♱ Glenn Donovan Remembered ♱

We have a spider web over our kitchen counter. It's presence reminds us of a dear friend now gone. Glenn Donovan made that spider web in his whimsical style of welding metal and creating life out of this humble material. Glenn was so much more than a gifted sculptor. He was a bigger than life character who, when he hugged you, you knew you'd been hugged!
When he laughed, it was as if a thundering bellow from deep inside was resonating and his whole being erupted in muse.
I still hear his voice. It was loud and clear, a cacophony of exuberance! A brilliantly deviant mind who was fast on the uptake with lightening wit. His mind was fluid and resembled his pivoting sculptures that would move with the slightest breeze.
I can still hear his laughter and wry sense of humor and sadly missed his being at Boston Mills Art Fest this past July. That was the show we'd usually see he and his love Edie showing their work, sweating with the rest of us. His pager would go off and off he went to help Edie wrap up a sale or chat with a collector. He was brilliantly funny and a lover of life!
He died way too young.
Not to say life comes with any guarantees, but his life ended abruptly on January 21st of this year. He died suddenly of a blood clot in his lungs. His passing leaves Jon and I at a loss. We have lost too many friends in the last many years.

A tribute display and sale of Glenn's final work will be held on Saturday, August 2nd at the Brewery Pottery Studio of Diana and Tom Johnston in Mineral Point, WI. This opens at 3:00. Stop by if you can and share the love.

Below is a photo of one of Glenns more popular pieces, the Tree of Life.

In this work, he clearly connects man to nature. His art mirrored his life in such a profound way. He loved working with the nature sanctuary and being outdoors. His travels and adventures with Edie will live on as will he, both in our hearts and through his twirling, animated sculptures.

•Memorial contributions can be made to the Community Conservation project: http://www.communityconservation.org
or or the Crawford Stewardship Project at P.O. Box 284 Gays Mills, WI 54631.
Please, make a note on either donation that it is being made in memory of Glenn Donovan.

Godspeed Glenn!
You are flying high!

Patricia & Jon
༺♥♥༻

www.welderboy.com

An Image Says it All!

For 24 years we have done outdoor juried art shows. We have utilized different ways of photgraphing our mixed media body of work. With the work being dimensional it has some parameters that call for shadow to be seen but not be too strongly side-lit that it distorts the art. It's tricky at best and becomes an expensive learning curve.
The quality of the images and their content is imperative since show juries view the work for less than 30 seconds. This is what a 35.00 jury fees 'buys'. An impression. It is that impression that either gets me into a show or not.
Is it cut-throat?
Oh yes!
Is it moreso in recent years?........You bet!
Competition at shows is tighter than ever.
It's this high level of competition that keeps me making what I feel to be better work and jury images and Jon trying to find better ways to capture them.
Todays blog shows a piece I sold at Boston Mills. It's called 'Eclipse'. He shot this in my booth with hard side lights in the booth. Not ideal controlled lighting by any means. This is not jury quality, but it does inspire us to shoot the work on an angle as opposed to straight on as we had been doing.
Here's to the competitive spirit that keeps us working towards the best possible!
★
Pat
Please see more of my work on my website:
http://www.heckerdesign.com

Speech by Barack Obama ★ Berlin 2008

BERLIN, Germany -- Thank you to the citizens of Berlin and to the people of Germany. Let me thank Chancellor Merkel and Foreign Minister Steinmeier for welcoming me earlier today. Thank you Mayor Wowereit, the Berlin Senate, the police, and most of all thank you for this welcome.

I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen have come before. Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen - a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world.

I know that I don't look like the Americans who've previously spoken in this great city. The journey that led me here is improbable. My mother was born in the heartland of America, but my father grew up herding goats in Kenya. His father - my grandfather - was a cook, a domestic servant to the British.

At the height of the Cold War, my father decided, like so many others in the forgotten corners of the world, that his yearning - his dream - required the freedom and opportunity promised by the West. And so he wrote letter after letter to universities all across America until somebody, somewhere answered his prayer for a better life.

That is why I'm here. And you are here because you too know that yearning. This city, of all cities, knows the dream of freedom. And you know that the only reason we stand here tonight is because men and women from both of our nations came together to work, and struggle, and sacrifice for that better life.

