Kansas City Power and Light District

Today was a beautiful day! We are showing our work at the new Howard Alan show in the Power & Light District in Kansas City MO. Set up yesterday was brutally hot and we paced ourselves. Last night we had a huge downpour that cooled things off on this summer weekend. A huge blessing after the heat we've endured at recent shows.
Our booth is wonderfully situated in the epicenter of this new event. We have a great location (thank you Debbie)! We've had tremendous interest in our work and sold a small piece today. We're hoping for additional sales tomorrow as the weather will again be kind to us. For a new event, there was a strong turn out and enthusiastic patrons that seem happy to have another quality show in their area. We're happy to be here in the inagural year and want to see this show take off.

Today we were graced by meeting two people who have come to know us through this blog! How cool is that? I began this blog/journal in January on a cold winter day and it has become a wonderful vehicle to chronicle my work, our travels and life in general. To meet people who have come along on this journey and vicariously enjoyed and shared this blog was a joy. I sometimes wonder who reads my words and today I met some of these fine people!
Thank you for coming out.
Thank you for reading and thank you for caring.
We can think of our world as large and diverse or small and interconencted.
Todays experiences underscored the beauty of meeting people through the power of words and the sharing of art.
With a handshake in thought I thank you for letting me know my words, often typed in the dark and quiet hours, reach an audience who cares and is interconnected!

Art unites and mingles souls and we're all the better for it!
Namastè,

Patricia

✯Irish Celtic TattooDreams Box✯

For the last few weeks my etsy site has been somewhat empty. Many of my boxes that were on my etsy site are being exhibited in a gallery show at By Hand Gallery here in Bloomington. I've missed being represented on etsy and last night I listed seven new boxes. I hope you'll enjoy viewing them. You can click on the right side of my page to view these boxes.

*Warning....Addiction can follow! Once you purchase one, you may want more!!
༺✯༻

Patricia

Irish Cletic TattooDream Box
40.00

George Carlin

In the last two weeks we have said goodbye to two very different but successful communicators. For me to not draw a comparison between these two highly applauded individuals would mean I had missed their key strengths. Tim Russert had his finger on the political pulse and did so masterfully.
George Carlin put into words everyday situations and made us laugh at ourselves. To catagorize this man as a comic genius seems trite. He was so much more. He was a sculptor with words, crafting them and making them fit. A weaver of images, a painter of emotions. He defined a generation that smoked pot and did drugs to escape and helped us see ourselves into boomerhood all the while noting the human texture that made us so laughable and odd.
He highlighted the traits of humanity and the small nuances that are common and relatable to any of us that take the time to examine ourselves and the world around us.

Jon and I had the unique opportunity to see him in concert. It was in West Palm Beach when we were dating during art school. We'd spent the day at an Octoberfest celebration in Fort Lauderdale and were primed and ready for his pearls of wisdom. He blew the roof off the building with laughter and applause and our bodies hurt for for days. His memory for dialog was outstanding and he honed his craft to perfection. His body animated and contorted as stories were told and routines evolved into one relating and identifying with his take on the subject. He held you in the palm of his hand.

I've always felt that to make people laugh is a gift beyond measure! He of course, had that amazing gift! He had a wicked command of the English language and always extracted the right words and set them into rapid fire sequence. I admire that talent. He had a Mom who expected him to learn a new word every day. I had an Aunt like that. Another thing that I admire about this comic genius was that he worked up until last weekend. He did what he did till he dropped. He was 71. That's what people do when they love what they're doing.
They do it till they drop.
He was an artist I dearly loved and will dearly miss.
RIP George!
♱
Patricia

◀ A Ten Year Project Completed ▶

Wow! After 10+ years and well over 2200 wooden objects painted and drilled into beads, my bead project is complete!!! I hung it this weekend on a salvaged pole that I painted purple. The wooden rings were gifted to me from a friend to use how I saw fit. This beaded curtain hangs between our dining room and kitchen.
The painting of these beads began when Jon and I rented the Old Opera House in Gosport, IN. My painting area was a few too many steps away from the closest sink. In order to use up small dabs of paint, I began applying them to these odd wooden parts. Soon more intense detail was added to each bead with most being embellished with 6-10 colors per bead, often airbrushing and detailing with pencil tips. I got into it and the time spent illuminating these beads became a cathraric episode I looked forward to every day.
A meditation of sorts.
There are 22 strands hanging. Each one is about 84" long and comprised of a minimum of 120 beads.
For those who say I have no patience, I will kindly refer them to this project......
It became a metaphor for time used and paint saved!
It became a testament to patience!
Enjoy!
♻
Patricia

༺ Abundance ༻

I asked for strength that I might achieve.
He gave me weakness that I might learn obedience.
I asked for health that I might do great things.
He gave me sickness that I might do better things.
I asked for wealth that I might be happy.
He gave me poverty that I might be wise.
I asked for power that I might have glory.
He gave me impotence that I might realize my dependance upon him.
I asked for all things that I might enjoy life.
He gave me life that I might enjoy all things.
I received nothing that I asked for,
but all I hoped for.
I am rich.
I am happy.
My prayer is answered.

Author Unknown

Carved angel above was found at a mission thrift store last week for two dollars.
Jon took her picture for my blog.
⁂
Patricia

Tim Russert... A voice I'd come to know........

