Merry Christmas!

With all the hustle and bustle that comes with the holiday season, I had to step back and consider what is really important to me.

First off, the disappointment that I felt this year with the election, I have decided to remove politics from my life, and I doubt that I will ever vote again.... The electoral college proves to me that their votes are the only votes that count, so I'm not wasting my time or energy anymore. Yes, I understand I won't have the privilege to complain anymore, but I really don't give a shit.

On the flip side, I was notified by Artpace (almost two weeks after they said they would notify artists) that I was considered a qualified artist to have my art selected by international curators or staff for shows in 2017. Now lets see if my work gets selected. It's a waiting game.

In January of 2015 I took a 30 day sgraffito glass challenge that was created by Kelly Crosser Alge through Facebook. Each day starting January 1 we created a drawing with powdered glass on glass, and fused the pieces in the kiln. After each piece was finished we posted our art each day on her blog Modern Ancient Glass. I had a BLAST doing that challenge and my drawing skills improved over that month. Last week I found out the Kelly was traveling to Texas to teach and I signed up for the class immediately! The class is in January over the MLK weekend at AA Products in Seguin Texas. The commute for me will be an hour each way for 3 days.  For a great instructor that's not bad!
So next month I will be dusting off my jars of glass powders that have been dormant for a while now!

For now I want to concentrate on baking cookies, wrapping gifts, and talking to family and friends on the phone that are too far away to visit.

                                        I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!!!!

Moving on

I met a friend for lunch yesterday and I was telling her that I was waiting to hear if the application I submitted for my art would be accepted and told her I should hear from them by the 4th..... Well it was already the 7th and no notification, which meant they passed my art up. Oh well on to the next venue application!

Call me crazy but I really wish that could afford to buy one of those little old abandoned/dilapidated homes on the eastside of San Antonio for about 15-20 thousand, and fix it up a bit (and paint it a bright color:) for my very own art studio. My husband thinks that an absolutely crazy idea.  I do agree that it is a lot of money to invest just to use as a studio when I don't have that kind of money to begin with.......  He is adamant that I would be happy in a storage shed, in the back yard, with a couple of window of course.  Considering I have no where to work, I may just have to take him up on the storage shed.

I really miss my old studio...... but I love my new house!

keep it small

The boarding house was on 114th street a couple of houses down from the boardwalk. Two bathrooms shared by 11 rooms.  Some rooms had one or two people in them and some rooms held more, much more. No guests after 6pm read the sign on the front door. The tall lanky guy that lived next door to me, in a ten foot by ten space would open the door about 7pm on bitter cold nights, and a brood of six kids would quietly climb the stairs to sleep for the night. The ages ranged from single digits to young teenagers, they were all his kids. One of the girls who seemed to be around my age, or year or so younger was friendly to me. She had a sad smile and rarely spoke, but I liked her.  Living in a small room myself, my possessions were very few, but I knew I had more than any of them.  One of my cherished possessions was a miniature porcelain set of living room furniture in a tiny box that fit in my pocket. I had no where to display it but I loved it. It had pretty pink flowers painted on it and consisted of a couch, two chairs and a coffee table. Too tiny for even for a doll house.   It was December and it was freezing cold one night and I passed that girl in the hallway, I just had to give her that tiny box.  I knew she would be able to keep it since it was so small. When I handed it to her I just remember the smile on her face and the eye contact we made. I couldn't Imagine having to spend all day outside and sneaking in just to sleep.  I wonder how she is and how her life turned out.
  

National AIDS day

 I thought that I would share some of my memories.........

There's a building on the corner of 124th street and Rockaway Beach boulevard that I spent my childhood summers in. The building was built in 1920's and had these beautiful curved stairs that were straight out of a hollywood movie with a grand foyer to match. My aunt and uncle lived on the second floor of the building and I always thought rainy days were the best! I would run down the stairs to the the first floor and knock on the door that was directly next to a tiny elevator that hardly ever worked.  A pretty young woman would always answer the door with a toddler in diapers clung to her leg sucking on his pacifier. It was Frances I was looking for to come out and play in the foyer with me. His little brother John could only look at Frances as he ran past them and out the door. Frances and I were the same age, about six years old. Frances had blonde wavy hair like his mother, and John had the straightest brown hair you would ever see.  Frances didn't seem to care that I was girl, he would always come out and play with me.  We would spend hours together, making up games and laughing, he was my best friend every summer, until my aunt and uncle moved a few years later.  

