amongst yourselves: the modern upbeat painting with the subtlety of religious undertones. How does it work?

This will be available as a print on Etsy.com after March 10. I'll be letting you know.

Mullet and Child

2012-01-30T10:00:00.000-06:00

Mullet and Child, watercolor and gold paint

All credit for this goes to my wonderful room mate Dreya in 2009. The Latin reads: "Untouched by men". In person the gold really makes this painting stand out. The frame, with its curved glass makes this painting look priceless. I can't believe how well it turned out.

This print is for sale at my Etsy shop SparrowsHand. Each print is hand painted with gold highlights. This is on display with the rest of the mullet series at the Beehive till the end of February

Rock on, Venus.

2012-01-23T10:00:00.000-06:00


Translation: Bless the Hairdresser so that they may produce mullets 8x10 watercolor

This is a favorite. Is it ok that I cried because I got so excited when this idea popped in my head? Long drives are a great time for percolating ideas. It has been brewing in my head, the Birth of Venus painting, how to involve some of the Beehive ladies in the work that they love as well as have a less potentially offensive picture. I also think of my awesome class mate from Massage School and how I've been wanting to capture her rock star character - she's also a hairdresser. Then it just all came together as if this is what I had in mind all along. Since this was a surprise I had to use photos from the internet and hope I had the right stylists and that their image hadn't changed too much. I can't wait to show this to Carole Ann as well. How would you feel if you found someone you haven't seen in a year had painted you as a naked Venus with a hot pink mullet? Let me know. Is that endearing or a little creepy?

This is for sale at my Etsy shop SparrowsHand. This would make a great blessing for any funky hairstylist. Each print is hand painted with gold highlights. This is on display at the Beehive till the end of February.

Sacred Hairdryer

2012-01-16T10:00:00.000-06:00

Unfortunately there is no Latin word for hairdryer. Maybe I could call this Sacri Babyliss. That's basically the brand of hairdryer that I referenced. I did use my networking skills (ie, I sent out a mass e-mail asking for help) to find a Latin teacher with a sense of humor. She really got what I was going for and had a lot of fun playing with translations. She actually came up with 3 different ways to say "Business in the front, party in the back" in Latin. I guess that means I have more paintings to do. I did bring her my dilemma about the word for hairdryer. Her suggestion was: Siccativum crinis, dryer of the hair. Sounds good to me!

This painting is copied from Sacred Heart paintings with a New Kids on the Block inspired mullet. After painting this I decided it didn't need a Latin banner. What I did like was trying to paint this at open studio. Open studio is a new thing that I attend as a way to get some scheduled painting time in. Other retired artists attend as well. I was very worried about what these sweet people would think of this blow drying foolery. To my relief most onlookers didn't even notice the difference until the second time they came around the class room.

The frame I found and purchased in Minnesota. It is one of only two and I redesigned two of my mullet paintings to utilize these beautiful frames. It's curved glass! I can't get over that. I was thinking of painting the frame to funk it up a little bit but this looks so authentic that I just couldn't do it. If you think the frame should be painted you'll just have to buy it and paint it yourself.

This is print is for sale at my Etsy shop, SparrowsHand. This is part of a show that is now up at the Beehive.

Be ye Fishers of Mullets

2012-01-09T10:00:00.000-06:00

This is one of my newest developed ideas. We had the phrase, "Be ye fishers of mullets" in the beginning, back in 2009, but the original sketch I had was like an image from the Bible stories with the sermon on the mount. The composition was quite boring. Just a lot of people standing around looking at a guy on a hill. I wanted some action and something rustic looking. The image of men hauling nets into a boat quickly overlapped itself with Michelangelo's "Touching God" painting - once I realized that there could be a man with a mullet with the mullet fish. It was too perfect, or as Mitch Hedberg said, "It's so dang literal!"

This print will be for sale at my Etsy shop, SparrowsHand. Each print has guild lettering with hand painted gold. The Sacred Mullet show is up until February 29.

Sacred Mullet - January 3 thru February 28

2012-01-02T10:00:00.000-06:00

What does it MEAN?

This is actually the very last picture that I painted of the series. Finished it in plenty of time for the show as well, Dec. 30. This is my last painting of 2011. I realized that I wanted something light hearted and eye catching to rework as a poster for my series. It's nice to have a picture to introduce the rest of the show.

Sacred Mullet is now up at the Beehive Salon

102 East Weaver Street

Carrboro, NC 27510

It's up from Jan. 3 - Feb. 28

It will be part of the Art Walk on Friday, February 10 6:00-9:00

I hope you can stop by and see it. Some prints will be available soon on Etsy but some you'll have to wait till after the show to receive. I'll be posting more every week so stay tuned!

Coming Soon: Sacred Mullet

2011-12-26T10:00:00.001-06:00


Writing in Latin: Business in the Front, Party in the Back. I call this painting The Way, the Truth, and the Mullet. Sold in 2009.

In 2009 I entered a "Mullets and Mohawks" contest at the Beehive Hair Salon in Carborro. I entered 2 pieces. I expected that if I won it would be the vinyl one. I had resisted painting the more . . .sensitive one. My depiction of a mullet in a religious setting I thought was a bit controversial and perhaps inappropriate but I have always thought that the images of Jesus are just a couple snips from being a mullet. In the end I decided, when would I ever have a better reason to illustrate my opinion? What better place than a mullet contest? They were asking me to be outrageous, I think the pasty sad-eyed Jesus is pretty outrageous. With a little inspiration and a tweak in the hairstyle I can do outrageous.

Vinyl Mullet - 20x20, vinyl and tape.

When I got the call from the Beehive announcing that my picture had won, I didn't even know which one had won till I went to pick up my $100 gift certificate. Not only had I won first place but the the Beehive ladies had to draw straws to figure out who got to purchase my little 8x10 piece of sacrilegious art. As they laughed and talked about the novelty of it I began to see Bible verses and mullets conjure in my head. I went straight home to my roommate and we talked about iconic paintings and mullet puns. In moments I had gone from one tentative painting to at least 7 ideas. I could do a whole series! The Beehive was keen on hosting my idea, a whole mullet series hosted at their shop.

It has been over 2 years since I claimed my prize. The end of 2011 is finally upon us and I decided that 2012 has to be the year of the mullet. The big year of it's unveiling. I asked about available slots to have a show and the response was that the only available show dates would be January and February of 2012. Guess what, don't tell Beehive, but I had not painted a single painting when I had asked about available show slots. I was just securing a slot. I had 3 weeks to paint my 7 pieces, in which time there would also be x-mas, company visiting, and I have work as well. I was typing out my decline of these dates, saying I wouldn't be ready in time when a wild haired idea began to frizz out. Did I really need more time??? I had all the frames already, I had the Latin translations already -thanks to Marielle the previous summer, a home schooler who happened to take Latin. Fantastic! I had several ideas to start on. This could actually work. So, for the last 2 weeks I have been getting up at 6:30 to paint as much as I can before company woke up or before I had to go to work. I am still in the process of the last 3 but I have all of this week to work on them. Wish me luck! I'll be sharing a painting every Monday as my virtual show on my blog.

Save the date! Sacred Mullets will be on display at the Beehive Hair Salon January 3 thru the end of February. If you can make it please come to the second Friday Art Walk on February 10. If you can't make it out to celebrate with me on the 10th then stop by at any point while it is up. Good times! Also, I will be having prints up for sale on my Etsy store. Some will be available January 9 but some you'll have to wait till after the show to have available.

Voluptuous Peppers for Support of Local Farmers

2011-12-19T10:00:00.001-06:00


Voluptuous Peppers 16x20 Watercolor

One Saturday morning I got to go with my mother-in-law to the Carrboro Farmer's Market and we loaded up on peppers to make pepper jelly. She bought bags of peppers, I didn't know they came in so many colors. We spent the day in her kitchen washing peppers, chopping peppers, brewing, stewing, and sealing jars. The colors were so amazing and I snapped pictures at every chance. I had great plans to paint the whole process. This is the first picture of the bunch and then I lost the whole lot of photos while I was in the process of painting this. I am so disappointed. I might still have some of the pictures on Facebook but I know not all of them are on there. I don't want to know what is lost and what is preserved so I haven't looked. This picture was pretty much painted from my head. I had no reference photo to look to.

The thing about that day of processing peppers was the team work and the common goal. I felt like the farmers and the market were all together in support of our endeavor. They showed us the peppers, talked advice, chit-chatted about our plan for the day. The pepper jelly is for other people as well. Being in our kitchen with loads of peppers from busy farms, heading out as jelly to friends. It was like I was part of a conveyor belt in life's factory.

I believe farming is a vital root of society. It is one of our last Connections to the earth and its seasons as nurture and labor and grow nutrition to sustain the masses. Small farmers are so invaluable and yet we don't honor them like they deserve. Farmers-Film is trying to bring awareness to the local farmer and their challenges. I saw the project and was inspired. My effort to eat local is not very dedicated but I will work on it. I also want to use my art to bring awareness and support. So, with this painting I am looking to work with the farmers that I bought the peppers from. It's still in the works. There is talk of selling art during their farm tour, or perhaps links on their website. In the mean time, as I try to keep it simple and helpful I have decided to donate 25% of the first 100 16x20 prints sold to support feeding hungry children here in American. I am always looking for the best place to donate, so please comment below on food related organizations you would like to see supported. Here are some peppers. Support your local farm while you spice up your home with this lively piece that won't ever go bad. You can purchase your print here. I will be shipping out orders January 9 and beyond. Pass it on.

Eco Farms, Cane Creek, Perrywinkle Farm, McAdams Farm, are represented in this painting as the farms that we purchased peppers from. You can support them directly if you are willing and able.


This can be displayed so many ways too.

It's a Secret

2011-12-12T10:00:00.000-06:00

I just wanted to share with you my newest portrait painting. A quick note, this is an upcoming Father's Day present so don't blow the surprise if you know this happy dad. I had received a commission of this little boy as a newborn over a year ago and never got to it. Once I finally painted the discussed newborn painting I decided he also needed an up to date portrait, sort of a "sorry I took forever" sort of thing. Since it was a surprise, it took a little research to find a promising pic but luckily with social media and new mothers I had plenty of pictures to choose from. I found this adorable challenge of him with his daddy and wanted to paint it right away. How sweet and crisp would this look in a watercolor?

Before

I like to see this little tyke candid and laughing, I also wanted to make sure to bring attention to the little man on top of the world. I loved this other expression of his in another photo and clues on Facebook tell me that this is one of his mother's favorites as well. He even had a polo shirt on in each photo so it was easy to swap around. I was a little worried about the hat and the two heads stacked one above the other. They might create a very symmetrical picture, like a totem pole or something contrived and unappealing but luckily it was as cute as I had envisioned it.

With a little inspired change

Beginning the skin tones

It took me a while to gain confidence and build up the color. Watercolor takes layer upon layer. It can be done with trepidation and you can still get the desired result. It just takes one small brave step at a time. It's surprising that after all these years of painting, adding that color is still thrilling and a little scary for me. I still don't feel I've matched the photo well enough but I like the softer effect of the watercolor. When I was done I played around with the painting on my computer to see if I really wanted to try to match the father's skin tone to the photo. I love the richness of his dark skin. I would have given it a bluer tone than how the photo editing turned out but after looking at the photo editing I could see the possibility of my painting turning into vintage advertising and I decided I didn't want that kind of association. So it is as is and I am super happy with it.

checking out my options with computer help

9x12 watercolor

Ta Da! I'm leaving it for the family to name it. I look forward to finding out what they call it.

Newest Painting in Progress

2011-12-05T08:00:00.000-06:00

Here's the latest commission I'm working on. This style I call my storybook style. I first began drawing this way to illustrate a make-believe world for my friends and I. I usually like some sort of mischief to be happening in these paintings. It's a very sweet and whimsical way of seeing the world.

The portrayal is my hiking partner with her daughter and the animals that she works with. She works with kids with behavior issues and the animals are her therapy tools. The painting is a gift from her mother. This also happens to be the farm across the street from my house. I have big plans for the background. I plan on a beautiful Asheville fall scene. I'll keep you posted as a finish this up.

Have you seen this newborn?

2011-11-28T10:00:00.000-06:00

8x10 watercolor. Baby Obas

This is my dreaded painting. I've had this commission for well over a year and couldn't bring myself to try to paint it. I had too many fears and doubts about it. I think that in my mind the dread for this painting is the sum dread of me trying to succeed as an artist. As long as I avoided trying to paint this with the possibility of failing I was avoiding possibly failing as a successful artist.

I really believe I'm at a turning point in my career. I'm finally allowing myself to be an artist as an income. I've put value to the time that I spend painting. I've put a value on my art and let people show their appreciation for it with their purchase. I guess I have a very symbolic little baby here.

The neat thing is that I've had this drawn out for months without ever touching it with a brush or color. I finally took some initiative and signed up for an open studio art class. Students bring their own supplies, own projects and the teacher is there for support and a trained eye. My first day of class I was unprepared. I didn't have another project to work on. Just this drawing that I had no real intention on starting but within 15 minutes of class I decided now was as good as any to start this overdue project. The teacher was a great help and support. She had ideas for shading dilemmas, the coloring of the background, the shape of the baby, etc. By the end of my first 3 hour class I was halfway through this painting that only took me around a year and a half to begin.

I am flying through my projects. I am painting commissions that I have been given this year - granted it was 3 months ago but I'm getting up to date. Today is my last class of the session. I am signed up for the next session and I am on a roll. Nowhere but up. I have so many things to show you.

Here is the original picture I was working with. I don't like to copy perfect photos. If it ain't broke. . . As you can see, the mother's hand is cropped and we wanted a naked baby and no pacifier. Unfortunately, I don't care for the mouth on the painting. I think the angle of the face slowly changed in my painting and something is skewed. It's still a cute enough pic and I won't bother critiquing it here.

On a bummer note: I brought this painting to show it to my client just yesterday. It has, of course, been so long, that she completely forgot about the commission or even the subject of it. I don't know what happened but somewhere between the car and the Panera Bread I LOST my painting. It is nowhere to be found. I've checked our cars, my house, the parking lots, called stores. The client never even got to see the original. At least I had the foresight to take a picture before I gave it to her. So, if there are any Raleigh residents who would like to inquire at the Briar Creek shopping center. Please help. Please repost this as much as you can. Maybe the internet will work miracles and I can get the original back. I'm offering a reward and a print in the same size of the picture and my eternal gratitude. This is their first baby and what a sweet picture for this family to have! No, I don't want to repaint it. I'm done, I'm moving on. Thank you for any help in finding it. I'll keep you posted.

100 Suns

2011-11-21T10:00:00.000-06:00


Community Spectrum - watercolor 2010

We are all so many roles, so many different moods, attitudes, and talents, so many layers. From every experience we get to choose how and what we learn, what inspires, comforts, and helps us. It is all here for your growth. All these colors come from interaction, from participation. When influence permeates a barrier a new color is mixed. At our core we combine what we have filtered and reflect it back into the world. What you perceive, feel, see, try, observe. . .It all saturates together into your own light. Tend this light, protect it with your deepest values. Let this light shine and illuminate the world, let it be a light on someone’s journey, let it help someone else ignite their light. This is your community, this is how you belong.

As I was getting ready to graduate from Massage School I was unsure about how I wanted to pursue my massage career. One of my fellow classmates, knowing that I am an artist and visual person, told me to paint my business plan. I could immediately see connected circles and layers in yellow and purple. It took me several more months and a couple sketches to define the shape of my business plan. It wasn't until I knew what my life priorities are that I was able to start painting. I painted the brightest circle as myself, each ring represents a layer of my personality. My center is my faith and being led by that, next is my relationship with my husband. I want to be sure that being a happy couple is before all my life plans. It took me a bit to realize that art comes before massage. Art is my calling and who I am. I will always be an artist no matter what I am doing or where. Massage, it turns out is 4th on my list of priorities. It is another extension of myself that I can help and serve others, literally put my hands on them to bring healing and comfort, it is something I must continue to practice and refine. The interesting thing is that once I finished the painting I realized I liked it better upside down, which is how it is displayed now. What does it mean to paint a symbolic picture upside down?

I don't know how effective this is as a business plan but it has helped me to realize how I want to be and interact in a community. Whenever a massage or art opportunity comes up and I start tallying up the numbers I think about this painting and how does my profit compare to my contribution? There is a bigger picture than just making ends meet.

I love how this painting can be interpreted in so many ways. These rings of light can be businesses, towns, groups, or individuals. We can break it down to the interaction of neurons and illustrate how we are all part of something so much bigger. It reminds me that I am not alone, I am not so different from everyone else yet I am still unique and I have the power to influence and be influenced by what is around me. This painting warmly radiates that feeling of being connected to a bigger picture. I hope it will influence you and remind you that you affect those around you, you matter.

Do you see the same message? One of my friends Sophia Ojha, calls this painting 100 Suns. I really like that. It does seem like such a warm painting. This is for sale as a print at my Etsy store SparrowsHand. If you would like a smaller print size, please message me.

Attributes

2011-11-20T14:23:00.001-06:00

I wanted to tell you about one of my latest prints. Here is a blog entry by Sophia that says it so much better than I ever would. She is a wonderful inspiration that leads guided meditations that are like visual journeys. Several have been vivid enough to paint. Here is my first painting of one of her visualizations. You can visit her website for more information. She's starting a 7 week program this coming Tuesday. You can read more and sign up for it here: Seven Week Guided Journey with Sophia Ojha

Journey Inspires Visual Artist.

Posted by Sophia Ojha | October 21, 2011

One Saturday morning, Rachael Shores, a regular meditator dropped by the Center for Meditation and Healing, also my home. Accompanying her was this lovely painting:

She calls it Attributes.

Among the many talents Rachael embodies, visual art is her passion. She brings life and drama with her brush strokes whether it is painting on canvas or designing murals for a wall. She dances with color flowing through the tips of her brushes moving in rhythmically akin to the flow of Tai Chi. Her visual mastery is only complemented with her technical expertise in the manner her vision is executed into reality. Her love for creative expression exudes in the way she is present with her art.

When Rachael presented Attributes to me, she said, "This is what I experienced in our Visual Journey Meditation." I was flabbergasted. The journey that we had visualized is now translated onto canvas with Rachael's unique interpretation. I was holding in my hands the meditation that had flowed through me. Her artistic interpretation made the meditation tangible in an astounding manner. My husband, Cristof and I sat there gazing into the painting, re-living the fantasy-landscape that we had all experienced. The deep blue ocean with schools of fish floating by surrounded by dolphins who seemed to emerge from the flowing flame of wisdom. This is the flame around which three mentors were seated, each a manifestation of an inner attribute within us, holding a message as unique as each individual.

I immediately had the strong urge to share this painting with you, the Pond community. Take a look at this painting, gaze at it for a moment. Look at the details and immerse yourself within it. Let this lovely painting aide you in your own visual journey.

If you would like this painting to serve you with its high vibration at all times, Rachael is happy to share a print for your home or office space. Get all the details here. Thank you Rachael for your passion and creativity.

Mountain Love,
Sophia

Here is the synopsis of the meditation that inspired this painting:
Sit a moment, in the stillness and depths of the ocean. There are attributes of yourself sitting around the fire with you. Each has a message. One has encouragement, one has advice, and one has wisdom. Sit a moment. Watch the sparks and phosphorescence. Listen. What are they saying?

The Completed Oil City Mural

2011-07-02T00:00:00.002-05:00

Well, Oil City is finally done. I finished up the last touches on Tuesday and spent the day packing, mailing, and clean up. I am just so excited to have a completed mural and a very large area, nearly 1000 square feet, paintedk. I've included the final pictures that I will put in my portfolio.

I left Wednesday morning after staying up till nearly 3:00 and getting up at 5:00 Andrew and I drove to the airport where we got to hang out in his US Airways club area. Very posh. There was breakfast with juice and everything. We shared the flight to Charlotte and then parted ways as he went on to Birmingham and went on to Florida where I will meet up with family for the July 4 weekend. Steve Carter picked me up in his giant extended cab white pickup. He was actually waiting in the airport for me and I walked through without ever seeing him. I couldn't even find him as he talked to me on the phone and told me he could see me. When we stopped to gas up and I went in to get a drink I came back out and nearly climbed into someone else's white extended cab pick-up. It was Steve honking at me that helped me realize my mistake. He got to watch the whole thing in his rear view mirror. Brilliant. Here's the finished pictures:

Art on Elm. Mary will get letters to match one of the colors on the mural. I think she's leaning towards the gold.

reflections

So on Sunday night I did a late night. I was expecting to go later but instead I dribbled paint on the carpet at 12:30 and spent nearly 2 hours trying to clean it up with no luck. Mary's solution was to have me paint on the carpet to make it appear more on purpose so I did some stars. It turned out rather well.
I was even able to add "art, music, food" to it. It looks like pixie dust. Very sweet.

A view of both mural. So much color! Did you know that I love color?

As I did my last touch-ups on Tuesday the compliments were unstopping. At least 5 cars pulled over to talk to me and thank me for my project. One of the cars was the local DJ who brought me on the radio for about 2 minutes to talk about the mural and its purpose. It was interesting to see the attention flood in when I was so close to done. To me it was like farewells and it was very much appreciated. I did my best to try to remember everything because I know months down the road I'll probably be wondering once again if I can really make it as an artist.

Lesson for today: Accept yourself. Even the good things.