Ours is a partnership that truly began sixty years ago this summer, on the day when the first American plane touched down at Templehof.

On that day, much of this continent still lay in ruin. The rubble of this city had yet to be built into a wall. The Soviet shadow had swept across Eastern Europe, while in the West, America, Britain, and France took stock of their losses, and pondered how the world might be remade.

This is where the two sides met. And on the twenty-fourth of June, 1948, the Communists chose to blockade the western part of the city. They cut off food and supplies to more than two million Germans in an effort to extinguish the last flame of freedom in Berlin.

The size of our forces was no match for the much larger Soviet Army. And yet retreat would have allowed Communism to march across Europe. Where the last war had ended, another World War could have easily begun. All that stood in the way was Berlin.

And that's when the airlift began - when the largest and most unlikely rescue in history brought food and hope to the people of this city.

The odds were stacked against success. In the winter, a heavy fog filled the sky above, and many planes were forced to turn back without dropping off the needed supplies. The streets where we stand were filled with hungry families who had no comfort from the cold.

But in the darkest hours, the people of Berlin kept the flame of hope burning. The people of Berlin refused to give up. And on one fall day, hundreds of thousands of Berliners came here, to the Tiergarten, and heard the city's mayor implore the world not to give up on freedom. "There is only one possibility," he said. "For us to stand together united until this battle is won...The people of Berlin have spoken. We have done our duty, and we will keep on doing our duty. People of the world: now do your duty...People of the world, look at Berlin!"

People of the world - look at Berlin!

Look at Berlin, where Germans and Americans learned to work together and trust each other less than three years after facing each other on the field of battle.

Look at Berlin, where the determination of a people met the generosity of the Marshall Plan and created a German miracle; where a victory over tyranny gave rise to NATO, the greatest alliance ever formed to defend our common security.

Look at Berlin, where the bullet holes in the buildings and the somber stones and pillars near the Brandenburg Gate insist that we never forget our common humanity.

People of the world - look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one.

Sixty years after the airlift, we are called upon again. History has led us to a new crossroad, with new promise and new peril. When you, the German people, tore down that wall - a wall that divided East and West; freedom and tyranny; fear and hope - walls came tumbling down around the world. From Kiev to Cape Town, prison camps were closed, and the doors of democracy were opened. Markets opened too, and the spread of information and technology reduced barriers to opportunity and prosperity. While the 20th century taught us that we share a common destiny, the 21st has revealed a world more intertwined than at any time in human history.

The fall of the Berlin Wall brought new hope. But that very closeness has given rise to new dangers - dangers that cannot be contained within the borders of a country or by the distance of an ocean.

The terrorists of September 11th plotted in Hamburg and trained in Kandahar and Karachi before killing thousands from all over the globe on American soil.

As we speak, cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps in the Arctic, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, and bringing drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya.

Poorly secured nuclear material in the former Soviet Union, or secrets from a scientist in Pakistan could help build a bomb that detonates in Paris. The poppies in Afghanistan become the heroin in Berlin. The poverty and violence in Somalia breeds the terror of tomorrow. The genocide in Darfur shames the conscience of us all.

In this new world, such dangerous currents have swept along faster than our efforts to contain them. That is why we cannot afford to be divided. No one nation, no matter how large or powerful, can defeat such challenges alone. None of us can deny these threats, or escape responsibility in meeting them. Yet, in the absence of Soviet tanks and a terrible wall, it has become easy to forget this truth. And if we're honest with each other, we know that sometimes, on both sides of the Atlantic, we have drifted apart, and forgotten our shared destiny.

In Europe, the view that America is part of what has gone wrong in our world, rather than a force to help make it right, has become all too common. In America, there are voices that deride and deny the importance of Europe's role in our security and our future. Both views miss the truth - that Europeans today are bearing new burdens and taking more responsibility in critical parts of the world; and that just as American bases built in the last century still help to defend the security of this continent, so does our country still sacrifice greatly for freedom around the globe.

