21 years!

I got my first pair of show chickens (Spangled Old English Game Bantams) twenty-one years ago today. That makes me sound like an old timer!

July 28 work in progress

9x20 inches
colored pencil
(have not spent much time on this drawing in the last few days)


not yet titled
scrimshaw on micarta
1.5 x 4.75 inches

And a closeup:

I've been listening to an audiobook lately while working. This is GREAT! I'm so easily distracted most of the time and usually have about 47 billion thoughts in my head so it's really quite pleasant to be able to listen to someone other than myself, without having the somewhat annoying constant changing of songs every few minutes (normally I listen to music). I'd downloaded two audiobooks before going on The Adventure. I only made it through one of them on the plane, so I've been listening to Bill Bryson's "A Walk In The Woods" and it's really quite funny to be scrimming bears and listening to someone talk about bears and forests and hiking. It's a great book! It gets me thinking more about hiking and camping and wishing it was something I was better at doing, but the truth is I'm really a weenie about it. I dunno, I mean I get to the end of the day and I want a shower and a bed and somewhere to plug in my camera battery charger! Anyway, I get totally engrossed in books and this keeps me on track with art, so I'm going to have to find a way to have this in constant supply, whether audiobooks or books on CD or something.

short skirts and wild women

Yesterday was the Battle of the Barns show out in Martinez. The theme this year was "Decades" and we (the Bay Area Equestrian Network team) were the USO Girls of 1941. Last year we won the whole show and the costume competition. This year the team seemed a little less structured. And one team member's truck died on Friday and she was unable to bring her horses to the competition so we knew beforehand we'd be getting several very large time penalties in the classes she was supposed to ride. Winning would have been pretty much impossible, and indeed we did not win. We got 7th out of 10 and did not win the costume competition. I rode in only two classes, which made much of the day pretty boring.

I screwed up the joust even worse than I feared I would. I don't want to get into detail but it was mortifyingly bad, probably quite painful to watch. I pretty much wanted to crawl into a hole after that. The only other class I was assigned was the relay, just carrying the baton from one end of the arena to the other and handing off to another rider. Got a little canter out of Shylah in this and it wasn't too bad!

The show benefits a local therapeutic riding center, so it's all for a good cause, and it's fun to hang out with horsey people for a day and certainly good for Shylah to get more exposure to all the crowds and horses and sounds, even if 99% of her day was just being tied to the trailer. But it was a bit of a letdown compared to last year. I'm not sure I would do it again.

And I will not be wearing this outfit on any of my road rides around here. That might attract some unwanted attention. Then again...hmmm... >;-)

Here are some pics from the show though:

Me and the cutest horse on the planet (she later had "USO" in white letters on her butt but this was early in the day):

Aww, she's got stars!:

The team. Left to right is Noelle, Wendy, me, Leesha, Christine, and Alena:

Alena riding Cindy:

Christine riding Tag:

Noelle riding Cadet:

Wendy riding Mischief:

I was sooooooo tired by the end of the day. Amazing how sitting in the sun all day wears a person out! I house-sat out of town in the evening, got back here in the late morning, did a bit of art today (will post WIPs tomorrow), but the thrill of the day was going to see the movie Mamma Mia. What fun! I'm a big ABBA fan and the movie was a hoot. I was half way hoping the crowd would spontaneously burst into song and dance as we left the theater.

I'm whooped.

July 25 work in progress

Two nights ago my web host was being moody and last night I was gone, so this is two days worth of WIPs. Wait, where did I leave off (I have to read my blog and find out!) Ah, okay.

I connected the lightly dotted outline (with more dots) so I could better see what I'm doing:

I'm going to start with the foreground and work my way backwards. So for the tree I started with the limbs:

And then put in a "base coat" for the trunk. I'll be working back into this to create the texture of bark, this is just to give it some roundness and a base gray tone:

If you want read my ramblings, I mean words of wisdom, in great detail about how I do scrimshaw and this piece specifically, I am using this piece as a submission in a tutorial contest on The Engraving Forum. You can read all about it here. Can you tell I like to write? If only I had this much to say in person. ;-)

I have not had time to ride for the last few days. Today Shylah got bathed and braided and primped for tomorrow. I'll be spending the day in a ridiculous costume. I'll post pics when I get a chance. Nobody on the team seems too gung ho this year, me included, I think we all just have a lot of other stuff going on in our lives. But hey, I guess we all need to saddle up and wear a skimpy costume at least once a year, it builds character. ;-)

Cross your fingers!

remembering

July 23 is a day I never forget. It's been nine years since Thunder died. Hard to believe that, I remember it quite vividly, and yet it seems like soooo long ago that she was part of my life. I sure had some fantastic times with that horse! She was the perfect first horse.