St. Joseph's church detail. We painted the tips with gold paint. I hope it catches the light.

The town of Oil City

detail of highlight on hills

detail of night stars

detail of abstract sun

corner. Don't you love how the corner all goes together and disappears?

THANK YOU!

To everyone that helped me. Thank you Mary for the invite and hosting me, Andrew for the logistics support and problem solving, Dave for amazing food, keeping me company and helping to paint, other Dave for more music selection and help with waitressing, Josh for painting the scary spots and help with the ladder and sign - all you guys for your distracting humor, all the people that stopped to share their appreciation, thank you to Jim and the artist couple for consults, thank you Mark for keeping me company on my longest day of work. Thank you for Janet for always checking up on me and some delicious dinners. Thank you to the local artists that showed me around their studios, Christina, for inspiration and art talk. Sheldon for some great conversation and motivation, Eric for good humor - I still like the "you are here" arrow for the mural, John for the tour, I don't even know how to thank everyone. Did I miss someone really obvious? I guess that's the risk with Thank yous I just want everyone to know I had such a fun time meting and hanging out with you and it was so validating to get all the encouragement and to hear again and again that people really liked what I was doing. I am so grateful for that. I'm so glad an out of towner was able to bring you something you can enjoy. It was such an exciting experience. The work was hard and challenging but the energy I got from it and the excitement I held throughout the project really illustrated to me that doing art is my purpose. Finally, I have to thank God my Father, my creator and creative inspiration, for my abilities, for the abundance of energy that seemed to never end, for guiding my hand, for cooperative weather, and for helping me get this project done so efficiently. I spent much of my time praying for help in this enormous endeavor and the ease in which it came about astounds and amazes me. Thank you.

So, as I was procrastinating about mailing this I found Yuengling in the fridge which Mary first introduced me to, as I got Jason to open the bottle I realized a Valspar commercial was just finishing up. That was the brand of paint that I used for the mural. I guess everything has come full circle and it is finally time to send on my blog. I hope you enjoy.

Tomorrow is my last day

2011-06-27T22:33:00.001-05:00

I put in my longest day yesterday, 16 hrs. I did the front wall in 18 hours, finishing in the dark - last night. After I was done I painted a plywood board above the cafe entrance and waited to see how long it would take Mary to notice. She noticed at 3:00 this afternoon. The restaurant opens at 9:00. Tomorrow, weather permitting, is the final touch-ups and final pictures. I'll show you it all finished ;then.

I had a helper, Dave, the Chef of Mosaic Cafe. Thanks, Dave!

Some artsy photography of artsy art

I was able to snag another passer by to take pictures of me. I'm painting!

Night painting. I can't tell color but I can fill in areas of color. That's what I did.

And now for a bit of Oil City

The space ship parked in our neighborhood

Seriously, what is this? And for the life of me I couldn't get it in focus. Spooky.

I went for a long walk today and ended up in front of the St. Joseph Cathedral. It's a lot bigger in person.

More pictures of Oil City. It's a pretty place. I was on a walk with a young guy who wanted to show me Oil City before I left. It turned out to be a 3 hour hike around the city. As we walked he kept picking up trash. It was a little difficult as he darted back and forth. As we got back into town he yet again ran after a paper blowing in the road but it was a $20 bill! How sweet! He bought be an ice cream sandwich. I love ice cream sandwiches, it reminds me of Dad and life at the trailer house when I was 5.

Also, I was in the paper today. Here's the article if you haven't seen it. It was very strange to read about myself but the reported was a fellow traveler. We talked about all our adventures and everything. It was such a fun interview.

Artist wants to capture history, spirit of Oil City with mural

By NICHOLAS A. HESS Newsroom.TheDerrick@gmail.com (mailto:Newsroom.TheDerrick@gmail.com) Staff Writer Rachael Shores can whip up a quick pie crust, give you stitches at home, and will surely learn to play the fiddle.
She may be “a freak,” but all she has ever wanted to wear is flowy floral skirts — she hates pants.
Shores, a 32-year-old Asheville, N.C., resident and artist, has descended upon Oil City and is leaving a piece of herself behind.
Painting a mural on the wall of the Mosaic Cafe along Elm Street, she’s giving this small town something she believes it’s always deserved: a story.
“It’s a common, small-town history to me,” said Shores, originally from Minnesota. “People had it really good, then the bottom fell out and now, things need to be rebuilt.”
Coming to the area after meeting Mosaic Cafe owner Mary Morgan on the Appalachian Trail in 2004, Shores said there was a need for some artwork on the otherwise barren wall.
An opportunity to stretch her legs as an artist, Shores allotted 30 days for the project, which started June 14. Rapidly ahead of schedule, and with an abundance of energy she believes is derived from the good vibes of this city, Shores plans to put the finishing touches on her work by late this week.
“I have a visual message for the people of Oil City,” said Shores, commonly labeled an “outcast” until she found her niche with an art centered high school. “Here is where you were, this is where you are and this is what you will be.” Traversing all seven continents and most of America, her inspirations as an artist come mostly from the places she’s been.
Sharing stories of her life — including summers fishing in Alaska, bumpy bus rides through Nepal and many a night sleeping under the stars with nothing but a sketchbook and camera — Shores’ passion is evident in her work. Originally influenced by old National Geographic magazines as well as her dad’s determination to build a sailboat, Shores said much of the art she creates comes from a very personal place. Taking in her surroundings and letting them affect her, a place like Oil City, she said, has proven to be the perfect place for painting.
“I like that Oil City is changing its direction to art, that is something that immediately related to me,” said Shores, noting the curiosity her work has garnered from bystanders, all of whom have been encouraging and upbeat. “To someone like me, the art is always going to be pretty, but there is a deeper message there and that’s the type of painting I want to do for people.”
Often trading her work for meals and accommodation while traveling on and off for nine years, Shores said she will be partly compensated for the project and is also receiving free room and board from Morgan. The idea, what she calls her first ever “vision painting,” is a pictorial timeline of Oil City’s rise to fame in the oil industry and
subsequent economic downturn. Despite past and present events though, Shores’ mural also represents the regrowth of a small town being reconstructed with a new focus — the arts.
“People have overcome so many obstacles to build and maintain this town, so I want this mural to say, ‘Here’s your town, and here it is in art.’” said Shores.
She said she looked at old photographs and read stories to get a better feel for what Oil City truly represented to its people.
“The purpose of art is to inspire thought and keep developing long after the artist has left,” said Shores. Shores, married and somewhat “settled” within an artist community in North Carolina, works as a certified nursing assistant and massage therapist, in addition to her painting. Composing primarily in watercolors, she said she hopes to someday create a free trade platform where art is bartered for other goods and services.
Working from sun up to sun down, Shores can often be found, weather permitting, as early as 6 a.m. outside the cafe, wielding paintbrushes, a straw sun hat and infectious smile.
Keeping a blog about her current and past experiences, she hopes the mural serves as a lasting reminder to area residents about the challenges everyone has to overcome in the past, present and future. “It’s a miracle, I am doing what I love in life,” said Shores.
She said she plans to return to North Carolina in the coming weeks, but said her time spent in Oil City has been very rewarding.
“It just keeps blowing my mind that these experiences are working out, I really have been very lucky,” said Shores.
People can visit www.roadsparrow.blogspot.com (http://www.roadsparrow.blogspot.com) to view her blog, read more about the mural or purchase prints of her work.

All caught up

2011-06-25T21:11:00.001-05:00

The only picture I have of me painting. Someone came up to me and asked if they could take my picture so I pulled out my camera and asked him to take one for me as well. See my wonderful straw hat?

So, the original plan was 30 days to paint 820 square feet. Well, it's been a week and I'm sort of done. It's hard to believe, 7 1/2 days, 70+ hours.

What a wonderful week it has been. The weather was beautiful and the mural just progressed right along, faster than I ever thought. The farther it got the more people stopped to talk to me or compliment my work. I even met Pennsylvania's 21st district Senator, Mary Jo White. She came up to me when Mary treated me to dinner next door and told me about what a great job I was doing and how good it would be for the community. I can't really remember what she said because I was trying to comprehend that I was talking to a senator, she was too sweet to be a politician and why was she talking to me? People told me about Oil City and what a great contribution this would be for the community and I began to realize that I was becoming part of this place by leaving my art here. All the days have run together. Every part of daylight is spent in front of that wall. As I was coming to the end I was so grateful that this could come from me, that I could be a part of this whole process. I know I'm a good artist. As arrogant as that sounds there's things that I know how to create and draw and I see how happy I can make people. With this mural I didn't have the certainty that I have with my watercolors and little illustrations. This mural is just so much bigger than me -literally - and I suppose that if I can do little things well it should translate over to bigger things but I wasn't certain that it would work out that way. Instead, it was more like I was along for the ride. I watched myself paint and at times how well it was coming together was in itself overwhelming.

Friday for me was the true full circle of things. I had gotten lost about why I do art, what this project is about, and I was feeling pretty sad. The weather was dreary and drizzly to match. I spent most of the day inside waiting for the interval drizzle to stop. I journal-ed and drew designs. The nice thing is that the wall stayed dry and I was able to paint between the rain drizzles. I was also interviewed by the local newspaper and in telling my life story and talking about my dreams it brought my purpose back to me. I was renewed and everything came together to make sense. Everything is so connected. The weather was dreary with my melancholy, the tree that I had used to shade my paints had bloomed as I began my mural and now the blossoms are all falling off and landing in my paints. This project is wrapping up.

Also on Friday, Mary called me over. "Roadster, there's someone that wants to meet you." (We go by our trail names from the Appalachian Trail where we met in 2004) So I came into the cafe and saw this kid there, for a split second I was wondering why he'd want to meet me but then I recognized him from the picture on the license that I found by the sidewalk when I was on my way to work one morning. It might have been the same morning that it looked like someone had rolled down the sidewalk/hill and lost all their clothes on the way. I had tried to find this kid on Facebook to send him a message about his license but I had no luck and mailed it instead. I think he was with his dad, they were both very grateful and insisted I take 50 cents to pay for the postage. This afternoon we crossed paths on the same hill that I had found his license on.

There's other exciting things as well. Since I'll be done so soon I realized I could leave earlier than I had planned. Dad has decided to delay his sailing trip for another year so I won't be going up to Erie to meet him BUT now I can be done before July 4 and Jason and his family are going down to Florida where a bunch of Antarctica people will be meeting up. So I'll be flying from Pennsylvania to Florida. There's just one small catch. Mary still wants me to paint the store front of Art on Elm. When I got here I found out that it's a brick front and it would be a pain to try to put up the my original design I am much more excited about the design that I worked out on my rainy day. All right, I'll quit talking. Look at pretty pictures.

I found my original sketch that I drew up after talking to Mary and piecing together photos I found on the internet.

As I began the town. This was the most exact work I had to do so this is the only spot that I drew out the grid. I should have started at the church and worked from there but I tried to do it from the river, just like I when I was making the design.

Adding in the green. This was a lot of fun. I just used 4 colors, cobalt, yellow, black, and white and intermixed them all in various ratios. Whenever I got a neat green I picked out where to put it.

Town Completed

Does this look familiar? I was trying to replicate my parents' house but I know I got the top left wrong. For the life of me I couldn't remember how the roof goes. I couldn't find any pictures on facebook either.

The cook next door suggested this as a tourist map. I liked it.

Adding stars. I had a tiny roller and an extension pole. I spent a good while staring at the sky till I could see where a star would be then I would make a dot with the roller (very carefully). It is surprisingly hard to make things look random. I had extra help with the cinder blocks. I made sure no stars were on the same line, vertical or horizontal.

I love this pic. A reflection from across the street of the parking lot that I am working in. You can also see that I have a view of the steeples. I looked at them for references.

Here's the next project. The front of the gallery. The idea was to have the design wrap around but how to paint on the brick and with a ladder when you're on the sidewalk?

My original design and color study but I didn't like it at all. I like the design but too many straight lines and long things to line up. I don't like the colors. I'm only using the selected Victorian colors here.


On my rainy day I worked out how to paint this the fastest and what colors to use. I have my own paint-by-numbers now. Drawn on the MCAD grid that my hubby did for me :D


outlined front. Can you see that I moved the circle out of the way of the light? Also, I drew this without my design in hand so it's a little different.

I just need one good sunny day to finish the front. Can you believe that? After thinking these two walls would take me a month, now I think I can paint one whole wall in a day. Ha. Wish me luck.

Just a taste

2011-06-23T12:05:00.000-05:00

All right, this is as far as I got yesterday. Today is the most wonderful beautiful breezy day and I can't take time to be blogging but I thought I'd let you get a glimpse of how far I have made it. I'll be telling you all the details on Saturday.

Today's Lesson: Don't drink coffee after 7:00 pm no matter how tired you think you are. I was looking at my phone this morning when the alarm went off. I did have time to replay some scenarios with my worst bosses and really tell them off. I also thought up so many vile insults for a couple of teenage boys that I crewed with in Alaska that I started writing them down. Man, I wasted such a great summer! It turns out I have an almost endless supply of insults. Those guys really deserved it.

Rain Break

2011-06-20T15:36:00.002-05:00

I'm not planning on posting every day, honest. But since we just got jumped by a rain shower I thought I would retreat with my newly mixed green and put up some more pictures while it dries a little outside.

Hmmm, looks like it's inspired by Pokeman

The two arching color changes on the left, I painted with just a roller on an extension pole. How cool is that?

Today's lesson: listen to your body and be kind to it. I started the day tired and it just continued until I also had a headache and could barely think straight. I didn't want to take a nap and lose an hour of work but that's what I did and the difference is so wonderful. I'm alive!

Every Day is a Good Day

2011-06-19T12:54:00.001-05:00

All right, NOW it's official. It has actually started and what a scary morning it was. I didn't sleep well last night, the neighbors seem to have the TV and video games at full volume and then shout from floor to floor at each other. At one point I could distinguish Spongebob and at another time I could hear the Mario music. Friday night someone had to check their motorboat engine or something at 2:30 in the moring. It sounded more like a chugging tug boat. I slept in a bit today. I didn't get up till almost 6:00 and did my routine of making lunch and having 2 eggs for breakfast.

Once I got to the mural I started dragging my feet. Where do you even begin on a 60 foot span? I went and gathered supplies in the dark instead. I can't find light switches. I didn't find a chalk string either. I had a box of chalks, a T square and a 3 foot level. The fears and doubts were creeping in, I filed my nails, sketched some more on the design, gathered more things and stared at the wall - a lot. And then I started. To distract myself I thought of all the things to be thankful for. Thank you for the shade from the tree. Thank you for not leaving my camera outside to get stolen like I thought had happened. Thank you for the ladder falling on my ankle not being being painful. Thank you again for Modest Mouse and The White Stripes. Thank you for Dad for teaching me about tools and overcoming fears of scaffolidng. Thank you for the neck coolers. Thank you for my awesome straw hat. Thank you for helping find the shovel even if it did take nearly 20 minutes. Thank you for this mural being in a dirt parking lot where I don't have to worry about drips on the ground. I don't even remember now where I drew my first line, it had to be one of the sun rays. From each line I was able to referrance and draw another, just like hiking, one step at a time. It also helped to think of this as it's own painting and not a photocopy of my plan.  A lot of the lines and heights of things were measured by how high I could reach.Now it's noon and the whole picture is up and I'm ready to lay on some background colors. I can't believe it.

It's been a great morning. I've had such a variety of activity, from clamoring up and down scaffolding and trying not to fall, lugging the scaffolding, dragging it through the dirt, hacking at the gravel with my little spade as I try to get the ground level, to trying to draw a straight line at an angle that's so long I can't see the other end. I free handed a circle and some arcs. I also did plenty of erasing with the chalk but then I went back and painted in the important lines. Real painting. Lines. I'm painting a mural! And when you have to paint a 20 foot straight line you appreciate a steady hand. Thank you for my ability to keep this brush straight. It was like Tai Chi, my whole body was focused on keeping that line straight, I painted with my exhale and slowly shifted my weight along with the line, and like Tai Chi it was so calming and serene.   In my head I narrated to a small child about how to do this correctly. There is talk about kids helping me out for community service. Might as well prepare.

Thursday, first day of painting. See the wet ground?

Beginning of the sun with changes made to make room for the sign.

What will be the town. Everything is built off of the steeples so that's all I need for now.

After lunch there will be color!

Right Here in Oil City - Week 1

2011-06-18T13:39:00.000-05:00

The mural is black and the grid edges have been marked.. For the rest of this blog I thought I would take you through my week and arrival in Pennsylvania.

First, I am here! I'm tired, drained, cozy, and I've only painted on the mural for one full day. Ouch. Well, I started the week in Chapel Hill and a 15 hour bus ride to Oil City, PA. I can't believe that was the same week that I'm sitting in right now. I kept a vigile for pan handlers and drunks at the bus stops but it was all really decent. There were some very respectable looking people and I had some conversations. I finally practiced speaking up - a rare thing. At every stop there were people that couldn't be bothered waiting in line and just worked their way in. At the 2 am bus switch I was no longer feeling all passive and the guy beside me on the cell phone that had weedled his way in line behind me I confronted. He pointed to his bag behind me and asked what I was on or something funny. Poor guy,  we worked it out, he was so sweet despite me accusing him. "That's not me. I would never cut in line," he assured me, "There's no reason to, it's still a bus you're getting on." HA! This was the same stop where I watched as a white guy in a blazing confederate flag, Virginia Beach Bike rally shirt chat up a heavy-set black lady. By the looks of their body language it looked like a successful mating call. By the time we had boarded our bus he had changed his shirt. I don't get it.

My end of the line was an hour from Oil City in Meadville. I had fantasies of sweet honey beverages while I thought about my trip being almost over. We were still an hour drive from Oil City and there were a series of other errands to run, this area is on the outskirts of time. It's like all the chain stores' original stores are here. I had no idea how small signs and super stores originally were. Staples looked almost like a local hardware store. Whites had yellowed and dimmed, reds were sunbleached.

In Oil City the Mosaic Cafe was our first stop.  The wall was so much more manageable looking in person. I was so excited to see that blank cinder brick, I gave it a good slap to feel what I'd be getting well acquainted with. I got a short walking tour, got my paint clothes at 30 cents a shirt, had Chinese, drank wine, and did everything before I even got to the house that I'd be sleeping in. I did not get to sleep at a resonable time.

The weather has been beautiful but it took a bit of coordinating before I was able to go and buy my paint supplies. The Lowe's is an hour drive. I had based all my paint samples on Valspar brand and the local Home Depot doesn't carry that brand. Oops. My mistake in thinking that Lowe's would be conveniant. Still, it was a powerful moment to have my gallons of paints decided, the supply list written, and to see the numbers add up. Painting a mural is expensive! Still, this is good education for next time. I will have a better idea of costs for the next time.

Thursday was my big start day. I got up at 5:30, cooked myself some eggs, walked the half mile downhill and found the cafe with no backtracking before 6:30 and then commenced to making a dozen trips to get all the supplies collected and outside. It took forever. I kept forgetting dumb little things and I'd have to hunt them down. Then, I finally had my last stupid little things and as I stepped out the door for what I was certain had to be the last time it started to drizzle.  The drizzle quickly turned to rain, the sort that has no intention of moving on. I brought everything back in and went to sleep. It rained all day, cleared up in the late afternoon and I was able to paint about 12 feet of wall before it started to rain again. In the meantime I got back into the hang of waitressing and met some of the locals. Mary has been showing everyone my painting that I mailed her. I'm a bit nervous about that. Sure, I can paint a 30 in. long painting but to translate that into a 60 foot mural? Am I raising expectations by having that picture?

Friday was the perfect day. The weather was great, I was able to finish the black background and I changed out of my black Hawaiian shirt. Mary had found me a straw hat, I dug out my ipod, and the first song that came on was Modest Mouse. It was so wonderful and so perfect. I was chillin' with a roller, I had an extension handle so I didn't need a ladder. I felt all English in my capris, hat and pastel plaid paint shire. The traffic was drowned out and I was in my own little world living my life as an artist. The excitement fizzled slightly when I brought out a lone piece of chalk to start enlarging my drawing onto this wall space. It didn't seem very realistic. Where do I even start? The black wall looks like a chalk board and I quickly blazed out something motivational before fear could choke me out. "Every day is a good day" in 10 inch letters. I was happy to have a message, even my work in progress, at the basest of its beginnings can have a message. It worked to help me. As I drew and redrew and stared and lost my approach I could always glance over and see my phrase.  A scrawny kid walking by even commented on it. I'm going to have to keep the motivations coming. Maybe those words will stay all weekend.

My favorite moment was being pulled out of my ipod world by an older lady talking to me when she didn't realize I couldn't hear her. She was so sweet and Grandmother-ly, asking the usual questions but she was so warm and open, we were almost sharing the shade of my straw hat when she pointed out the plastic part of the price tag on my paint shirt. I waved it off. What do I care about a plastic tie sticking out of my shoulder when I'm covered in paint and sweat? She didn't really pay attention, her eyes were fixed with intent, "You don't mind, do you?" She asked as she went for my shoulder with her teeth and bit off the little plastic T. She pulled out the tag, spat the end out on the sidewalk and parted with encourageing words. I don't know but that act summed up Oil City for me. I was touched at her intimate help and yet puzzled by her offering it.