Yes, there have been differences between America and Europe. No doubt, there will be differences in the future. But the burdens of global citizenship continue to bind us together. A change of leadership in Washington will not lift this burden. In this new century, Americans and Europeans alike will be required to do more - not less. Partnership and cooperation among nations is not a choice; it is the one way, the only way, to protect our common security and advance our common humanity.

That is why the greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one another.

The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down.

We know they have fallen before. After centuries of strife, the people of Europe have formed a Union of promise and prosperity. Here, at the base of a column built to mark victory in war, we meet in the center of a Europe at peace. Not only have walls come down in Berlin, but they have come down in Belfast, where Protestant and Catholic found a way to live together; in the Balkans, where our Atlantic alliance ended wars and brought savage war criminals to justice; and in South Africa, where the struggle of a courageous people defeated apartheid.

So history reminds us that walls can be torn down. But the task is never easy. True partnership and true progress requires constant work and sustained sacrifice. They require sharing the burdens of development and diplomacy; of progress and peace. They require allies who will listen to each other, learn from each other and, most of all, trust each other.

That is why America cannot turn inward. That is why Europe cannot turn inward. America has no better partner than Europe. Now is the time to build new bridges across the globe as strong as the one that bound us across the Atlantic. Now is the time to join together, through constant cooperation, strong institutions, shared sacrifice, and a global commitment to progress, to meet the challenges of the 21st century. It was this spirit that led airlift planes to appear in the sky above our heads, and people to assemble where we stand today. And this is the moment when our nations - and all nations - must summon that spirit anew.

This is the moment when we must defeat terror and dry up the well of extremism that supports it. This threat is real and we cannot shrink from our responsibility to combat it. If we could create NATO to face down the Soviet Union, we can join in a new and global partnership to dismantle the networks that have struck in Madrid and Amman; in London and Bali; in Washington and New York. If we could win a battle of ideas against the communists, we can stand with the vast majority of Muslims who reject the extremism that leads to hate instead of hope.

This is the moment when we must renew our resolve to rout the terrorists who threaten our security in Afghanistan, and the traffickers who sell drugs on your streets. No one welcomes war. I recognize the enormous difficulties in Afghanistan. But my country and yours have a stake in seeing that NATO's first mission beyond Europe's borders is a success. For the people of Afghanistan, and for our shared security, the work must be done. America cannot do this alone. The Afghan people need our troops and your troops; our support and your support to defeat the Taliban and al Qaeda, to develop their economy, and to help them rebuild their nation. We have too much at stake to turn back now.

This is the moment when we must renew the goal of a world without nuclear weapons. The two superpowers that faced each other across the wall of this city came too close too often to destroying all we have built and all that we love. With that wall gone, we need not stand idly by and watch the further spread of the deadly atom. It is time to secure all loose nuclear materials; to stop the spread of nuclear weapons; and to reduce the arsenals from another era. This is the moment to begin the work of seeking the peace of a world without nuclear weapons.

This is the moment when every nation in Europe must have the chance to choose its own tomorrow free from the shadows of yesterday. In this century, we need a strong European Union that deepens the security and prosperity of this continent, while extending a hand abroad. In this century - in this city of all cities - we must reject the Cold War mind-set of the past, and resolve to work with Russia when we can, to stand up for our values when we must, and to seek a partnership that extends across this entire continent.

This is the moment when we must build on the wealth that open markets have created, and share its benefits more equitably. Trade has been a cornerstone of our growth and global development. But we will not be able to sustain this growth if it favors the few, and not the many. Together, we must forge trade that truly rewards the work that creates wealth, with meaningful protections for our people and our planet. This is the moment for trade that is free and fair for all.

This is the moment we must help answer the call for a new dawn in the Middle East. My country must stand with yours and with Europe in sending a direct message to Iran that it must abandon its nuclear ambitions. We must support the Lebanese who have marched and bled for democracy, and the Israelis and Palestinians who seek a secure and lasting peace. And despite past differences, this is the moment when the world should support the millions of Iraqis who seek to rebuild their lives, even as we pass responsibility to the Iraqi government and finally bring this war to a close.

This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands. Let us resolve that all nations - including my own - will act with the same seriousness of purpose as has your nation, and reduce the carbon we send into our atmosphere. This is the moment to give our children back their future. This is the moment to stand as one.