And she had a great canter! I loved riding bareback. I'd just cinch on some saddle pads (no saddle) and ride like that a lot of the time. And she was super easy to canter bareback, she was so smooth (except when bucking, she did have a fondness for bucking). Don't think I could do that with Shylah! I was probably 14 when this was taken, so she was 18. Silly girl, no helmet! I was young and foolish. Sometimes I think about the stuff I did with her and I can't believe how crazy I was!

I was supposed to sell her when left for college. I tried, but there wasn't much interest in an old horse that looked like she might be getting some Cushings problems (she did not totally shed out the last few years of her life). She was 22 when this was taken.
And probably 23 in this pic. She didn't mess with trees, so she got to hang out in the yard a lot. She died at 24 from founder.

July 22 work in progress

It's starting to get more tolerable. The hard part is figuring out the colors. I have drawn so many chickens and horses I know by heart how to create any shade of brown, or any of the reds and oranges and grays, but throw pink and purple and blue at me and I'm stumped, gotta figure it out as I go. It's not like I just take one pencil and color something in. Oh no, haha, far from it. Depending on the color there are anywhere from 1 (rare, that would usually be a patch of solid white or solid black) to 12 layers of color, from light to dark. Unlike paint, there's no mixing on a palette, it's all mixed right on the paper! Layers and layers and layers of color...

It's really sort of abstract right now, that's hard for me! I want some lines!


9x20 inches
colored pencil on cream Stonehenge paper

June 21 lack of progress

It was a pretty scattered day, lots to do but not a lot of time for any one thing, so the progress on the drawing is less than impressive, I'll wait and show you tomorrow.

I'm submitting my bear cub scrim as a "tutorial" (hmm, more like work in progress, I don't feel qualified to tutor anyone about scrim yet) on an online forum, so I'll be back to poking holes on that again. In case you've forgotten, here's where we left off. The outline is there, barely visible.

Don't believe me? Here's a closeup:

Shylah almost redeemed herself on tonight's ride. She was great until we got to the end of the road to turn around and then I swear it's like her brain just fell out. She was all snorty at trash cans on one side of the road (OMG how many hundreds of time has she seen our garbage cans, everyone out here has the SAME ones) and then a big barking dog on the other side of the road. Jeez, getting her to go between them I might have been walking through walls of flame or something. And then the horse on the corner in the corral was all snorty so that didn't help, and she spooked big time at three large pigs. What do I do? I keep her feet moving in the direction that I want them to go, which is usually opposite the direction she wants to go, or at least at a different speed. I make her think, back up, circle, etc (granted this is a little hard to do on the road, if she's being stupid and a car is coming I just hop off, I have no qualms about dismounting, I'd rather have a skittish horse in hand than find myself spattered on the road if she spooks into a passing car.) I gotta say most of the time she's absolutely great but when she gets into stupid mode I just can't figure it out. Gotta keep doing it I guess, convince her that the trash cans won't eat her.

and the prize goes to...

Me! Well sort of.. Just found out that my two entries in the California State Fair Fine Art show ("Aragorn at One Year" and "Jessie") both received an Award of Merit. Technically that's kinda like Honorable Mention, but it sounds cooler. My art is just too normal for them! ;-) One of these years I must do a horribly ugly abstract piece. I even know the title already!

The reception is on a night when I have dance class. Hmmm, which one to attend....

random crap

Well, no sooner do I finish telling everyone how great Shylah is when we have a day like today. Absolutely rotten little brat today, that was the worst ride I've had on her. My calm horse was a spooky, balky freakazoid. When we got back from the road ride (that's supposed to be fun!) I cantered her a few zillion laps around the round pen until she was absolutely worn out. Cantering of course being her least pleasant gait I'm curious who will be more sore tomorrow, me or her! (Yeah, I'm guessing me!)