I wish the day had ended there but Friday was an Indie Fest with several live bands playing. Mosaic Cafe was part of it and they needed waitresses so I stopped painting early -as in, before it got dark, cleaned up and put on my waitressing stuff.  I have my own little private basement hole to clean up in. It's like something from movies, a room in the basement lit by a dangling bare bulb, a utility sink, and a mirror. Mary bought me some lava soap and a nail brush and I do my best to erase the fact that I'm inept at keeping paint off my hands, it's like I just dip my hands right in the paint can. I went from a blank wall in a dirt parking lot to chaos. Bands were setting up and the place was filling. Mosaic has a back room for live music and food, a front cafe part and a long diner style bar, all with seat yourself. They serve food, specialty coffee drinks and smoothies. I think 5 or 6 various servers would have kept things running smoothly, we had 3. Everybody wanted everything. It took me a while to figure who had been helped and who was still waitng, it turned out pretty much everyone in the back room was waiting to be helped. At one point I brought drink orders out to 3 tables at once. I nearly wigged out when I flipped through pages and pages of checks that still needed to be tallied up and handed out and I knew that there were still more waiting for drinks and to put in their orders. It was just impossible to keep up and this went on for 3  hours. By the end I was listless and useless, it was midnight before I got home but I was still too wound up to sleep. Thank God it was Friday, seriously. Tonight is a Blues guy and as of this morning there hadn't been a waitress lined up for tonight. All I can say is "not my problem" I am still in my pajamas, my head is still throbbing, and I'm thinking of having a bath in their clawfoot bathtub. This house is huge and beautiful, so old. Wood floors, 4 bedrooms on the second floor and the third floor used to be it's own apartment. It's all good. Wish me luck for the next week. Pray for a miracle. I would like to be painting by 6:00 every morning but that means getting up at 5:00, even though my alarm is set I've been half an hour late these last few days. Talk to you soon. Thanks for listnening.

Heading to Oil City

2011-06-12T23:22:00.000-05:00

Tonight is my last night in Chapel Hill. I am very sad to be leaving. I'm very sad to be thinking of the month I'll be away from my darling so I'm going to focus on the project ahead. My bags are packed. I have a 15 hour bus ride ahead of me tomorrow. I have newly purchased yarn for the ride and almost a whole wrist cuff already knitted.

So here's the plan, Mary will pick me up in a nearby town. We will do some immediate sight seeing to get a feel for the town, pick up the supplies, and finalize the mural design. What I've posted tonight is my last design that I worked out. I'm still not completely sure about the sun, if it should be brighter or have more variations of yellow, maybe some more lilac. The town is a bit unfinished. Maybe the scale should be bigger, maybe it should all be darker. Maybe the green should be less springlike. I'll also add some small stars towards the town.

An interesting turn of events is that Dad is talking about setting sail soon to get his boat out to the ocean. Where I am painting the mural is only an hour South of Erie, PA, a town that is just before the locks. He needs a crew of 3 to go through the locks. Casey and Mom are planning on driving out to meet him, and he has a crew member that will accompany him for 2 weeks. This is all a bit up in the air right now but it means that there is the potential to see my family in the next month and for them to see my mural project. I am so excited for it to work out like this AND I'll get to see Dad's boat on it's voyage out to the ocean, as well as Mary meeting my family.

Mary also says that her waitress has quit as of last Friday and she has offered for me to waitress at lunch, skipping the hottest part of the day painting and making some cash while I'm in Pennsylvania. Things are coming together. It's exciting to see. I'll be keeping you posted.

The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann

2011-05-21T23:05:00.000-05:00

I have just read an amazing book. It has come to me at the end of a perfect day and right in tune with conversation and events of today.

I don't even know where to begin. Do I talk about the merits of this book or how it personally affected me? I've been wanting to share my reactions to books I have read, I usually forget to. Tonight I figured it was as good as any time to start.

The Go-Giver is a super fast read. I diligently took notes like I do with most of the "self-help" books that I read and I finished it in one evening. It's told in a story fashion, sounding at first like a scripted infomercial, "Really? What do you mean giving is the secret to success? Please tell me more." (not an actual quote, but I feel like it's in there somewhere)

There is only 5 laws of success: Value, Compensation, Influence, Authenticity, Receptivity, all told in conversation and then applied in the story. It's sweet and personable and so simple. As I read this book about the importance of giving more than you expect back, putting other people's interests first, and being true to who you are. I was delighted that this, put across as business advice, was my spiritual beliefs. It was like applying the Bible to real life, without mention of higher calling, purpose, or any secular thing. I experience the world with God in mind and it was a delight to read this book and think of it as a modernized Proverbs.

The thing is though, it fit right with what my friend and I have been talking about. She's the one that recommended the book to me. We seem to be well in sync in helping each other reach our dreams. I always come up with ideas on new ventures for her to take and she always has insight into how to hone my attitude. Focus. Don't sweat the small stuff. Forgive yourself. We have talked about how this world is coming into a new way of thinking, of serving and helping and community, of trading for goods and services and getting back into simplicity with the pursuit of happiness and not just materialism. Maybe we're romantics, idealists, hippies, unrealistic. Whatever you want to call it. But this book was an affirmation to me. My dreams have value, I can succeed without being the typical shrewd businessman. In fact, this book told me that serving and giving IS the law to success. How often have we heard that? How archaic does that sound? I need to hear it over and over and in many different styles and examples and this style was very effective.

My friend and I have had fun exchanging books back and forth and passing on contacts. I feel like I get to participate in her moving towards success and I feel she's helping me towards my success. It's so exciting. The Go-Giver talks about this and it was like our interaction could be right in this book. The other day I was talking about imitating Monet's color palette and she gave me a book of his art. I think her inspirations should be in a book so I lent her a book Living with InTention, it is the sort of book I see her writing, and Living with InTention is very encouraging and motivating. When she finished she was inspired to write a book of her own and I was able to hand over a favorite of mine How to Publish a Book in 30 Days. In return, I've been reading through her library of self-awareness, encouragement, business, self-improvement. I have a list of her books on my reading list. Today I traded in for a new book to borrow and I didn't have my list in front of me, I didn't know which one I was most looking forward to reading so I took with me The Go-Giver, she keeps trying to get me to read it.

A recurring sub-character in the story is Rachel, who can make amazing coffee. You know it's going to end with a bang, her success, or whatever. It was funny because I didn't relate her to my life. Her name isn't spelled like mine and I thought it was slightly condescending to be raving about the girl making great coffee. In the last chapter there is a break in the words and just :

RACHEL'S FAMOUS COFFEE

I read it as my name on the door, I was already all blubbery and crying at the happy ending but seeing those first two words suddenly made this book my personal story. I am going to give and serve all I can. I am going to do it for as many people as possible. I am going to put other people's interest first. I am going to embrace everything about me and be who I am, and I'll be ready with open arms everything that comes my way. This is for me. I have "an army of personal walking ambassadors" who are "invested" in seeing me succeed. I was so touched to realize that my friend is my ambassador, she really does want to see me succeed. Being lent this book, the message it had, it all spoke to me and I am so grateful for it. It was the icing on the wonderful chocolate cake I had today as I was treated to my friend's recent success, which she accredited to me for presenting her the opportunity. I hope you all are as blessed and as lucky. Follow your dreams, help everyone else around you reach their dreams. Celebrate together. And, you might as well read this book.

2011 Summer Mural Project in planning - designing

2011-05-21T16:30:00.000-05:00

I've been busy painting. Once I had bought my color samples I was told that the town wants everyone to paint their storefronts in Victorian colors. I've tried to go back and tone down some of my ideas. We'll see how that goes. I've been able to do some scale drawings and paint with house paint to see the mixtures I get. House paint is a tint with color added. When you mix it together it's like only the base tints are mixing and nothing really happens. Colors are very grayed out. That's when I bring in expensive acrylics to alter the house paint colors.

Above is a beginning of the color samples. Below is part of the mural (wrong dimensions) in watercolor, the first coloring.

the mural, probably too hard to see but it's all sketched out, store front and side.

Sketch to scale

Watercolor of the color samples.

To figure out the Victorian palette I googled for it, I found a palette pretty similar to what I am using and then went back to Lowe's where Valspar paint has collaborated with the National Trust for Historic Preservation to make historically accurate colors. I picked out the historical colors that matched the Victorian palette I got off the computer and I have been working with combinations to see what I can come up with. I don't think I like how the Victorian colors are in the mural. It's still new but I don't have any blues. I think I will keep the front flat and geometrical and only use the historic colors. Maybe that will be subdue enough to comply with the grant rules. It works well with the mural, I can just add more color on the mural and use the historic colors to tone it down a bit. The thing about Victorian colors is there are lots of eras and colors and it's really how colors are used together that make them Victorian ( I think). I don't see how this can be regulated. My usual palette is very consistent, my friend pointed out that all my stuff sort of goes together because it stays so bright. I think that I will just have to keep to what I know for this huge project. People will like it. Mary isn't worried about qualifying for grants and I think we can still make people happy with a slightly subdued storefront that wraps around to a bright and colorful happy
mural.

Colors from Lowe's

I have 6 colors for a Victorian Palette but I wonder if less is more. I might try getting rid of some. I really haven't found a place for the black and the red is hard to place.


Color studies for the store front. I used watercolors to try to figure out where to put the colors.

I really like the colors of the Victorian Palette that I have picked. I am trying to figure out how to put them on the storefront. There are endless possibilities. I have been studying Victorian houses to see how they make the paint combinations. Suggestions welcome. Next to try: yellow sun, outlined in gray, outlined in red, orange background for the rays, red ring, teal oblique ring, gray lower right-hand corner.


Store front design.The wonderful thing is that Jason knows MCAD and drew out the exact measurements of the store front for me. This is so amazingly helpful. One square equals two feet.

A watercolor color study to get the idea of how the Victorian colors would work.

This is as far as I have gotten, a to scale painting. I first used the Victorian colors, changing out the blues for black and grays but I don't think it'll stay. As you can see, I already started adding in brighter colors in the mountains. They are beautiful and I think I will add more. I need to work on the sky gradient, I'll look at making it more horizontal even though the color source is basically coming from the right. I'm working out how the sun is painted. It will be helpful to have the store front and the mural side by side to plan out a congruent color scheme. I would like more red and I think I should add a golden yellow and a purple to the sun. This sun has lots of shapes in it like a mosaic, I just haven't found all the places for the colors. I welcome any advice just remember that this is work in progress.

Next I will be doing color studies with the Victorian house paint for the store front. I'll post soon. Departure date is set for June 12 - return date July 13 on Greyhound from Chapel Hill. It's a 14 + hour drive but I'm taking a night bus. I'll buy tickets next week. I really wanted a complete plan for the mural before I had tickets in hand. Also, I talked to Dad today and he's going to try to sail and meet me at Erie, PA which is maybe an hour North of Oil City. Things could work out just as I hoped. If that happens he says he'll rent a car and come and see my mural.

2011 Summer Mural Project in planning

2011-05-08T18:28:00.001-05:00

Partial Color palette. Golden Acrylics. The rest of the colors will be made with house paint.

Many months ago my friend and Photographer Mary Morgan bought a restaurant and art gallery in Oil City, PA. Soon after she got the restaurant she invited me to paint a mural for her. I have really been wanting to challenge myself with exactly this sort of public project. Something outside, commercial, and a whole building wall. This is a doozy but it's not as big as some of those outdoor murals can be. She offered to trade me prints of my artwork - she has the equipment - for a full scale mural. I've contemplated this all winter and bugged my husband about it and then I finally realized that this is my next step in my art.

I knew Mary Morganon as Welsh Nomad on the Appalachian Trail in 2004. She was pivotal in helping me get off the trail and to Alaska and then back on the trail after I finished my fishing season. I don't think we've met up since 2006 but we've kept in contact and kept sharing our art.

The wall on her restaurant is 14x60. She wants the mural to represent the past, present, and future of Oil City. Her restaurant is called the Mosaic Cafe. I looked up pictures of Oil City and learned that it was an industrial town that had a downturn and they are now trying to revamp themselves as an artistic community, Mary told me that they're actually trying to model themselves after Asheville, NC. When we were first talking about the mural Mary also mentioned that she liked the mountains I had done in another mural.

Using the few things that we talked about, past, present, future, mountains, Mosaic cafe, I made a sketch. Now I can fix that a bit but I will also have to work on getting the right cityscape of Oil City. This mural is going to be lots of bright beautiful colors. I want it to move from a very pretty night to a bright day and an abstract/mosaic/sun/compass. I hope to keep you posted on this as I progress on it. This is the biggest thing I have ever done. Very scary. I'll be starting mid-June and I only have 30 days to work on it. Now I just need good weather and to work flawlessly. Pray for me! :D

Mural wall

Mural Sketch before I had measurements


store front. New plan, extend the mural to the front.

The next step is to buy some sample housepaints to figure out the rest of the color palette and to paint a the mural to scale on some watercolor paper. I want to be sure to get the colors right, figure the ones I will use most, the ones that will blend to make the most colors, get housepaints for blocking in color. I'll be redoing the city a little for accuracy and I'll sketch out a design for the front. Also, the mural will have a sign in the top right corner and I want to incorporate that a little better. For the front I will keep it almost all sun and abstract and I want to figure out a spot to overlay a simple silhouette tree. Right now the gallery is called "Art on Elm". I think the tree will still look nice and not keep the gallery stuck to that name. Personally, I like the name.

Post me any questions you might have.

Un-Inspired

2010-09-25T15:17:00.004-05:00

Thursday, as I was bleaching away the last splatters of a violent food poisoning attack, I was contemplating my failures once again. I'm negative about myself on a regular basis, too regular lately I feel, it's also not worth really pining over, I'll do that on some other mopey angsty entry. Being in the bathroom also put me in front of the mirror frequently so it was easier to get in a face-to-face scolding every now and then. My point is, that it wasn't a very optimistic beginning of the day.

The interesting thing though, I realized I didn't feel all that down on myself. Even though there was a lot of things I'm not doing good enough I was thinking of my friends sharing their struggles. It really cheered me up. I wasn't doing the comparison "at least I'm not THAT bad off", I was just happy to remember that someone out there was setting goals and working towards them. I can do that too, I told myself, and not in a fake optimism. Having examples is so inspiring. I was reminded about my hope to be inspiring. I wanted to do fantastic and crazy things to show people that we can do anything. I believe it on a grand scale but I have a hard time applying it to every day life. I think that was the issue I was having as I cleaned the bathroom and thought about my lack of a workout schedule among other mundane shortcomings.

I've been a solo traveler for so long. I'm struggling to be involved and active. I would like to join my friends that are sharing their personal goals and the progress they are making. I would really like feedback, advice, stories, whatever, to stay focused and encouraged. There's so many things to work on. Here's my list of improvements to make. I've made a summary of the issues and things I am doing or would like to do to fix things. I'm appealing to everyone in their vast knowledge to give me any advice:

* = doing it
- = want to do

Spirituality: I want to be stronger in my faith, more sure of what I believe and why, able to hold a conversation, have a better relationship with, and better understanding of God.
-pray regular
-read the Bible daily
-be part of a religious community (Unitarians? Messianic? Adventists? is there anyone that just meets in a park?)
-study (how? What's the best way?)

Health:1. I want to fix my brain! Why am I moody, ditzy, spacey, lazy, stupid feeling? Can't I eat something to make that go away? I'm seriously depleted in self-discipline and motivation 2.I also want thick, beautiful, shiny hair. 3. I want that sexy yoga body, sinewy and strong. 4. I want energy to get up early, go all day, feel vibrant and alive, and to feel serene and well balanced always. This is my most uncertain area, I have so many ideas and so many things I want to do but my whole day would be exercising if I did it all. How do I do this?
*workout in the gym 3x a week, 20 min.
-Qi Gong every morning - 15 min.
-Yoga every night? (30 min. video)
-start taking classes, there's Akido, Yoga, Tai Chi, Qi Gong, Some are free
-learn belly dancing
-do body brushing before every shower
-apply coconut oil after every shower
-do Japanese facial rub every night (saw this on youtube, looks really cool)
-get my muscles back, iron yoga? Bosu ball? Shoot, where do I add those in?
-I want a consultant, should I do Chinese medicine? Naturopath? Dietician? Trainer? I want someone who is all about the holistic approach.
-deep conditioning hair treatment once a week
-make my own hair creams and conditioners to get my curly hair back
-get some layers cut

Art:
-finish Jonathans picture!!!!
-paint baby portraits for certain friends (have the list, it's a secret but you can ask if you're on it, I'm finding there are lots to do and I might have missed someone)
-do ark painting
-work on those series I have planned
-get a website up (HOW?! vistaprints?)
-sell online (HOW?! Can I do that with vistaprints? etsy? I want to sell prints. Talk to Welsh Nomad?)
-do my scrapbook of wedding cards and the wedding
-mural for Dr. Felix
-rent a studio in the Arts District
-learn graphic design
-take some photoshop classes?
-get my art out there (how? shows? contests? coffee shops?)

Diet: I want to know what's in all my food and know that everything I eat is fuel for the life I want. My main problem is consistency. I eat in spurts and I know that has wrecked my metabolism.
-NO sugar (yeah right, but I can try)
-eat seasonally and organically
*shop at the discount organic stores
-make something healthy and wholesome every day that Jason will like (buy his love :D)
-salad every day
-learn to make my own sprouted spelt bread
-weed out wheat
-eat breakfast
-drink water with lemon, I heard it should be 3 liters
-chlorophyll every day
-drink green tea every day
-drink mate every day
-eat 80/20 raw?
-start a cooking club
-eat 1 cup of beans every day
-sprout

Cleaning: Goal is same as everyone else's. Clean, organized, clutter free. A place for everything and everything in its place.
*have a cleaning schedule
-keep a cleaning schedule
*clean with home made natural cleaning products
-find curtains to hang in the office

Massage Therapy:As soon as I am licensed I want to be able to start making money to help support Jason and I. Real money. I'd be willing to work about 30 hours a week for awhile until we get caught up on our debts, then I want to go down to 20 hours a week so I can have time for my art.
-study for the test
-PASS THE STATE TEST - my most immediate and highest priority goal
-get fingerprinted
-get my name out there
-find a place to work/rent
-get all set up business wise. . .uh, scheduling system, office system, insurance, business cards. . . help me???
-work with Kyle and learn some more
-talk to Christy and work with some of her cancer patients (maybe)
-talk to Rhonda and work something out for Chapel Hill
*practice

Financial:
-follow the steps Dan told me

Write my Travel Book:
-work on my travel book
-write every day
-join a writing group
-get feedback
- after my travel book I can start on our fairy tale

There. I might add to this later but for now, what does this all mean? Am I unrealistic? People say I want to do too much and don't do enough but I can do it all, right? It doesn't really matter when all this gets addressed, it's there, it will come but I want to get going a little at a time to build my habits and lifestyle. Can anyone help me start in the right direction?

As an end to this day, I went and saw Rorey Carroll play for her CD release party. I last saw Rorey (knew her as Gordy) as a hiker on the AT in 2005. She was a wild hiker with a long gait that I could never keep up with. Last I had heard she was at a commune in CA. I moved to Asheville last year and months later I found out that Gordy lives in Asheville but by the time I called her up she had moved back to Colorado. I watched her sing sad songs, listened to her whole CD when I got home and thought about how wonderful life is. We all have this chance to make something beautiful. We're all in this together. Hopefully you all can help fix me :D Happy travels!

Happy Sabbath- Prayer

2010-09-11T12:01:00.006-05:00

It's a rainy afternoon, sitting in a coffee shop and I've already been at the bar this morning. I would like to work at Westville Pub, just 'cause the place is so cool.

The pub thing was a free brunch hosted by. . .a church? Not really a church but just some young guys with a microphone asking people what they thought of Jesus and prayer. They said "community" a lot and living for God in an active way with Him in our lives.
I've just finished looking at the website, something about a vineyard. I think that might be a bigger church. I just read an article about a market research company that advises churches on how to approach the community they're in. How convenient, proselytizing like a Gap ad . Well, I know I'm in the target group about "community". That's my key word. I want to live and share like God is right here with us all, just an invisible person for us to talk about and with and do activities with, a reminder of the bigger picture and our influence for our choices and motives.

My interaction with God and the people around me is a little different being married to an atheist but God still comes up in conversation on a regular basis. I appreciate the conversations I have with Jason. He keeps me grounded and questioning. It does get tiring being on the defense but he's very good at pointing out all my shortcomings in my faith and beliefs. Stuff I really need to look at and really need to work out and be reminded of. I just need to find another place for the uplifting and encouragement. Jason calls this "following" but I think/hope I'm done with that.

One of the questions at the bar brunch was about prayer and stories about answered prayer. Also, why do we pray? This is my question. It says God knows our hearts, our desires, and our needs, so why even ask? Also, He has a bigger plan, it's up to His will. I d0n't feel like I should be asking God for anything. My old church was the opposite, said we shouldn't make any decision without praying about it first, even how to dress. I remember talking to God in front of my closet asking Him what I should wear for school. I also felt like I was wasting His time. Isn't He a little more concerned with war and starvation in Africa instead of some high schooler's wardrobe choice?

