Dec.7,2011

Haha..almost a year since I posted on this blog. You would think I like my other blog better but really that is not the case. I keep thinking if I shot off my mouth there then why here too!!!
I reread my last post..New Year's day! And I am still struggling with the same issues! Weird. Part of me (that nasty little mean voice ) says I wasted my year..but I know that is not so.
Finances are worse than ever due to some bonehead mistakes or decisions on my part. But the caring about them..or anxiety is less.
The art is still all over the place as in styles...although few have seen the collection of paintings I have worked on for the Feb. 2012 show. At the Holiday show last weekend I had several people come in and ask if there were 4 or 5 other artists working out of my studio!! There it was the glaring issue...yet I like to try so many things still. I might try next open studio to show only one style,subject matter and see where that gets me. I did not show any of the Library show pieces..I want them to be new and fresh to viewers. I have posted them on Facebook..but since no one is paying much attention, and they are so different in person..it should be fun to see them all hung together in Feb.
The job front was different. I got the seasonal job at the Timpanogos Cave Visitor center and loved it. But it was over in September after starting late in May and really didn't pay off anything..but it was a great job and I will go back in 2012 happily. Still fighting ageism in the search for more work and will let it ride for a while and try to sell art maybe on EBAY.
Lost Frankie Pug a month ago. And have 2 sickly old cats but hope they get a bit better.
So being caught up a bit on the years doings...I spent a great deal of time daydreaming while watching birds, clouds, stars.
I have been having terrific dreams at night, some disturbing but all interesting.
My ideas on art have overwhelmed me..which can be good although sometimes I have failed to act on them.
It is good to know I have tons of ideas but sometimes the execution is lacking...or I get sent off in another direction.
I have always wanted to work in glass. Well maybe just really liked looking at stained glass. The Mucha windows in Prague are simply the most wonderful things I have ever seen. I plan to get to Chicago someday and see the Chagall pieces. And I now want to go to Blenco glass works in W. Virginia and the glass works studios in Wheaton(?). I know there are several stained glass studios around here and I want to take some classes. I am not sure I want to learn to blow glass but there is a chance here at Thanksgiving point...
I also want to do more printmaking but I feel I need to keep exploring my watercolors, as in batiking them...going bigger...whatever.

and so I have shared some photos I took of the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague and the Mucha Window...beautiful..enjoy.

New Years Day, 2011..1/1/11!

I was reading through my few postings on this little blog..and other than some spelling errors and a change of name for my other blog...I feel like I can get my points across ok.My other blog is Kay Hale is an Artist.
Today the sun is out and it is cold!!!! I really don't mind since the wind is not blowing. I went out last night to star gaze and to bang a pan at midnight.
I have made some vague resolutions to do more art, to do some cohesive art, to to get the mortgage caught up..well that one is not vague but necessary!!!So other than the financial thing..what do any of the other ideas mean?
I am all over the map when it comes to my art. I thought..since that is a problem for me..maybe I should pick a subject and do it in as many styles and mediums as I can and see how that works. But what would the subject be? I could be like some artists and just limit myself to one style and medium..but that simply isn't attractive to me. I know it would help people identify my work, quantify it, curate it, criticize it, care about it...but I just can't seem to come up with what that would be.
Don't you think that in my 58th year I would have that solved? News flash..age is no indicator of decisiveness.
I love so many kinds of art, mediums, colors, sizes...I want to try everything.
So the other thing has been trying to get a little job so I could pay my studio rent, and my credit cards and student loans...well...other than not wanting to work anymore..there has been little available..unless I want to go door to door and sell stuff.
Tell me there are jobs out there for women of age.
I defy that!!
But then I have not been pushing it this past month. I do need to get on the ball.
So no real resolutions to start the new year with..just the same struggle as the past year..different day(year) same stuff.
Have a good new year..if that means much..since we should be present in the present!

New years eve,2010

I wish I may I wish I might have the wish I wish tonight. It is 3 degrees outside and clear. Jupiter hovers over the western horizon and Orion's belt is to the south east and looking very close. To the south is a long bank of white clouds and the chickens are roosting under a heat lamp in their coop. The snow is deep and and drifted. I love this tonight. I hope everyone has a wonderful and creative new year.