The Battle of the Barns show is coming up on Saturday. I practiced a little jousting this morning before hitting the road. I will not make it as a professional jouster, I am sad to say. However, if I give up that class then I'm only riding in one other (the downside of having a slowpoke trotting horse is they don't put you in the speed classes!). So... eh.. The outfit this year is slightly less objectionable than last year's, but only slightly. Actually my biggest complaint is it's so scratchy! I'll post pics after it's done. :-)

More random bug pics today! I actually like these bugs though. I am still using the Coolpix camera for macro shots (I have not looked into getting it fixed, the flash is dead). I would like to get a macro lens for the D80, but for now, this works!


Now that is one smug looking bug.

July 19 work in progress

Some drawings practically draw themselves. This is not one of them. I think my struggle with this piece is probably all my head, because it's a subject matter I tend to avidly avoid, but I'm making myself do this to prove that I can. Of course I can! At its most basic form, everything is line, color, and texture. Just takes a bit of convincing sometimes. :-) ("But these aren't the colors I normally use!" "But it's not an animal!" "But but but" Yeah...) I'm sure this will have a moment where it all clicks into place. It just isn't there yet...

In total randomness, I found a dead scarab beetle on the sidewalk and took some pictures this afternoon. Pictures similar to these were one of the first things I ever posted when I started blogging three years ago (wow, three years and I haven't scared you all off yet!). That one was alive though. These things are out in the garden/orchard all the time, they're huge and buzzy and scare the bejeebers out of me. I know these are kinda gross, I'm not a bug fan, but I think that color is way cool.


By my standards this is a huge bug. If I ever encountered one of those really giant rainforest beetles I'd probably keel over.

And on a cuter note, nap buddies...awwww.... :-) (Olin and Jessie)

July 18 work in progress

Ha ha, this does not photograph well at night! That yellow color looks pretty gross here, it's much prettier in person. What is this? Eh, you'll see. I'll give you the title later.

9x20 inches
colored pencil on cream Stonehenge paper

In other news, I sold the scrimshaw Nude #2 today. :-)

paved trail rides

That's what I used to call them with Thunder, "paved trail rides." Thunder was a great road horse. Gwen was great around traffic but she has that sneaky aspect to her personality that has always felt dangerous. Shylah has the makings of a great road horse too. Why I haven't done this more with her, well... I'm a wimp? It's the moment of going for it that's hard, but then I find out it's not so bad after all and it gets easier. I'm like this with life in general sometimes! :-)

I've had Shylah out almost every day this week for a few-mile ride. She's really good around cars. Big rigs (only seen one and I was dismounted at the time) may be a little iffy. Have not yet seen a motorcycle. Little yappy anklebiter dogs concern her. Sheep might be dangerous. But overall she's been very good and I've run into a few people along the way who want to chat and that's fun. I saw my hay guy this morning, he said the hay went up another $3.50 per bale between the first cutting and the second cutting. Good grief! Good thing I got first cutting! The feed store has grass hay for $14something per bale. That's insane. (BK you asked about the bale size, they are larger/heavier than the ones you have).

Anyway, it's just a matter of telling myself that even though I don't have great mountain trails in my backyard, or live along the river anymore, it doesn't mean I can't still get out around here and have a lot of fun with a great horse. Of course I still need to mooch trailer rides. The paper had a nice article about the El Dorado Trail the other day... that sounds fun.

The Adventure: June 29: saying goodbye

As written in my journal on the 29th, edited now with comments in parentheses:

"Today I leave. Seems weird to be packing up again, as it really does not feel like I've been here very long at all. (hopefully I did not completely drive B insane!). I am going to miss this place and the animals and the scenery and pretty much everything about it. I am so glad I came on this trip. I have had a wonderful time here and wouldn't trade that for anything. I am so hyped up about art now, I must get my art into this place. I just hope I can maintain this enthusiasm when I get back to my relatively dull existence in the sweltering valley that is Sacramento. I hope to return here some day. I have so many fond memories from this trip."

So yeah, it was hard to leave, it felt like a very short ten days. I told myself that morning that I would not cry... phsaw yeah I totally did, a lot, it was a little embarrassing. :-) I'm not good with goodbye, and for ten days that was home and family and so much fun, and it was hard to leave.