We all grew up and I actually moved back into that building when I was 19 with my 2 year old son, as a single mom. I thought John and Frances had moved out, but their Mom was still living in the same apartment, next to the rickety old elevator that no one dared to use.  I lived back on the 2nd floor, but things were very different this time, the building wasn't so grande the way I remembered as a child.  I always knew that Frances and John were both hemophiliacs, but I didn't know that Frances had passed away the year before I moved in from AIDS related illness at the age of 18. When John turned 18 he also got sick and passed away from AIDS related illness. The saddest moment in my life was when I was walking home holding my little son's hand and John and Frances Mom walked up to me and said "both of my babies are gone, I have nothing left to live for".  The sadness in her eyes broke my heart, all I could do was stand there and hold my baby's hand bit tighter.

The year or so I lived in that building with my son,  a young coworker and friend, had left her two babies with the sitter and didn't come back- she had AIDs and didn't want them to see her die. My next door neighbor was in his late 20's and always flirted with me and say he wanted to marry me..... if he didn't have AIDs- his entire family had disowned him because of his illness and he was totally alone.....  I had another friend who got into a car accident that left him with a hip injury and during surgery he got infected. His girlfriend left him and told him no one would ever love him, she was wrong, he was loved, he was a beautiful person.  I won't forget my friends. They left way too soon....

 

 

it's a sad day

I can't believe that Trump has been elected for office. It feels horrible to know what he represents and yet he will be the leader of our country.

Today my daughter had a conversation with a coworker about the election and its outcome.
She was asked how she felt about it and her response was this:

"The realization that I am surrounded by people who hate me because of my skin color and hair, and the fact that you will inherently alway be more privileged than me, and a white man more than you is the most disappointing moment thus far in my life."

It pains me as a mother to know my daughterfor feels like this. All women should be equal, yet we are not treated equally........ we work hatd to earn a living yet we make less than men.  Racism is alive and well and hate is prelavent. Trump has brought this out front and center.....

It's all about the candy

I love Halloween, the costumes, decorations and most of all the candy. Last night we had a rush of trick or treaters come to the door. They were all cute in their costumes, especially the very young ones.   I had a special visitor last night. The previous occupant's daughter of the house with her young son.  The little boy wanted to come to grandma's house but looked confused when I came to the door, and I could see the disappointment on his face as he looked inside the house and nothing was familiar. He actually reminded me of my oldest son when he was that age, cute and sensitive.  I really wanted them to come inside because he was curious of the fish tank but his Mom was ready to move on.  Oh well, maybe next time.  I should of  just handed over the whole bowl of candy to him.....

Uploaded my application!

I have been way too busy to jump on the  blog-o-sphere lately to read my fellow bloggers writings, and to write anything of my own, until now! My goal has been accomplished and I submitted four paintings this evening to Artpace. The deadline is Tuesday, and I just finished painting and mounting the last one I wanted to complete today (picture below). Thanks to my daughter, she edited the pictures to professional quality photographs and her hard work is much appreciated! I have added the ones I submitted to my art page here on my blog. They may or may not accept any of my art work, but I accomplished what I set out to do so I am pretty happy about it!  I want to thank 37 Paddington for motivating me to keep on going with my loopy designs!

The 47th problem of Euclid

(bottom  25"x 25", top left 15"x 15", top right 20"x 20")

sketches

I picked up a small watercolor sketch book in the spring and have been drawing out and painting some of the loopy designs during my lunch breaks.  So far I have 14 designs in my sketchbook and of those I have implemented five of them onto canvas's. Now I'm working on getting the last two completed paintings onto the stretcher bars that are in different shapes for each design.