And this is the moment when we must give hope to those left behind in a globalized world. We must remember that the Cold War born in this city was not a battle for land or treasure. Sixty years ago, the planes that flew over Berlin did not drop bombs; instead they delivered food, and coal, and candy to grateful children. And in that show of solidarity, those pilots won more than a military victory. They won hearts and minds; love and loyalty and trust - not just from the people in this city, but from all those who heard the story of what they did here.

Now the world will watch and remember what we do here - what we do with this moment. Will we extend our hand to the people in the forgotten corners of this world who yearn for lives marked by dignity and opportunity; by security and justice? Will we lift the child in Bangladesh from poverty, shelter the refugee in Chad, and banish the scourge of AIDS in our time?

Will we stand for the human rights of the dissident in Burma, the blogger in Iran, or the voter in Zimbabwe? Will we give meaning to the words "never again" in Darfur?

Will we acknowledge that there is no more powerful example than the one each of our nations projects to the world? Will we reject torture and stand for the rule of law? Will we welcome immigrants from different lands, and shun discrimination against those who don't look like us or worship like we do, and keep the promise of equality and opportunity for all of our people?

People of Berlin - people of the world - this is our moment. This is our time.

I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we've struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We've made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.

But I also know how much I love America. I know that for more than two centuries, we have strived - at great cost and great sacrifice - to form a more perfect union; to seek, with other nations, a more hopeful world. Our allegiance has never been to any particular tribe or kingdom - indeed, every language is spoken in our country; every culture has left its imprint on ours; every point of view is expressed in our public squares. What has always united us - what has always driven our people; what drew my father to America's shores - is a set of ideals that speak to aspirations shared by all people: that we can live free from fear and free from want; that we can speak our minds and assemble with whomever we choose and worship as we please.

Those are the aspirations that joined the fates of all nations in this city. Those aspirations are bigger than anything that drives us apart. It is because of those aspirations that the airlift began. It is because of those aspirations that all free people - everywhere - became citizens of Berlin. It is in pursuit of those aspirations that a new generation - our generation - must make our mark on history.
People of Berlin - and people of the world - the scale of our challenge is great. The road ahead will be long. But I come before you to say that we are heirs to a struggle for freedom. We are a people of improbable hope. Let us build on our common history, and seize our common destiny, and once again engage in that noble struggle to bring justice and peace to our world.

★★★
This man and his vision gives me hope!
This is the moment to stand as one.
Patricia

Petroglyph Spirits Gourd

★´¨)
¸,•´¸.•¤´¨} ¸.•*¨)
(¸.*´ (¸.*`¤~Some things look fun up close. This is one of them! It's my Petroglyph Spirits Gourd. The image is a close up of the rim. Embellished with beads and thread and paint.

Available on etsy:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=13499458

Petroglyph Spirits Gourd
$85.00
★
Pat

★ Barack-A-Mole Guacamole ★

Here at our home on Purple Hill, Jon and love to cook. We eat out plenty when we're on the road intermittently half the year. When we're home, we indulge in our favorite recipes! Having traveled to the southwest for many years, and loving every minute of it, we have tried some fo the best Mexican food there is. Gabriels in Santa Fe will happily make a killer batch of guacamole tableside with input from the customer and make it to your taste. A visual and culinary treat.

Lately we have been enjoying my sweet husband's gorgeous guacamole. He has perfected this and is willing to share his recipe with you out there in blogland. His guacamole has brought a smile to many a face as they dined here at our home. With a few shots of tequila, we count our blessings and days till we have a new president. In his honor, we have patriotically dubbed this Mexican concoction Barack-A-Mole!

Pictured above is the guacamole king, my husband, Jon!

★Barack-A-Mole★
2 or 3 medium size ripe avocados
1 large clove of garlic
1/2 c red onion
1 roma tomato
1/2 lime
1/4 c fresh cilantro
1 tbsp. sour cream
1 tsp. coarse salt

Prepare the ingredients:
Finely chop the garlic
Slice onion into thin slices and chop into pieces.
Slice tomato in half, remove inside flesh and seeds. Then cut outer layer into strips and chop into small pieces.
Rinse a small bundle of cilantro thoroughly, dry with a towel and chop into fine pieces.
Once all of the above is prepared, cut each avocado in half and remove pit. Scoop with spoon and place into bowl.

