All You Need is Art

And I have some for you. In December, I will have works not only at Gallery 115, but also at the Green Hill Center for NC Art.

Lynn and David Gibbs, owners of Gallery 115 on Pomona Drive will be hosting their annual Winter Show. Opening night is Friday, December 4. As always, along with familiar faces, new artists will exhibit. I've sent two new works:

Opteron Two
5 x 9" (image)
Mixed media on Strathmore illustration board


Opteron Three
5 x 9" (image)
Mixed media on Strathmore illustration board

Green Hill Center for NC Art will be hosting their 30th annual Collector's Choice Gala and Winter Show. According to the press release, the focus of the show is on "young and first time collectors" in order to support Green Hill's First Works program. Curator Edie Carpenter says that the Center "want(s) everyone to become a collector, no matter what their budget or what the economy is doing.” She goes on to argue that even if you "have less money...why not invest it in something unique and handmade, something that is one of a kind, and something that will increase in value." Carpenter assures the would-be collector that works in the exhibition have been priced to fit any budget. I say, go in with a friend and split the cost. The work can live chez vous for half the year, and with your friend for the other half.

Opening night for Collector's Choice Gala is Saturday, December 5th; the Winter Show opens to the public on Sunday, December 6th, when admission is free.

Some of my birds have migrated over for the exhibition:

Snow Goose
12 x 9" (image)
Mixed media on Bristol board

What better way to start the holiday season than a weekend of gallery (s)hopping?

Here She Goes a-Potato-ing

Day Two of the Blizzard of October Oh-Nine

Some images from the biggest storm to hit during the month of October in all of Colorado history. I'm exaggerating, but we've only been here two and half years.

The Matilda Plow

The Hostess Sno-Ball Outdoor Furniture Line

Circuit box

Air conditioner with a new 'do

There's a car under there somewhere

Bird Feeder

There's a tree under there somewhere

View from front porch

The roof of our house - check out the icicle in the corner


Do you think she's had enough yet?

Let it Snow

It started snowing last night around 7:00. It kept up all night and all today. Matilda the Welsh Pembroke Corgi puppy loved it. There is almost a foot of it on the ground.

Even More Matilda!

Wherein she finds a green water snake in her kiddie pool.

Play Ball!

As promised, new video of Matilda, the Corgi puppy. Corgis are herding dogs, but Matilda doesn't have access to a herd of cows, a flock of sheep, or even a flock of geese. She is scared of those.

What she does have is a $2.00 beach ball from Wal-Mart, onto which I drew a cow face. Matilda loves telling it what to do and where to go.

(Un)steady as She Goes

This is my brain on drugs.

I haven't posted for a month, since August 21st, when I wished everyone a Happy Friday. That Sunday, August 23rd, I woke to find my world spinning. It's been downhill ever since.

It turns out I had a case of vestibular neuritis, an inflammation of the nerves in the inner ear. The main symptom is extreme vertigo. Definitely had that; I couldn't sit or stand without feeling as if I were falling. A two-week course of prednisone alleviated the vertigo, but, as anyone who has ever taken steroids knows, they bring their own set of side-effects. Inability to sleep and an EXTREME! energy boost were the two that affected me the most.

Most mornings I would be wide awake at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. Whatever needed (or didn't need) doing, I did it. I baked, made lunches, and made dinners - all before anybody else woke up, including the dog. I dusted, vacuumed, mopped, and cleaned. And I do mean cleaned. By golly, I reckon I scrubbed those faucets so hard to where they didn't say "Hot" nor "Cold" no more. I also watched way too much crappy late-nite TV. Although I have to say "Reno 911" is very funny...

I even rearranged almost the entire house. I turned our formerly nearly useless living room, which is in the front of the house, into a cozy sitting room, mostly by bringing in furniture from other rooms. Moving as I was at hummingbird-like speeds, it only took a few hours. Once I did that, one of my sons suggested that the TV/movie room would look better if it were rearranged, too. That was all the motivation I needed. It's been moved a little to the left.

Now that I'm off the steroids, the hyper-energized state I was in is waning. What I'm left with is exhaustion, and a queasy quandary about which might be worse - the upside or the downside. Right now, I'll settle for a balance between the two.

Tomorrow - more video of Matilda, the Corgi puppy!

Happy Friday everyone!

Happy Friday, Everybody

Let's all get out there and do something fun! Like bobbing for Pup-a-Roni in a kiddie pool after herding the ball.

Whole Shopping, or, Not with My Money, You Don't

Yesterday I wrote about a company (CIT Bank) that made me mad when it changed the terms of our contract and raised the interest due on the outstanding balance of my Dell account. I was very unhappy with the development, and rightly so.

