Sidetracked Charley

When the Rains Came 36 x 24 Mixed Media on Artists Canvas $1950 Since the first woman (yes, anthropologists now believe it was the females and not men) drew a bison on a cave walls of Chauvet-Pont D'Arc magic has played a large part for artists. And whether the figures of herds of bison and antelope were a shopping list or a charm for a successful hunt the artist was using their skill to call forth an image, or cast a spell, or make a wish. Charcoal figures or complex mandalas or prescribed sand paintings for healing all have an element of magic involved. Artists can be very superstitious individuals from having to have their favorite brushes or just the right color or pacing in front of the canvas waiting for the muse to visit them. Or panic they have somehow angered that muse. Ask an artist where they get their ideas and they may go into a song and dance about their first visit to Utah or seeing the work of Matisse as a youth. But secretly I think many of us believe we chan...

A year ago this summer when the contractor from hell showed he was not going to go away I fell back on old beliefs and created a voodoo doll of him. Every time I would get another missive from his lawyer I would stick in another pin. And finally I took him out of my studio which was the source of our dispute and nailed him literally to an old railroad tie which was once the corner post to the old fence on my property. I told him (through the doll) I would release him from his bondage when he released me. And all winter he suffered through the snows quietly. Spring I heard from his lawyer again and the voodoo doll got more nails. This summer I heard he was ill. But not so ill it seems that he was willing to drop the law suit. He and his lawyer are going ahead with their suit to foreclose on my house for the disputed debt (a fraction of what my house and property are worth but far more than I feel justified in paying him or can afford). My attention in this last week has been drawn again...