If you haven't already figured it out, I had a great time. :-) The Adventure of a lifetime, but hopefully not just once in a lifetime. Being back home has been a big adjustment for a lot of reasons. I loved it up there. I really could see myself in a place like that. I know, I know, the winter would suck, but I'd stay in and make a lot of art. Anyway I have to have something to complain about on the blog! ;-) For now, you're stuck with me whining about summer in the valley. Artistically speaking, that place and I were a perfect match, I can't stop thinking about Jackson Hole. I WILL go back. I've traveled a lot but never has a place really pulled at me like this, I can't shake it. It is hard to keep the enthusiasm when I'm here. I have a list of art pieces to create that I think would be real assets to my portfolio as far as seeking gallery representation there. I am applying to an art show that takes place there in September 2009, but it's not a show I'd have to be present for (though if I got in I'd sure as heck go see it!). I will not get into details on this now. If I could find a way to spend a long time up there, like even a whole summer, and do a string of art shows, I'd jump on that.

To my dear friend B: thank you for the Adventure. I sincerely hope I see you again some day. I hope you stay there, I'll need someone to check in on those galleries and make sure they're displaying my stuff properly. ;-) May the Force be with you, and may "four hundred children" always make you laugh. And write that book gosh darn it!!!

So long critters!

See ya Tetons!

Farewell Jackson Hole!


Such memories. :-) Happy Trails!

photographing turkeys

Oh yeah, now that's more like it!

There is this group of 2 adult females and 10 babies that I see around here every day. They're pretty cute.

The Adventure: June 28: Granite Canyon Trail Ride

It was another lazy morning until the farrier came out and reshod Amigo (remember he lost a shoe a few days earlier in Teton Canyon). However, considering his problems with navicular disease he was still too sore for a ride that day so that ruled out another jaunt through the field.

So lacking any other specific plans it was decided that we would go out to Jackson Hole and trail ride with B's friend R. R has Rocky Mountain horses, I'd never ridden one of those before. Size-wise similar to Shylah (in height AND girth, lol). ;-) I'd also never ridden in an Australian saddle before. It was pretty cushy. My horse for the day was a chestnut mare named Sugar. She was okay but we didn't really click and she was kinda disrespectful at times (and not the time and place for me to do anything about that), so it wasn't as fun a ride as the previous ones had been. However, I did enjoy getting to do some gaiting, she was really really smooth and that was a lot fun. She weren't no Shylah or Sara though! :-)

Here are pics from the ride. This was in Granite Canyon (aptly named!) which is in the Grand Teton National Park. A lot of my pics came out very blurry, perhaps an indication that the coolpix camera was starting to have some problems.



Hmm, could that be some granite there in the canyon?

Look at those ears, she's contemplating tossing me in the river and making a run for it (she was NOT a fan of water and got airplane ears every time we were near it).

And then we saw bears. Bears! Plural! A female and two cubs! And where was my camera? Why it was turned off and put away in the camera bag. Why? Because I'd had to dismount and fix the saddle when Sugar suddenly managed to deflate and I started slipping over the side. And somehow it didn't dawn on me to get the camera back out. Yeah, I really have impeccable timing sometimes. See those brown blobs? Those are bears. We were REALLY close, like "OMG do we need to turn around?" close. I was concerned what the horses would do, recalling when Shylah saw a bear once. Eh, the horses were fine. I was in a bad photo spot, and the camera was slow and not focusing where I wanted it to.

The cute blob with the face is one of the cubs. Oh these are cinnamon bears. Or are they called cinnamon black bears?

Back view of the bear blob.

Purty!

We all went to dinner at a little place in town, and on the way back what should I see but moose #3! Now I thought the third time was supposed to be a charm, but it was almost dark and she was moving fast and was looong gone by the time we turned around. Foiled again! Sadly, I have no moose photos to show you. :-( That of course means I just have to go back some day.

Next: my last day, sigh...

July 14 work in progress

The second illustrated matboard is now done. Geez that took a long time! ;-) I just can't decide which side is "up." (BM, if you have a preference let me know, since you're the one who'll be looking at it). I put 24 color names into a box and picked them out random, that's how the colors ended up in the order they are, if anyone's wondering.