However, I did not mean to imply that I was against the company acting "all corporation-y" (watch at your own peril) or that I was complaining about so-called abuses of capitalism. I'm sure that somewhere in our original contract is a clause that gives the financial institution the right to change the terms whenever economic conditions necessitate. It's probably in the very small print that most of us don't read. That's fine. It's also fine that the company exercised that clause.

It's even more fine that I exercised my option to cancel the contract. The company took the risk that I would when they raised my interest rates. It is definitely too bad, though. I have never had a problem with Dell products. I still don't. It's their financing division that I complained about.

Today is a different story. Many of you may have heard about an op-ed piece written for the Wall Street Journal by John Mackey, founder and CEO of Whole Foods. In the article, Mackey, who is a libertarian, proposed a free-market health care alternative to the one being pushed by our current administration. He has come under fire for speaking his mind (and no doubt for daring to challenge the current proposal), and for challenging what seems to be the prevailing view that health care is a right.

Those who disagree with Mackey's views have vowed to boycott Whole Foods, thereby cutting off their hummus to spite their falafels. They have every right to do so. A boycott is one of the surest ways to get one's opinions across about how a company is performing. It hits them where it hurts, in their balance sheets. I decided to boycott Dell, or at least CIT Bank, didn't I?

I subscribe to the Wall Street Journal and I read Mackey's piece. The link to his op-ed article is here. Read and decide for yourselves. In it, Mackey states: "Health care is a service that we all need, but just like food and shelter it is best provided through voluntary and mutually beneficial market exchanges. A careful reading of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution will not reveal any intrinsic right to health care, food or shelter. That's because there isn't any. This 'right' has never existed in America."

I agree with Mackey. So, instead of boycotting Whole Foods, I decided to champion them. I can't afford to shop them every day, but they have stuff I want, and stuff I need. I should say that one of the things that I have discovered about this neck of the woods is that I don't like the grocery stores here. If you have ever shopped at the Taj - Ma - Teeter on Friendly Avenue in Greensboro, you will know what I am missing. And the blue laws in Colorado are such that I can't even buy wine in the grocery stores I do shop in!!!

This morning I had to go into town (Boulder). While there, I visited the newly rennovated Whole Foods store on Pearl Street. I am gluten intolerant (the stuff I need), and Whole Foods has loads of GF products, and they are all extremely yummy. They are a bit pricey, but since time is money, and since I don't have time to do as much baking as I would like, today I spent my money instead. The Whole Foods products are worth it.

I also bought all the items I have not been able to find in the Safeway or the King Soopers (the stuff I want). Such as: really good salsa and very thin, crispy tortilla chips, some beautiful fresh basil, two gorgeous swordfish steaks, some Szechuan peppercorns (I have a recipe for a smoked chicken that uses these, which absolutely cannot be made without them), and some gluten free baked goods. I know I could have gotten some of these items in a farmers' market, but it is only open one day of the week, and today wasn't that day. And it is not open in the winter months.

Speaking of open air markets, I dream of the ones I shopped at in France in 2006. Never in my life have I been so overwhelmed by the choices. I like food, can you tell? But I digress.

Whole Foods has a dedicated gluten free bakery in Durham, NC. They make these:

Gluten Free Vanilla Cupcakes! They also make chocolate ones!

I also found this from a local Denver bakery, Udi's:

Gluten Free White Bread!

And guess what? It's soft! Most GF breads have to be toasted to be palatable. This one claimed it didn't. But I was skeptical. As soon as I got it home, I opened the bag, took out a slice, and gave it a sniff. Good. Then I twisted it. Better - it was soft. I held my breath while I loaded up a slice with peanut butter. I folded it, and took a bite. OMG. Or as Homer Simpson would say, "aarrrmmmph, aarrrmmmph, aarrrmmph." For twenty years I have been craving a gummy peanut butter sandwich. The kind that gobs up in your mouth when you eat it. And today I got it.

I grilled the swordfish for dinner. I served it with a chimmichuri sauce made from the fresh basil. It was delicious. I think I will have a cupcake for dessert.

Not all corporations are "corporation-y." The one run by John Mackey is one of the best ones I know. Whole Foods gives its customers choices - lots of them. It doesn't force you to buy the $15.00 a pound swordfish. But it offers it to you if you want it. It doesn't make you buy their house brand of canned artichoke hearts, but it sits on the shelf if you want it. It doesn't tell you that you need its goat cheese, fresh spinach, locally grown yams, fresh anchovies, grass-fed beef, warm baguettes, Indian breads, fresh pizza dough, or gluten free cupcakes. But they are all right there if you want them, and are willing to pay the price.

Today, I was, and I did. Tomorrow I might need to go to Costco for my paper towels and my olive oil. But it's my choice. And I'm glad I can still make it.