I hope to enter three of them into a juried art show, the deadline is October 25th. Let's see how it will go!!!!


some of the sketches:

    

In transition

As an artist I feel that things have gotten stale.  I need to reinvent myself, at least online.  I remember in my teens, 20's and 30's I used to look forward to the new fashions of the seasons and think about what I would be adding to my wardrobe, be it the new "in" colors or just a new style.  It always made me feel good looking forward to this. Now that I'm in my (late) forties, I realized I haven't done that in quite a few years.   It's the same way with my online profile of my art. I want to transition myself to my new art. The one that excites me emotionally when I create it.  My loopy abstracts.  It's amazing how happy I feel when I draw them out, paint them, and design the rectangle, triangle or square they ware mounted on.  It's an emotional, fun and happy journey with this loopy art of mine.  Isn't that what it's all about?  So for now, my blog art page is empty, and whether my new art is well received or not, I don't give a flying f#*k. I just know that it make me happy, and I will share it with the world.

     

South Padre

As I sit in my cubicle, pushing papers around and on the computer typing all day, my Hubby is working out of town........ in the most southern tip of Texas of South Padre Island.  It's one of my favorite places in Texas. As much as I would have loved to take a few days off and stay with him down there, I just didn't want to spend my days alone while he worked.  Also, there was a red tide warning which means the risked of getting sick going into the water. I just can't see myself going to the beach and not get into the water.  
Last night my hubby sent me some pictures as he went for a walk. He had a companion following him for a few blocks, even crossing the street with him without getting hit.  I asked him if the crab was going towards the water or away from it, he said away from it..... I guess even the crab is fleeing the red tide...

 This summer I didn't go anywhere........ Hopefully soon I will get to go on an adventure, somewhere. 

pizza, a loner, and a new tv show

During my lunch break today, between running errands, I stopped at a local Italian restaurant for a slice of pizza. Once I got in and ordered at the front, the place was packed with no empty tables in sight.  I walked all the way to the back and there was a old man siting at a table with three empty chairs around him. I asked him if he was eating alone, which he proceeded to stumble over his words and finally saying that he was with someone....... uh huh., Ok fine, so I look around and low and behold in the corner, on the other side of the soda fountain machine, an empty chair and tiny table..... so I as I walked by behind him to sit down as he fidgeted like a nervous little puppy. I have a feeling he was scared of me. I wonder if we have become so anti social that we fear EVERYONE that we personally don't know.  Some of the most interesting people that I have met in my life were complete strangers that I have shared a table with.  I understand that some people prefer to eat alone, I get it...   but his reaction and response wasn't like " I want to be alone", it was more like a nervous, scared, child. To me it felt like he thought I was going to commit some kind of crime against him. Anyway, his back was facing me as we both ate our food, and each went on our separate ways. On the flip side I did get some drawing time in so that was good.  

I finally finished watching Harley and the Davidsons on Sunday, (I recorded the mini-series, it was really good!) and there was a small portion of the new show called Sacred Steel on the recording before it cut off. It looked interesting so I decided to search it on the Discovery Channels website, and they actually had the entire episode to watch online. Yay for me! It was their first episode and I am enamored with it.  I am so glad I have a new show to watch!

 

Keep on moving forward

 September rolled in and is going by pretty quick. I can only tell that the season is changing inTexas when I wake up in the morning and can't breathe through one side my nose, otherwise its still in the high 90's and feels like summer.

My day job has been pretty slow lately and staring at the computer, reading all day make my brain feel groggy by the time I leave. Last night I came home, jumped in the pool and stayed there for a long time, just floating around.  It felt good for my brain to be outside of the cubicle and away from the computer.

My daughter is in her 5th year of architecture and currently in the residency program. When I talk with her about her day, it amazes me how creative her job is even as an intern. I am so glad that she decided on a creative career where her mind will be constantly challenged in so many creative ways.
Once her residency ends in December, she goes back to school to finish her spring semester to graduate. I don't know where her career will take her but I look forward to seeing her soar!