I need to write a contract and invoice tomorrow morning for two new commissions. But the next drawing, well, I think I know what it's going to be. Something different. Might surprise you. Might surprise me! Something I've avoided doing for a long time but recently think maybe wouldn't be so bad after all. And I'll be working on the bear scrim again.

I took Shylah road-riding tonight. Well, half a road ride anyway. I hadn't had her out on the road for a while, and I think the last time might have been with another horse. Hmm, or maybe not. Anyway, it had been a while so I figured I'd just take her for a walk after doing some "arena work" in the field across the street for a while. There are so many yuppies out here now a person gets a lot of funny looks just for being out with a horse, but one gets even more looks for leading a saddled horse down the street ("hey, you're supposed to be riding the horse!"). It's an interesting way to meet new neighbors though (I consider anyone on this road to be a neighbor). So anyway I led her all the way down to the end of the road (1 mile) and figured since that went fine I'd hop on and ride all the way back. No problemo. We were losing daylight though so I had to trot part of it. If I did a lot of that I'd need to either think about getting her shod or getting her fitted for boots.

Some day, when the weather is good and I have a few hours to kill, I am going to ride her to the post office. :-) Road riding is dangerous, that concerns me, but unless she sprouts wings (or I do) the only way for me to get anywhere is to hit the road.

Oh! And I'm not done with Adventure tales yet. Can't top the wolves, though there was something pretty cool on the 28th, which I failed miserably at photographing, but there are still two days to talk about! I'll try to get through the rest of the pics tonight...maybe...

and the official word is...

Draft Horse Classic: I'm in! "Thankful" and "Sunday Morning" were both accepted, as was my booth. I actually found this out "through the grapevine" about a week ago but wanted to get official notice before I said anything.

So, September 18-21, 2008 at the Nevada County Fairgrounds in Grass Valley, CA. Put it on your calendar, it's a great show!

Woo hoo!

The Adventure: June 27: Yellowstone: the grand finale

After taking all those eagle pics, we hoofed it on back to the truck and headed onward toward the exit. Bryan was in a hurry as he needed to be somewhere, so the eagles were to be the last of the photo-stops. He looked over at me and smiled and said something like "well, we saw everything but bears and wolves, that's pretty good." I agreed that was pretty fantastic (other than lacking photographic proof of mooses). It couldn't have been more than ten seconds later, as I stared absentmindedly out the window, saying goodbye to this wonderful place, that I saw a female elk running along the bank on the far side of the river. Wow pretty, I thought. B saw her too and said "did you see that elk?" "Yup."

And then my eyeballs just about fell out of my head and my jaw dropped open and I said something totally unladylike, like "oh sh*t, there's a wolf chasing her!!!!"

A WOLF!!!! Did you catch that!? A wolf!!! Chasing the elk!!! OMG!!!!

Well that was the quickest U-turn on the face of the planet. Time crunch be danged, we were barreling back down the road trying to catch up! We were sure we'd missed them, they must have gone up into the trees along the other side. B pulled off on a side road that went down to the river. We saw no sign of them, but figuring "what the heck" I said let me hop out and I scrambled down a trail to the shore, with my camera of course! I expected they were long gone, so imagine my complete surprise when I saw the elk cow in the middle of the river, heading back toward the riverbank on the other side. I fumbled for a moment, and that was as long as it took her to get out of the water and head up the bank:




Well cool, I thought, she must have lost the wolf and I got some neat pictures of her.

And again my eyeballs about fell out of my head when suddenly from around the bend I saw a wolf in the river, swimming toward shore. I just held the shutter down and shot, grinning like an idiot and thinking "I can't believe I'm seeing this."










Somewhere in the course of all this two more people showed up, they had also been following the elk but thought they'd lost her til they saw B's truck turn around and head down this side road. I can't remember if B had walked up by this point. Was it then that they said something about having seen two wolves?

Second wolf?

OMG! Yes, a second one, running along the far shore. This is the one I had seen chasing her originally, I had no idea there were two!






And just like that they were gone, and I think we were all standing there with looks of absolute shock on our faces. Had we been even seconds earlier or later we would have missed the whole thing. I still can't believe I saw that. What happened to the elk, I don't know. She seemed to have a pretty good head start on those wolves, but in what way nature ended up taking its course, I have no idea. That was the last thing I would have ever expected to see. I didn't even think about wolves because I thought "no way." I'm still just sitting here kinda shaking my head because I can't believe we saw that. Talk about once in a lifetime!