July 14,2010

Ok you may wonder what got me on my soapbox this time...such a small thing..but that is the issue. It is a small thing, one of many small things, adding up to a major thing. I will explain...
Yesterday I went to the Dr.s office. I rarely need to go so I haven't been since the system was changed to computer only, the thousands of paper files are gone and the receptionist sits in front of empty shelves. She is not the nicest person, a bitchy person, just the type to get my dander up. She snippily says,"I need your picture i d." Not asking, just telling. I of course decided to leave that in the car since they supposedly have all the info on me they need over the past 20+ years of going to this office. But she insists and I go get it. She scans it!!!! Are you kidding me?
Now this seems a small thing, surely I can trust the Dr.s office help and wait..what the hell do they need that info for? We can't see the Dr. til we pay our co-pay, our health insurance is up to date..the privacy laws she says and I comply..all the while telling myself to calm down, don't make an issue, go to my zen place... then the nurse assistant in the exam room turns on the computer and asks if I have ever had any surgeries! What happened to the now missing files? Not transferred obviously..are they in a dumpster? I have no zen place when it comes to privacy laws and censorship and freedoms lost.
As I have said many times before..each freedom taken away, each nosy busy body who wants something they don't need, each artwork censored is like dying a death of a thousand cuts. Not so bad each time until you wake up one day and wonder where all your blood went!!!!
In the past few years..these are some of the cuts I and my family and friends have endured..
the art show with the sign outside the door, big enough for anyone to see, "explicit content". The viewer who went inside anyway to be offended, looking for the tiny faint pencil drawing that offended and complaining to the art office bimbo who freaked out on the head of the gallery, who in turn sought out the advisor to the student artist, who took down the offensive drawing, without contacting the artist, without discussion, without a thought that this might be a sorry thing to do...
the oil company that demands a blood alcohol test and a hair follicle test of its employees for a poorly paid cashier at a convenience store job, with a young man as a manager who does not understand human rights or have a decent social bone in his body, making employees cry is his MO.
the insurance company that does a credit check of a good customer who pays every month with an auto withdrawal so there is never a late payment.
The god complex supervisor who tells the employee you can't leave your station to go to the bathroom because no one on your team showed up to work that day.
The job applicants who get weeded out for their age and credit histories because any HR can use the google device and get info on you before you even get an interview..which you never get, or a sorry you don't qualify email..
the Wendy's employee that works a whole year because they are told they will be eligible for a weeks paid vacation only to have it taken away 2 days before the end of the year because Corporate decides to amend the policy.
The UTA company officials who decide not to honor the union vote and force employees to abide by their new contract or not have health insurance.
The 87 year old grandma treated like a criminal with a bomb in her hip..a hip replacement kept her from making her flight. No apologies..
the Dr.s office that calls with my husbands lab results and won't give them to me...his wife of 31 years because of privacy laws, the many businesses, banks, credit card companies that insist I have no right to call and talk about my husband's accounts, even though he has faxed the ok.
The artist whose painting of the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse is removed from a bookstore wall because the faint biblical reference might offend someone.
The years of harassment at the hands of customers at a tiny convenience store in Utah County who felt it was ok to deride me because I am a Democrat. To infer I was a terrorist lover because of my political leanings.
The Senior BFA show at a gallery who agreed not to censor the show but did so anyway.
Do you understand why I am fighting mad? Do you know my father fought as a marine in the first wave on Iwo Jima in WWII not because he wanted the experience, but because he fought for his and my freedoms, and yours too. The centuries of women who fought to be able to vote only to have the now generation decide their vote doesn't count and refuse to show up at the polls. The years of war and repression through out this world for the right to worship freely to have people today say those who believed enough to fight for their beliefs were sheep with no thoughts of their own.
The fact that girls today dream of having breast augmentation because it will make them feel powerful and dress provocatively as children, when their power was truly within them all the time, the power over their bodies (Roe vs. Wade), the freedom to vote, to have equal pay for equal work,the right to play sports, the right to an education, the right to a no-fault divorce, the right to marry for love. And yes the right to shun all the rights that many fought for them to have..
So we have the right to ignore our rights but I am not sure that is a wise decision, ignorance is not bliss. Giving up freedoms to feel safe is not safety. Censorship of the arts is not right and should not be tolerated no matter how small the offense seems. because no censorship is small. Allowing one person to exercise power over an employee, client, customer, patient, to demean, to make cry, feel small, to bully is wrong. Where is our zero tolerance for such injustices? Do we exercise zero tolerance in our schools for children being children yet refuse to demand the same of our bosses, CEOs and others in the positions to be corrupt? They claim zero tolerance on us..
When do we realize that the Government will not keep us safe? That the passengers on the planes caught the underpants bomber, not TSA.
When do we take our own safety and our freedoms upon ourselves and say "NO MORE" to the bigots and bullies in our lives?
Where is your blood level? How many cuts have you endured because you figured it wasn't a fight worth fighting? Are you afraid of being labeled a malcontent? Are you fearful for your job? Are you afraid that your friends and family will make fun of your outrage?
Let's all do artwork that could be edgy, let's all say no to the busybodies who make policy that takes what they don't need. Let's have a little anarchy here and now and at least say we don't like that or agree with that...let's make our own policies..be our own CEOs....brush off your soapbox and don't leave me standing here all alone in my fury, dripping blood from my many cuts.