On another note, I was working on a fused glass window panel in the month of August. Since I don't have my big kiln hooked up yet, what should have taken me a couple of days took every weekend of
August, but I finished it, and the recipient loved it and and asked for two more just like it. I said no.
Maybe later when the big kiln is hooked up..... Here is the final project:   Ok, so I have to figure out how to upload a picture from my iPad photo album onto the blog....... 

"My Poppies"

So I wasn't able to get the picture uploaded from my Ipad, but I had to figure something out, right?

Very weak

This week I decided to join the gym. I am starting out slow. When I mean slow, I mean slooooow. Being a dormant coach potato for the last decade or so I have become very weak.  Tuesday I started on the elliptical for 10 minutes, manual, level easy... my legs were on FIRE by minute two! I pushed through and moved on to working out my legs.  I had to adjust the weights on the machines to very low weight (Remember, I live in Texas and walk NO where, I drive).

Tonight, I set the elliptical for 12 minute, manual, level easy..... I wanted to quit by minute eight. I was sweating and had a heart rate of 167, you would think I was running a marathon, but I made it to 12 minutes. I had to stand there for about 5 more minutes to make sure I wasn't going to pass out when I got off.  So I decided it would be work-out-arms day...  I couldn't even put any weight on ANY of the machines... I took the pegs out of all the machines I went on, and was straining to lift, push, or pull the bars themselves, I don't think I completed a set on any of them. Well, at least I started. Maybe I wont feel so weak in the near future if I keep it up. It's just sad when you can't even lift 15 pounds with two hands.....

It feels like it's going to be a long road ahead of me

Love

I am a dreamer and my imagination soars about the possibilities that could be..... Maybe it's just because I'm a Pisces,,,,,

Sometimes I think about what life would be like living in Canada, or in Greece, or maybe even back in New York.

I think about traveling the world, and not having to work in my cubicle,

I think about what it would be like if things were different or if I did things differently.

And then I wake up in the morning, and my husband hugs and holds me, even  after 25 years together, and I realize I am happy right were I am, doing exactly what I'm doing.  That's love.

  

just pondering things....

It's been a struggle for me to post anything on this blog lately.  I just worry about saying too much, too little, too personal, not personal enough.......   Then I wonder who is reading my blog. The last post was in the beginning of July yet the biggest hit of views, was a single day in mid July from Russia.... really, why????  I'm not that interesting.

Anyway, I have been pondering at making some extra money on the side. I work a typical full time 8-5 job and am considering weekend work.  All of my artwork is piling up in the office/studio and I have not really put it out there to sell, just a couple of facebook posts.  Do I want a low paying weekend hourly job, or do I need to hit the pavement and try to sell art? I really don't know how to go about this. I just know that I need to offset some bills. I am also not sure about working 7 days a week either..... ( I don't consider creating art work). This is my dilema.

In all reality, I just wish I had enough money to just travel the world.  So since I don't, even though it's only August, I asked my husband for a really nice world globe for Christmas, so I can just dream.

loopy doodles and paint

As a creative person I try to find something that will take me "away".  I have thrown myself into these very large loopy, doodle paintings that keep my mind off of everything as I paint.  This one is is now on the wall in the upstairs TV room. It's huge 54" x 60" I'm also painting another one.... not sure where that one will go.

Music and Martini's

 

Fleas and a split second

I didn' t know if I wanted to write on this blog anymore, but here I am typing.  It's absolutely true that an entire life can change in a split second.  My daughter and I went to her apartment off campus the first weekend of June to pack her stuff up and get her moved out. As we were packing we realized that her apartment was infested in fleas and I didn't want them traveling back home with me..... I decided that we needed to find the nearest Walmart to get flea bombs, set them off and pack up on another weekend.  I haven't lived in Austin since 1996 and it has grown tremendously, so I am not familiar with the city anymore.  I got lost, took a wrong turn, didn't see the signal lights at all, as I ran a red light at a major intersection, getting T-boned on the passengers side where my daughter was sitting..... My reaction as I was passing under the bridge, not seeing the signal lights at first, then looking up, realizing it was a red light I was going through, my head and body turned to my daughter as I watched the impact occur in that split second. All I wanted to do was grab her in that instance and prayed that she would be ok. The Fire dept, EMS and Police couldn't believe that we made it out of the wreck, much less on our own, I'm traumatized that I put my daughters life in danger as well as the other driver.  The car is totalled, but we are alive and all the material stuff can be replaced.  I truly believe in God, angels and guiding spirits. I believe we are all connected spiritually. They say everything happens for a reason, but something like this I just can't figure out why...yet. I love all my kids dearly and I love my husband. I work to support my family and I try my best to be a good person. I am thankful that God, angels and guiding spirits were watching over us.