Fate, I tell ya, fate!

I don't think I stopped smiling the entire way back to Teton County. Actually I haven't smiled as much as I did on this trip in a long time. And every now and then one of us would say "I can't believe we saw that!" The ride back was gorgeous, that part of Montana is OMG beautiful, and B said it was the area where "A River Runs Through It" was filmed. Stunning. Unfortunately I did not see Brad Pitt's character wandering around, or I might have done something embarrassing like throw myself at him. ;-)

Wow. Wow. Wow. Still in shock!

The Adventure: June 27: Yellowstone: bald eagles!

Yellowstone Lake is immense. Absolutely immense. I thought Clear Lake was big!

We were on our way back to West Yellowstone to leave the park. There was a 1/4 mile stretch of road that was posted "no stopping" because of bald eagles nesting. We'd driven past this twice already but it wasn't til now that it was like "oh yeah, that huge nest up there in the tree!" So we pulled over past the closure and walked back (as far as allowed) to take some pics. It was impossible to get great shots considering the distance but nevertheless this is a bald eagle and its baby. Bryan was back there last weekend and said this chick has fledged. Cool!



I'd seen these eagles first thing that morning along the river near the West Entrance but told B not to stop because they were back pretty far from the road. Well, they probably weren't any farther away than this, but it's okay. There were a lot of animals we passed up that day (elk, bison) because of all the pics from the previous day. I occasionally found myself thinking "we should have stopped for that one" but realized later that if we had done one thing different that day and altered the schedule by even a few seconds we wouldn't have seen what we saw next. You'll see.... ;-)

Up next: the moment you've been waiting for! What we saw! (Yes, I have been dragging this out as long as possible) ;-)

July 12 work in progress

WIP:

CS and I went to see the Sex and the City movie late last night. It was good, I liked it, and it was fun to have a girls' night out on the town! I didn't follow the series (because we don't have cable) but that didn't really matter, I was still able to enjoy it. I am looking forward to the new X-Files movie! It has been FAR too long since I have been able to drool over Mulder.... ;-)

I delivered my art to State Fair this morning. I should find out about awards by early August, though I'd be pretty surprised if I get anything. I saw some really fantastic art there, and some stuff that made me think "I really don't understand art." I really don't. I understand my art, and art like mine, but some stuff, I just don't get it. State Fair has always been sort of a weird art show. I think it's tamed down quite a bit over the years, but there were times I'd look at it and just be totally disgusted by it because it's all this weird modern abstract political hoo ha, and maybe I'm just old fashioned but I like aesthetically pleasing art! Anyway, it's hugely competitive, so getting in there is always quite cool and surprises the heck out of me! They want me to be a docent, since I'm fairly local. Hmmm, do I want to do that? Could be neat. Or boring. I need to see if they reimburse gas money though.

After that, I dropped by the Pacific Flyway Decoy Association show. I'd seen a little ad for it at the frame shop last time I was there, otherwise I would not have known about this. I expected it to be a little thing but was totally surprised at what a big show it is and how many people were there. It didn't even dawn on me to take a camera. There were more decoys than I have ever seen, in lots of categories (ducks of course, shorebirds, birds of prey). Some were hunting decoys, some were decorative. There were quite a few artist booths with some really big name people there (duck stamp winners). Amazing stuff. I'd be half tempted to say I might want to show there but I'm pretty deficient in duck art. A non-hunter myself (I have no objection to it, just not something I'm interested in doing) I don't get out into duck-environments too often, or see wild waterfowl other than quite far away (with the exception of mallards), so I don't know the minute details of their feather patterns and whatnot. Perhaps I need a duck-blasting dude to bring me dead stuff to photograph. ;-) I'll add that to the list of qualifications, ha ha. Now if there was ever a chicken stamp competition, oh yeah baby, I'd be all over that one.

The air is getting better, hopefully it'll be decent enough to ride tomorrow. I need to move a bunch of birds around too. I've been thinking a lot about shows and chickens and what I'm going to do. I really would like to go to the National down in Ventura. It's a hugely long drive and I hate to do that because of gas prices, but there will be people there from all over and that's super fun. I could take the art probably pay for the whole trip, though it's a pain in the butt to deal with that and birds. Then again at that time of year I'm not likely to have many showable birds anyway. I'll have to give this some thought.