Begin by mashing the avocados thoroughly. Next, incorporate the onion, garlic, cilantro and tomatoes. Add the sour cream to bring consistency to a creamy suspension. Squeeze the juice of half a lime and mix thoroughly. This will bring it to the final texture. Cover the mix with plastic wrap and chill for several hours. When ready, salt to taste, adding roughly 1 teaspoon. Mix thoroughly.

Tips for the best results: Pick avocados that are firm and not mushy. A slight resistance means it is ready. If it is very firm, place into a brown paper bag and store at room temperature for 2-3 days until soft enough for preparation.

Some recommended chips:
El Milagro Mexican kitchen style chips or Lundberg's sea salt flavored Rice chips.

Enjoy with your favorite tequila and Mexican dish.
Olé!


Imbibe accordingly until November 4th and here's to Barack!
★
Pat & Jon

★ A 'Virgin' Jar of Jif......and thou....... ★

Jif and I go back a long way. I recall the old days when Jif was in a glass jar. I was 17 and living on my own. I had very little money for most anything other than food and rent. I rode a bike since I didn't have a car. That was kept by my Dad when I moved out. With all 'luxuries' removed from your life, you learn to celebrate the 'small stuff'. Soon, if you really tune into it, you realize that it's all this small stuff that makes up the bulk of our life. The little moments, the scents, the intunedness of just being that fills our lives.
This is the rich nectar of life.
Some people never get it. Some people try to fill in the 'gaps' with stuff to fill a void they themselves have never closed.
Got news for ya, it's not the 'stuff' that's gonna make you happy!

When I was 17 and walking to the grocery store I had to be certain I didn't buy too much as to be able to carry it home in one bag about a mile and half away. With my budget that was fairly easy. Ramen noodles and peanut butter didn't weigh much! One day while walking home, the bag fell out of my arms and out rolled onto the sidewalk my beloved Jif.............in a glass jar. It broke. I stood there in astonishment that this happened. I was being so careful. Next I wondered, as I saw the small chards of glass and Jif glistening in the sun, what would I eat that week. This was a sight I was not certain to forget.
After that I bought a small old ladies cart that allowed for 2 bags of grocieries to come home. It was like having a car!
I treasure those simple days. I moved out at a young age, had no car, only a bike. I owned my bed and a rocking chair and made my way.
It taught me worlds about myself and how very little I really needed to be happy.

So now, when I open a beautiufl new jar of Jif, I carefully remove the inner protective silver safety seal and examine the golden contents. I admire the small air bubbles left after the packaging process and see the tiny flecks of stuff I'd prefer to not think are nuts. ( I don't like nuts).....thus only the Creamy version for this Jif girl!
Admiration for this food that has sustained me all these years is the least I can do. I have shared my 'ritual' of opening the jar with friends over the years. Carefully lit, it's a thing of beauty - a sight to behold! Some look at me like I'm weird. The rest understand. For I feel, if I were marooned on a desert island I could use the glorious Jif as both food and sunblock and moisurizer. What an amazing all purpose food it is!

So, on this warm summer day, my 48th birthday, I celebrate all the things that make me smile! My wonderful husband Jon, my family, friends, our tigers and where I've been. If it were not for those desperate days I could not appreciate the fullness of my life now.
I feel blessed!
I continue to look inside the Jif jar and am happy to see when it's full!
★★★
Pat
Happy Birthday too to my brother Ken whom I share this birthday with. He's 50 today!

☀ Time ★

I blog this evening about time. It's such an abstract thing but what we do with it is a measure of progress. Its passage an earmark.
Two of my blogging friends experienced varying issues with time this week. One was getting ready for her biggest show of the year. For that task, there never seems to be enough time. Time to create, pack, feel prepared for a big show. It can be overwhelming even when things go as planned. When they don't, the perception and loss of time seems even more critical.
When help was offered, it freed her up to think more clearly. She said that was a gift. I can relate to that. Sometimes that freeing up is the breath we need, like punctuation in a sentence. Be it a comma or an exclamation point!