I reflected on some of my most powerful moments of answered prayer. Yes, I do believe in answered prayer. Here are some of those stories:

Three in One

On the first true day my solo road trip I prayed about what I was looking for throughout this 2 month trip. I had left home and visited relatives to say my good-byes and personally console and convince each worried family member that I was going to be fine, I made my way West visiting other friends and family and then there came this first day that I didn't know where I would be sleeping that night. I took this day to really have a conversation with God and to tell him everything I wanted and needed from this trip. I needed to find free places to sleep, I wanted to have people buy my art and I thought it would be pretty cool to get written up in a newspaper about my travels, just for vanity's sake. The first people I stopped and talked to, on my way through North Dakota, told me about a free camp ground in their town and pointed me to the local artist to talk to. She bought 3 of my art prints. The cafe owner commissioned me to paint her cafe. I camped for free, and in the morning the artist commissioned me to draw her house. As I was getting ready to head out she was like, "By the way, I'm also a writer for the town's newspaper. Do you mind if I write about your story?" Just like that. All my travel goals met, first day.

"Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns. . ."

When I was poor on the Appalachian Trail I asked God for a free place to stay at a hostel. The first hostel was not negotiating, someone told me that there was another hostel down the road called, "The Barn." I knew, being God's little sparrow that this is where I'd be able to negotiate a trade. I headed off down the road, excited to see how this was going to work out and at ease, knowing things were going to work out. I wasn't sure where this place was but I wasn't in any hurry. I saw a guy hanging a sign for a B&B in the front yard of a beautiful Victorian house. He was in an all khaki outfit. I figured he was an employee of the place so I went up and asked him about this beautiful house. He was so open and friendly, I had such a great time talking to him. It turned out he was the fairly new owner. We talked about doing what we love and following our dreams. I told him about my art and hiking on the trail. "Art?" he asked. Would I be interested in painting his place, could we work something out? I told him I needed a place to stay. He told me he used the carriage house behind the house for hikers, he called his hostel "The Barn." I was able to trade 3 nights stay.

My travel locket

I bought it in New Zealand. It had a bird on it, probably a dove but for me it was a reminder of being God's little sparrow. I lost it in the snow a few years later, after my travels were complete. It was a time when I was really struggling in my faith and to lose that locket, the symbol of my faith, was so literal and tragic for me. I prayed to find that locket, as a sign that God hadn't given up on me. This was a snowy winter, I had wrestled in the snow drifts with my room mate and walked through the snow to the store before I had realized my locket was missing. I combed the area, retraced all my steps and had a good long talk with God. It was a time for me to realize the vastness of God. He could find me, He could find this locket, and I let it go, waiting for Spring to reveal it. Months later my room mate found the locket at the base of our porch steps, open but in fine working condition. We are never lost, just temporarily misplaced. I have another locket I misplaced on my move to NC. I haven't seen it since I packed my things but I know it will turn up one day.

²⁵"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life^b]">[b]?

-Matt 6

Psalms 37
²³ If the LORD delights in a man's way,
he makes his steps firm;

²⁴ though he stumble, he will not fall,
for the LORD upholds him with his hand.

Thanks for letting me share. I would love to hear your ideas on any of this.

FW: please pass this on:

2010-08-28T21:52:00.001-05:00

It's been a long time since I've sent a mass e-mail from this address. I've been following my friend on Face book. I met this family on my first road trip out West. She has just had no good luck. I still keep in touch and now her mom is asking everyone for help so I'm passing on the word, hoping that we can help share the burden. Thanks for at least reading a mass forward.

Love,
Rachael

Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:26:57 -0700
From: nuttygrandmabell@yahoo.com
Subject: please pass this on:
To: edey@aware-inc.org; shalomanderson@hotmail.com; pinetopsmiths@yahoo.com; push_record@hotmail.com; open_roads@hotmail.com; skaggsfam@msn.com; nenapapa85@hotmail.com; SHININGHOUR@aol.com; liftt2@midrivers.com; prunty24@yahoo.com; lpswazy@gmail.com; LLMBell@yahoo.com; amstate@Qwest.net; kate_stieg@yahoo.com; svanhoven@yahoo.com; modsmog@midrivers.com; natehays@ymail.com; cndstein@myshorelink.com; zekster@netzero.com; vgdoane@yahoo.com; bloustieg@yahoo.com; billd@rangeweb.net; roarinsky@yahoo.com; jimsylperk@sbcglobal.net

Hi EVERYONE,, am trying to help kristine and ben, and girls , for those who don't know, ben has turmanal cancer, they are having a hard time making ends meet right now, since they rolled their vehicel, with no insurance, they have to drive back and forth to billings every week for ben's tretments, then back to miles city so kristine can work all weekend, so anything would help right now,   or if you know anyone that would like to help,,please pass this on,, God bless you all !
you can also send   a check or money order , payable to ben winkley fund,   to me and i will get it to the bank for them
93 Hillside Dr miles City Mt.59301
FUND RAISING BENEFFIT
         for
Ben Whinkely tPowell
           and girls
Ben has Midline Carsenoma,
    turmanel cancer
Sept 24,2010 at 3pm
at the Range Riders Museum
      Miles City MT.
or donations can be sent to
US BANK
619 Main ST.
Miles City Mt. 59301
make checks payable to:
the Ben Whinkley Beneffit
% of Erin Crow
GOD RICHLY BLESS YOU ALL !

Accomplished Goals

2010-07-28T20:41:00.003-05:00

Yeah, it's been awhile and I won't be writing much tonight. I will catch up with you guys one day. I was just looking back at some of my old posts and saw that I have two goals completed to cross off.
- Get married - check
- have an art show - check.

I could have crossed those off last year but I just did it now. Anyways, I'm still here. Still learning, still growing. Still thinking about all the things I want to share with the world. I will be writing more one day. I have so much to tell you.

Journaling about my faith

2010-04-03T18:16:00.005-05:00

Here's an old blog draft I found that I didn't have the courage to post at the time that I wrote it. I keep pondering it. Maybe it will give you something to think about. It was a moment that I was pretty down on myself. I'm better, at the moment. It's just one of those moods that comes upon us sometimes. I think we all get down on ourselves, I guess that's why I had thought about blogging it.

It's Sabbath. I am here listening to absolutely beautiful piano music, reading a blog about being "re-churched" and there is so much to think about. So many questions have been presented to me. What is my faith? What do I believe and why? But it's not really that. I ask myself this all the time. I never really have an answer. What if you believed what God says about you, that you are worth dying for? Why isn't it ok for us not to be perfect?

Where does your faith come from?

That's the question that hit home and got me thinking back to The Church. That big mess that I came out of. For those of you that don't know me, I won't get into all that. This bad church is what I always thought raised me but when I ask myself where my faith comes from I can't really take the credit. I didn't believe in God on my own. I have been taught since I can remember that there is a God. Does that make me brain washed? My brother says yes. Was I doomed from the beginning? Am I unable to think for myself? I had my moment, before I was baptized, to really think about this whole faith thing and God, and if I really believe and all that. I've questioned. I've even questioned and doubted later but I still believe. That's the conclusion that I always come to. God is real. It doesn't matter what I believe or understand. He's still there and the one that created us. But it's like my faith doesn't count because I was raised that way anyway. It's like a default, like I'd be a better Christian if I had come from an unbelieving family and found God on my own.

Is it ok to be me? This is where I am. This is how I got here. The truth is, Dad and Mom are my big reasons for believing. They came to God, they believe, they raised us with this knowledge. It's Dad's example that I have followed and how he lives his life. His outlook has convinced me that God is real. Is that wrong? To be inspired by your parents? I'm supposed to be all clever and independent on my own.

"When was the last time your faith was shaken?" This question really struck me. There was a point in my travels when I was really walking with God, really having a strong connection, seeking Him, praying constantly. It was a great time and in that time there came a point as if my two most major prayers were answered, at the same time, and they opposed each other. I couldn't have both. In the end I found faults in both of those answers to prayers so that I walked away. Was I turning down God's answer for me? In one way or another? Was I too scared for the commitment and life changes either of those blessings needed? Were they just a test? Any way I looked, it looked like I had failed. Either God had given me what I wanted and I had walked away OR God was teaching me a lesson and I failed to see it by almost being duped by it. I was so close. I still think back to the opportunities I turned down. I don't really wonder if I did the right thing, some times I do but I remember why I didn't take both of those opportunities. Still, I was depressed a long time after that. It still depresses me sometimes. I was so close to making such big mistakes - or was the mistakes in not going down those roads? Did one seeming blessing shadow a true blessing? Where is my judgement? I have none. After all these years, after all the lessons I've learned I was still going to make the same mistake and I wanted to. That's when my faith was greatly shaken. Maybe I was duped the whole time. Maybe all that time I was just talking to myself when I thought I was praying. Maybe God hasn't been with my since I screwed up.

Art Show at the Looking Glass Cafe

2009-10-02T22:33:00.006-05:00

Hey All,
This post is of my art show that I had in October. I wasn't able to post it till now so here you go. For those of you that don't remember the story, Becky was my financial backer for a deal on art supplies that I found but couldn't afford when I first moved to NC. She bought 100 sheets of watercolor paper and in return I painted about a dozen pictures so that she could choose two as payment. It all went into a show so what you have here is a bunch of pictures for an assertive, stylish lawyer in Kentucky. This is what I came up with in trying to decorate her home and office.

For those of you that weren't around for this I have posted my art show. I've taken pictures of the art framed and on the wall. There's detailed pictures and pictures to try to show size and perspective.

Standstill

On the way

Crabapple

golden values

sequense

Sequense (yes, I purposely misspelled it), was a trial run to make Fallin Spectrum. Becky chose sequence as one of her paintings for payment.

Amberdash

mustard zigzags

happiness is

paddock

falling spectrum

falling spectrum detail

Falling Spectrum is the last picture that I painted. Becky sent me a picture of a painting she liked and I did my best to mimic it. I got the fall scenery but I ended up with much brighter colors than I think she was looking for. I really like this painting though. There's just so much color and texture in it. A photo doesn't really do it justice. One day I'll do a whole series like this. How perfect is it that this is the painting that Becky absolutely loved? That's how it has to be. This was a process to create what Becky wanted, and that's what I ended with.

furlough

The cafe owner said she liked this one displayed next to the fish tank so when I came to pick up my art after the show I gave it to her. One less to transport and it was my first show. It was the thing to do. The owner of the Looking Glass Cafe was inspiring. She's 22 or 23 and she's wanted to own a coffee shop all her life, and here she is. Can you believe it? She told me she wanted to own a coffee shop since she was 11. Here's to following dreams!

beyond fences

detail

These turned out to look really cool once they were framed. It looks very artsy and abstract. I can even see it having some meaning. I called it "beyond fences" because I was trying to incorporate the geometric pattern of fence lines. I ended up grouping these pictures together because I used the same techniques. Once they were arranged it made me think of breaking past barriers and into more randomness. Climb that corporate ladder, break free of structure, live your own life. Do you think that's what the paintings say? Or is that just what's on my mind?

So, in the end I had success. Becky loved the paintings and even bought two more. She took the two paintings of trees and the two large paintings in the group of three. Once she saw them in person she did like them for her office. GOOD! I hope you send me pictures of your office and home, Becky.

Wedding Wish List

2009-09-18T23:41:00.006-05:00

Our country, Bohemian, rustic homestead

(hey, I can dream)

For those of you insisting on bringing a present, I certainly won't argue. Thank you in advance for your thoughtfulness and generosity. If you're reading this post, I will assume that you are here looking for some ideas and hints on what we might like, or perhaps even need. These are some things I'd at least like. Jason has given his input as well, mostly as an "I don't care", or "all we need is money". I'll probably be adding to this post periodically. I am realizing how much I love finding stuff to want and I'm more than happy to share the endless list.

Register Lists

I take no responsibility for the expensive items. It's just wishes, not expectations.

Pampered Chef
JC Penny
Pottery Barn
Amazon - all right this is just my own collection of books that I want. This list is years in the making. I'm SURE Jason would be just as thrilled if we got a book I had been wanting. :D

Other ideas

unique self sustaining, simple life with space for high tech.

-water filter/shower filter
-flannel sheets/Queen size bedding (this is one housing thing we've discussed - duvet)
-large wood bowl
- framed photos/memories
-enamelware

-crock ware

-stoneware

-handmade/hand crafted (doesn't matter who made it)
-functional art
-functional antiques
-favorite family recipes
-essential oils (esp. bible ones myrrh, frankincense, sandalwood, etc)
-shelving
-storage containers

-really cool serving platter
-Italian glass chandelier (getting greedy)
-paintball gear
-hemp shower curtain

-handyman tools. Like a power drill, hammer, screwdrivers, crescent wrench, etc. unfortunately JC Penny doesn't let you register for this. I thought they did. I might have to register at Lowe's or something.

"Needs"

If you want to be practical and really take care of our needs then what I said on the invitation is pretty much true. There really is not much we need, especially for kitchenware which is a really fun and practical wedding gift to shop for and receive. There's only so much bedding a person needs and as far as the rest, we don't know, we don't even know where we'll be living. Jason is being the most practical about this, with full time college on the horizon, both of us transferring/ losing our jobs, and some travel plans in the works, money ,will in fact, be our biggest need.

Hotel and travel info to Shores'

2009-09-17T23:17:00.003-05:00

I'M GETTING MARRIED!

The Shores House
400 Wesley Dr
929-1929 home 215-3035, 215-0466 cells
Wesley Dr in front of the house will be
blocked off 4-8 pm
From I40: Take exit 266. Turn south toward Chapel Hill onto Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. (aka HWY 86 & old Airport Road). Travel 3.2 miles and turn left at the light onto Umstead Dr. Follow map to 400 Wesley Drive or park in the office building lot and walk up to the house . Need help? Call above #’s or 880-3016.

HOTELS

Unfortunately UNC is having an at home football game with their biggest rivals who are 8 miles away. All hotels in Chapel Hill are booked and overpriced for this weekend. Carol has blocked rooms at the Holiday Inn Express in Hillsborough and at the Microtel.

Holiday Inn Express
9 rooms available w/ 2 Queens
$94.99/night plus taxes
contact Carol Shores at cgshores@gmail.com to reserve

Microtel
120 Old Dogwood St
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City Crushing Monster Party '09

2009-04-25T18:42:00.013-05:00

Welcome to my world

Boxburg

Here's another odd weekend that I got to witness. City Crushing Monster Party. This is the second year of it. I think Dreya is the instigator. It's pretty self explanatory but hard to believe so I will tell you a bit about it. For about a month Dreya and friends collected boxes, for about a month they turned them into buildings. Lots of buildings. It reminded me of elementary school. Then we had a gathering of monsters.

Gathering of monsters

Boxburg was set up in Shores' car port. Of the attending we had, Gothzilla - special move: the crushing darkness of angst and despair. Dogzilla, Jewzilla, Passive Aggressive Bear "Oh, I just came to hang out," Insectasoraus, The Tyranical Trench coated Ten Tenticalled Terror, Ger, Stay Puff Marshmallow, Freddy Mack and Fanny Mae, and Robo Zeus. Just for a few.

Unsuspecting Boxberg

Boxberg had everything a town would have, modern architecture, the ticky tacky suburb, school, several churches, seedy hotel, industrial district, train, water towers, gas station, and of course lots of sky scrapers.

Attack

And then the mayhem

Ryan

complete destruction

I think the city was destroyed in less then 10 minutes, and then the monsters used the skyscrapers to beat each other. There was even a little bat practice. All in all it was highly entertaining, done under black lights as the sun went down.

Any party Tony attends ends with fire twirling

What do you do on a Sunday afternoon?

2009-01-31T20:54:00.006-06:00

Well, it finally worked out. One day I stopped in at the butcher shop, bought some pigs feet, told Carol about it, she got some suturing material, and we made a date to do some sewing of a different kind. Months ago Carol had heard about one of my long time goals to learn to give stitches. It hadn't actually occurred to me to ask Carol to teach me how to give stitches but what better teacher than a surgeon? The invitation for the stitches lesson had been offered over dinner. Joe and Dreya wanted to get in on the learning experience. Dreya wasn't able to make it but Joe showed up and Carol sat down with us and finally satisfied my desire to learn how to give stitches. She went through knot tying, various suturing thread and when to use them, tools, everything. It was a very in depth and thorough lesson, totally fascinating. We tied knots, sliced little piggy feet and did all sorts of Frankenstein-ish things. It was fantastic. Thank you so much Dr. Shores. Another goal checked off my list even though knowing what it involves I don't actually want to need to give stitches. If the opportunity ever arises I'll be calling Carol. She's one of those people that drops everything to help someone, and she has the qualifications to back it up. It was so amazing of her to acquire our supplies and really put together a coherent lesson. She says they have a suturing workshop for the residents every year.

Joe and handiwork

Big news. Two weeks ago we got two whole inches of snow. It was fantastic. The way Southerners react to even the word snow is incredible. People were canceling their doctor's appointments when they heard the forecast. Only 20 people showed up for the clinic that day, we closed the clinic down 2 hours early and opened it 2 hrs late the next day. I walked the two miles to work to fully appreciate oncoming snow and it was a beautiful sunny day when I got out of work at 2:00. Jason picked me up from work and we helped his friend move, then his friends went and lost their keys in the snow. The snow! Of all the days to unknowingly drop your keys you do it with snow on the ground. I was just happy to have it feel like winter finally, and it stayed around long enough for me to get pictures.

I finally took some pictures of my place, so all those that can't stop by for a visit can get an idea. First up is the art area. All crafts and projects go here. The hall to the left passes the washer, fridge, and goes into the kitchen. The hall on the right passes the door that opens to the dryer on the right, the closet under the stairs, the bathroom on the left, the stairs to the right, kitchen to the left and finally the front door. I'm standing at our sliding door to take this picture. The desk on the left we picked up along side the road.

Our living room, see our white free book shelf we found along side the road? Dreya has 30 some plants. I don't know if you can see it but Dreya hung up antique glass ornaments that I got at a junk sale.

Tiny kitchen!

My boss gave me the wok that's hanging up. For those that are familiar with my religious practices, the snow covered sticks one of the earlier photos is the remains of the booth I built this fall. It was cozy when it had all the leaves.

I'm now officially full time employed at the hospital. My free health benefits start February. I got new hand-me-downs from Dreya's sister. Dreya was gone for a week to her sister's wedding in PA. Dreya had to put her cat down when she got back. It was a sad surprise. I didn't find out till I got home from work. All in all, I think that's about it. I went cantra dancing finally. I'll keep you posted.

Goals reviewed and refreshed

2009-01-19T09:48:00.004-06:00

I took the 43 Things Personality Quiz and found out I'm a

Self-Improving Traveling Tree Hugger

Ok, So Dreya tells me that I'm a sucker for hype. I like the way she puts it. It looks like I've found my perfect book, all about lists and goals. I don't think I'll be buying this any time soon since this is what I do on a regular basis but the advertising has inspired me to get back to goal setting. I have lots of goals, I just haven't kept them up-to-date or worked on my progress. I really like that the book recommends that you publish your goals and progress.

Here's what I can think of off the top of my head for now. I'll work on more later.

-keep house clean and ready for company
My house is actually clean at the moment, I have a game plan, a schedule, and criteria and I just ordered "How clean is your house?" Off Amazon. I flipped through the book at Barnes and Noble one time and have been inspired ever since. It's very colorful, and short bit's of info. A quick reference to get you moving and feel like it's not so daunting.
-write and publish my travel book
I just started a writing workshop and InDesign class last week. I'll have people inspiring me to write and critiquing what I have so far while I learn how to do my book lay out. SO EXCITED!
-learn to belly dance
-learn akido
-have a garden
does buying another garden book count? I bought one last year and was around when Bethany and Dreya had their gardens
-do art
I'm not going to be too specific but I have a list of projects to do for people that I need to get going on
-trim hair once a month
-get EMT certified
-get trained in phlebotomy (learn to draw blood)
-write and mail a letter every day
-work on scrapbook
-learn Spanish
-sail with Dad
-get married
-swim the English Channel
-get a log cabin
-fix my bug
-make my quilts
I have a crazy quilt, a round-the-world quilt, and a T-shirt and Jeans quilt to make. Round-the-world is first. From the scraps of that I make the crazy quilt. I have the scraps. I'd get a long ways if I could just cut the pieces.
-learn fiddle
-see The White Stripe in concert
-read the Bible regularily
I'm trying to start with a chapter a day. It's at least an improvement. I really want to read and study and grow spiritually but I really don't know how to go about it. I see lot's of books on spiritual growth, and I really like books but it's still someone else's interpretation and list of do's and don'ts.
-collaborate with Rachael on bowl designs
Yes, I have found another artist with the exact same name as me. I would like the opportunity to put my art on functional pieces and get out in another area
-have an art show
I'm a chicken. I'm afraid it would be expensive, and I haven't even looked at how to go about getting galleries to take me seriously. I'm afraid I have to invest the money to get my stuff framed first which will be expensive, take up space, and have the potential to get damaged.

