Four Months In

An update on the hip. Four months ago I had a total hip replacement. Hip surgeries are notoriously easy and most people are all healed up inside 6-7 weeks. I was on that damned cane for over 3 months! Really cramped my style, to say of all the pain.

I did my best at entertaining myself and keeping ahold of my patience the past weeks and months. Better time of year for healing I guess.

Today I returned to my favorite cemetery for a long overdue walk. And my how things have changed! Well, really the only surprise was this bounty of cedar roses! Aren't they gorgeous? They are the seed pods of those beautiful Japanese looking evergreens. I tried to look them up for the proper name, but to no avail.

I used to go here daily and I look forward to putting in some real time here again. Last year I spent all spring here, in lieu of my beloved rail road tracks, which I still miss powerfully. Still, not a bad trade. I gotta get my nature fix somewhere in the city, and RR tracks are notoriously difficult to walk on. Of course I rather enjoyed the challenge, but seems like a cruel thing to put my hip through, after all that damned healing up.
So it's back to the cemetery for me, to put many miles on my fancy new hardware!

Time Capsule

Oh law, I opened up the time capsule last night. Been draggin' this little foot locker around with me everywhere since I was a teenager. I haven't dared open it in over a decade, for fear of all that nostalgia. Last night I felt a powerful compulsion and I couldn't resist. The Devil made me do it.

Four photo albums and two packs of Philmont mail and pictures. I didn't dare read the letters, the pictures were enough.
Here's me my last summer at Philmont, 1998. In order to ride out with the cowboys, I was made to use the saddle. That summer was actually the first time I learned how to abide a Western saddle. I'm a saddle hater, but it is a necessary tool  for any working cowboy. These boys took me out to mend fences, and test my horse sense. We went out at a full gallop for several miles non stop. I passed.

I befriended them, such a cute bunch of horse boys. I got to ride out with them on many an evening. Let me tell you, the majesty of hauling ass on the open New Mexico range was not lost on me. What an experience!

The boy in the middle here was a 17 yr. old cowboy named Nate something. Sometimes I made them all bunny eggs for breakfast and they loved them! When asked how they got their name I explained it was because they are soft and fluffy, like a bunny. Nate was so enthusiastic about them, he literally hopped up & down in place in the kitchen one morning in his excitement pronouncing "They're soft and fluffy like a bunny!" as he did so. Too cute. He also told me he liked art class, and he made roses out of clay, forming each petal individually. He gave them "to a girl I liked" at school. I can not imagine any girl resisting his charms!

I didn't dare read all the letters, I can always do that later. I did sort of skim through a pile and was tickled pink to find several correspondences from my dear sweet Dana Dee! It pleases me to know that our friendship is the same as it ever was, and she is the same one of a kind hilarious National treasure she's always been.

1996, first trip to Grand Canyon with my sister. If you haven't gone, make it happen, the sooner the better.

1995, my first year at Philmont. All geared up to go hiking out of tent city at base camp. Good times!

This is me and my bf Nadine Fernandez, a friend I met that first summer who got me through awful homesickness and took me home with her on days off to nearby Wagon Mound NM. She was one of those people I just took a powerful shine to and we adored each other, becoming fast friends and practically inseparable all summer. She was a really amazing spirit and to my southeastern eyes an exotic beauty. I'm still looking for her and I hope she is doing well and living a happy life.

This concludes a brief skimming of my Philmont days. I wouldn't trade those 3 summers for all the tea in China.

Winter

 In wintertime I like to go inward and be cozy. I plot and gather for coming works, and hone my powers of observation.

 I go back to favorite old talismans and refresh my admiration and inspiration.
I enjoy every slim chance at a wintry mix. I like my winters to be wintery. I love cloudy days, overcast skies, rain, sleet, snow, fog, whatever I can get.
Come to think of it I do have a fever and the only cure is more snow! I remember when I was little, on Emory Lane. The snow turned our Charlottey yet serviceable woods in the back yard into an almost C.S. Lewis-y blanketed wonderland.
We had a black cat named Midnight and we'd walk around those woods, with all the trees black in the snow and strung with thick vines (Gods, I think it was poison ivy!) singing out "Miiiiiidnight!", looking for his signature kitty prints in the snow, wanting to bring him in from the cold. Little girls tracking a tiny black panther in the snow. Pure magic.

