Plein Air Collage?

Today is my second day off and it feels great to get two in a row. I spent the first day rattling about the house in my bathrobe, organizing things here and there, reading, soaking in the tub, and writing. Today I finally got properly dressed in order to clear the walkways and driveway of the snow we received recently (just in time too, as a freezing rain began to fall as I was finishing up the pathway to the oil fill).

On my way back into the house, I grabbed yesterday's mail from the mailbox, which gets me back around to the point of today's post. I am always amazed to discover life's synchronicity. Just yesterday I mentioned plein air painting in a rather derogatory fashion. "I am not one to subject myself to that practice, this being New Hampshire where there's either ticks, black flies, and/or mosquitoes, or else it's too cold. Besides, collage lends itself better to solitary work with everything conveniently close at hand" is what I said. And now look what I found:

I think they got me on their distribution list in error. Are there any plein air collage artists?

X-Dots for the Library

I just finished the posters for this years fundraiser for the Gafney Library. I made a collaged version on foam board for display in the library, and then I made a Photoshop version for printing and posting. I used some of my marker dots cut into quarters and rotated 45 degrees to form flashing white X's as the decoration.

This year there are 57 local artists donating their work which will be on display in the library for most of July. Raffle tickets are $1. so if you find yourself in Wakefield, take a chance!

Two New Crosses

I never did finish my previous post. That list of Russian artists should have hyperlinks to pictures of their work. I got Internet Explorer 9 in the midst of it and then couldn't highlight and link in the compose editor. So I painfully set it up by doctoring the html only to find I couldn't publish or save. So now I am back in Firefox and things are back to normal.


Having no computer for a while was actually good for me. I had fun drawing and cut a path in the back yard which I will photograph for my Temporary Blog. I made good use of one of my crosses as an hours advertisement for my bead shop.


I wish I could put it on my websites but my Front Page will not run on Windows 7. But aside from that, and no longer having MSWord, everything else is pretty much back to normal. I'm enjoying the speed of my cable and, to get back to the Russians, I found a bunch of cool YouTube videos on Kandinsky and El Lissitzky that I will make the subject of a later post.

Innocuous Desuetude

I love the title of this post. It's meaning points to a state of disuse or inactivity, certainly appropriate given my recent absence here!

We had a town-wide yard sale over the holiday weekend. I didn't offer anything for sale, but did my bit by purchasing two boxes of old books from my neighbor up the street. Included were three volumes of an eleven-volume set of James D. Richardson's "A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents." Published in 1910 by the Bureau of National Literature and Art, individual volumes are available for as little as $3.45 so it is not a particularly rare find.

One of the three volumes is the index, itself a very useful 834 page dictionary of political figures and events, which includes maps illustrating the extent of the United States during the administrations of the various presidents from Washington through Roosevelt. From perusing this volume I learned the marvelous phrase made popular in a speech by President Cleveland: "innocuous desuetude."

In trying to get a better handle on the phrase, I came upon an interesting article by William Safire published in the New York Times on October 4, 1987 titled On Language; The Penumbra of Desuetude. The lovely old photograph of the Smithsonian is from volume ten, the last page of which is numbered 7809!

Actually, I really like the sound of "Penumbra of Desuetude" in the Safire subtitle. It just brought to mind a great book that I read in library school, James Lipton's An Exaltation of Larks about collective nouns. A penumbra of desuetude could also be something one might find in an Edward Gorey drawing, no?

Picture This With Snow. . .

. . .wind-driven snow with a wind-chill factor that would freeze your face in the second it took to level your barn!

The Gluing Of the Chairs

Getting the table cleaned off in the library made possible this miraculous event. I had no idea that I owned so many chairs! My friend Peter at Abate Art, Antiques and Architectural Salvage keeps me well supplied. He's heard about another friend of mine, the infamous "Chair-Wrecker of Wakefield" who can't sit still.

Mica was on hand to check it out.

And so was the ever-lovely Miss Pearl.

The great winds and low temperatures continue for a third consecutive day. Who knows if we'll have to resort to gluing the rest of the furniture down in this fashion to keep it from blowing away!

Pennies From Heaven

Well, I might be cross-country skiing out back sooner than I thought. It's a great day to be closed with a wood stove to stay warm by.

I just added a new page to my collage website to feature the digital variety. Hope you enjoy my latest, Pennies From Heaven, inspired by the old song book in Monday's post.

First Significant Snow

We got a little snow yesterday, as you can see, but not quite enough yet to cover the meadow for cross-country skiing. And it will be a while before that channel freezes over. The roads were pretty icy last night, so bad that a car skidded into an electrical pole in front of the house next door. Broke the pole right off, from what I understand. I both heard and felt the crash, looked out the kitchen window (no street lights in this part of town, and no moon so it was DARK!) and saw headlights shining into the woods. I called 911.

For the next few hours there was all manner of activity involving public service, and this morning when I looked in the daylight I noticed a second pole was added. (The barn was not damaged in the accident, its roof fell in over a year ago.) A friend informed me that a police cruiser was involved in the accident so today I had a story to tell my bead customers about calling the cops on the cops!

Looking Out the Window

Twice today I was amazed by what I saw from my shop window. This morning at 10:00 I saw two foxes in the back yard. They were just loping around, playing with each other and with the dead stalks from the cat-o-nine tails.

