Cricketts Inky Art Blot

My Grandad used to keep glass fishing floats in a sideboard in his little stone cottage in England. I don't know the story of why he had them, nor what he kept them for. I do know that as a small girl, I used to love holding them and gazing into them like they were crystal balls. The colours of the glass mesmerized me as I held them to the light.

I drove down to Carson City today on the new road connecting Reno to the capital city. It is only about an hour from my house, yet the landscape quickly changes from city to countryside. I still find the mountains breathlessly spectacular and the sheer hugeness of the valley is incredible. In Carson, I dropped in on Galen Brown, an artist of many talents. He has one of these incredibly creative minds that can build something from nothing and make crap become an item of beauty. Anyway, Galen had some sheets of museum grade plexiglass used for framing for me to use for drypoint etchings. He cut the sheets into small pieces of around 8 x 12 inches. I then left him to get ready for his upcoming Open Studio tour over at Hunter Point in San Francisco. While in town, I drove over to meet another artist printmaker called Carol Brown. Carol specializes in Japanese Moku Hanga prints and is currently getting ready for a show in the Fall. I was excited to see her progress on her woodcut ...

I'm back from staying at Virginia City. I had forgotten that I can't get a signal from there, so that is why I had not posted. Here is a photograph that I made of the St Mary's stove. I stayed in a different room to last time, to avoid the ghost "Dan" throwing things of the wall again. I was the opposite end, but this time scraping and shuffling of furniture kept me awake. The director had been telling me that sometimes when the ghosts do this, she shouts at them to keep the noise down. I put the covers over my head to see if that would work. I returned to find the pond filled to maximum. Here is the view towards my little green studio. A visiting goose. This is the view towards the neighbor. Below is the before!

I'm trying to figure out the minimum supplies needed for a trip to Virginia City tomorrow. Costumes are involved, photography and hopefully a printmaking plate test. The event is a NadaDada artist retreat. Our kids have surprised us all with an unexpectedly early belt test in their martial arts class on Saturday, so that has rather screwed up my retreat plan. I figure that it should be possible to hit the headlines of my plans tomorrow and pack up Saturday morning to make it in time for my super heroes to show me their stuff. If I can leave tomorrow night before dark, I will do that, but no way am I doing those windy, mountain roads with the sheer drops in the dark! I am way too chicken. The pond is much, much higher!

I am not certain what this image is exactly, other than colourful and bubbly, but I like it! I put this together by mixing a fractal image that I created on Photoshop, with a close-up textural photo of the counter in Coral Reef Restaurant in Epcot (I bet you guess that, huh?). The pond is filling (relatively) fast. Here is the pond early this morning. It was brimming and teetering on the edge for what seemed forever. An hour or so later it burst through to my yippies and yahoos. Big moment guys!! Throughout the rest of the day, the water made it's way down to the lower side of the pond and began wrapping its way around the island. By late afternoon it reached the pump to the fountain (which we hope is fixed after the squirrels munched on the wires earlier this month). By evening, we all had allergies sufficiently bad to push us into the studio for shelter. I just took a couple more sneaky peaks to see how it was coming along. My last look show...

I have been distracted by the progress of the pond, so I was late noticing the plum tree blossom. Spring is everywhere, and the snow of last week is soon forgotten. Of course the pond progress is being closely monitored! The water authority must be getting fed up I my calls, as the water started flowing late afternoon. I'm such a big kid over this, I have to keep checking to see how much it has risen. The fish are jumping with excitement, which is cute apart from the fact that the heron is stood over waiting for the leap... A few hours later... Got a LONG way to go: Even later: Still out here: OK, just kidding!

I spent the day at the studio sorting out some piles of mess and racing outside to see if the water to the pond was flowing. The sorting was hard to focus on and the water never arrived. The anticlimax was excruciating! Hopefully the water will arrive tomorrow! This is all that is left from last years fill, the fish and I are very miffed!

This weekend has been most exhausting. We have been building out the sides of the pond area when there has been erosion over the years. It has been a but pressured as the water is due to come in tomorrow! It does not exactly rush in, but it is still a last minute panic to be prepared. I look forward to this day every year as the birds come back and the ducklings are born in the next few weeks. I am planning on a Spring clean in the studio as well as the outside. Not sure to what level, but hopefully to a part where I can see the floor again.

Boring I know, but I just had to add a couple more bedpan images. I'm sure I will flush it out of my system soon.

Gosh, who knew that bedpans were so inspirational!

So I was up at Saint Mary's Art Retreat again today. I admit that I think their bedpans are super cool so I worked on another image of one of them: I'm actually quite pleased with this rendition of the historic portable crapper! Maybe there is a 3rd (not Richard the III if you know cockney) in the making.

Toreador Perhaps it is my upcoming trip to Spain, or maybe my visit to the Dali Museum, but I have been thinking of Toreador paintings. I assembled this image to be symbolic of some of my perceptions of the country. While not powerful like the famous paintings below, it does contain personal memories and symbols of the country. I don't want to list the meanings, but hope that the view may pick up some clues or simply just enjoy as visual imagery.  Bullfight, The Death of the Toreador - Picasso The Hallucinagenic Toreador - Dali (I saw this painting in the "flesh" last week!)

  Today is cold. Super cold. Snowy-what-the-heck-did-I-leave-Florida cold. I made a start unpacking, washing is piled up everywhere and I am totally uninspired. Here is a small reworking of something I started some time ago. It seems to sum up my feelings of the day. A sea creature, miles from the ocean, brittle and cracking from the cold!    

Final day for us in Florida. We snacked our way around the Festival offerings and grabbed a few rides when a short rain storm headed our way. No post tomorrow as we have a long day traveling home to Reno.

I'm still in Florida and on this evenings stroll along the boardwalk, I spied a only-slightly-squashed butterfly. Lovely colours, nice wood grain, worth a shot.

We are dodging random raindrops and sampling snacks on our way around Epcot's 20th Flower and Garden Festival. The Dole Whip, Spiced Rum was particularly good! Dinner was at Remy the rat's restaurant "Chef De France". I tried to offer him a portrait in exchange for dinner, but this rat wants cold hard Euros.

Busy day in Florida. I did quickly snap a floor that was so cool that it send chills down my spine! I mean, can you imagine this as an etching!! Mind blowing. Just before the battery gave out, I made an iPad painting over a bathroom tile photo. Not that good, but I liked the colors.

A simple little souvenir vase from Florida.

This evening on the Pier 60 in Clearwater. I'm tempted to move and become one of the artists on the pier each evening, making enough for dinner and rent. With all the flame throwing, it's like Burning Man on the beach! Did you see the Pelicans and Stork?

Photograph are not allowed to be taken in the museum, but I would recommend visiting if you are anywhere close. There were many of Dali's most influential pieces and a great deal that I had never seen before. I was surprised to see a whole gallery of his dry point etchings and disappointed that they did not feature in the guide book. I guess that means that I will have something fun to research on my return home. Incidentally, don't you think the museum ceiling looks a bit like the airship light fixture from the hotel? Spooky!