Guatanamo bay

OK say we had citizens of USA *adopt* these detainees - treat them well - perhaps celebrities like Brad Pitt could lead the way .......- you know - All of us - even if we are having a difficult time - perhaps we invested with Mr Madoff or just lost a job ? Still - what are we going to do with these men whom we have tortured for 8 years ?

You are the herdsman of the evening

Yesterday I went to a lecture at the Arts club Chicago given by Chrissie Iles on German Artist Sigmar Polke. When I first saw the paintings the day before at the opening tea - I did not like them - I thought they were disjointed and with out heart - the slickness of the corrugated clear covering - That covered each work - seemed with out heart or purpose. After the lecture and seeing them a second time my feelings were reversed in and I realized the possibilities for my own work and my own images - I became interested in the layered *effects* the letter press or tarot card - nursery rhyme images and really saw some poetry that was personal to me. The fabric and the funny optics are tricks I am going to play with - in my imagination.

This Drypoint with the extreme Chinese overlay is one of the pieces that leads me to these ideas - the gold leaf japan paper the careful mistakes and the backwardness of the writing - personal and for me overflowing with meaning.

Runing Away

I try to remember: what is the time of day - Its a late summers day about three in the after noon - out and about - Here in this effort - everything is wrong - believe me this for if I pressed on nothing would line up - I'd never without wringing my paint rag play the sweet game of millimeters - oh no no no. So with out so much as a kiss my shoe I stopped and proclaimed - It is very beautiful.

Osage Orange

With the addition of 4 donkeys - SiereveMaria, MaryAngelina, MaryDorian, and Joselito; I needed to arrange for a fence around my garden. My desire for something that would fit in with the nature I have and not obstruct my view led me to the old time osage orange fence posts that have been used in the midwest for the past hundred years. The wood is extremely hard and *if properly installed* will last for - well - a long long time - even though it has a weathered - rotted look - it is deceiving - impervious to decay, difficult to cut and to work with - now difficult to find - I with difficulty found someone who would install such a fence - Now such a person might have reasons for taking on a job no one else wanted - say they were - well - too fat to really work at a regular job or a free spirit with an old time idea of farm beauty -

The necessary tools would be a tamper, a posthole digger, a bail of rusted cattle wire,oasge orange posts,and wire.

Hanging Out

Here I am in the screen room of the bunk house - up on a ridge overlooking a meadow - a flood plain where often there are cows grazing - It is difficult to know exactly why I am so attracted to this motif - the contrast of the green meadow to the orange leaves? The trees down the hill the overgrown - undergrowth - the next ridge - grey and orange - the clothes line with underpinnings coldly drying.

Oak Trees

These trees - this light - the light moving - the great shadows of the branches - the moment so vivid I am sure it will never end - I am sure I will be able to get it *all at once* But I am anxious; I can only do so much in one day - the next day I start working at a different time - earlier - later - the trees go the way of the season and I follow -

I feed the donkeys hay in the same spot - temp them to stay longer with apples - sometime it works - The turnip patch - the shadow of the house - each small leaf following the light the circular boughs - charming.

The Camera - The Computer

The digital camera allows me to have immediate images of my work on a day to day - work in progress basis. Before I would wait till a film roll was finished and have several developed at once - Now I can look at the paintings progress - as I go along - Compare one day to another - study it- obsess about it - be charmed by loose casual touches- I worry - am I am ruining an honest effort ? Was it better before ?? Is it just a different painting not better or worse ? The inspiration that led me to the subject matter becomes - subjective - assuming that the more I work the closer it is to my *model* I think - should I start a new one and take it as far as possible -leave the first effort? - Before I would not be able to compare images till I was way farther along. I love the start !