One more thing, my mother sent me a picture of St. Nicholas in 1994 with a note on the back of it saying that St Nicholas was watching over me and she prayed that he watch over my entire family.  I had framed that picture and gave it to my daughter, and she had it in her apartment. Before realizing there were fleas in her apartment and deciding to  leave for the store, I had packed it in the trunk of the car with some other pictures.  When we retrieved our personal items out of the car a couple of weeks later, the pictures had broken frames and glass everywhere, except St. Nicholas. The frame wasn't broken and even though the glass was shattered, it was still in place, like a mosaic of clear glass.  

The shift

I took my first stained glass class in March of 2001, and over the years created quite a few pieces of art. My creations varied from windows, stepping stones, mosaics, fused glass and pendants. Throughout the years that I was playing with glass I had fun with it. At one point I thought I could create a business, but it just wasn't meant to be in the overall scheme in my life. Over the last few months the EPA has had a major impact on the manufacturers of art glass in the U.S.A., and I agree that the environment is important to keep safe. With that in mind, I believe the government could help these businesses by providing some sort of tax break or grants to make the manufacturing of glass as safe for the environment as possible and keep these companies in business.

All of my stained glass windows, stepping stones and mosaics were created with Spectrum Glass. This company is closing it's doors after forty years in business. They were the only manufacturer that produced machine made glass, which made their glass just a bit more affordable than hand blown glass, with stunning color variations. Spectrums average retail price was about $6-$10 a square foot. They also produced  a line of System 96 COE for fusing glass, again a bit less expensive for the fuser. They stated that it wasn't just the EPA that affected the closing but the business never fully recovered from the recession. You can read the letter that the announcing the closure of Spectrum here.

Bullseye glass, my favorite glass that I use for fusing (90 COE), along with several other glass manufactures were all under a nationwide review by the EPA.  They were all ordered to install a filtration system to keep toxins from seeping into the environment, which they did comply. Now this past week the Governor of Oregon ordered a Cease and Desist order for Bullseye to stop manufacturing glass because of lead levels in the environment.  As of today May 23, 2016, Bullseye will have to start laying off people in their company, and have made this latest announcement, read here.

With everything that is going on in the glass industry, there will be a trickle down affect with all the small Mom and Pop glass retails shops, either their prices will be skyrocketing or they will be going out of business. I am hoarding my current glass supply and will not be creating anything with it for a while. I have a feeling that they way things are going I won't be able to afford to play with glass in the future.

My stash of powders

  

pretty in pink

As an artist I want to be identifiable by my art. I feel this shift in me right now that I want to delete everything I posted online and start over. But then I think this is who I am and this is what I put out there for the world to see and read. Good or bad it's out there. Who really cares anyway.

I am moving from glass to painting on canvas. I don't have the electrical outlets or space to create with glass right now.  Since I LOVE creating loopy designs I am going pursue it for now, maybe I will find success in it :)  I'm actually excited about this transition!.

Yesterday when I was looking out the window, I noticed that my neighbors blooming flowers match my pink bird house that is sitting on the fence post.  I thought it looks so pretty!    What little bird wouldn't want to live there? 

Music-Art

What does music look like? I'm sure when a person closes their eyes and just listens to the music, it "looks" different in each persons mind. In my minds eye, music pops with color and flows with the rhythm.

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about that little drawing in my sketch book that I painted with water colors. I decided that I wanted to created a similar pattern on canvas, and ended up going much bigger than I first thought I would.  The canvas itself is 59" by 47".  It's not on stretcher bars but on the floor in my studio where I have been working on it every evening after my day job. This weekend I was able spend most of my Saturday working on it, and I just finished this afternoon. I will be making the stretcher bar frame for it, so a few inches will be lost on each side, but that's okay, I'm really happy with this painting!