May 1st,2010

I really don't have superiority complex, I really love most art as long as it is well done. I like abstract expressionism, Leipzig school, impressionism, pointilism, realism, surrealism, fantasy, fauvism, primitive, classical, you name it..I have looked at it and enjoyed it. As long as it is good. I like some installations, some avant garde..as long as it is good..not just my idea of good..but well composed, executed, meaningful, quirky but honest..whatever..I am pretty easy. Kind of like I rarely see a dog I don't like, a horse I don't like,,..until I get to know them and even then I find something to like. Probably the only thing I don't like a lot of is photography, and ugly babies..but even then I will look for redeeming qualities! In other words..I am easily amused, easy to please and forgiving of much..I am harder on myself and my art than I ever am on others..so with that said and pounded into the ground..
What happened at the art museum spring salon?
Out of 1024 entries,214 made it in and many were works that are put in because the artist has achieved master artist status due to winning awards in at least 2 previous salons.That took up several spots and some were not the best representatives of those artists work..because they are well known regionally and their stuff is everywhere and easily recognizable.
I didn't make it in..but it was my first time entered in that show..but 2 people I know personally did make it in the first time, one of the jurors was one who has juried 3 different competitions I have entered and she just plain doesn't like my stuff..but what does she like? I could tell her picks because the other juror, classically trained went with the more conservative ideas..the room with the installation, abstracts and avant garde stuff was such a mishmash. Some excellent paintings..including my friend's painting which was put in a corner out of the way..tsk,tsk. And some really bewildering things, not well done, or executed. What is it about some art? If it is really shoddily put together and given a quirky or pithy title then it means something?
In the other rooms there were paintings that were fairly figurative and representational..so what was up with the messy sheep painting of 2 sheep poorly executed..now my sheep looked far better but if you are going to limit sheep paintings there was a beautiful one of a sheep shearer and a sheep left in the basement rejects that was fabulous! Why hang the painting that a 5 year old could have done better? Now I know that sounds bad..certainly artists hate to hear..my 5 yr. old could have done that when some redneck looks at a Jackson Pollack..but we all know a 5 yr. old or a 20 yr. old couldn't do what Jackson did. But in this case..if you put my sheep painting, the sheep shearer painting and this awful accepted painting well the choice would have been the shearer if the one juror or mine if you like a more modern look..
Still..sometimes I think if I were to staple garbage to a wall I would be feted as the next big thing..but I would be snickering behind my hands because I would have pulled one over on the powers that be.
I sometimes look at art that is considered to be the newest rage, the start of a new movement and feel like I just haven't been let in on the joke! Does this sound like what people over the centuries have said when a new art movement came into being? I guess so. I actually like looking at some of this new art..I like the wit, the simpleness, the statements, but I don't always understand it..and that my friends, seems to be the major criteria..If a curator, or juror says this is the new thing, and you don't get it..then you are an idiot uneducated buffoon and not too with it! Are some of these artists purposely doing art that alienates? That makes people feel stupid because they can't figure out what it is? Is there purpose in the execution of oddness and jokiness? Is it the artist that is playing the joke? or the curator?
Frankly..my art borders on the weird and wild but I can't make myself play a joke on the collective viewer..I would rather be simple with no agenda..which is probably why I might never make it!
Here is the Saint Sheep that didn't get in, and the two white wolves that didn't get in, you see I can't be pidgeonholed into a style or type and maybe I have confused the jurors..ahhh this game can be played from both sides!!!