That is just the kind of image I want to draw from in my upcoming works. I just hog up all the things that are beautiful and pleasing to me. Store all that up this winter arrange it in my mind and bring it into the world in the coming months.
Wintertime has its own unique kind of beautiful stillness. I will slow down and take it all in.

Flow

I pick away at a piece on and off all afternoon. It can take a minute to get into the groove, the swing, the hustle & flow.

I am nocturnal by nature, try as I may to overcome this and learn to compromise. I have to go with it before bed when I feel compelled to return to a project. I just have to, and I allow it because that is when problems I've been running into all day long effortlessly work themselves out. In that last hour or so, I make all the progress I need for the next morning. I'll pick up, moving right along naturally from there.

I follow a family tradition of go with the flow, or "do as The Spirit moves you".
Words to live by, if you can just allow it.

Muggy In January

Here it is, half way through January and it's been warm and muggy in that specifically Southern way. This is prime wintertime, but here in N.C. you can hit 76 degrees out when it's supposed to be 40. The days are still short (they are at least getting longer) which goes rather oddly with a sunny muggy afternoons.

I drove home today with all the windows and the roof open. That is crazy!

I'm commuting, and still settling and orchestrating the new space, building workbenches, etc. I'm moving a lot of stuff. I feel like I've been moving around more now than I can remember and the time just goes by in an impossible time warp.
I delay spring fever as long as I can, that is to say I appreciate the season I'm currently in. I try to enjoy and revel in and soak up all the good stuff about whatever is going on now.
January has its own beautiful stillness; it's a time for a certain kid of internal gathering, hibernation,. It is the calm after the storm of The Holidays and the calm before the stormy brightness Spring brings.
What I really want is a beautiful frosty weather event, the sooner the better, but right now it's a sleep with the windows open kind of night. It won't go by unappreciated.

Pimp My Bandsaw

Well,it's that time of year again, time to treat the ol' family bandsaw to a set of fancy new orange urethane tires! Actually it's not so much the time of year as it is an overdue maintenance issue. My Shopsmith is at least 40 years old and the rubber tires were crappy and misshapen and I've always had a bit of a time keeping saw blades tracking properly. O how I've learned not to use any other brand of blades. P.S. It also didn't like 1/8" blades. It's been rather finicky. I haven't tested with a 1/4" blade yet, but the 1/2" works like a dream and I think the space age tires will indeed track far better, as everyone claims.

After you remove the old rubber tires you can clean the decades old glue off, I used a brillo pad. While I was doing that I simmered some water on the hotplate and warmed up the new tires in the hot water. A can opener worked to keep the urethane under water, and it matched.

I was super careful trying to get them on at first, they were so tight it felt like if my fingers got trapped underneath they'd be squished to smithereens. But after shooting the tires off the wheel several times like a rubber band I came to the conclusion I'd have to just wrassle 'em in there, fast and furious. You can also use a little dish soap to lube up the water and pop them on there, it really helped.

Also I would be remiss if I didn't mention, I of course wore safety glasses because as Hank Hill says "Now remember, safety glasses don't just make you look cool, they also protect your eyes."

I just know I'm gonna love my better tracking, way fancier bandsaw upgrade!

Style

We all think we got it, even if only in our own minds.
I've been studyin' on altars and I plan to create around that idea this year, more than ever.
I'm one of those who makes a point to have aesthetically pleasing surroundings.

 I end up making little vignettes everywhere.

Composing shape, line, texture, color wherever possible.

Because of this tendency I with relish making assemblages in the coming months. Brand new year, brand new studio, long cultivated plans coming to fruition.
I welcome 2013 with eager anticipation. Come on Lucky 13!