Sidetracked Charley

A friend and I seem to be at each other's throats lately. Not really that strange for our long term relationship. She gets entirely to myopic at times (maybe even narcissistic) and I get intolerant of some of her behaviors. Add to this her changing her plans totally and leaving for the winter before summer is over which throws a total monkey wrench in my plans, and, the worst, her playing professional widow. The first makes her even more narcissistic and the second seems to giver her permission to baby talk to every man in the universe. I have a few pet peeves which I seem to be unable to erase. One of them is baby talking females around men. My ex-husband once invited an old friend to stay a week at our house when we were still married. She could speak nothing but baby talk when Marc was around. They decided she would stay two weeks and I got her a reservation at a hotel in the next town at the end of four days. Now I just get up and walk away. I have even driven away if i...

Unfinished Acrylic Circus Just finished an acrylic painting workshop given by Sherry Wolf at Old Town Gallery in Cimarron, New Mexico. Sherry achieves some wondrous effects with acrylic. I rather hate the stuff. And she is great at abstracts. Everything becomes to realistic under my paint brush. Two good reasons to take the workshop. It always helps to get outside the box you have painted yourself into. I took a metal embossing workshop from Sherry for the same reason this spring. And just yesterday I ordered more metal to do more pieces. I doubt it will ever occupy a space at my gallery but It is a wonderful TV project. Something to do with idle hands as I sit "relaxing" in the evening. But then painting began that way as a break from my business of mask making. Unfinished embossed metal piece A writers workshop I took when I was writing for money called it tithing. Or writing something you had no hope of selling. Writing poetry started that way. At the time ...

Subtitle: Why I love my dog. She pays attention. I love my local hardware store. They know that even when I cannot remember the correct word I know what I want and what I want is correct for the job I am doing. I walk in with combinations of PVC pipe and they point me to the bins so I can play tinker toy (or would it be Lego Pipes) until I have the parts I need to replace it. And Ace hardware in Taos knows me too. And probably has gotten the news that 60% of all power tools are sold to women and not as gifts for their husbands. My mechanic thinks I keep a messy car but respects that when I tell what I think is wrong that I am in the ball park. The one set of men I have to deal with from time to time who show no respect are delivery men. So yesterday as I had to deal with Lowe's delivery men while doing odd jobs at her house was very frustrating. First because I had to consider what I was doing based on could I hear the phone or not. Delete use of power sander. Or my locat...

Sunset on the Sturgeon Moon New Mexico may be the land of manana (not necessarily tomorrow but some day to be named in the future) because of sunsets (and sunrises). Or it may be because it attracts artists, writers and other introverts. Believe it or not we do not move here for fiestas. And those that do will soon leave. A few of us old timers were sitting around at the art reception yesterday talking about what we know and those newcomers do not. And we were laughing over tales of how they were going to transform our sleepy little community. Nobody ever asks if we want it transformed. If they did the answer would be no. We moved here because in the midst of performing some task on the computer or cleaning the kitchen we will look up and see the clouds transform as the sun sets and drop everything to grab the camera to catch yet another stunning sunset or sunrise. The camera is not necessary; a cup of coffee will do. Actually the sunrise or sunset is also not a requirement. A...

In the Mists In the mists shadows come and go. Shapes appear and are erased by the mists. In the mists the truth appears and vanishes. I have a creative mind too much influenced by the great philosophers. I do not think they teach philosophy as much any more. It isn't on the tests in high school and in college they are too busy teaching what we once learned in high school. But in the ancient age I matriculated in we studied them all; Plato, Aristotle, Descartes.   I loved Jean Paul Sartre and acted in No Exit in high school. My senior paper was on Kierkegaard. I lived existentialism.   And in college I went on to all the moderns and immersed myself in essays and sat around the student union building with like minded students and discussed reality. Yours versus mine. We do not see the world the same you know. Well, I know. Or think I know. I think and therefore I am. So communication has really always been an interesting experiment in my...