-do New Zealand's biggest bungee jump
-learn Thai Chi

Goals I've accomplished

*elbow length hair
*fish in Alaska
*road trip the US
*see all 7 continents in 5 yr
I made it in 6 years but that's all right by me
*hike the Appalachian Trail
*meet Weird Al
* see Everclear, Eve 6, Modest Mouse in Concert
*learn to give stitches
My most recently achieved goal. This is where it shows that people are out there to help you accomplish your dreams. I've been saying just about forever that it is my goal to learn to give stitches. I happened to mention this in the company of "The Doctor" Jason's mom, and she was like, "Well, bring over some pigs' feet and I'll bring the suture supplies, and I'll give you a lesson". So Sunday after a wonderful brunch of eggs, oatmeal, and kale we rubber-banded the pigs feet to some boards and she gave Joe and I a complete lesson. Joe, had heard about my wish and wanted in as well. It was absolutely fantastic. She went through needle and thread guages, holding, surgeons' knots, square knots, all sorts. We sliced up the pigs feet and then sewed them back up. It was absolutely awesome and also a good dose of reality. Now that I have an idea of how to do it, I don't want to ever need to. I'll post pictures later.
*make pie crust from scratch
Another goal that came about because someone else willingly provided me the resources. Ben is an excellant and patient teacher, he showed the simplicity of it so well that I feel confident that I could make it again. I should really make another pie to make sure. Maybe that should be on my list today.
*sky dive
*bungee jump
*learn to knit and knit wrist cuffs
-get a credit card (Oct. '08)
Maybe that will help with new expenses. Really, I just want to be more financially independent and build credit. I'm responsible, I should just have some back-up.

updated picutres for Becky

2009-01-08T22:56:00.008-06:00

Well, it's been awhile. I quit painting after the first week of January and I consider myself basically done until I have input from Becky that says different, otherwise there's just too many ways I could go and the goal is to go in the direction that she's interested. So, let me walk you through my studio.

I layed out the the pictures that were similar. I think they could really go together and make a powerful wall piece. I see them all framed in minimal black frames that stick out like they're stretched canvases, maybe even overlapping some of the frames to make one of those sort of collage pieces.
Here's another angle just to get you thinking. Once the two paintings that are on one sheet are seperated there a lots of possiblities.

I really added some subtle changes to the scenery one. I was trying to incorporate the red and greens again. I added red to the trees and the shadows, and yellow in betwee. Full sheet.

This is that bathtub stain painting. I started to try to make it a real murky/misty forest scene with horses but I'm still stuck on it. I still don't really like it. I should really find a good photo referance. I'd like it to stay abstract with horses. Something has to change because this painting seems really dreary. I don't know how to brighten it or where, the same problem I had with the other landscape. this is a crop, it's probably about 11x17, I would like to repaint a larger painting like this with all the crisscross angles. I was breaking down the blur and movement of horses and jockeys. I could detail it some to give that idea of racing action or I could break it down more into angles and colors. I just like block-y .

I like how much the painting changes depending on how I crop it. Here I think it looks a little more like horses racing, in an abstract way. I would like to take this and make it a larger painting. Right now it's too small to for much impact. approx. 15x17

Becky had mentioned that she wanted horses and racing so I wanted to try doing a sort of abstract color block horse head. I made all the little mock-ups to see what combination I liked better and then tried to make them like minature pictures, maybe a long row in window boxes. I'd like to see them rearranged and displayed with the bigger one. In the end I couldn't commit to just two colors on the large picture and now I have something that reminds me more of some early 90s poster. Total is one watercolor paper.
This is the narrow fence one finally done. I don't think it's a very strong painting on it's own. I think it should have a very large wide black frame. Or be grouped with other paintings which I have also tried. I could repaint the horse head perhaps. It was just a mock up of what I was thinking. approx. 32x10

Here is an idea of putting two together, or maybe they could turn horizontal.
Remember the green blurs of colors, I put in a horse eye, That's all I could see doing but the left side doesn't seem finished. I think I need to finish some of the streaks and then reshape the big red and green blob to be more like a horizon line. I like how the feathered white space looks like a blaze on the horse. full sheet

Here I just cropped it to show how I think the picture could look more dynamic. I would still need to fix the drooping red in the background. Maybe I could soften the blue lines that frame the eyes, they kind of box it in.Could this just be a minimalis painting? I did some streaks trying to make a larger version of that angled painting and then I stopped and didn't want to go any more. I think I did them wrong.
And then I had a huge break through. I found a new technique that could take me in a whole different direction. I've got texture, tons of color and all sorts of possibilities to just make a mess of blended colors. I painted this without really manipulating my materials, just to see how they would work out. I don't care for this painting a whole lot but I like it for the reason that I was in a bad mood and by basically finger painting with such bright happy colors totally made me happy. I just feel happy and relieved when I look at this painting. I don't think the colors work with what Becky is looking for.

See how you can change the painting just by rotating it? This is the way that I actually painted it but I think I prefer it vertical 16x20
THIS is what I got trying to make something geared more for Becky, I kept the thought of racing horses in my head and I like the movement this has. I see a dusty silhouette of horses backlit by a sunset. If Becky likes this I would definately like to continue with more of these. Both of these pictures are rather small though, not a full sheet of watercolor paper. I worry that a large sheet might end up looking more like a finger painted mess. 32x10 approx.

I started painting a multi colored background to do that new textured technique over it but then I just had fun watching colors blend and ended up with this. I don't know if it's done and it could go a lot of different ways. Something else I am still waiting on feed back for.

Or should it be horizontal?

All right, that was my show, any ideas or suggestions. Please let me know. Particularily BECKY. Send me an e-mail Becca. This is what I'm thinking, if from these you have your "two" paintings that you want then I'm done, if you still don't see anything that really jumps out at you tell me what you want, send me some ideas, or tell me what things you want differently. I could change the black streaks to brown and make less contrasting pieces, I could use fewer colors, more muted colors. I have seen some really really all red paintings which I really like and could try but I don't know if you want that and I might have to get more paint for an all red canvas.

updated blog

2008-12-11T10:37:00.001-06:00

www.roadsparrow.blogspot.com Check it out. Finally some pictures. Some boat news, some art, some stories.

Love,
Rachael

You live life online. So we put Windows on the web. Learn more about Windows Live

Catch up on photos, and short boat update

2008-12-07T21:32:00.006-06:00

Jason at paintball, shot by his good friend Phil. He didn't even know there was someone still left on the other team. It looked bad for quite a while, blood and everything.

The booties I knitted, cute little pointy elf toes. Can you see that they really have a heel?

The Renaissance outfits that Carol got for her and Russ.

My Ren outfit, not the best picture of the cape, but we're showing off Jason's new hat and vest.

POINTY HOOD!

And since I'm at it I can try to get you caught up on this past week. Basically it was none stop. I was schedule to work 9 hrs a day. Saturday, Nov 29 was Jason's Birthday, it was also his mom's best friend's 50th birthday so we went out for dinner and dancing. Sunday night was B.B. King for the grand opening of the Durham Performing Arts Center. We were pretty high up but it was neat to be in the presence of a blues legend. Wednesday we were back at the Center for Lewis Black, an angry comedian yelling about politics, we laughed hysterically. That night I did find out that there were extra tickets to the hockey game Hurricanes vs. Penguins. So Jason and I went to that with a bunch more people. Someone has season tickets, nice seats. I thought it was a bit ironic, my second hockey game and I've never been to one in Minnesota.

I got my bike all tuned up and with saddle bags. The guy at Back Alley Bikes sold me used water proof saddle bags for $40. I don't know if that was each, or together, either way he said they are usually over $100. I don't know, I LOVE them. I can haul everything with me, my bike looks all cool, I have a functional mode of transportation. My busy week caught up with me on Friday when I forgot to turn my alarm on so I missed the bus and the bike was in the shop. Dreya let me take her bike which made me only 10 min. late instead of the half hour I would have had waiting for my bus.

Yesterday I finally got to go to the really really free market. It's the first Saturday of every month. Everyone brings whatever stuff they want to get rid of and everyone is free to pick through everything else. There is no strings attached. It's awesome. I got all sorts of goodies then decided to bring the things that my boss had given me that I didn't want. I ended up bringing two loads of stuff home. I got a wine rack that holds nearly all our wine - did you know that Dreya and I had bought two cases? I got a sweatshirt, tank top, wrap around shirt, a cool curtain rod with blown glass balls at the ends, and a navy blue polo shirt. Which, for those of you don't get the joke, that was Jason's and my kitche uniform down in Antarctica. I wore it when I came over to Jason's this morning, complete with my old bandana head scarf. Perfect. I am really glad to have that shirt. It totally puts me in the mood for cleaning. My boss has given me a stoneware lasagna pan, a nice 5 or 6 candle holder, one of those that would sit on a mantle. Dreya has brought home big glass jars from work so I've been able to do some rearranging in the cupboards.

I didn't feel like I accomplished much this week, it was really just a flurry of activities and lots and lots of fun. This coming week I have a normal 40 hr week so I plan to get more done. I signed up for another class - writing. It's at the community center. I've also signed up for InDesign which is the computer program that will help me layout my book the way I want. I don't think I'll sign up for any more classes though. Once I finally did the math I realized that the Community Ed classes are $20 a lesson, not that great of a deal.

On Friday I met our new nurse at the Neurology clinic, Bethany (my old room mate's name), and then at the Art Center the girl that works there and who also waits on us at Carrborito introduced herself and her name is Mandy (the name of a super good friend that I worked with in Antarctica). The owner of the bike shop is Jason and his mechanic helper is Ben (one of my brother's), how ironic is all that? I met them all pretty much this weekend.

Saturday night was Yo Mamma's Big Fat Booty Band. They are a really dancing sort of band, big hats, funky costumes, and they didn't close down till 1 am. It was greay. I danced the whole night in an outfit made from the free market, a reversable house dress from the 60s with a red and white floral pattern. I certainly felt funky. Dreya dressed up like a James Bond villianess. She had the big jewelry, leaopard print, and cleavage. It was an awesome night.

For those of you that aren't my family I'll tell you what my family sent me. So, for Thanksgiving I wrote everyone a letter using some old packing paper that looked like paper bag material so eveyone sent me an envelope of letters and drawings and they all used various scraps of paper. I have notes written on plastic bags, a napkin, a kleenex, a magazine page, paper bags. . .a pile of recyclables. It was funny and sweet and cute.

Next Friday is another band, then another on Saturday. I have to go to coffee night on Tuesday, but other than that, so far it's a pretty mild week, it's just that December is counting down and I need to get focused. I have a bunch of paintings to look at and try to fix. I'll show you those as well.

Boat Update:

I got to talk to Dad yesterday, (for the rest of this update I'll refer to him as Randy since that how most everyone else knows him). It turns out that the guy that sent him to the Bahamas was trying to get him to work on a very large boat. Randy had one money boat in the garage that he was working on restoring this past year but there is a whole new project that only fits in the barn. Randy said that the only place he could work on it was in the barn and the only way he would do that is if the barn was heated, and not out of his own pocket. Well, the guy agreed to the deal and now Randy has an insulated heated barn with folding doors and a huge furnace. His very own shop. How cool is that??? Well, this means that Randy has agreed to restore this giant boat, about a two year project. Which means that he can't go sailing yet. That means that he'll be finishing up his boat in the new heated space, finishing the boat that was in the garage, and starting the new restoration project this winter. Randy also has a new assistant, my brother Ben. Ben tells me that the car dealership that he was working at closed down so now he's working for Randy. So, once again Ben is thinking of sailing with Randy! YAY! It's too bad that Randy doesn't get to go off sailing around the world next summer but he will be sailing next summer around Lake Superior and saving up money for the big voyage in summer 2010.

What this means to me is that I have a place to be for at least another year. I can try to get hired on at the hospital, I can continue to nestle in at Dreya's, I can continue to get involved in my community and I don't have to wonder about plans for a long time. I can work from project to project, and they are lining up. I have the paintings to make for Becky, bowls to design and paint with Rachael - the Rachael that I met at the Carrboro Art Crawl, and I have scrapbooking to work on in a major way. It's so exciting. Next summer I hope to sail with Dad a little and see how things have changed.

Paintings for Becky - very first peek

2008-12-07T13:29:00.010-06:00

I don't know if you know the story but Becky bought me 100 sheets of watercolor paper. In return I told her I would paint her 10 paintings from which she could choose two. This is what I have so far. Please note that these are all in progress or are not what I will present her with as final 10. I will take you on a little tour
"cheery blossom" That's the idea I was going for, the black slash got way too curly and is unhelpful in the painting, the pink is too busy, and too much like a blob. I like it better cropped down like in the first photo and I think that is how I will end up presenting the painting later. I would like to try this concept again but with more angled lines and more wet looking color.I was trying to do Kentucky inspired landscape with abstract. This is still a work in progress. It's a little loose, too much the same green but I'm not quite sure where to tone down or if I should brighten stuff, should I add more colors and where? I tried adding the red in the background but it doesn't quite go together right. I like the idea. I'd like to work on it some more. I like the composition, I just want to have a better plan for the colors. I would like to do one in yellows and blues that mix together to make greens. Maybe that would be the simplicity and complex coming together. I would also like to try one with the fences white. The fences should fade out in the background.I'm just not sure if this is the sort of picture that Becky was going for. I first tried pouring on colors which I would then slash big streaks of black through but when I was supposed to add the black I couldn't decide where to put it. Now I think I might try turning this into an abstract horses head, very close up. You can see the eye in the upper right corner. Hopefully with the loose lines I could make it look like it was in motion and racing. I think that this painting is too bright for Becky's office. I like that there is lots of white. My priority is to make something for her law office.
This was one of the mix colors. I painted the black on first which was a lot easier to work with but I still feel like I didn't have a plan for the colors. I liked that I was muting the colors down more instead of always the bright primaries. Becky had talked about earth tones, sea foam green, a burnt red, and I want to narrow it down and focus more on those colors

I painted the black as Kentucky inspired fence lines, still trying to keep it very abstract but I think the fence line theme is still pretty obvious, then I tried to use more warm colors and with the greens and all. It's. . .ok. Nothing very dynamic. It looks like a pattern instead of an abstract painting.This is a true Chinese character. I think it mean success and completion or something. I plan on this being two paintings, so these are two images as a pair. When it's cut apart I want to try flipping the designs around and seeing what I get. Still pretty blah. For the time I put into it it's not all that interesting.

This is hard to distinguish. This painting is still on the board and it's a long narrow painting. The yellow above is not part of it. I was just curious what Becky thought of the very square rough pattern. I have plans for this, something more scrap book-y, more colors, more contrasts. I want the squares to be more like frames and colors on paper cutouts that don't stay in the frames. This seems to be deviating away from plans for Becky but I had the intention of making it Kentucky inspired again. I was trying to represent a fence line. I want to have images of horses and racing inspired images in the frame work. You might be able to make out the little horse head I quickly painted. This would be more detailed but it's not all bold and strong.

Then I tried putting some of my paintings together as one. Now we have something. On their own they don't make sense but together they have the black slashing through and being broken up by the borders. I might try some more of this style but it's harsh. I think Becky wanted more calming. I have two more phases I want to try, one is bright flat colors with racing themes. I have some photos of horses heads, jockeys, race tracks. I think I'll calm down the colors a little bit but they will be more blocky.

After that, if Becky liked the landscape I want to work on those. So, any suggestions? I'm not taking any criticism comments, only from Becky, she's the boss, I am finding plenty on my own. I just want inspiring ideas on how to improve, things to try. What sort of images say "Rebecca, fabulously successful lawyer and awesome person, she will take good care of you and everything will be all right"? That's the message I'm trying to give. I started by breaking down the message but like I said, I think the black and the slashes is to harsh. Maybe in big numbers and more color, more spaced apart, the black and colors will change and have a calming affect since they don't make any sense. Security in numbers. Let me know, I am looking forward to all suggestions.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-29T15:29:00.003-06:00

What a perfect Thanksgiving. Well, there were a couple hitches but it started off absolutely perfect. On Wednesday night Kat and Ben came over to Shores and brought absolutely delicious chili with rice. It was SO good and I am not a chili fan at all. After the chili Ben and I hunkered down and he set out to teach me how to make perfect pie crusts. It was amazing, it really worked. They rolled out super thin without sticking the to cutting board, they easily went into the pie dishes without tearing. Hopefully this means that I can make pie crust on my own now. It was so homey. The Shores' kitchen is well designed and can really accommodate a lot of cooks. Carol, Kat, and Jason went shopping for some last minute ingredients and then they were back. Carol worked on apple pie filling and Kat worked on the pumpkin. I had found the recipe for pumpkin pie from scratch online. On Tuesday I had gotten off work early and Jason drove me to the farmer's market where they were having a special Thanksgiving market. There were lots of pies and baked goods on sale. We bought a few things but there were no pumpkins, luckily I found some at Weaver Street Market.

Anyways, The kitchen was warm and busy with the smell of cinnamon to tie it all together. Laura and Paul came over and watched the hockey game with Russel. Russel just got out of the hospital on Monday, he had knee replacement surgery on Wednesday and is already walking around but so far it hurts worse than it did before. Carol bought him a leather Lay-Z-Boy. Super comfy. It was pretty handy to be working at the hospital and to go visit him afterwards.

I started Thanksgiving with a late morning watching cartoons, just like at Grandma's. There was a Tom and Jerry marathon going on. I worked on my knitting, I've been trying to knit myself a pair of wrist cuffs, you know, like sweater sleeves with a thumb hole. I even worked on them last weekend when Jason had paintball practice. I also got to take lots of pictures again at paintball practice because one of the paintball wives had a zoom lens and the same camera as Jason. It's lots of fun to be out on the field to take pictures and try to avoid getting shot.

I was hanging out at Shores, Carol got the smoker going and commenced to smoking 3 ducks, she also roasted a turkey. Then Jason's bathtub and toiled filled with brown water and they had to call the plumber. Whatever stopped up the drain worked itself out but Jason still had to take apart the toilet and the plumber man still stopped by and charged an arm load. Russell slept or shuffled around, he can almost get by without crutches.

I made wild rice stuffing but it turned out really bad, the rice was hardly cooked and the bread crumbs were soggy, nothing stuck together. Some people actually had seconds on it so maybe it wasn't all bad but I wasn't happy about it. I had made refrigerator pickles as well, Mom sent some lefse which I taught people how to properly eat it and a tub of pickled herring completed my attempt at making Thanksgiving feel like home. That first bite of pickled herring instantly took me to Grandma's and I was suddenly home sick. I've been away for Thanksgiving before but I was traveling, now I was actually at Thanksgiving away from my family. It's sad to be so far away but this was the perfect way to do it. There were about 15 people at dinner and I knew most of them, some really well. Carol made cranberry sauce, and guess what, succotash, as in "Suffering succotash," like Sylvester says, is an actual food. From what I saw it's a combination of different beans and some mashed potatoes. I really don't know what it is but it sure tasted good. It's probably made with bacon fat since it's a southern dish but I really didn't want to know. "Recieve all food set before you with thanksgiving", right? And I did. There is, of course, tons of left overs. One thing they had that I've never had at Thanksgiving was wine. Carol made mulled wine too. There were green beans, mashed potatoes and kale, pumpkin bread, sweet potato cobbler,. . .I can't even remember everything else. It was a great time though. The best part is that I keep forgetting that I have a 4 day weekend, I keep thinking that I have to go back to work tomorrow and I don't! YAY.

All right, well, today is Jason's birthday. I am very happy since for a little while we are a little closer in age. Kat is also 50 today and has been having a continuous birthday party all day long. We are going tonight for dinner and a concert. Should be fun. Hopefully I'll be painting more tomorrow. I've been working at it but still not getting anything I like. I was all productive yesterday, I rearranged the kitchen, utilizied some bottles, and now we have a spice drawer with well marked bottles of spices. I also finally washed up a set of plastic drawers that I got off the curb and we have newly organized paint supplies and more shelf space for books. Hey, so it's not exciting, I call it nesting. Time for dinner and dancing.

Best Weekend Ever

2008-11-15T16:25:00.004-06:00

I was biking home from work the other day, the leaves have all changed, everything is the perfect fall colors and cool breezes, it makes me think of Bethany, my old room mate, and how I miss her but at the same time it just makes me love Carrboro more and more.

On Thursday I had just eaten with Jason, I think that's the night his mom made awesome Pad Thai. I checked my e-mail to find that there was a gardening meeting going on at that very moment. I took off and showed up nearly an hour late but they were still at it brainstorming and the like. The room was full of shaggy hairstyles and fuzzy sweaters, some grubby bare feet, lots of big mugs of tea. The conversation was all so exciting, nothing got accomplished but I found out that there is a whole group of people here where I live that want to learn backyard sustainability, that want to have cooking classes, learn to cook healthy food, that there are medicinal herbalists, that there's organizations out to get this sort of thing to be independent of donations. I was so excited just to drink it all in. That night I also got an e-mail about a pie contest/fund raiser, so on Friday at about 10:00 Jason took me shopping and I started baking apple pies at about 11:00, poker was just ending. On Friday Carol also had a going away party at Carolina Brewery, she has a new job at Wake Med, it's the hospital in Raliegh, she has left UNC, the hospital that I work at. I got to meet more doctors and assistants and hear Dr. Carol Shores stories. My favorite:

Why Carol Won't Eat Anything a Patient Makes Her

When Carol was a lowly resident or intern or something working in the neonatal unit someone actually brought brownies for them ( I have learned that this is a common thing patients do for their regular doctors) which everyone happily ate.  The former patient was happy to hear that the brownies had been enjoyed, she had run out of some ingredients and had subsituted. "I made them with breast milk!", she said with a proud jiggle.

There's a great apple pie recipe I found on line that people have liked so I made 3 for the various events happening for the weekend. Saturday was also Spam Jam, one of the Shores' friends hosts techno, a bonfire, and a food drive at her place. I brought a pie for that but I later realized that my midnight math had gone down the tubes and I hadn't made it with enough butter. I did find Ben though, and he's offered to give me a lesson. I guess he's a pastry master and soon I'll be a pastry pro. For other learning things, I've also learned to do some knitting, made baby booties with a heel and everything and what I am really excited for is that I was telling Carol how I've always wanted to learn to give stitches and she says if I bring her pigs' feet she'll teach Dreya and I how to do real stitches.