Now it is a little past 4:30 and the wonderful color of the sunset sky made me grab my camera to record it. Amazing!

I could paint this last one.

Blog Action Day 2009

Blog Action Day is an annual event held every October 15 that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. This year the issue is: Climate Change. Blog Action Day 2009 could be the largest-ever social change event on the web.

I just learned about this from ephemera. It's already 5:14 in the afternoon and the deadline pressure is on. Can I think of something constructive? I'm technically not supposed to say anything. My rule is I have to collage about it to talk about it. Too late, I'm already typing. So I'm going to look at it from both sides (making the gross simplification that there are only two, for and against) in lieu of a thoughtfully designed illustration. Here goes. First I'll say something for it:

Am I the only sane person for Climate Change? Nothing can stay the same, especially when you want it to. Learn to love your climate, whatever it does. Mine's getting a little cold right now but it still looks pretty. Think about what actions could contribute to positive Climate Change. I'm going to plant a tree.

Now I'll say something against it:

Not only am I against Climate Change, I am against change, period, end of sentence. This negative attitude regarding change in general is maturity onset. I've been around long enough to recognize the pattern: things do not change for the better. Therefore it is better not to. It's the reason I'm living here.

Nature's Light Show

The fireflies were amazing last night. The back yard, the marsh, and the trees on the opposite side were full of them. Every once an a while something would stir them up, deer walking around perhaps, and their flashing numbers would increase. I stood in the dark and watched them for about a half hour.

There were no fireflies where I used to live. I would see them occasionally at campgrounds but never like I see them here. It was magic the first time I saw them all over my yard, thirteen years ago, right after I moved in. Maybe it's all the rain we have been having that made their show so incredible last night!

Another Photo Opportunity Missed!

I was monitoring the chipmunk activity on the recently filled feeders behind Anita's Beads last evening. Whenever I notice the birds being outnumbered I call out the window: "Who's chippie's out there?" and they usually jump off. The newbies run for the hills, but the more seasoned ones come closer in anticipation of strawberries or some such treat.

Last night as I called out I noticed that one of the feeders I had filled not one hour earlier was already one third empty. And the one stubborn chipmunk still feeding on it refused to retreat, scattering seeds furiously every time I repeated the call. Somehow he had managed to squeeze himself into the feeder without removing the top but could not get himself out!

It would have made a great picture but I missed it. This photo of the feeder outside my studio window gives you an idea of the type I'm talking about. Picture it containing a chipmunk having a panic attack.

Why I Love Being Here

A deer was born in my backyard this morning. I looked out the back window to see what the chipmunks were chattering about and saw the mother leading her newborn across the yard. When she reached the tall grass in the shady corner she laid down with it for over an hour before moving into the trees.

It was such an amazing sight. At first I was surprised that the deer was crossing the open area so slowly. . . usually they just go bounding through. Then I saw the tiny newborn following her. The mother could see me standing in the window and I was amazed again when she came to rest so close to the house.

I didn't want to intrude with the binoculars or camera. But this picture taken last fall shows where they were resting. The grass is longer now.

Cold Moon Morning

Here it is this morning, Sunday 14 December 2008 at about 7:00 am. The moon is still pretty full. How convenient that we had a full moon the night of the blackout. All the trees were casting shadows in the yard.

We lost quite a few dead trees that were standing across the meadow, and a bunch more across the street in front of the house. Limbs breaking sound like gunshots.
Here's my old friend covered with frost. I was thinking about Nicholas Roukes and "selective cropping" when I took this one!

In Wakefield, New Hampshire

Today we are getting a little snow. It's not our first this season but as you can see there is not much to speak of yet on the ground, only enough to make the downed tree look picturesque. The tree was still standing when I moved here over 12 years ago. Its top had been destroyed by a lightning strike some years before and it put all of its energy into one branch that became the tallest thing around. It was unbalanced, however, and the stiff wind blowing across the meadow toppled it a couple of years ago. I was sad to see it go.
There have been a number of lightning strikes in my immediate area, and my house came with lightning rods on the peaks of all of the roofs. The Congregational Church (built in 1816) right up the hill from me was destroyed in a fire started by lightning on 2 September 1956.
It was re-built, although its spire lacks some of the original architectural detail. Below is an aerial photo showing the new church. That's my street and my house is about 1/4 mile down on the left.

Movie Time

I live in a small town, miles from any movie theater. (My house is down in a swampy valley just about a half mile away on the other side of the hill shown in the the picture above.) Also, I don't have a television. So, what do I do for entertainment, you might wonder. Watch DVD's! And I just got five new ones in the mail this afternoon: The Rape of Europa; Kurt Schwitters; I'm Not There; Crimes of the Heart; and Issue 6 of Indie Arts: The DVD Magazine. So this will be short... I'm off to the movies!

...(one day later) The one I picked to watch last night was the only one of the bunch that I have seen before: Crimes of the Heart. Diane Keaton, Sissy Spacek and Jessica Lange are the Magrath sisters. Based on a Pulitzer Prize play by Beth Henley, the dialog is riveting, tragic and hilarious. Love the architectural details of their victorian southern house. I most identified with the oldest sister, Lenny (played by Diane Keaton). Must be her wardrobe which could have come straight from my closet!