Ramble-Shmamble!

In a very bad French Accent:
"I ramble in your general direction!"
"Now go away or shall ramble at you a second time!"

Is This What Happens When Old People Retire?
So I quit my FT job to be more of a mom.
So that I could save that mental and emotional energy and give it to my kids when they are having their "moments" with the rest of the world.
So that I could focus more on what I am supposed to be doing - painting, music and related stuff.
And what has really happened?
Surely I am experiencing a fore-taste of what retirement is supposed to be like: Stu runs the media co out of our home office. This means that when he is not out on the road he is home.
Distracting me, bugging me when I am trying to concentrate.
I dunno but man! Art and creativity require space and time. At least for me they do.
When my kids are asleep or off doing something, that is my hallowed time to hunker down in "my space" and focus. I don't need some man coming in the middle of it, every two-bloody seconds to make small-talk.

I am going crazy! (-er?)
He doesn't grok the idea of personal space or boundaries.
How does a person say," No offense, but I need to be alone," without offending the, er...offending party?

So I have taken to getting up in the middle of the night to complete some of the work in the quiet stillness of the sleeping household. But at 2:30am I really am not always at my creative best.

He is shooting a gig for Camp Concepts in Canby next week. He wants us all to go, and I think it would be good for the girls because they would have things to do and could swim in the pool etc.
But I would really like to stay home and send him on the road so that I could get some work done while he is away.
heheh!
oh I dunno.
It's crazy.

The Art Fest
The show went well.
I put up the more eclectic images, and the people that really liked them were people that I really admired so that is happy. Of course where my booth was, there were a bunch of trad pieces like landscapes and some textile art and quilt stuf, so the people that often ended up on that side of the building were the kind who didn't "get" it.
But its all good.

Gardner was REALLY encouraging, and his work is really first rate so his praise really helped me get through the rest of the project.

Another really good thing about this set up is that I didn't have to sit in my booth. Wendy did it for me. I don't think I could have gotten through the show if I would have had to sit and watch people look at my stuff. I would have been second guessing all of their facial expressions and would have totally freaked myself out.

So, basically it was good. I see now that I must get a better camera.
There is nothing for it.
I just have to suck it up and find a way.

I started two larger abstracts last week as well, and I already know how I will finish and frame them. That is the hardest part usually. Its nice to have it all dialed-in in advance for a change. ;O)

I had a great time talking to Michael the other day.
He is one of those artists that when you look at his work your first thought is, "Wow! I am standing in the presence of greatness."
Well at least that was one of my first thoughts.
And his style has really morphed since he returned from the UK.
It is fascinating to watch.

And speaking of the UK:
Where are all of my friends?
We are waiting patiently for them all to check in with an "I am ok" update.
But with each passing day I am wondering more and more...

Soldiers Away
I keep thinking of Brianna.
Bri is a gunner in a tank in Iraq.
Many of the other soldiers she is with are from the UK.
When her mom shipped her fiddle to her, they all were so happy.
She played a couple of trad celtic/bar tunes, and drew a huge crowd of fellow soldiers, all from the UK.
I am thinking of them, far away in Iraq, while they may be worrying about friends and family back home.
How horrible it must be for them.
But Bri is on leave and back here at home in Seattle at least for a few weeks.
Maybe she will come to HD fest in Eastern Washington at the end of the month?
Maybe she will play her dad's dijeridoo again. (sp?)

Peace, Love and Gunz
Her mom is one of the sweetest, peace loving hippie's I ever knew.
She is the ultimate pacifist and threatened to kidnap her son and haul him to Canada when he enlisted. Funny that. Because now all of her kids have chosen to go to Iraq.
She said, "what did I do? Where did I go wrong?"
I had to laff.
how many parents would give their eye-teeth to be able to say that they raised their kids to be able to have, recognise and act on a firm conviction -whether the parents agreed with it or not.
So here is poor KiKi Pacifist with a passel of soldier kids.
I say that "she done good!"
They are putting shoe leather to what they think is important.