I accomplished another goal of mine as well at Spam Jam, fire poi. I never knew about spinning balls of fire hung from chains till I saw street performers in Poland on my European trip in 2000 and I thought it was the coolest thing. I figured it would take at least as much time to learn that as it would take to learn to juggle, too much dedication but Jen, the Spam Jam hostess, has been giving poi spinning lessons at the beach trips using tennis balls and then someone else brought their fire poi and. . . well, I was spinning fire poi, it was awesome. I only had one minor burn on my forearm and some singed hair but it was awesome. You feel the heat rotating around you and you can hear the rush of the fire. Just awesome. The balls hang a little shorter than an arm length. It's all about spinning them at the same time without the balls knocking together, there's lots of tricks and ways to do this to make it look really cool.

Saturday Jason also had a paintball tournament. He's on a 3 man team. They did really well, moved up a few spots and qualified for regionals which will be held in Charlotte in a few weeks. It's too bad all the tournaments are on Saturdays.

Sunday was Renaissance Festival! It was so fun! You have no idea. I was all dressed up like a milk maid. Dreya has a black velvet corset that she let me borrow. Jason was all dressed up too in really cool boots, and a pirate outfit. He even brought his sword. Carol came with as well which was great because we talked her out of moving her office to come to Ren. So it was Phil, Kellye, and the rest of us. I can't even describe how much fun it was. It was a whole fantasy world, everyone was part of it, all the booths and food kiosks were in on it. There was jousting, tricks, belly dancing, lots of awesome outfits. It was a perfect warm golden fall day and I was just giddy the whole day. I don't think I stopped smiling. Carol found a soft grayish, purplish vest that totally completed Jason's outfit, it was absolutely perfect with his gray shirt. "I'm buying that for you." She said just like that. As we were leaving the shop Carol and Kellye got distracted by a rack of capes. There was a perfect olive green one that they pointed out to me. It had a fancy metal clasp just like on Lord of the Rings. I tried to keep my distance because I really didn't want to fall in love with a cape I couldn't afford. Besides, I would only consider a cap with a pointy hood. I was explaining this to them as they turned the cape around and there was the perfect pointed hood. I bet it was almost 3 feet long. SO COOL! dang-it! Well, then they wanted me to try it on. So fine, I would try on this totally awesome cape and tell myself that I could learn to make it oneday, it even had braided trim all along the edges. "That cape was made for you, I'm totally buying it for you,"Carol said, and just like that I have an awesome awesome cape. I think I'll wear it today actually.

I suppose the indulgent shopping made us giddy as well. After that Carol decided Russell needed a vest to complete his pirate outfit. We used Jason as a model and found a very regal top for him, it was sort of scarlet brocade, laced up, with wide shoulders, very King Henry, very cool. Well, after more looking around and seeing the various shows Carol was finally getting convince that she needed a better pirate outfit and so we went back to the costume shop where she found a corset to match Russel's vest, a very full red petticoat, a ruffled black skirt with splits up the sides to show off the red underskirt, and an off the shoulder black peasant shirt. The last purchase of the day was at a leather shop where I made Jason try on a green muskateer hat. The underside is green suede and the top is black, it even had a gold ostrich plume to finish it off. It was perfect with his long goatee. We all coerced him into buying it, it was horribly expensive but I say it's worth it. Now I have my very own muskateer.

What a weekend. The pies, the party, being productive, feeling like I was contributing, feeling all homey, making contacts in my community with people who have similar goals. A cozy bonfire, accomplishing wild and slightly dangerous tricks that I had never thought I would do. Being all dressed up and feeling so girly and rugged at the same time in this beautiful fall time. It was absolutely such a perfect weekend. There was so much adventure and so many new things and yet I was feeling more established in my new place. Ahhh. . . .

In the News

2008-11-04T17:21:00.008-06:00

Mom sent me a news article the other day. It was Dad's story about the boat. I found the link to the St. Cloud Times article so now you can go see it for yourself, even if you already read it you should check out the comments. It's really interesting how many people made a comment. So, after the big boat party some friends that came to visit told the paper. I guess Mom has been stopped at the grocery store by people who didn't know about the boat 12 miles away. Diane wanted to bring out tour from the nursing home, and I think other people have asked to come out. I know that there is a boat in our barn but it was really refreshing to hear Dad's words again as I read them in the paper.

Just a warning, St. Cloud Times only has the article up on the website for a short period of time before it goes to archives and then you have to pay to look it up.

I called Dad on Monday to say hi, he had called from the airport on the way out to Rhode Island to crew on a sailboat. Here when he answered he was already heading out to see. I could hear the engine going and he said he was trying to keep the books from sliding around on him. I hope he keeps us updated on his adventures. I can't remember if I already wrote it but the guy that owns that boat that Dad has been restoring in the garage has another 65 ft sailboat. That sailboat has been in Rhode Island getting a new deck and now it needs to be sailed back to the Virgin Islands. The guy hired Dad, paid for his flight and now Dad gets to learn to sail for 2 weeks. How cool is that?

blog update

2008-09-29T17:42:00.001-05:00

I haven't sent out a blog update in a long while, now I have 2 new posts. Be sure to see Dad's latest work on the sailboat!

love,
Rachael

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The Big Mast Party

2008-09-29T16:56:00.005-05:00

Congratulations!

I know I've mentioned and even shown some pictures of Dad's boat but last Sunday was the big day, the mast "stepping" is the proper way to say it. For us land folk it means they stood the masts up. These pictures were taken by Charity and hopefully all those that missed the party and wanted to see pics will be able to see these. Dad's been working on this boat since he retired about 3 years now. I've gotten to help a little bit and well, actually, many people have been able to contribute their tools and talents. It's really neat to see how Dad's dream is affecting others and how they have been able to come forward and help out. At least 50 people showed up for the big day. Next year Dad plans to set sail and start heading around the world. I hope to sail with him at least for a portion. Who knows what a year will bring.

the main mast is about 45ft above the deck

the sailing kite
infamous for sailing from the roof of our barn

the main mast is at least 20 ft above the barn

Just try to imagine: This boat is sitting out in our circle driveway, down a country road of very rural Minnesota. It has a 2hr journey by road to get to Lake Superior. From the deck as it is in these pictures, you can stand and look out at the corn field.

Schooner Stats:

ballast is 4,000 lbs of concrete
length on deck is 43 ft
overall length, tip to tip is 56 ft
it sits 6 ft in the water
name ideas: Sea Sparrow,
Valerie's Vessel

It's hard to believe that the whole thing is now back in the barn for the winter.

HIRED!

2008-08-25T12:51:00.004-05:00

I suppose I should be sending out an update about my whereabouts and all that. I did move to the Chapel Hill area in August and didn't say anything else till now. It has been busy and uneventful at the same time. In the end it was a whole month before I got hired, from there I had to wait for 2 weeks for my first pay check, which was this past Friday, so I have been paid for a total of one day of work. BUT the awesome thing is that I got hired for the job I wanted, my first choice, they are also the only one that ever called me for an interview, even the temp agency, which I will say, is totally worthless. It's coming up on two month, I'm hired, and I still have been called about ANY work. I should just see how long it takes them.

So, I love my job, I am working at the hospital at the Neurology clinic. It's office work, lots of phone answering, setting appointments, checking people in and out, verifying insurance, etc. The cool thing is that not only is it office work but I was hired because of my nurse's assistant license. Eventually I'll be trained as a CNA as well in Neurology and have more responsibilities. I am very excited about all of it. I've had a bunch of computer training already and I'm getting a feel for things. I've loved dressing up, I get to work full time, I am even getting over time right now and I still get off at 5:30. All the classes I want to take work right around my schedule, eventually, when I get money and have time I'll be able to take some classes. We'll see. I also have an art project to work on soon. I hope that all works out. I have PLANS! My big shot lawyer friend, Rebecca, wants to commission me to paint for her office and her town home. YAY!

I'll tell you though, it was real tough up till I got hired, my bank account is scratchings and it's going to be that when I pay rent tomorrow. My first big paycheck doesn't come till next week. Bah. But after that it'll be smooth sailing.

I'm having so much fun here. I get to hang out with Jason pretty much every day. I'm being a little clingy I think because he'll be leaving in January for college in Asheville, it's 3 hours away. That, and I have plans to be painting all I can from now till January. I've been out to watch him play paintball, there's been great dinner conversations at coffee night and poker nights, Jason has taken me out to a few movies, there was the Carrboro art crawl where I got to see the local artists and discovered contra dancing which is my kind of dancing. Almost every girl was wearing flowy skirts and it's like variations of the Virginia Reel. The music was fantastic.

I think Saturday night was just about the highlight. It was the Clockwork Ball. It's called "steam punk" maybe I've mentioned this style to you. I guess it's based off an anime movie called Steam Boy which makes me feel nerdy and less enthused about the origins BUT the bottom line is that it's like funky Victorian dress. All the girls were in corsets and, fishnets and crazy lace up boots. I had my own visions of steam punk, adjusted them slightly when I saw the trailer to the anime and then proceeded to copy the female character on Sweeny Todd. It took me a good while to get that ratty hair do, I still haven't attempted to comb out my hair but with some crazy blow drying, bobby pins, and random poofs I looked like a wreck. "My goal is a fancy hairstyle that I slept in for a week," I explained to Jason when he asked why I was trying make it look like I had been living in a bush. Unfortunately I didn't take a camera with and Jason refused to come along but I had a great time, I had on this long long black satin skirt, 3 or 4 inch platform boots, and petticoats, everything. It was sort of school marm/mad scientist lady. I danced till I wanted to cut my feet off and then we walked home, I bet is was half a mile. The night was fantastic, the music was awesome and the costumes were amazing. I hope to get a link to the pictures soon. I'll put that up later. I was surrounded by friends, I knew seven people there, met a couple more, and we danced the night away. SO. MUCH. FUN.

Yesterday was the memorial service for one of the Friday night poker players, Mary. I'm sure I must have met her on at least the first Poker Night that I was at but I can't really remember. She died suddenly of a brain aneurysm while Jason was up in MN. Even though I didn't remember her it was very sobering to see the lives she touched and the affect she had on people. The minister gave a great service and I went away thinking about how short life is, what our purpose is and how it's all small stuff. Our purpose in life is to serve the community and the lives of others, was his message. I think of that as I am here and how there are so many things to participate in around here and as I get to hang out with the Shores' group. There is a sense of community here that was explained as stronger than ties of friends. It's almost like family and they often refer to themselves as a tribe. That's what I love about being here. I feel this opportunity to be a part of something strong, accepting and embracing. I also have my times of feeling inadequate like being down south in BBQ country. I've been instructed that BBQ is only BBQ when it's pork. It's pork or shrimp, neither that I eat. I am also dreading Halloween. Where am I going to hide for that? Because I am really going to have to hide. The entire town takes part, it's like New Orlean's Mardi Gras. You can't escape it. No one is going to understand that, my favorite thing to do is dress up but I'm going to skip the biggest dress up party of the year.

On Friday is the fall Beach trip. The Spring one is the one I went to when I decided that I would be moving here. I am very excited. The Shores tell me that the water is 80 degrees. I thought that water was warm and wonderful last time. I can't wait. So much to do. Next Friday is my big paycheck. I've had two months to plan how to spend it. Most of it will go to pay off loans from the Bank of Mom and Dad. I guess there aren't many exciting purchases, just household stuff that I didn't want to bother mailing. I found more free stuff. That's been exciting.

Dreya and I get nearly all our food for free from Dreya's job - although, Jason also takes me out every night which is what has mostly sustained me. It's exciting to see what is available or what new treat we get to have. Often it is bread, sometimes, it's a leaking jug of milk, one time it was an abandoned jar of honey - yay for free honey!

Our furniture situation is the same way. Russ, Jason's Dad, gave us the heads up on some furniture on the side of the road. Dreya and I were able to get it all in the back of her little hatchback. We got a very nice long desk, that's more just a table with a drawer, a roomy bookcase, and an end table. Once we got home we unloaded everything, and then rearranged the whole living room to fit everything in a homey way. It's so nice and open feeling now, I sit on the couch looking across at the fountain and the huge mirror, I can look outside to my right at our patio, the solid coffee table is where our laptops permanently sit, the table is now our art desk covered in paints, the end table is the mail drop, and everything has various dried plants hanging from it. We are collecting all the shelving that we can because Dreya's plant collection all has to come in the house for the winter.

Winter reminds me of weather and weather reminds me of hurricane season. So far we've only had the tail end of one hurricane. There was some power out, leaves and small branches were everywhere, and a huge oak fell down once the sun was out again. It was pretty exciting to see the torrential rain, some streets were momentarily flooded. I like when weather can bring everyone together. There was lots of spectating going on. Well, that's about all I can think of. I've been helping Russ fix up his apartments on Sundays, I've rocked on the porch with the Shores while we watched the sunset from the porch of the local ice cream shop. I had raspberry chocolate but I should have had the mango. Carol had an intense day of surgery where she operated nearly all day, got home at 10:00 that night, got called in at 1:00 in the morning and finished the operation at 10:00 the next morning then spent the rest of the day seeing patients. I've been walking home from work, I finally found my way to Kat and Ninja's, Kelly and I did some very quick window shopping during a rare visit to the mall, and my boss gave me a bunch of her office clothes that she doesn't wear! I've seen more deer activity in the suburbs than anywhere else. I've seen a doe nursing her twin fawns in my back yard, and bucks lock horns in a field as Jason and I drove by.

All right, that's all I can think of. I've thrown in these pictures from the 80s party I went to at Mr. Jim's. You know, that one where I was one of two people that dressed up. Another thing I loved about the Clockwork Ball, I was certainly not the best dressed or most outrageously dressed. I got so many ideas, I wish I would have taken pictures, I wish I could have taken notes. Well, I will talk to you later. I'll try to get you an update about the beach trip.

NEWS

2008-08-22T18:12:00.006-05:00

Bemidji!

So there's been a few things rearranged. I went down to visit Jason, Jason has come up to visit in MN again. I got to drag him way up North to meet relatives and get another photo of a silly MN landmark. Yay Paul Bunyan. I told people that Jason was my escort to make sure that I really did return to North Carolina for good. It's official: I'VE MOVED. I slept in my own bed in my own room on Aug. 12.

throwback to the 80s

beach activities

Yes, you have missed out on a lot. Let's see, there was the surprise 80s party for Bethany's birthday, Dad has the boat painted and a hole in the barn, Naomi had her baby and I actually knitted booties for her new girl, my cousin in Alaska had her wedding, I also missed Mr. T's wedding (an awesome hiking friend from 2004), I saw Modest Mouse in concert with my little brother Casey, Mom and I went to Halfway Jam, got to go backstage and meet some bands, we got our picture taken with on of the Georgia Satellite members, Mom and Dad also got to go up to Duluth and see huge sailing ships, Jason came with me for another Everclear concert, Jason and I also got to have a reunion with another awesome DA from Ice, Emily, at her family's big 8-8-8 party, I took rosemaling classes and painted Mom's doors to the kitchen and basement, Charity moved out and got her own place in Sauk Rapids, my poor little truck that I bought from Skittles died, I got CNA certified and started working in the nursing home which was really an out of the blue sort of thing. I told the nursing home I already had a month long trip planned in May to go visit Jason. Well, May came around and about that time I learned that one of my friends in NC was losing her room mate in July. I worked with her for the month of May while I was in NC and she used that time to convince me that I belong in Chapel Hill. It wasn't too hard to convince me because Minnesota had three false ends to winter and when I was riding to the airport April 28 it was snowing. I arrived in the beautiful blooming South and it was so refreshing and there was so much to do and I was so happy to see everyone that I got to scheming. I went from winter to the beach with lots of people to meet and talk to. The beach was such a perfect time, there was hardly anyone else, the weather was cool and beautiful and it was just salted peacefulness. When it started sounding like a good idea to move I had to call home and let Mom and Dad talk me out of it but instead they were both excited for me and thought that it was a great opportunity. Really???

There was just too many good reasons to move down here. Not only am I closer to Jason, I only live 2 miles away, I am also within walking distance of the hospital (where I hope to find work, now that I'm CNA certified and all), the food co-op, farmer's market, belly dancing lessons, aikido lessons, an Art Center (need to visit that), and just about everything; the apartment has a garbage disposal and dishwasher, I don't need a car, rent is very reasonable, my room mate has the same sort of odd food tastes that I do, and all in all Chapel Hill is a very artsy place where I really hope to grow as an artist.

I've spent the past two weeks now filling out applications and waiting for a phone call with no luck. I even picked up an application for the grocery store. I got down tonight thinking of the frustrations of job hunting. Really, I'm not being picky. I applied first to where I wanted to work and then on down the line and I've heard zilch from everyone all around and rent is coming up. Welcome to real life, I guess. Still, it's just money, no worries. Dreya is an artist herself and we enjoy brainstorming collaborative art projects together. We'll see what happens. I left my portfolio at home to start new. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea but most of my stuff in there is really old, and I have a lot of the images on my computer. I have been having a whole lot of fun dressing a lot more comfortably. It's been so HOT here. My bike is together, most of my stuff is unpacked, my room is orderly, and today I started our first batch of sprouts. Dreya made kambucha and keifer. I was looking at my scrapbook today and realized that it's time for a new scrapbook. Another chapter of my life is starting, I guess it's official now. I wish I could get my act together and host a party. I might do that next weekend. We'll see.

shooting clay pigeons - activities at my going away party

from the Tundra

2008-03-08T15:40:00.003-06:00

Lucy

I was chided last month for my lack of blogging. It was right after my life finally kicked back into action. It's like the bike chain got back on track. Now I actually have stuff to report on.

It started in February when the Caucus came to town. I have never voted and have no intention on voting but I wanted to see what it was all about. I wanted to see for myself if it is as hopeless as I thought. I decided it is. But more importantly I met people that care about and are active in their community. I found out that the Minnesota Center Arts Board is located right HERE, that there is another local artist my age, I reunited with a High School graduate who has gotten his own book published and knows all about design and all that. I found out that Tuesday nights is Texas Hold 'em at the local bar and that my crazy friend plays.

in D.C.

I had a good sit-down with myself. I read some inspiring books, heard an inspiring story on "This American Life" and was reminded that THIS is my life. A girl who had always wanted to be a super hero decided to train to be one, she made her list and accomplished it. This is my chance to be who I want to be. I know who I want to be, I want to be a fictional character. Fictional characters have depth and stories and are having adventures or at least living weird lives. There aren't books about people who watch TV. Sitcoms are nice but it depresses me when a life on TV is more interesting than paying attention to mine. I took inventory of my shortcomings as a fictional character and I only have one thing left to learn to really feel complete and unreal, fighting. I want to take Akido classes. One day my character will play fiddle as well, I should probably be starting those lessons soon as well. It was after I came to these conclusions that Bethany and I had the same talk about where our life is going and we decided to take charge and LIVE. I'm telling you, just by taking an active step the next day has snow balled me into all sorts of stuff. I have since slowed down again and now I have time to write about it but I want to get back out of this funk and get back to be an active participant in life. So, I started with visiting at the Nursing Home, I started rosemaling lessons (a Norwegian folk art), Yoga classes, Charity and I have been going to a ball room dancing club, I got hired on at a bar and they said they'll teach me bartending (they haven't called yet), the money boat is keeping Dad and me busy for most of the week, I've gotten to chop wood a couple of times, I finished my first knitting project, I went on a short-notice road trip to Washington DC, and now last week Tammy at the Nursing Home convinced me to challenge the CNA test. I signed up for it and now I get to study. I am so excited. Years ago when I had money that I didn't know what to do with I took the CNA class and all that, figuring that I would always be able to get the certification back if I didn't keep it current. That is exactly what has happened. I have lots of studying to do and I hope to be on call. That's what got me into this, Tammy is the staff coordinator and she explained that there's a position where I can choose my hours and days I work when the schedule comes out. It's perfect, plus you get a higher hourly rate and I only have to work once every three months to still be considered on call. With this uncertain summer coming I can still have a way to be making good money on my time. IF I can pass this test. Wish me luck. If I could get my certification back I would have a lot better job opportunities open to me. I really like that idea if I decide to move to Asheville. Asheville is a possibility I've been toying with.

I've realized that I love community, I need to get more involved, and I like communicating and discussing. I love to learn, and I need structure. Those are some of the things noted this winter.

Well, I'm glad to be here. I hope to start blogging more about things I've been thinking about. I've been surfing the web a lot and all it has done is bring up more questions. Maybe I'll just start discussing them here.

Nalgene Poster is in Print

2008-02-10T15:18:00.003-06:00

FINALLY! I finally have a way for people to buy a poster print if you're still interested. For those of you that weren't in Antarctica with me and didn't get to see this project let me explain. From the beginning. One of my firsts days of work in Antarctica Troy and I were led up into the loft of a large storage building. We came in under a curved roof and there shoved against the nearest wall were three desks with three people that didn't look like they should be behind desks. They were right in a little row like three children in school. Not only were they all dressed in similar Carhart overalls but they also had on tie dyed shirts. A girl with a shaved head, a guy in dreadlocks, it was like they had been kidnapped from the Rainbow Gathering and holed up in this massive attic at the bottom of the world. This was Supply. If you needed pens, a shovel, paper towels, it was the general store of McMurdo Station. This trio also had a water bottle sitting beside each of them and each water bottle itself was odd, covered in random stickers, like a skateboard.

