Sidetracked Charley

  After realizing how big a mess my house had fallen into I developed a schedule which totally deleted my days of in favor of furiously establishing order. Then I looked at Thicke dozing in the sun in the studio. He had the right idea. I am sure he was meditating. And given some of his poses obviously practicing cat yoga. I tossed my todo list away. Yesterday afternoon, after having to cut my shopping in Taos short due to power outage, I pulled out my copy of Last Second in Dallas,  on my reading list since Christmas, a paper book. And I settled into the other Santa Fe vintage chair and began reading. I even pulled over one of the chairs purchased to paint, put a pillow on the seat, and raised my feet. I spent three hours reading. Like really reading. Not speed reading which grad school trained me to do, but reading as in exploration of the subject and enjoyment of style and syntax.  When I would take a stretch break to get another cup of tea I would straighten something ...

  The only photos I have taken this summer have been in my yard. Or while taking care of another's yard. I did not make it out to the high plains to capture the Cholla in bloom or to see the bison calves. Summer is almost over and my garden shed has not been erected. And it took two friends to lure me into one day with camera at a close park. The time without masks when restaurants have been open is almost over but I have not scanned a single menu. Haven't been to Santa Fe to walk down the aisles of a real fabric store. I have listened to a bunch of friends but only talked with a precious few. I know their dogs better. I didn't even know Thicke was pissed with me. Oh, yes I have gotten a lot accomplished. But why? It reminds me of my first year in Washington DC. I was so looking forward to an eastern fall. Even had plans to drive up the coast and see Maine foliage. But I got involved in a political campaign and then found myself enmeshed in Watergate. And the next thing I k...

Ghost Orchids Facebook has this term they like to use in the statistics on a fan or business page. It is engagement. Posts I make on Binford-Bell Studio  are given information on how many peopled were reached as well as how many reacted to it. And then how many people were engaged with that post. Reached means they looked at the post. I have some trouble contemplating just how FB knows that but I have begun to pay attention to it because the variance between that number and those who reacted (took the time to press an icon of like or love, etc) seems critical. If I was to compare it to a booth at an art fair reached would be those who stopped to at least look and reacted would be those who nodded approval or just smiled. And engaged would be those who walked into the booth and asked about a specific piece hung on the booth wall. Clearly engagement is to be preferred. But basically Facebook members are drive by shooters or bombers. Bombers - people who share without comment an...

Patchwork In the beginning of my participation on Facebook there was a limit to the number of characters in a status message. We were all thrilled when they relaxed that limit of 120 characters. But at the same time they eliminated the Note or Journal option. Some of us went back to other platforms to do our journals and then link them to our FB pages. Others made longer and longer status messages with no break for paragraphs (note there is a way to do that) which were difficult to read. Obviously FB wanted us to stay short and sweet so they introduced the special backgrounds which only work with 120 characters or less. I fell for it hook, line and sinker. I even spent inordinate amounts of time editing my message so it would fit in their arbitrary frame. I even discovered that you could push the limit by when you picked your colorful background. In short, I am good at playing to the stage presented. Then there were those cute little icons. Not just the thumbs up. We asked for ...

Dawns on me there is a reason this blog is named Sidetracked Charley. I can be easily diverted. As I compose this in my mind I am playing with my cat, Thicke, and his kitty whip. We all have lives and responsibilities. We are not the Delhi Lama on a mountain top. No one drops offerings of food within our easy reach. And most people who get involved in resistance movements are already involved in a myriad of other socially responsible causes. I was deeply involved in the arts and within one group on the board. We were trying to get an art center for our community. Those responsibilities got taken away from me recently. Plus side is I am more time to spend on resistance. Downside is I regret being shoved out of groups I still feel deeply committed two after working toward a goal for almost a decade. Playing with the cat is sanity producing. Blogging is sanity producing. Being forced out of something you believe in is devastating. This week is about mourning that. And the loss of ...

Thicke in Attendance I don't usually write blogs about my pets. Yes, Thicke, is the darling of my Facebook Timeline.  And in the past so have been The Darkness, Wee Willow, and Scrappy.  I have always believed my purr kids were special especially as subjects for my photographs. I am after all a crazy cat lady even if at this point in time that includes just one cat: Bad Boy Alan Thicke. We have had several days of bad weather which has included extremely high winds and Thicke has been house bound by his own determination. He does not like wind. Suddenly even the array of Amazon Prime boxes has not been enough to keep him amused. Thicke in a Box   He has followed me around the house and thrown himself into my activities like putting away the Christmas decorations. The outcome has not always been helpful if photogenic.  Thicke packing up decorations Yesterday I was trying to paint in the studio. He loves the studio. In it he has the chair featur...

White Rain just finished Every week in my other blog, Creative Journey, I publish photographs posted on my Facebook page for my studio as part of the 365 Days of photography challenge. Supposedly the photos I post there are the best and most artistic but they are by no means what I take pictures of every day. My first DSLR was purchased to photograph my art work so I could enter shows and exhibits and not have to hire a photographer. And so a large portion of its use is to take photos of my art work like the just finished White Rain. I also do process blogs on Creative Journey (BTW the link to that site is in the right hand column) so there were almost daily photographs taken of this painting from beginning to end. Those photos also help me critique my own work and correct little things on bigger canvases. Since I got that first DSLR ethernet blogging and Facebook came a force to be utilized for marketing of art and staying in touch with friends and family. So I also have a per...

My Cat Thicke Because I am an artist, and a blogger, and on several social media sites I Google well. But Thicke leads me in likes. Paws down. And my photographs of Thicke do very well on several photographic pages I participate in. He certainly has fan appeal. Wondering if he should be my logo. Should I take advantage of him being my unofficial studio cat and make it formal. Yesterday I attended a workshop on how to put my business on the map. Yes, I Google well, even Google image well, but Google maps has trouble locating me. Evidently it also has a great deal of trouble locating a lot of others in my neck of the woods. Literally. But would they zero in on my location if I listed it as the home of Thicke? Tag words or labels help your posts, be they photos or blogs, score high in Google ratings. I use New Mexico a lot. But I am wondering as I am trying to put Binford-Bell Studio on Google and the map should I be using Thicke as a tag word? You got my spots right? In t...