Another blogging friend is utilizing her time to reinvent her craft. As an artist, this experimental time is a gift we don't give ourselves often enough. To walk into your studio and pick up new or different tools and bring something new to life is the birthing of the creative force alive and well.
Nothing new may materialize, but it is the enigma of the effort that is the energy of an artist.
Without this growth, as creatives, we wither.
We need to revitalize our minds and spirits and in our studio the soil is ripe to do so.
We have tools and materials and a familiarity with the process and all that is needed is desire.
Without desire, there is no passion.
It's passion that fuels us.
Without passion, we just make 'stuff'.
It's passion that opens our minds to possibilities
and passion that engages our heart and our hands and lets
the concept turn into reality.

So here's to the passion and passage of time!
♥
Have a wonderful evening,
Pat

•••• Summer Obsession ••••

I realize I have obsessions. They come and go, some remain. My obsession with rubber stamps has catapulted into an entirely new body of work, my Tattoo
Dreams.
I use stamps in a way that hard core folks would frown upon. I get the precious wood mounts stained! No, not stained, dirty with paint, that's what I do. For those that carefully wipe their used stamps with a paper towel and stamp cleaner to remove every last trace of ink after stamping ............ I'm a whore!
I wash mine in the sink with Irish Spring soap!
There, I said it!

My other new 'obsession' seems to revolve around small colorful glass beads that become eye-candy when strung. Their colorful simplicity I find exciting. Their cost is low, their 'smilage' high. Perhaps this is a fleeting summer fancy, but I could have more excessive ways to have fun. I could be the person who needs the $600.00 Coach leather bag or the fancy summer sandals. Nope. Not me. I'm too practical to want what everyone else does. Nothing says "I'm unique" like wearing and having what everyone else has. Touting it like a peacock cause it costs too much.
Two words for that, pa-lease!

So my current fix is beads. I may get over it and I may not.
Either way, I'm having fun, and isn't that what life is all about!!

To all who have been emailing me and leaving comments about my blog, thank you! Keep em' coming!
I love that you love it. I've found it to be a cathartic release of what stirs my soul and am more than happy that
it finds it's way to your computer and may make you smile!
♥
Have a most excellent week!
I wish you peace~
Pat

๏ Airstreams & Dreams ๏

It's important for one to have a dream. Martin Luther King had one. We have one! Actually, we have lots of dreams. The decisions we make daily either help us come closer to those dreams or keep them further at bay.
After 24+ years circumnavigating this fine country of ours, we want to own an Airstream. Having once been owners of a tow behind camper, an Airstream is the quinessential camping vehicle. Some days the plan involves restoring a vintage model and outfitting it in retro barkcloth and sleezy lights draped around the windows with multicolred aluminum drinkware. Other times, when grandeur de jour takes over, the Christopher Deam models dance in our heads. Either way, the plan is to someday own, what we fondly call, a "silver turd", taking it to National Parks and exploring the great out west and parts we've not fully explored.

These shining examples of Americana have become highly sought after vehicles of years gone bye. When the open road and camping were what Americans did. We're old fashioned enough to embrace this concept but would outfit our turd (there's a fun use of words) with an espresso maker, Starbucks coffee, 360 thread count sheets and down comforters. Only the finer creature comforts for these 'campers'!

So with 'camper lust' firmly engrained in our minds and no budget to buy one, we stopped by the factory on our way home from Ohio. There,nestled among a well kept but older neighborhood of Jackson Center,Ohio sits the carefully manicured Airstream Factory. Daily tours are offered, but to keep 'turd lust' to a minimum, we refrained and saved that for another trip. Many buildings comprise this small factory that must employ the entire town. The office has a well laid out gift shop with parts and do dads for the turd afficianado. (Another set of bizzare words..........)
I knew this to be 'blog fodder' upon arrival! We took in the office and giftshop and venutred outside to take a few shots of vintage models that adorn the parking lot. We got some cool shots just before a monster storm set in.


