"These Times"

More oil pastels

A little different approach.

Hanging out

Down in Seattle, helping Charles hang some of his paintings.

Pancreatric Cancer Event

Yesterday, we went to Seattle's Magnuson Park for a 5 kilometer
Pancreatic cancer walk supporting cancer victims, families and friends,
research . . .in memory of Julia's sister Denise . . . Julia and I;
Brandon and Allison; Brianna, Kevin, Ruby and Dee and Grandpa Jim; Tom
and Camille; and friends of Denise and Brianna . . .Lots of people
turned out, wearing the "pancreatic purple."

Is This for Real?

Charlotte is engrossed in my story-telling but can't help wonder if it
is real. ("One more, Papa?")

And .... Maman Bridgette!

She loves that hot pepper infused rum!

Batting on and on

Completing next to last step of bat proofing my house.  It's looking nicer too.
I will rent a 30' ladder in the next week or so to complete final top 4'.

Lwa (in oil pastels)

Erzulie Freda, Papa Legba ("Open the Gates, Papa!"), and the Baron Samedi!

Color

I am playing with oil pastels to add some color to these gray autumn days. My style is  pretty primitive (surprise!)  but they are bright, don't require any preparation,  and I can finish a piece in a sitting or two.

Really the End this time: Good-bye A-1 Welding

Several years ago the roof collapsed on the old building on the corner.  At times it was a welding shop, a second hand store, a video rental, a pet shop, a video arcade.... And I once dreamed of it as an art studio ... now the final demolition has commenced ....

Done

Cedar root exterreated,  new planter built, bamboo divided,  soil added, and done!

Halloween

Charlotte is ready for Halloween with her new Pegacorn costume!

Outside

Spent three hours today outside trying to remove a huge old growth cedar  root so I could place a bamboo planter by my studio. The root has
probably been in the ground over 70 years and it was fresh, totally impregnated with resin, heavy, dense and buried.  I dug and sawed and pried and pounded in wedges and got them stuck and pried and sawed and dug and split (repeat for three hours), and fell on the ground a few times, before I finally got a big enough chunk out so I could place my  planter.  But by then I was too pooped to do it so I still have another days work on that. Probably ruined a chainsaw chain.

Tim and I got our new computers!

Initiative1491

Julia (sitting second from right) speaks last night in Anacortes on an initiative she is actively supporting promoting gun responsibility, viz. limiting a mentally disturbed person's access to firearms.

First Frost

Home Again

A beautiful flaming yellow pear type tree.  What is it?

My Cosmos are still glorious.

My Cardoon gone to seed.  Oh oh.

Here I am guarding the pumpkin patch.

Signs of the Season

More East of the Mountains

Family hiking out past Mazama.  The river is DRY.

Kyra's leaf mandala made on the hike.

Shiah and Lea's new container bedroom in work.

Eason decorates Shiah's dirty car.

Here is Cougar Lake.  Because of road wash outs, snow and ice, and forest fires,
I spent over 6 years looking for this little lake up in the hills between
Winthrop and Twisp.

First two days over the mountains

Julia at Newhalem Power House.

Ladder Falls in Newhalem, where JD Ross made his tropical garden
among the snow and rock.

Colors in Twisp.

Columbian music night in Twisp.  A non-stop barrage of heavily textured music.

On Olivia's patio, the day after the music.

And now Eliot, Kyra Eason, and Charlotte and Spencer, Sally and Eddy have all shown up!

Inspector Hurd

Autumnal equinox

Here we are once again, perfect balance, poised on the edge ....

C&M

Well, Charles and Melanie are back in their house in Seattle now filled to bursting with cardboard boxes full of their belongings from Michigan.

Exercise gym?

Eddy says "Wait. What?" In temporary astonishment and/or sensory overload with his new activity center.

Wheels in the Setting sun

At Eliot and Kyra's

Transplanting the bearded Iris

A few weeks late.....

Shannon's visit

My sister Shannon is back home in Michigan after a two week visit out here.  She was the last of our summer visitors so it seems Autumn has arrived!

North Carolina

Charles is stacking brush, mowing fields and manhandling refrigerator compressors at his son Ben's organic farm in North Carolina.

Green all over again. Arrgh.

So I am working on this fair sized painting which has various tentative titles, currently Jewel Box 1, but could simultaneously be a Minoan something or something else, when I realized that I can't remember how I mixed the original green, which I like very much.  I have tried emerald green, permanent green, pthalo green blue, chromium green, SAP green, lime green, all with mixtures of white and hansa yellow, yellow ochre, ultramarine blue and cobalt blue.  Everything comes out too green, too blue, or too grey.  I know my original mix was very simple but that's all I remember.  I feel like I have been down this road before.

More bats

Got all the holes filled, commencing with week long exclusion process.

Warhol Tarp

In homage to Andy Warhol, I put a pretty new SILVER 20 x 24  tarp over my studio roof for the winter.  It's not up to FEMA specs but I am happy none the less.