Every now and then, someone dies who we seem to feel we know, but in actuality, have never met. Today was one of those days and Tim Russert was one of those rare individuals. The news of his death at 58 was shocking. He was the voice I'd come to know from Sunday mornings and 'Meet the Press'.
The voice that asked questions, that had the facts all the while challenging with wit and wisdom.
He had Irish charm.
He was to be around, for what some feel to be, myself included, the most important election of our time. This was his event to cover. Somehow his early demise cuts short the electricty of the fall election coverage and, as a fellow Democrat, I can only hope the right guy wins!

No one expects to die at 58. Having just returned from Italy the day before, perhaps it was a blood clot that took him this afternoon.
Perhaps his heart gave way.
Perhaps too much intensity played out.
For an inspired journalist to die at work only seems appropriate. He lived and loved his job and that is where he took his last breaths.

How sad for his family to face such a loss on Fathers Day weekend. His published books were books that accounted his deep relationship with his father, his mentor. Perhaps fitting then, that this be his time to go. His father outlived him.

Tim brought the world of politics into view for the average person and helped them decipher the underpinnings of what often seemed few could comprehend. This he did so extraordinarily well, he made it look easy, all the while asking the questions you know he wanted to hear the answers to as well as the viewers who dilligently listened. If a journalist had fans, Tim Russert had a fan club!
I will miss his television persona and the person I have come to know as my liason into politics. His bravado and charisma will be hard to replace.

Godspeed Tim Russert.
You had the popular vote!
♣
Patricia

~~ Flooding ~~

First off, we're okay.....We made it home from a show in St. Louis late last night. Our studio is in flooded shape again after more heavy rain this weekend. This was the worst flooding our studio had gone through since it first flooded on our way home from Paris 7 years ago.
We have silt from the neighbors garden coated onto our floor we'll be needing to scrape off and move the tablesaw and other heavy stuff to let the cement floor dry. More heavy rain is predicted for the week. A 90% chance of heavy rain for tonight here in Monroe County. Most likely more flooding will ensue.
Needing to do laundry but the thought of adding yet more water to the saturated ground is not a keen idea.

Our studio, while not in a flood plain, floods with heavy rains. The guys who built it were careless in their drainage decisions and if they'd built it one 8" brick higher all around, the rains most likely would not permeate between the wall and foundation the way they do. We flooded 3 times last week as we were preparing for our show in St. Louis. Not fun.

The show was to open Friday night from 6-10. We set up during the day, no sooner did we finish our set up and the tornado sirens blasted. We left saying a prayer as we were well tied down and happily not on a corner isle. Show was cancelled for that evening. The field flooded with at least 4" of rain.
Saturday and Sunday were perhaps the hottest we'd ever felt at a show in 24 years of doing this. 95º and high humidity. The fact we had electricity and fans running, kept many of us from going to the hospital. The show staff did an excellent job providing water to all the artists. It was brutal and thus reflected in our zero sales. Very disappointing and not something we needed. We seem to take a step forward and 2 back this year. We can only hope that the summer will be kinder to us in our outdoor gallery.

Some of the roads needed to get home last night had been closed due to flooding earlier in the day. We were able to get home by our usual route but saw semi's that had hydroplaned off the highways and landed in ditches. 41 Indiana counties are under disaster state from flooding, loss of life and devastation. With more inclement weather on it's way, we can only hope it will calm down soon.
In the meantime we do what we can do to right the ship and keep sailing.

We have a commission due this week as a Fathers Day gift and amid all this clean up, that will get done!
Say a prayer for those harder hit, there are a lot of people having a difficult time dealing with all of this.

Ten years ago, almost to the day, when we lived in the forest house we had, we had a bad flood. Ten inches of rain came down in a short period of time. I think this is a ten year flood we are once again going through.
Blessings to all the small creatures at its mercy.

Hope all well and safe!
Pat & Jon

• Modern Day Don Quixote's •

The path less chosen is often the most interesting one - we think! On our most recent trip west, the return had us stopping for a makeshift picnic about 20 miles west of Salina Kansas. We were just north of Interstate 70, off on a side road from the interstate. Site of the Smoky Hill Wind Farm.

The thing I love about Kansas is the hugeness of the horizon, the open feeling of possibility I feel when there.
The wind.
I'm sure the homesteaders of the past, with possessions in tow on wooden wheels with primative means, experienced these same thoughts. They saw what I saw, but without the interstates and modern growth. A canopy of stars guided their journey.

Too early in the season to see fields of sunflowers, we saw wind farms. Clearly visible for miles, these magical wind powered caliopies gave way to many questions. How big are they? How do they get installed? How do they harness the wind?
I felt like Don Quixote........

This 12,000 acre parcel hosts 139 wind turbines. All in various stages of completion, they grace the windswept fields as cattle graze unaffected below. Their extended arms catching wind are 131 feet long. The height of the turbine is 262 feet. Comprised of 3 sections that get hoisted into place and bolted together on site, these structures are huge! Many times we've driven beside these in transit on their flatbed trucks. Seeing them vertical is very cool.

This wind farm, when set in motion, will generate enough power to fuel almost 37,000 Kansas homes annually.

So, for one singular afternooon, among sunny Kansas skies, Jon I were Don Quixote and we danced with windmills!
•••
Patricia