Nicole's really got my attention, it was almost a life size sticker of gerbils. Gerbils. Who else would ever have gerbils on a water bottle? And where would you ever find a sticker of gerbils? Troy and I were just getting used to the idea of carrying our water bottles everywhere. Everyone is a issued a water bottle as part of their Antarctica gear. The lectures in the safety meetings about the arid climate and the importance of drinking lots of water was itself a never ending stream. Most of the buildings don't have running water, some work areas don't even have running toilets. Yes, we used outhouses in Antarctica. "How cold is the toilet seat?" everyone asks. Well, for a toilet seat someone carefully carved it out of foam insulation. There were many offices tucked away all over the station with a big mustard colored water jug in it. It was up to the workers to refill it from time to time. And so, most everyone always carried around their own liter supply of water.

After seeing that gerbil sticker I wanted to see everyone's bottle and as I saw the diversity in the people I was getting to know I could see that bottles took on the personalities of their owners. The variations of how a water bottle could be altered were so unique that I finally decided I would start taking pictures. How many water bottles could I get? What would they look like all together? This poster is an accumulation of my 6 months in front of the dish window chasing down water bottles I saw. It didn't end at the dish window, there were many late night parties that I would see a new water bottle and I would run down to the cafeteria with my camera and my new bottle - my "studio" was set up in the dish room, it consisted of a white pale and the dish room wall. Everyone thought I was a little odd but everyone is odd in Antarctica. At the end of the season there was a group effort to help me put my vision into Photoshop. Thank you so much Christine Powell, Andre, and. . .the two guys that helped me get this printed. Shoot, it's so sad to have the names of the people of my Ice year fade away. They were my whole life for 6 months and the names are escaping my head faster and faster. Anyways, some people, especially those that were featured in the poster, have asked for prints. Now I have prints available to everybody! That's that. I have more plans for this. One day. One day I want to make a real art piece out of this. I don't know if it really counts to be mimicking a pop art artist but I'm gonna do it anyways because it would look so cool.

Getting ready for Thanksgiving with Lefse

2007-11-21T11:41:00.000-06:00

I had such a nice day yesterday. It started with Bethany getting me to go on a walk with her and Rachel. We greeted the morning, got to feel the cool brisk air.

Last night when Charity got home she helped me make up some lefse. I walked to the grocery store and carried home the ingredients. Wild rice is on sale for this time of year. Everyone has to make their wild rice stuffing. It was just so fun to feel all domestic, covered head to toe (seriously) in flour. Charity is an awesome cook and has it all down. We had the kitchen set up so that I was right near her by the stove but completely out her way - we have an island in our kitchen. Charity oversaw the production and showed me how to cook it in the pans. I worked on rolling out the dough. I hope I didn't get it too thick.

I also walked over to the post office and mailed off packages that I had meant to send since I arrived home. I still have so many postcards to send out. I haven't written a single one. I guess all that fresh air and contact with friends made me feel all warm and homey. The old fashioned post office is such a fun way to reach out to people.

I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving and seeing all my family again. This is such a warm time for all of us. This is the first time I've ever brought up lefse to dinner, and home made lefse. If anyone doesn't know what lefse is it's a Norwegian sort of tortilla, a flat bread made from mashed potatoes, flour and milk. Dad says that when he was little and would spend the night at his grandma's house she would take the boiled potatoes left over from supper and make the lefse from that the following morning. She had a wood cook stove that was also the main source of heat for the house (which is not much for Northern MN, especially when you are a little boy sleeping in the drafty uptstairs) . My great-grandmother would roll out the lefse right on the stove top, no pan.

When I was riding the train through Norway they served packets of lefse like Little Debbie snacks. It was layers of lefse, sugar and butter cut into bar shapes. We eat lefse by putting butter on one side, sprinkling with sugar, and then rolling it up. I never cared for it much, it tasted like mashed potatoes with sugar on them but last night Charity demonstrated putting lots of cinnamon on as well. That worked great. Lefse is a Thanksgiving staple and always makes me think of my family. Everyone else in my family likes lefse (lef'-sa). Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Settling in for the Winter

2007-11-17T14:55:00.000-06:00

I'm listening to my room mate belt out ". . . if you need me to be with you, I will follow. . ." It's another Gilmore Girls marathon at the Paris House in Nowhere, MN. This blog is missing a big section of my life, you'll have to go to Trail Journals if you really want to know details. Otherwise I'll give a summary at some point.

I had a great week this week. Since I got back home I've been trying to get into a routine that I can keep up for the winter. I need to be efficient, there's things to do! One of the first things I got to do was help Dad saw some logs. He's got a nifty portable sawmill from New Zealand. I was able to make some money, be out in the fresh country air and feel all tough piling lumber. Bethany and I had talked about getting into the sawmill business since it's all there and available. I hadn't really thought about what was all involved. Dad laughed at me when he heard the idea and that's how I got invited out to help. He's right.

With the leaves off the trees I can look across the fields and see cars driving down the road a mile away. I know it's a mile because that's how the roads are laid out. It was a lot different to be back from North Carolina. Have you ever looked at a map of Pennsylvania? The roads look like a river system. There's a ridge that goes through the state that determines where the roads are able to be built. We don't have the land dictating how we develop it around here. It's just flat. I never really thought much about it till I spent so much time in North Carolina. Now it makes me smile when I can see oncoming cars miles away.

My brother is going into training to be a Kirby Salesman. I don't know how I feel about that. I think it's funny but then again, he's my brother. Now I have to say that out loud when someone asks what he does. I hope he has fun. I think if he could find something he really believed in he would be a great salesman.

In between jobs Ben has been out helping Dad on the boat as well. That's another way I have been making money. Dad has/had this rotten boat in the yard. It had to be stripped down. That meant lots of unscrewing. I had no idea how many screws go into a boat. We pulled the top off of the bottom, put the bottom in the garage and now Ben and Dad are building an extension onto the garage to enclose the boat. It was so fun to be hanging out with both of them. I wish we could all just work together. All the time.

On Sunday Dad bribed his kids to come out and help bring in the firewood for the winter. Dad heats with wood, stores it in an old corn crib and when winter comes around he gets it all thrown down into the basement. He has a good system for it. He puts up some plywood to protect the siding on the house and from there it's a game of skill to throw a log sideways so that it shoots through the little basement window. Bethany and Charity even came out. Casey drove the skid loader and it was a beautiful day. Cold but sunny. We were all paid with a complete Turkey dinner. The works, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, even pumpkin pie. That reminds me, I should make something for Thanksgiving Up North.

It's down to that time of year where we are seeing our last warm days. You never know when this is going to be the last day above freezing. Dad has all sorts of projects that he hoped to have done before the cold weather set in. They all involve epoxy and that needs 40 degrees to work. So one day I was called up to come help finish putting in the last bungs around the cabin on the boat. I forgot what sort of wood it is but Dad has some really high quality stuff that he has boarded the wheel house and cabin with. That's a bunch more screws and each screw hole gets a little wooden bung glued into it to fill it and cover up the screw head. It's slow monkey work but Ben was out there and we spent till 7:00 gluing and pounding in those little bungs. The warm weather held. Now Dad can go along and sand down the cabin.

Bethany is still job hunting. While I was down in North Carolina visiting Jason she called to tell me the business she was working for went under. It was pretty sudden. She's been on interviews, trying to decide what she wants to work toward and I've enjoyed all our time together to hang out. Last week we attacked the basement. This house is just full of stuff. Most of it left over from her Grandmother. She has wanted a craft room and she has plenty of room downstairs if you were to just congregate the junk. We got rid of so much STUFF. The best part is that Mom and Dad got a bunch of things that they are excited about, a Nordic Track, a fireplace cleaning set, and a microwave, and I now have a work space. We finished late on a Friday night about midnight. We were in a frenzy. All crafting supplies were pooled from all the corners of the house. I brought my kitchen table from home and set up all my art books and travel journals. Bethany has these old wooden crates and she let me use some to form book shelves. I love it, I just love it. I've never had my own work space. I've never have a spot that I could just leave my art work. I haven't even had a shelf to hold all my journals. It's me. I'm all right there in that one little spot. My stuff is out of boxes and in view. There's room for my laptop and I've begun writing out my travel stories. Did I tell you that I got and external hard drive? I suppose that's no big deal to most everyone else but for me it means that I have now sorted my travel pictures and I have all my travel pictures in one place.

Bethany and I were also talking about the coming winter. Last winter she had an energy audit and learned that there was basically no insulation in the attic. She was highly advised to have some put in. That's as far as it went. How hard is it to blow in insulation anyway? And who was ever going to get around to doing it for her? The price of gas is supposed to go up, she's been re-evaluating how she spends money and well, why not now? This last Wednesday I got to looking at the schedule and realized that Friday was probably about our last chance. I dragged Dad in for advice, he let me use the Jimmy to pick up the trailer and whaddya know. Yesterday Bethany and I blew insulation into her attic. What a day. I was dead tired from a late night and an early morning. We had to stop so she could go to a job interview and it was at that time that I noticed how nice the weather was. I checked the temperature and it was 42. The magic 40 degrees. I still hadn't finished her mural on the garage door. It was close but there was still one small detail that annoyed her. Instead of taking a break I hauled out paints and within an hour I had a signed piece of art in Bethany's driveway. Very nice.

So, I've started my book, increased and decreased my bank account, experienced insulating an attic, practiced backing up a trailer, have gotten pretty good at using a drill, finished a mural for my room mate, taken my dose of green food nearly every day, made friendship bread, I still feel skinny, and Charity and I have started watching the Firefly series. They played that in Antarctica and I never got to watch it.

It has snowed a couple times already but nothing has stayed. One day the flakes were like snow packed together in the shape of a snowflake. They looked like sprinkles you might put on a cake, totally artificial.

Oh, another weird thing, I was browsing craigslist when I found a guy looking to move to Alaska to build a cabin. I have a new pen pal now. Turns out he's not up for cold weather but he's a writer from NYC. Almost the day after meeting him I got another e-mail from another writer. It turns out that this writer found my blog. He's also a traveling artist who has been to all 7 continents. He just published a book as well. I, of course, had to order it. It should be here any day.

Well, that's about it. Except maybe the shopping spree I went on at Saver's 50% off sale. I got red pants. I got a bunch of other stuff too. I guess I'm just saying that I feel all spiffy in my new stuff and I just want to go out. I guess it's time to give Kimmy a call.

some updates

2007-09-17T00:04:00.001-05:00

I put some pictures up on www.trail journals.com/roadster. I didn't say anything else though. Tomorrow I start on the last 167 miles of my hike. YAY!
-Roadster/Rachael

Make your little one a shining star! Shine on!

updated trail journal

2007-08-22T21:10:00.001-05:00

I just gave a brief update at www.trailjournals.com/roadster. It's really
brief and no pictures. I didn't even reread it. Sorry about that. At
least it will tell you what I've been up to. I'm in Glencliff right now.
Out of the Whites. Onto the easy stuff. Wish me luck.

Love,
Rachael/ Roadster

_________________________________________________________________
A new home for Mom, no cleanup required. All starts here.

http://www.reallivemoms.com?ocid=TXT_TAGHM&loc=us

call me Roadster

2007-08-07T01:14:00.000-05:00

Hey all, Conneticut here. Yes, I was in North Carolina before that. I bought tickets to NC almost as soon as I arrived home on from my first trip back in March. Tickets are just so cheap! Anyways, by doing that I also made it so that I inadvertantly missed my highschool reunion AGAIN! I was so mad. This was my Arts High School. The school I loved so much. Last time I missed it because I was fishing. I was planning my whole summer around going. They had told my the it would most likely be the second week of June or July. Instead, when I finally got desperate and had to know the date they told me it was to be June 29. That's not the second week! Or even the middle! Whatever, I don't want to talk about.

I got to do the jello wrestling instead which had long ago been scheduled for June 30. I had heard all about it.

I got all painted up. Great fun. It was about the most elaborate b-day party ever. There was the wrestling, a huge pot-luck, live music, bonfire, BBQ, an air cannon that you couldn't even see the tennis balls shoot from, tie dyeing and fire twirlers. Everyone was in broomstick skirts and barefoot.

I loved it. Jason and his friends left early, I stayed to see the rest of it. I wish I would have known to wear my skirt but I was so intent on the wrestling that I was all business. My only opponent didn't show up till it was over. Of course I still wrestled Jason but only a little. I was an even more hopeless challenge covered in slime. Jason was the go-for. People sent him after those that hadn't been exposed to the pit of jello.

It was fun to be back in NC, to see all the people I had met before and I was able to start getting to know them. Last time I was just trying to remember names. There was also a wedding to go to.

We went out drinking with the groom the week before.

When I finally went home Jason came with. It was a surprise. Only Mom knew. It was fun to surprise each person. First Bethany who picked us up, then Charity as she was settling to go to bed. Dad didn't come home till the next week, he's been Up North helping his little brother build his new house. My aunt and uncle are determined to move out of the Cities. I thought perhaps Jason would be up for some hard labor volunteer work in waaaay Up North. Meet relatives and the like, ha.

Instead we stayed close to home, I started a mural on Bethany's garage during the day while Jason kept in touch with work and Warcraft. At night we did taping on Dad's boat. The deck has to be chaulked and the chaulking can't seal to the bottom of the 1/8" seam.

We

Entertainment was watching Jason spit and swear at the remoteness that he kept finding himself in. Wi-fi is 12 miles away, a decent restaurant is a 45 min. drive, anything closer he wouldn't step in because they referred to themselves first as a Bar and then as a Grill , the closest pizza place is only open in the evenings and only till 9:00, mail isn't delivered at Bethany's and in the midst of it all Bethany tried to argue with Jason that Foley (a town of 2,000) is a city. It was classic. My favorite was when he had to pull over while we were driving to St. Cloud. We were doing some adjusting on the Tracker and I was like, " Why don't you pull in here?" I was pointing at the driveway he had just parked next to. "I don't want to block an intersection," he said.

"No, you're fine, it's just a driveway."

"No. . .it's an intersection, see the street sign?" Poor Jason.

"No . . ." I was trying to be sympathetic, honest," That's a house number and see the mailbox across the road?" To be fair it was an exceptionally long and wide driveway. You couldn't even see a house. That sent him off again, I was entertained.

Jason got to meet one set of my aunt and uncles. They came to see the boat. Then he looked up to see what concerts were coming to the area and almost fell over. There were 4 just during his visit that he wanted to see. One was NICKLEBACK! I can't believe I didn't hear about that. I love Nickleback. Unfortunately that one was pretty much sold out and the day that we would have gone down to see it we were left sitting in a left turning lane with a dead alternator and a drained battery. That was a fun day. We got to get towed the 25 miles back to Foley. Yay for All State.

In the end we were only able to make it to one concert but it was a doozy. It was a Sounds of the Under Ground tour, metal bands I had never heard of. Jason took turns calling up his various friends to tell them he was seeing their favorite band in concert. We stood for 8 hours. and it was a couple hours into it when I realized that all this waiting was to see GWAR the band that Beevis and Butthead were always on a mission to see. Ack! I'm here to see a Beevis and Butthead band? And WOW is about all I can think of to say. Wow. I can't believe I did that. Our legs hurt, my ears hurt. We were sprayed in various dyes or "blood" as they call it. Jason was covered a little more, I had used him as a shield. I convinced him to eat at Perkin's in Monticello afterwards. Even though it's nearly an hour out of the Cities concert people still seem to filter in there. Sure enough there was a couple all in black and metal studs. How cute.

Jason flew out August 1, I flew out August 7. I had bought my tickets to leave home before I had even returned from NC. There was some hectic packing and painting. I'm almost done with the mural. But now I am in Windsor at Emily's. I in New York City the day before flash floods closed down a lot of the trains. Nifty. Just in time.

Emily took me on a tour of the various job sites of her and her family. We mostly reminisced about Antarctica. It was so awesome to be back and visiting Emily. I've missed her humor. It's so neat to see someone in their home environment. When she picked me up at the train station she had on a blue polo shirt, later I asked if she had worn it so I could recognize her easier (that was our uniform for 6 months). She has a scrapbook and picturese that I don't have. I bought some last minute Trail items - socks and a camelbak for water. Very important. I love her house it's New England style. We went bowling, she took me out to her favorite restaurants, I got to try Polish food. How funny is that? I leave a Polish community to try Polish food for the first time in New England. Today we are going to take a little road trip to Gorham, NH where we will spend the night at the Barn and tomorrow she will drive me to the top of Mt. Washington where I will start heading South to Dalton, MA 250 miles away. I think I have everything. My pack is smaller but it still seems heavy. I don't even have water yet, ugh. This will be interesting. When I get to Dalton she's going to pick me up and take me back to Windsor for a day or two and then it will be on to my last section of trail Arden Valley, NY to Port Clintion, PA.

Let me end with a little quip from Antarctica:

"My advice for the day is: Don't ever do three winters in a row. Usually I'm really good at numbers and stuff like cups to pints. Now I have to keep looking at these stupid charts."

- Shane

McMurdo a.m. Head Chef

June 12, 2006

Wish me luck!

Love,

Roadster (back to my trail name)

PS I give up, I don't have time to make this entry perfect. Maybe I'll fix it later.

The Arctic Circle

2007-07-10T09:03:00.000-05:00

I left Alaska a couple weeks ago. I spent my last week or so in Fairbanks with relatives. I also had the chance to catch up with my hiking partner on the AT. Skittles/Richard is back in Fairbanks working to save for an 18 month hike. He plans on rehiking the 3 major US trails and the newly completed New Zealand trail.

I got up to Fairbanks my usual way - hitching. What a way to end my last hitching experience. I only hitch in AK and who knows when I'll have that opportunity again. But I would have to say that this hitch was about the most inconveniant ever. The lady went plenty out of her way to pick me up. As soon as I got my knees squeezed in behind her daughter's reclined seat she asked if I could pitch in for gas money. This of course meant pay the whole way. Crap. I suppose I should have just said no and waited for another ride but she was heading all the way to Fairbanks. I had had pretty good luck leaving Anchorage. The family I had stayed with had left me alone so I was able to head out without worrying people. There was a bit of a wait for a car to get me on the freeway but you can count on ex-hitchers to see the need and a commuter/ex-hitchiker soon gave me a ride across town where I soon had a ride out to Wassila or some place that I should know the name of. The second guy reminded me so much of Tony from Ice. Maybe a more domesticated Tony and I found myself thinking about Tony and all the crazy Ice people and how I hope they can get back down to McMurdo soon where they really belong. There's no place like McMurdo to be crazy and welcomed for it. Anyways, my thought for the final ride to Fairbanks was that I felt like I had been enough of a mooch, I might as well pitch in somewhere. This lady had driven from Fairbanks to be with her boyfriend, got mad at him, turned around and went straight back. She had only brought enough money for a one way trip. I don't get it. In the end I babysat the toddler in the car seat which meant periodically getting punched by a baby, I got my nails painted in metalic purples and pinks on the Alaska Highway by an 8 yr old (very glamorous), and then I drove for 4 of the 6 hours. Did I mention I paid for the gas? I just got more annoyed as I went. To top it off we ended the trip with her borrowing my cell phone twice to call up her boyfriend and cuss him out. One nice thing about swearing is that we have a very limited vocabulary of swear words, there's only so much you can say thus the conversations were short. Only a few lost family plan minutes on my detested cell phone. I had a good long time to think about society and the different family dynamics and I felt bad for these two children being raised in such a haphazard environment. I had at least made friends with my manicurist. She was sweet and did her best to help her mom and comfort her agitated sister. It can always be worse. But I was still grumpy and as you can see I can still gripe about it.

I met Skittles' landlord, he took me out to an awesome Italian supper. Then we went to the Big 'I' which I guess is one of the original Fairbanks bars or something historical like that. It looked like it was all original too, like it came out of some Clint Eastwood movie. The chairs were like bar stools crossed with recliners and wrapped in padded gold vinl. Wwe sat in the smokey wood panneled haze till Skittle's got off his evening shift.

I stayed at Skittles' that first night in Fairbanks, one: to be able to hang out with him for a bit and make plans for getting up to the Arctic Circle, and two: another way to keep it quiet from my relatives that I had hitched up.

Almost as soon as I got to the Lofthus place I was asked about my trip up here. I'm not a liar and they knew instantly what I had really been up to. They didn't seem worried at all. "Was it a nice trip?" How nice. What was I always worried about? Sneaking around all. Silly.

It wasn't until I was up at Fairbanks and in no way near fish that I realized that fish would be a great gift. It turns out that Uncle Mel had acquired his AK limit of fish and had plenty to share. It was great to be able to fillet fish, sort of get a bit of a refresher on it. I didn't get to do that with net mending when I was in Southern AK.

It was a great time to feel rugged as I got my hands all slimy and sawed at soft fish carcasses. This, people, is what red salmon is supposed to look like. These were pulled right out of the stream.

We got a few recipes off the internet, I combined those with what I remembered from Roths smoking fish. We dumped a brine together and let it soak for the day. Uncle Mel had bought a Little Chief Smoker at a garage sale for some ridiculous cheap price like $5 or something. It's the way to go as far as smoking goes.

The other Alaskan part of visiting the relatives was the rhubarb sauce. Yum, we ate that every chance we got.