April 18,2010

Don't you love the sound of baseball? I do. It is summer to me, hearing a game going on, whether the little league down the street at the park, or the tv game. I don't care what team is playing, I don't care about the score..I just love to hear the crowd roar, the vendors, the announcers..the crack of the bat as it meets ball, the slap of the glove as it connects...and if I get lucky..I am at the game, watching people, eating a dog, drinking a beer, cheering, getting a sunburn..happy day..If people really knew me..they would take me out to a ballgame...any ballgame


My nephew Todd pitching,summer 2008, my mother,Alta Mae and my sister,Kim

April 16,2010

This morning I went outside around 8am to feed the dogs, outside kitties and two horses. My routine is fairly unchanged over the 27 years I have lived here. We have 1 acre and have never had friendly or kind neighbors. I wonder if it is my fault..yet as I look back..I made attempts by gifting new neighbors with baked goods, or if I had them, fresh eggs. And my one time advances to be a friendly but unobtrusive neighbor have been literally shunned! It is an unfriendly area here. Especially since my husband, sons and I left the predominate religion here officially years ago. But these are new people, not necessarily wise to the social pariahs around here so quickly..unless the church gives them a welcome to the ward packet..stay away from.....!!
Still I try to be friendly but I am burned time and again..we have had lots of neighbors..from the guy who beat his pregnant wife in the garden to the family who shot bb guns at my horses and cars, to now the reclusive, home schooling, I have no idea how many kids they have neighbors. When I went up to the fence the day after they moved in and the pregnant wife was standing there..I asked in a friendly manner..are you our new neighbors? and she lierally gave me a most withering look and turned her back on me! Then that 4th of July she and her children shot off illegal fireworks into my dog kennel and horse paddock. When I asked them to stop they were rude and degrading. WOW
Then they decided it was ok to buy dogs from people advertising their pets on a news classified site that is free. Then they sell the dogs a few weeks later to whoever will pay the price they ask. As a licensed hobby breeder who has to obey strict rules as in housing, selling ,breeding my dogs..it is wrong I feel to dupe the people giving up their pets, thinking they have found them a good home and never realize that the pets are going to be sold to whoever has the money.
I can't tell people what to do but it is ethically a bit iffy to me.
Then there are the sheep..The husband is cruel to them and the feeding is sparse. And today they added 4 more to the flock bringing it to 8 or 9...while only 3 are allowed per acre and they have less than an acre.
Of course while I was trying to feed my animals in our routine which is sort of zen like to me..they were there staring at me while I fed the cat. I finally said good morning as they sneered and continued to pile block and rolled fencing against the chainlink fence seperating our property. One year their calf and then their sheep pushed under that fence and I politely suggested that they not try to use chainlink as a livestock fence since it doesn't work well for that. Now lets address the smell already. Reached the 70s yesterday and it was already powerful because they are in a small area that never gets cleaned.
So now I am faced with the possible scenario of stink all summer which translates to flies..I clean my kenels 2 times a day and the horses have enough pasture to keep the flies way down.
Also the likelihood that the sheep will get through to my property and after the last debacle I determined they could not be welcome on our property again..the neighbors i mean since they kicked and hit the poor animals trying to shove them back through the fence.
So I guess it is time to call animal control..it is always a last resort to me since I had a bad neighbor years ago who called on my dogs every other day. I even went to the extreme and had the dogs debarked and that didn't stop the harrasment! The city finally told them they would no longer respond to his calls and he quit.
I guess I will just go to m studio which is 27 miles away and try not to think about them. Oh and we have the 5th new neighbors on the other side and they are just as self involved as the others..sigh..I often remember growing up in Ohio and having wonderful neighbors. No one is civil anymore, they don't respect privacy and they are so self involved it is all about what they want and not what might bother the neighbors..could they just be be friendlier?