What's Hidden Underneath

I woke up on Sunday morning to this lovely stuff.  We got about 8 inches.  It was wet and heavy and soon will be gone.  It was a shock though, it the most snow we got all year. It came down in this big fluffy white flakes and was quite beautiful to see.

In my journal I have been making some small collages. The background on this one was made with some alcohol ink and then the black was printed with a gelli plate. The paper is tyvek. The quote comes from The Medicine Cards book. I typed it out on my typewriter. I really like having that tool at my disposal.  The image of the hawk is from a calendar.

This one is all collage.  I used wrapping paper, scraps of walpaper, cut out from a creft magazine and more. Just lots of fun with layered elements.  There is paint underthe entire thing.  I didn't like what was happening with it so I just covered the whole thing.  Art is like that sometime, you never know what is underneath it all. As a mixed media artist I create layers, layers of word, paint, images.  It is like each layer leads to the next, if I skipped one I would never get to the next step. We have the ability to hide things that we don't want others to see but still those messages are in the energy of the piece. In this piece, by covering it all up I think my message is that you keep moving when you've hit a stumbling block.  You push on until you come out at the other end with some sense of satisfaction.

Do you hide things in the layers of your work?

It snowed!

I still find it hard to believe the snow we had yesterday. This is my backyard at the beginning of the storm. We got 4" of very huge white fluffy stuff, it looks like December, not October. There are downed trees everywhere in town.  The leaves had not even changed or fallen yet. We lost one big branch on one of our trees but the rest survived when I got some of the snow off of them. Then we had another distaster, something fell into our chimney while we had a fire going and the house filled with smoke.  I wasn't home.  Dave had to pull the on fire logs out and put into the ash bucket and take outside. It took 2 trips. We also lost power at that time.  We have power back but the house still smells like smoke. We have all the doors and windows open and its really cold outside so I am down the basement where its warm.  I hope we'll be able to close it all open soon,  Last night the smoke really burned my eyes.  Not a fun day.

Some more pages from the graffiti journal.  I printed out a Sunday Sketch for this page.

Here I was talking about the rain, that was early in the week.

I got some Utah peaches, don't they look yummy. In my town enterprising folks drive down to Utah near the prime peach growing area and bring up peaches to sell here.  They are just picked so you can't beat that. I am making some pie with some of them. Do you want a piece?

After the blizzard

The blizzard is over with so now the cleanup begins.  Sarah is up in Butte so she is missing all the fun. I know she wants to see lots of pictures so here they are.

This is right out my back door

Here is Flynn right out our front door.

This shows the drift in the front yard.

Here is the driveway.

and here is why we can't get out of the driveway.

Another shot of what the snowplow left behind.

Dave is out here with snowblower working on that monster.

Look at Flynns face, he looks like a raccoon. He got that from the spray from the snowblower.  He likes to be out there helping, but I made him come inside for a little while. I had to wipe his face off to get that fine crystal snow off of him. It may take all day but at least we will be able to get out and go to town.

Blizzard 2010

I've got a mug a hot cider in my hands and the snow is blowing like a banshee outside.  Dave found some really good cider at the store so I have warmed it and threw in a cinnamon stick for flavor.  It tastes really yummy.

I went outside to rescue the prayer flags that had come down.  This is the back yard.  The wind isn't so bad in the back.

This is our driveway, that is about 4 ft of snow piled up. We won't be going anywhere any time soon.

I tried taking a pic of me by the snow bank but as the wind was blowing so hard I couldnt keep my eyes open and my hands were getting cold too.

Flynn didn't mind the weather as long as I made a trail for him. The cats are bundled indoor except for Boromir who didn't want to come in. She is holed up in the garage probably sitting on some wool fleece keeping warm. I will check on her later. The sheep are all nestled in the barn so all is well in my world.  How about yours?

Update:  Boromir the little grey kitty is  inside now....

DaVinci Is In Town

The Museum of Idaho has been holding its exhibit Decoding Da Vinci for several months now but I had not managed to get there yet.

When I walked in the door I met my friend Robin who works as a docent at the museum. She is so much fun, it was great to see her.

The exhibit was full of models of his inventions but I of course was more interested in seeing the art. There were replicas of his most famous paintings like this one. I had seen the original at the Louvre in Paris back in 2006. This one was bigger, most people do not realize that the Mona Lisa is actually a very small painting.

and this one which I had not seen before.  I thought it was perfectly lovely.

I

I was surpised to see that some of the pics we used in Misty Mawn's painting class were actually done by Da Vinci like this one.

and this is one too. I had done a transfer with this and painted over it. I had not realized I was working with a DaVinci at the time.

Of course I had to pose with one of the posters. After listening to a movie on Leonardo I realized I am a lot like him. I have started many things that I never finished either.  It feels good to know I am in good company.

When we left there was quite the snow storm. This was taken sitting in the truck after just a minute or two. I have never seen such big snow flakes before. Winter has hit with a vengeance this weekend.  It melted a lot yesterday but today its snowing again.  I am glad that I have nowhere I have to go.

It's Snowing

It snowing today, lots of white fluffy stuff on the ground. The sheep have been fed and the birds are flocking to a newly filled bird feeder. I am sitting on the couch, computer on my lap doing all I can to avoid working on my novel. I can sit here for a long time just watching the birds. There is something so magical about flight.

The two bald eagles were back on their perch in a tree overlooking the Snake River. I saw them on my way to town this morning. I love to see them so I am glad they've returned. They go somewhere else during the summer.

I heard there was a pumpkin shortage so I ran to town to get some pumpkin for my pies. I love pumpkin pie and of course it has to be one I make myself. Its not a special recipe or anything. I just follow the Joy of Cooking's advice. Thanksgiving wouldn't be what it is without it in my opinion. Oh and I have to have real whip cream. I always whip it right before serving just like my dad always did when I was a kid. The last few years I have been buying those already made crusts from the store. They don't taste as good as the real thing but they do save time. This year I decided that I would do it all from scratch and I am actually looking forward to it.

Now I ended up driving through a snowstorm to get my pumpkin so do you think there was shortage at the store... of course not. I am still glad I went because now all that shopping is done. Oops I forgot the whip cream....as Scarlet would say oh tomorrow is another day.

My girl will be here for thanksgiving this year. I can't wait to see her, D is going to pick her up on Tuesday. She is doing Nanowrimo too so we'll have some fun time writing together.

Do you have any special plans this week.