Here are the pictures from the sketchbook drawing along with the progress and the finished piece.

sketchbook with watercolors

"Music"

Finished Piece!!! 

(I'm not sure which way is up yet, I'll figure that out later.)

This is what it currently looks like on the floor. I used step stool to take the pictures. 

busy bee!

Last weekend I laid out my plans for the "loopy" painting. I started with my wood, canvas and drawing.  I decided that I was going to make one panel rectangular with "floating" triangles of different sizes on either side. So on Saturday I went and purchased six 1" x 2" x 8' pieces of wood to cut into triangles. Well, my table saw only cuts up to 45 degree angels which means I had to think about this for a few minutes after I made a few cuts and they were all turning into square frames.  When I pushed one of the boards up from another board, walla!  go a 90 degree angle!  Now I'm not one to measure so everything was done by eyeballing cuts and I got the results I wanted, 6 triangle frames of different sizes.  

my first Triangle frame

with reinforcement

On Monday I ended up at Home depot on a late lunch break buying some sample paint colors for the canvas, oh yeah I forgot to mention that my canvas is actually a bit bigger than I first thought I was going to make, Anyway, as I turned around to leave, behind me in line was Michael, a young man that my daughter grew up with in the dance studio for many years. I hadn't seen him for about five years and he has turned into a very handsome young man. He is a professional ballet dancer and a wonderful young man. My daughter and I are planning to see him perform with the Joffrey Ballet this summer.

Inspiration

Every morning I wake up to coffee, e-mail and Facebook. It's a ritual that I enjoy for about 30 minutes before I have to start getting ready for my day.  This morning there was a video with an article about a 100 year old woman that runs. Her daughter talked her into running at the age of 67. She had lost two sons in drug violence and I found her story very inspirational this morning. Per 100 year old Ida Keeling: "Get up and do something, even if you don't feel like it. Sometimes you don't feel like doing this, that or the other. Do the things you don't like to do first  and get rid of it".

Her story is truly inspirational. you can read all about her here.

New project

I worked in my sketchbook at lunch today creating a "design",  and tonight I just finished painting it with my limited watercolor pallet. Right now this design is 5"x7" and I will recreate it on a 36" x 24" canvas. I'm not sure what the final colors will be, I'll figure that out later.

Good morning sunshine!

Late in the Texas summer last year, I really felt the heat, so I created this painting........

  
My oldest son liked it so I gave it to him, but since he forgot to take it with him when he left the other day, I decided to snap a pic & post it.

Stormy day at the beach

Last year, before Christmas a friend of mine took a picture of the beach, Rockaway Beach, which is basically her front yard.  I loved the picture so much I asked for her permission to reference it. I am not a realist by any means and I really do enjoy uneven and colorful brushstrokes. When I was working on this painting time just flew by.  Today I finally feel that the painting is complete. I like the way the colors came out. Can you tell it's a sormy day?

                                                          Stormy day 32"x40"

So which one is better? top or bottom?

Lists

Always searching for something more. As far back as I can remember I always wrote lists. Lists of things I need to do, lists of things I want to do. Lists of things I want in life. Sometimes I would even sketch out things that I want, like my art studio. I would imagine it, draw it out and in the end it would be reality. It took time, lots of time and effort, but it did become real.  

I just finished reading "Into the Magic Shop" by James R. Doty, MD. I couldn't read it fast enough. I wanted to read it all, now. I may re-read it, which is unusual for me. I want to share it, but not my copy, its staying with me. I'm telling my friends about it, and I will be buying a copy for each of my kids. I thought it was that good.

I have been searching for a quiet mind through Kundalini yoga. Now I can apply my meditation, and Ruth's "trick's" from Doty's book to help me along. What is it that I really want right now? I want to create beautiful art.

