sweet n cheap

my art dealer asked me to make some inexpensive work for the big fall opening at the gallery. i made four 8x8's of sweet kind of folk arty pieces. but honestly, i am thinking of not giving them to her and also taking the work i have in there, out. I just dont see how a 50% markup is justified in a gallery jam-packed with art representing 70+ artists. And i also dont think its wise to put a 50% markup on work this small. my big 40x40's? yes.

Back in the day, when an artist would have a solo show and the gallerista was on the phone working to get buyers in to look - i can see how a 50/50 split makes sense. i dont see how a commission that large is valid now with these giant shows. The situation i have found myself in now is i have to decide to make less so when she marks it up it wont be too pricey for its size to sell. and let me tell you what -smaller pieces are just as much work as the larger ones. the only difference is the amount of materials used.
More and more i am deciding i would rather go my own way, which means cobbling a living together by selling art out of my truck or on my online shops and doing the occasional illustration gig. I dont think i need the stamp of approval of being in a space designated as a place to buy art. so these little paintings will probably end up in my studio sale where i can offer them at a decent price. and if they dont sell? merry christmas somebody! ;-)

now all i need is a bear....

V set up a remote camera so i can watch out for Chickory when i have to be away. i can switch to a view of the creek too. isnt this cool? i love it. its got a battery, so it will work even when we lose power which is often. I can take a snapshot at anytime of what i see. so c'mon wild animals. ( too bad i cannot monitor the garden; see what mr rabbit is up to)

rain and more rain

I have never seen day after day of rain like this. hard soaking rain. at 10 am this morning it looked like 8:30 at night.

my creek is usually a calm trickle like you see above and now it is a raging river. thank God there isnt any construction above me -there is very little muddy looking run off. the chicken pens are soaked but they are high and dry in their church. i just heard a news story about a 3 year old boy who was washed away and lost when the mobile home he lived in was broken in half by a flooded creek in the middle of the night. parts of the interstate are closed and a couple of people died in their cars in Atlanta today. everything i put in the ground for fall is washed away or has rotted roots. and the radar shows more coming in from alabama for tonight.

building a shed

its taken the whole summer, but i have saved about half the money i will need to build a garden shed. I think i found the right fellow for the job, we looked at a book of sheds and started with what i liked and took things away as the reality of my budget was considered.

at first, i looked at those pre-fab things you see at home depot. but the materials are so cheap and the price is still high -and on top of that a tractor trailer is just going to drop it off and it still has to be constructed. my carpenter assures me i can have something better for the same money.

so next week i will look at materials. I have some ideas about what i want: id like to use as much salvage as i can. I have some old windows i hope to use for a mini greenhouse section, and an old enamel sink i want the carpenter to attach to the outside of the shed. I know i want a tin roof. i know i want a little deck off of it where i can put a few chairs and maybe a table. Id like to find a way to use unconventional materials or local materials too.


I want to put the chicken church out at the garden along with the shed and add a nice large dog pen that i will overlay with chicken wire for their run. that way, when i am out in the garden working, they can be out free ranging where i can supervise them. as it is now, i have to take them out to the garden and then take them back to their pen which is by the barn -far from the garden. The chicks will lay better with more light, and i will enjoy seeing them playing among the blooms scratching and searching for bugs. I built them a PVC and poultry net chicken tractor for their city home and it works great! its light, i can move it all around to fresh grassy areas. the neighbors really didnt appreciate my anti-hawk missile defense system (bottle rockets).

I was inspired by this New York Times story of a builder In Huntsville Texas who builds low income housing with recycled materials that are works of art. To see a slideshow of his work click here, you wont be sorry. I wouldnt mind having a tree house either. Does anybody have any great shed ideas? i am open to suggestions. Fishy? what do you think? im thinking of siting the shed at an angle with southern and western exposure.

I figure another 200 saturdays at the farmer's market ought to cover it. btw, it is STILL raining. the ground is saturated, the watermelons rotted and the creeks are swollen. and there is moss everywhere. have a great weekend everyone.

stormy today

a commentary

as i prepare to fire sparringk9 up again i have been thinking about my years as a blogger and i have made a decision. i dont like comment moderation and word verification. i cannot understand why these controls that add one or two more steps assists in any way the flow of conversation and exchange of ideas.

comment moderation is particularly annoying. it is a kind of censorship and i refuse to participate in it ever again. some people have it because somebody has harassed them in some way. okay, i understand that. as K9 i experienced that on a fairly regular basis but dealt with it and dispatched the irritants with his bark and bite. i personally would not choose to punish the all for the sins of the few. and if a comment is that bad, it can always be trash canned.

if someone posts about cultural or political topics and then enables comment mod then that tells me they are afraid of being challenged; so no commentary is actually needed. in fact, why not just have no comments at all and say whatever and let it stand. whatever the reason i will not leave a comment on any blog that uses this controller's tool ever again.

word verification. bloggers do it because they dont want spam. i understand. however, how much spam does a blogger get that they think it is worth inconveniencing their readers to prevent them from the task of removing spam? in other words, they are telling me that my participation in their blog is of less value than the time it takes them to remove spam. which makes me not want to comment. this is my new policy. if we are blog mates and you have these controls? im sorry. vaya con dios.

the first cool day of fall

a jewelweed on the creek bank heavy with dew

a cool overcast day highlights the warm colors of a cornfield on the way to the dump

dog is my co-pilot

a flock of guinea hens on the road



a country house i pass on the way to town; something is always in bloom here.

yesterday's harvest!


a 1970 Ford Mustang Mach 1. the ultimate. seen at the Home Depot last weekend along with other classic cars from the "cruise in" to see more classic car photos click here

dusty

a love letter to the one i gave away. 6x6" acrylic on board.