There was some garage saling to do, a few visits to Value Village where I found things to over stuff my pack, Skittles ran a half marathon- the Mosquito Meander, we had to of course go and get ice cream at Hot Licks. There was coffee with the ladies, the land to bid on, and a wedding to attend - coworkers of Skittle's.

No, I did not get my land. You probably figured that out by now since I haven't responded in a very long time. It was one of those tough calls where I really wish I had the instinct to just go for it. I saw one piece of land go for $3,000. It had been a chunk that sounded like it would be a good investment piece. It was close to the water, had a great view. But I wasn't interested on living there. It wasn't even half an acre. So I didn't bid. And all the plots that I would have been happy owning went for over $10,000. I wasn't about to pay that much on land I hadn't seen and didn't really need at the moment. I did find out that Sandy and Glenn were also in the state of Alaska. I can't believe that we missed each other! They were down South.

As far as the trip to the Arctic, Skittles had a few contacts and before you know it my long driving plan had turned into an overnight camp with a group of 4. We needed enough to play Yuker. The ride up to the Arctic was long and bumpy and a little dusty but we had a rugged vehicle and great company. Towards the end we even picked up a Polish hitchiker. It was fun to hear that he was from Krakow and to tell him that I had hitched to Krakow. And to meet him now on the way to the Arctic Circle.

The sun never set, we stayed up till 3 in the morning playing cards. There was talk of bear attacks but it's hard to imagine a bear storming in to camp in broad day light. Even if it is 2 am.

By the time we got back I had just enough time for one last coffee with the girls, Connie and my Aunt Gladyse. I was tuckered out though.

The next morning around 8:00 as I prepared to leave I got a call from Maine. From the Cabin. The Cabin! I haven't seen these people since I stopped at the hostel with Skittles in 2004. I haven't heard from them either. They did send me copies of all the paintings I made for them. That's really neat. Anyways, Bear informed me that Honey was arriving in Fairbanks that day. I couldn't believe it. It's like contacts that I had met from around the world were nearly colliding in AK.

I had 24 hrs of travel. My first plane was to leave Fairbanks at 10:00. My day of travel was started off with the first plane being almost 3 hrs late, instead of having to wait in the airport Michelle was sent home sick from work, she returned to the airport and we went out to lunch. I barely made my connection in Anchorage to Minnesota. In MN, touching down at nearly midnight 14 voice mails were instantly downloaded onto my phone, I slept for about 4 hrs on a nice cushion that a security guy had pointed out and then I was heading out on my next journey to North Carolina. It wasn't even 6:00 am. I called to tell Mom and Dad that I had arrived in Washington (DC) only to call back a few minutes later to tell them I was actually at the Chicago O'Hare airport. My bad. It wasn't even noon and I was already jet weary and confused. I was giving Jason a big, if not slightly dazed, hug at 2:00 Thursday afternoon June 21. Yay, North Carolina!
http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=22944855

Back in A[c]K

2007-06-11T23:41:00.000-05:00

Well, here I am, back in AK. What a great thing.

Where do I begin? Probably with the mention that it is way too late for me to be working on this and that I should be in bed. I've been in Alaska for almost a week now. I started the count down to when I get to leave almost as soon as I hit the 50 degree temp in my capris. How I wish I had my long johns and a wool hat.

I, of course, had to stay up a whole 24 hr before I flew out. That's the last time you heard from me. So I was unconscious for most of the plane ride except for when the row of kids in front of me were screaming over the DVD player. In "My Day" all we had was a pencil and paper to entertain us and we were QUIET! My first expense for my trip was the dollar I paid for the headphones to maintain my sanity.

Once I had collected my bags it was back to the travel mode. How to find a way to the highway South so I can start hitching. I really didn't feel like starting this. Aren't I too old for this haphazard sort of travel? I talked to other MN tourists instead. Eventually, I took a bus to the South part of town and started walking from the Diamond Center Mall. In 5 hitches I was in Homer. It took a good while. I think people are losing their trust. It's neat because I was able to pick out the cars that would stop for me. If they have some sort of large sport equipment tied to the top of their car they'll stop, if the hood is tied down itself they'll stop, same as rust, the more rust, the more likely they will stop for me. I can definately count on a big fancy truck NEVER stopping.

I had my chance to go to Seward. I wasn't sure where the boats would be. Unfortunately, I didn't realize the difference in distance it was from Seward to Homer. So, I ended up in Homer and no boats were around. Instead, I found Bob working on his boat, the Neptune, in the boat yard ( I fished/had my mental breakdown for him in Kodiak, 2003). I got to meet his new crew and was invited for steaks. A great way to end a long day of meeting new people. I do like hitching. It's such a great combination. You get to meet some random person and then spend a car ride getting to know them. I asked a lot of questions about AK. My goal was to find out about life here.

It was great to meet Bob's crew, they had a campsite out on the Spit. I was really glad to have some instant male buddies. The camp was cozy, the fires were huge, plenty of Spit Rats to stop by and say hi.

It was very handy to have a cell phone, that's not the point, I'm still sad about owning one. I left messages for anyone I could get ahold of. The main thing is that I FROZE. I had tried to pack for Alaska and North Carolina weather but that cold wind off the ocean and the cold rain. . . shiver. Awesome thing: I was heading in to Homer from the Spit (hitching) and as I walked and cars drove by I finally noticed a car sitting along the road just waiting. Who just waits like that? It was really fishy. I slowly made my way up to them and then I found out it was Josh! A Roth relative and crew member. He had recognized me on the road and had pulled over to wait! So cool. I got to meet up with his sister, Heather, as well. Her and Robert finally bought a house. The Roth house has really been remodeled as well. Linda is working in Tutka at the fish hatchery. I got to ride around with her when she was in town to do errands.

I did get to go to the Salty Dawg again. This time I left a dollar hanging on the ceiling like all the others before - but not my bra, this is brand new! I also had to play my fishing song, "The Joker" by the Steve Miller Band (?). Ah, the good ol' days.

I actually didn't sleep the night that I went to the Salty Dawg. Instead, I packed my things and hit the road to hitch to Seward. It would be Friday and the boats would be done for the weekend. Sherri was driving to Anchorage on Sunday so I had a ride from Seward and to Anchorage. My idea was to hit the road early that Friday morning but 6 am was a bit too early for Homer traffic. It took me an hour between rides. I rode with a group of long time Alaska women, another car with a couple of old fishermen smoking cigars as I tried to snuggle with their waders in the back - did I mention how cold I was?

In between rides I urged hypothermia to set in so I could feel warm. I finally had a ride from Ninilchick to the 'T' for Seward and Anchorage. Jerry even bought me breakfast!! Awesome. I don't eat much out on the spit. Rice and tuna. It's sort of a bummer because I ate that for about 3 days and I was already sick of it - ok, 4 days. Anyways, I felt bad for Jerry because I was so tired that I was halucinating as he told me stories. He'd start on one, I would start to drift off and as I drifted I would fill in my own details. At one point he was saying something about his first marriage and I realized I was responding with an arguement about what he had been shopping for at the grocery store. "No, I think it was you . . ." I was saying before I was able to stop myself. He gave me a funny look and I tried to refocus my eyes as back peddled.

Anyways, once in Seward I was able to get a shower at the cannery and a little nap. Jamie woke me up (another point for cell phones) and her and Abbie took me around town on some errands before we took the skiff back out to the boats. As we went into one of the grocery stores I ran into BRIE coming out. BRIE! Do you have any idea??? I wintered with her in Antarctica! How crazy is that?? I've been waiting for my crazy "small world" experience and this has got to be a doozy. She's working at a camp. Awesome. We talked a good while till Abby and Jamie had gotten their supplies. I got our picture in front of the store for proof. See, go look. Long haired girl? That's Brie. I hope I'm spelling you're name right. I am SO sorry, Brie, that I didn't seem to remember your name. I'm going to blame exhaustion. I saw her and I was like, "Brie?" but I only thought that and then I was like, "No, that can't be her name, that's a cheese. Maybe it's Sarah," but Sarah definately didn't seem right. So, instead of guessing I just said I couldn't remember. I'd rather claim forgetfulness that to call her Brie and be wrong. Sheesh. I'm SORRY! I felt awful. I lived in Antarctica, we saw each other for 6 months. I know she used to play rugby, she was a GA, she played dodgeball. I bet I could still get to her room, she does watercolors. . .and yet I blanked when she came out of the store. "Cheese? That can't be right." I think I was really tired.

Back on the boat, I got dropped off on the North Star. That was a little crazy. The skiff came zooming up to the side and I lunged for the rail with my backpack on. I thought of all the hiker days and rock scrambling and didn't feel nimble at all. I did get to plunge (scare fish away from their only escape route) for a set, Sherri and I caught up on news and stories and discussed our "favorite" book, Fascinating Womanhood. She's the one that introduced it to me when she was ranting about its sexism. She had gotten the book as a wedding present. The book is an interesting topic. I do recommend it, something to laugh at and think about. This would have been such a fun year to return fishing. Abbie and Jamie are back fishing as well as Dave and Allen. Such awesome people. I met Norman's little sister Gabby as well. She would be fun too.

Paul and Sherri fed me and then it was a ride back to Homer. I was out. Sherri let me sleep in the bunk house. I was so grateful to not have to go back out on the Spit. Bob's crew keeps talking about moving. They don't pay for their spot so it's only a matter of time. And the Spit is not a place to catch up on sleep, especially at midnight on a Friday night.

Sabbath was relaxing and indoors. I wore my skirts over my pajama bottoms, snuggled in a blanket and had a day of phone calls. After that was a game of Estimate and my visit back to AK was complete. Of course, I also had to have my old skipper inform me once again how old I'm getting and how slim the pickin's are getting. I think it's down to "take what you can get" as far as husbands go. So helpful.

I do miss fishing. I miss the water, the scenery, coming into town, the smell of the salt and the boats, the docks. I love the ruggedness and the adventure. I love stepping off the dock and knowing that no one else knows where you have been, or the fact that the same sea crossing can vary so drastically. I guess I don't miss any work part of the fishing. I just miss being out on the boats. Being in AK made me think back to Dad's boat again. Maybe it would be something I would really, really love. Maybe I wouldn't feel like I was just tagging along.

I did find one very interesting bit of info, a flyer at the bulletin board by the marina bathrooms on the Spit. The flyer is advertising a land auction for this Thursday! I am excited. I plan on doing the auction at my Aunt and Uncle's. It says you can bid online. We'll see. I've looked over the land descriptions, have a couple bits I want to bid on. I am REALLY excited. There's no minimum bid, only $500 down required at the time of sale, and you can pretty much pick how much to pay each month. I don't know what remote land is selling for but this is in Prince William Sound on a peninsula. Accessible only by boat or air. You can look it up, it's in Port Fidalgo. Or go online: http://www.grubstakeauction.com. So far there's only about 4 cabins. I'm hoping that not enough people are interested on something so remote. I won't be bidding very high though. I don't have that much money and I've never seen the place, but the pictures show an area just like Homer. It would be so awesome to be able to say that I own land in AK. I just want to have it. Then I can figure out what to do with it later. I don't have any set plans but this would certainly give me options. Well, I'm not going to think about it. I need to get to bed. My southern leg of Alaska is finished. Tomorrow I head to Fairbanks to visit my relatives and Skittles - who I am trying to get in the habit of calling Richard. Speaking of, I was talking to an acquantance of my brother and he was laughing that my brother actually knows two people by the name of Skittles. When he stopped laughing I said that I also know two Skittles. How odd is that? How many of you know someone that goes by "Skittles"? All right. I really have to go. It's an early day tomorrow.

Oh, I should tell you. I drove up with Sherri, she dropped her car off at Mike's and he let me stay with his family in Anchorage. He used to skipper the Lindy till he sold it a couple years ago. It was SO nice of him to let me stay. I was planning on camping. Ahhhh (comfy sigh). . . I'm staying in a 16 year old's room. Did you know that they really do decorate their rooms like in the Target catalogs? Pink and shaggy. I was so suprised. All these years I thought I still related with High Schoolers and now I feel like I'm in a family sitcom. I think I am getting old.

May Highlights

2007-06-05T01:32:00.001-05:00

Highlights:
-we've put in a new patio, repainted the trim on the house and garage, painted the picket fences, stained the deck (I got to feel tough or in pain many days - good times), Dad kindly built us a raised flower bed, then Bethany planted a garden and cleaned out the garage. Now it's a two car garage.

-We girls got to go to the preview showing of Pirates 3. Charity and I dressed as Pirates to shake up the neighborhood a bit.
-speaking of "shaking up" I got pulled over for what I would like to call the Foley version of drunken joy riding. At some point in the beginning of the evening I had a beer. Then Bethany and I drove to my parents' house for something. It was about midnight when we finally were back in Foley and a cop started following me at a stoplight, we took a left, a right, a stop sign, another left and all the way to our dead end street where he finally pulled me over in the driveway for not signaling for that final right turn. I was driving "suspiciously". Quite entertaining. Those cops are so bored. I forgot to mention that it was a wild Monday night. Next time we get followed home by a cop we plan on changing course and just aimlessly cruising.

-Grandma Lofthus turned 80

-Grandpa Sorenson had a week in the hospital because his platelets were incredibly low.
-this was just days days after my aunt had gotten her gall bladder removed. Dad and I were Up North a lot.

-I'm now working for Dad rebuilding classic wood boats. My job is to take apart the rotten original.
-Charity has a job. She's not happy about that but it's some training in computers and now she doesn't have to watch her savings slowly trickle.
-Uncle Mikey started work on his cabin.

Some of these last things I mentioned to help explain why the boat is so far behind schedule. Dad has done a lot of home improvement stuff as well.

Did I tell you I'm going to North Carolina after Alaska? Immediately after. I arrive in Minneapolis at nearly midnight from Anchorage then less than 6 hrs later I'm flying to North Carolina. So fun. I hope I'm all haggard and crusty when Jason picks me up. I like having the feeling that I've just crawled out of some ditch and I shouldn't be out in society.

Talk to you soon.

50s Party

2007-06-03T11:58:00.000-05:00

Well, I am about to head out to Alaska. My flight leaves in just a few hours. I thought I better say hello and do a little catch up on the stories of MN.

Saturday night was a 50's Party at Bethany's. It was all out, great food, lots of people, decorations, we dusted of some old magazines in the basement for effect. They were from the 60s but who's counting?

Mom and Dad came. Dad even dressed up. He had the hair gelled back, a Lucky hanging out of his mouth and a pack rolled up in his sleeve. There was a swirl of poodle skirts and plenty of pearls.

It didn't start off perfect. There was an absolute down pour that trapped Bethany and I in the garage. It was like being behind a waterfall to watch the water pour off the roof. We have been having amazing thunderstorms.

Luckily it cleared up just before guests arrived. The party was moved into the garage instead of the patio. We still had paper lanterns, Hannah saved the day by getting dry firewood for a bonfire. There was lots of Shirley Temples, sparklers, and lots of tongues practicing tying cherry stems.

Entertainment was watching Duane try to split a massive log with a pair of garden shears and a shovel. Man, if that had worked it would have been a great story. We now have a blade of a garden shears impossibly wedged in a 2 ft log and another scorched log beside that. Once we gave up on the idea of getting a log split Duane put one of the massive ones on the little heap of coals that made our fire pit. Mary had the idea to go around and tell our most embarassing moments. That eventually evolved into our most memorable spankings. By the time the party was dying down you would have thought everyone had been abused as a child. It still made for hilarious stories.

On Sunday I was up early and off to Mom and Dad's to watch a film crew document Dad's continuing boat project. Poor Dad - and Ben, they wanted this boat in the water by August. They are so anxious to get out there on the water. This film crew is one of Ben's friends. He really thinks there is a good story. I know he does. I am so excited for Dad.

Well, it's late, the next time I talk I'll have stories of Alaska to tell. I'm so happy to be going back.

Mom's Mother Day Present

2007-05-09T07:46:00.000-05:00

Before

After

I just had to brag. We always threaten to shave Winston, now the days are getting hot and Mother's Day was coming up. That's all the excuse I needed. I say Mother's Day is a time to remind her what motherhood is all about. It's been years since there has been any sort of surprise haircut in the household.

Catch up - March and on

2007-05-05T20:10:00.002-05:00

It has been quite awhile hasn't it? Well, a few things that have happened:
First, my old old friend Charity has moved in with me at Bethany's. I flew down and helped her pack and then we road tripped up to MN.

This included a side trip to our very first Renaissance Festival. We loved it. We were figuring out how we could live the rest of our lives at fairs. We saw it all: acts, clothes, swords, songs, dance, jousting. We shouted a lot of "Hazzaaah" and thought of MST3K, fell in love with a knight - well, almost, - it was his horse. We have a plan. The two of us will make beautiful art to peddle at the Ren Fests. I will take up belly dancing (just for fun) and then in the afternoons we'll stage a cat fight in front our booth to attract customers. This gives Charity the chance to practice her fencing skills.

Before we go and do that we had to take a road trip to NC. It was a mult-purpose roadtrip. I was going to visit Jason, Half Full/Carrie my old AT hiking partner, and Mandi that I worked with in Antarctica. Charity was going to visit her cousins, her brother (I know him too and was looking forward to catching up with him as well), and there also just so happened to be another Renaissance Festival happening near where Jason lives so we were both ready for that. Dad was our driver, he had a few reasons to go to NC as well.

It's neat how it all came about. It all started with my plans to finish hiking on the AT with a quick stop in NC to visit all the people I just mentioned. One night as Dad was checking on his bids on E-Bay he was suddenly like, "By the way, where did you say you were planning to go next?" It turns out that he had found an incredible deal for a marine engine with transmission that he was eying for his boat that just happened to be located in North Carolina. With a bit of scheduling and plotting we figured we could all get our trips to go together. Somehow Dad's contractor found out about this and before you know it, we were heading down the highway in a monster truck like the commercials in which they have those guys flashing their guitars and bragging in twang about toughness or something. The truck was borrowed from Dad's boss-guy in exchange for picking up an entire boat that had been purchased about 5 yrs ago. I don't know the story with that but we had a cushy elevated ride on leather seats. The funny part was taking a boat into the mountains for one of the visits. We could smell the brakes when we finally inched our way back down.

The South and it's road signs
Serious, at one intersection it had road signs and street signs on both corners and above the traffic lights.

Renaissance Festival, NC

random bling fairy
(nice enough to pose for me)

Charity and her Bro (Peter) reunited
not the guy on stilts

After Charity and Dad went back home I was on my own in NC to get to know Jason's family, make some money landscaping, and whatever else came up. It was a whirl of stuff, I met Jason's friends, saw 300, Blades of Glory, Grindhouse, I even got paid to do a Thai Massage. As for landscaping, it was so nice to be outside and working hard, and I got to hang out with really cool people beside. Jason and I went to DC, Sunset Beach, and Myrtle Beach. I visited Mandi in Columbia, SC. I went to Asheville to visit my old hiking partner and reunite with her family and friends. It was such a great time of memories. It was Spring down south. I got to listen to my parents report being snowed in at home and 20 degree weather.

Carrie told me about a little log cabin that had been for sale for $65,000 somewhere near Asheville and that Asheville has an alternative medicine school. How awesome would that be? It was enough to get me thinking. I could get a few degrees, set up a practice. . .have my art as a past time. Hmm. . . Well, it's a thought. I still have Alaska to think about but what if I did schooling for two years and then I could put it into practice up there. Make good money. I don't know.

My new and awesome friend Dreya
on Sunset Beach

Now I am home, readjusting to life at Bethany's. I am trying to get into the routine of biking to Mom and Dad's to help him work on his boat. So far he hasn't been able to start so I mowed the lawn one day. How crazy is that? That's something to blog about.

There's been the first family picnic of the year and Bethany and I went to an SCSU alumni dinner - and we never attended college. How great was that? At one point I found myself sitting at a table where everyone was married and pregnant. Agh! Where am I? One of them was a little punk kid that used to ride our bus. What in the world? When Bethany asked me what outfit I was planning to wear I told her I was going for Spinster Librarian. We compromised on a more glamorous version but I still got my sweater and skirt combo.

Basically, after I got back from NC I spent a few days artistically brooding. I was moping about how I am wasting my life, I don't appreciate any of it, I don't have any new big goals that I am working towards, I'm too uncertain, blah, blah, blah, you may notice that this is becoming a common theme of mine. I discovered something shocking about myself while I was away: I'm a commitment phobic. Me! I think is what bothered me most was how obvious it is but how I had no idea. Now I have to get over that. If I want to settle down I have to make some long term choices. How do I do that?

I did have a nice reaffirmation last night. Kimmy and I went out to a bar for their Grand Opening. They had a mechanical bull and it was our intent to ride it. I only had one go at it but I felt I did decently enough for a girl. Once I was back on the ground there was a class mate tapping me on the shoulder to say hi! HA. I don't think you can quite appreciate how much it meant to me. I was the invisible girl in school with the (warped) idea that everyone hated me. I detested them all back. It was a passive aggressive war of ignoring everyone and doing my best to not give them a chance to know what sort of person I was. Well, I'm not like that so much any more and riding a mechanical bull in the town where I had attended high school made me give the whole bar experience cheesily deep meaning. When the "popular kid" of 10 yrs ago gave me kudos for my bull ride it's like that moment summed up my transformation and the effects of that.

Speaking of transformations. Do you see me finally beginning to get these e-mails a little nicer with the pictures? All right, Talk to you later.

Love,
Rachael