Our theory of sales is to 'always leave them wanting more'.
Airstream in it's shimery, reflective nostalgic brillance did just that.
♬ Someday, our turd will come!! ♫

Patricia

★ Spirit of '76 Farm ★

´¨)
¸,•´¸.•´¨) ¸.•*¨)
{¸.*´ (¸.*` ⁂≈༺Good friends, good food and laughter! Jon and I are blessed with a variety of friends! After having a truely wonderful weekend at Boston MIlls ArtFest we delivered a piece to a customer in Ohio. Her purchase was made in Arizona in spring and the placement and home it now enjoys makes my heart smile.

After this delivery we took a slow drive out to Oak Harbor Ohio to spend time with friends Barbara and Allan. A painter and photographer who have given love and color to an old farmhouse. This colorful hideaway is their summer home while doing shows and provides ample respite to create and renew. The name 'Spirit of '76' comes from the house number and previous owners who named the property and the name seems fitting. Inside the colors are fun and the bright walls are graced with Allans photos, Barbara's paintings and fellow artists work. We were among friends in every way!
Barbara and Allan greeted us and took us on tour of their well manicured country gardens. They were beautiful and reminded me of the paintings Barbara use to paint. Their shared studio is an old white barn on the porperty with wide open spaces and room to create and spread out. I think of them a lot like I see Jon and I. The simple joy of being together at work and play. This barn yields the talents of this creative pair as they too take their work to shows across the country.
http://www.barbarakrupp.com
http://www.bodyscapes.com

After the outdoor tour we were treated to the most amazing gluten free vegetarian meal anyone could hope for! Barbara is not only a talented painter and gardener, but a gifted cook. We had 3 appetizers and a 4 part main course complete with edible flowers. Her spinach roulade was a thing of beauty and she gladly shared recipes with me before we left! Wow! Every dish and every taste was carefully crafted and all tasted amazing! To take on the diverse food issues of guests being vegetarian, gluten free and diabetic and to make this all so special was an honor and a gift. We give it 5 forks!!!

There is a passion to gardening, to art and to preparing a beautiful feast. All were done so well and intertwined with conversation and laughter reflective of friends who have known one another a long time and still have much to learn.

Life would be empty without our dear friends. To have them adds color and texture to our world!

Namastè,
Patricia & Jon

༺★༻ Viva La Frida! ༺★༻

Today marks the birthday of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. I learned of Kahlo long after my other favorite artist Van Gogh. The appeal of these two artists might be the common denominator they shared, besides their incredible talent.......their pain. These two unique individuals, raised on opposite sides of the globe, found solace in their craft which helped one through mental anquish and the other through physical torment. To create with pain is a task I know well. Both mental and physical. To create things of beauty when you don't feel well, I fully understand.
The life of Frida Kahlo may be remembered for her tumultuous relationship with painter husband Diego Rivera or her strong political views. What should surface were the powerful images this gifted woman left behind. Becoming famous after her young death, her exquiste paintings that grace the walls of museums and collections exhibit a unique style that captured the beauty and authenticity that is Mexico. Her talent provided an outlet for anguish that some will never understand.
Her visceral pain was captured in paint and her joy in color.
It was said that after her death, when she was cremated, her bones glowed in purples and reds and it was then, with paper and pen in hand, that her beloved Diego made what was known to be the last drawing of his soulmate Frida Kahlo.

Color transcends death, as does love and spirit.

Happy Birthday Frida Kahlo, you are an icon to many and an inspiration to me!
༺♥༻
Patricia

☁ Happy July! ☂

Happy July Everyone!
I love July!!! It's the middle of summer, middle of the year, or so it feels, and my birthday is this month! I love having birthdays.......it means I'm still alive and doin' my thing! Beats the alternative~
Home ever so briefly between Kansas City and heading to Peninsula Ohio for 4 days at Boston Mills ArtFest.
There we'll see lots of friends, laugh way too mcuh (no such thing) and sell a lot of art..........or so is the plan.
Last night we had dinner on the back deck and quality time with our tigers, Fripples, Milo and Oreo.
(They don't know we're leaving again so soon....shhhh...) It's such great karma being around these furry souls......
Below is a shot of our 'commute' down our drive way to the studio............
Above is the view from our home on Purple Hill to the fields just baled across the road.
Sometimes the cows graze there and we wave to them and visit.
☀
Happy Summer!
Patricia