A gem hidden in plain sight - 1100 Broadway

After leaving the book festival yesterday afternoon, I made my way to 1100 Broadway to go see a solo exhibit at ArtistsWithAMission gallery by a very beautiful and talented painter, Caroline Adam. Her work is absolutely beautiful!!! It amazed me how much change occurred in the gallery over the last couple of weeks. The gallery was double in size, maybe even tripled with natural light following though, and the walls were bright white showing off Caroline's artwork. Great show!!!.

The building at 1100 Broadway is made up of all different types of art studios, and is truly a gem hidden in plain sight. I had the pleasure of meeting Katherine Gambs Warmack when she posted a call for artists through Facebook about a month ago for her gallery, ArtistsWithAMission. Katherine's art studio/gallery is located on the 2nd floor walk-up and she did give me the opportunity to show my work in mid March and am very thankful to her. Katherine is a sweetheart! I believe that in the very near future she will be inundated with talented artist begging for some wall space in her gallery!!!

Caroline and Katherine- ArtistsWithAMission

After viewing the artwork in Katherine's gallery, we were all invited to see Dan Suttin's studio space on the 3rd Floor. Dan's space is actually The Octa-Tetra Museum. It blew me away!!!!! He was nice enough to let me take pictures to post here. You can find more about The Octa-Tetra Museum if you search it on Facebook.

The Octa-Tetra Museum

The Octa-Tetra Museum-

This piece took Dan a year and a half to create

The Octa-Tetra Museum

The Octa-Tetra Museum

The Octa-Tetra Museum

Adventure and books!

Today was the most adventurous day I have had in a VERY long time. Before I get into my adventure I want to mention that I am the type of person that forgets where I parked my car in the parking lot of a super market.

The 4th annual book festival was today, with over 90 authors scheduled to speak throughout the day. I had my marked schedule in hand with all the authors I wanted to see and listen too. The first one, scheduled at 10am, was Austin Kleon "Steal like an artist". I was pretty excited, leaving the house a few minutes early to allow time to park and wander around for a bit. Well, half way there, on the highway, construction.....0-5 miles per hour.....for what seemed forever!!!!! Four lanes down to ONE!

 After getting through the construction zone and finally arriving to my destination,  I needed to find parking. Okay, so I figured I would be a few minutes late for the 10 am Author..... not so, as I circled to find parking, I went deeper into downtown, with their notorious one way streets........  I finally found a lot with a space for $6 for the day, not bad..... However, they only take cash, in a slot, without an attendant, and I only had a twenty..... So I asked a couple of construction workers if they could break a 20, and they couldn't but they directed me to a bar across the street. The bartender graciously broke my 20 as couple of older, intoxicated patrons invited me for a beer, by poking my shoulder and pointing to the table with the beer on it (LOL!), I declined holding up my coffee.

By this time, I missed the first author, was late for the second author, and had to take pictures to landmark the streets along the way to the festival so I could find my car at the end of the day! SO, Now I need to find my way to the library where the festival was at from where I parked. I see a young man walking towards me, with his head phones on, I stop him and ask"can you tell me how to get to the library", in turn  he holds out his hand with change and tells me tells me he has no other money to give me. to which I said to him "I do NOT want your money. I want to find the library." He smiled and apologized and told me he couldn't hear me over his music and directed me the way to go. As I walked away I wondered if I looked that bad or desperate that he thought I wanted his money.......

Overall I was a bit frazzled, and felt lost but I wanted to enjoy my day, and I was not disappointed.

The third author on my list, Dr. James R. Doty spoke eloquently and had my full attention, as he spoke of mediation, living in the moment, compassion, heart break and how certain foods can affect our emotions. I was so glad that I had the opportunity to listen to him and I look forward to reading his book, "Into the Magic Shop" a neurosurgeons quest to discover the mysteries of the brain and the secrets of the heart. 

After purchasing my books and getting them autographed, I got myself roasted corn on the cob, fresh squeezed lemonade and a picture with Moonpie!!!! Moonpie reminds me of my friend Skeeter!!

I also had the opportunity to go to 1100 Broadway, a hidden gem in plain sight...... I will post about that later...

I think Gloria was the bartender

two blocks from my car

4 blocks from my car

Me & MoonPie