The Adventure: June 27: Yellowstone: falls and big bull elk!

We headed north from Norris Geyser Basin.

Here's a pretty scene overlooking a lot of trees. There were some discovery channel people down there filming some sort of interview so everyone was getting hushed by a ranger right here. You'd think they could go a little farther off the beaten path for that sort of thing. I guess if you ever see this interview and hear a loud truck in the background that will be B's claim to fame. ;-)

And here's a waterfall. I don't know what this is. My journal says we stopped at Tower Falls, so I'd have thought this is that, except in my photos this comes before Mammoth Hot Springs, and Tower Falls was after that according to the map, so.... essentially I have no idea. Maybe I didn't photograph Tower Falls, or maybe this is it. Or maybe I'm just totally confused. Yeah, that would be typical!

A scene from above whatever falls that was:

All along we'd been seeing a fair amount of female elk, most of which we did not stop for, having seen a lot on the 26th. And there was the occasional far-away group of little bachelors, but the big boys had been pretty elusive up til now. I think we actually stopped to get some scenery pics in this pretty valley and then realized there were two bull elk way the heck out there. Again, love this camera. I could not have gotten these shots with my little camera.

Pretty valley, can you see the two elk?



Uh oh, getting grumpy with eachother!



Interesting that the one on the left is ear tagged.

So northward we went from wherever this was and stopped at Mammoth Hot Springs for lunch. What a zoo, there were a ton of people there. Did not walk around the hot springs itself, just did a drive-by photo on the way out. I don't know what that odd geological formation there in the foreground is, and I shall also refrain from mentioning what we called it.

Next we stopped at Lower Yellowstone Falls and went to a place called Artist Point. Wow yeah, gorgeous. If it wasn't for the gazillions of tourists, I could have stood there and stared at this place for a long time!




A sleepy bull elk by the side of the road on the way out.

Next stop: Yellowstone Lake, and bald eagles!

July 10 work in progress

It's icky here. Only got to 99 today but I think that's just because the smoke was so thick that not much sun is getting through. It's bad. My head hurts, my throat hurts. There are no fires here, it's just blowing in.

Here's how the back yard looked this afternoon, I took this around 2:30pm. Nuthin but gray skies do I see....

This evening if you didn't know it was smoke you might think it was overcast and about to rain. Weird.

No stars tonight, and the moon is an interesting shade of reddish orange (for those who need to know, shutter speed 1/3 second, focal length 400mm, used tripod and timer, photo is cropped):

WIP:


So I have at least four people threatening to put my profile online if I don't do it myself, ahem. I will, I am getting there, soon.... Guess it's time to find out if the cosmos can prove me wrong... ;-) I AM rather curious what other people would post about me though, eep!

The Adventure: June 27: Yellowstone: thermals and geysers

We stayed in West Yellowstone, MT the night of the 26th so as to save some gas and get an early start the next day. Cute place, I recommend the Hibernation Station if you need to stay there. A little spendy for sure but actually a LOT better than some of the generic hotels. Of course being afflicted with the "can't sleep in hotels" curse, I think I was significantly less than perky the next morning. Sorry... And it was B's birthday no less!

The morning started out with a lot of hot springs. I'm not exactly sure what this first one is. Looking at the map I am guessing Terrace Hot Springs, but I didn't make a note of it at the time. These thermal areas are all over the place up there, I had no idea how many there were! Some of them have little trails and overlooks and whatnot for the tourists but I wonder if the ones that are off the beaten path are just left as is? Probably. They post lots of signs warning people not to do stupid things like, you know, jump in them. Hey, survival of the fittest. That goes for petting bison too. Some kid got tossed around while we were up there because he was posing a few feet away from a bison. I mean hello! Anyway, I digress. Here are some thermal pools:


And then we stopped at Norris Geyser Basin, which has LOTS and lots of pools and geysers and steam and sulfur and all that fun stuff. It's so prehistoric looking, just amazing.






I don't know the names of all the specific geysers, but I do remember this one is Steamboat Geyser.


And this is some water flowing over interesting looking mineral (?) deposits. Edit! If you don't read the comments, B clarified the nifty colors for me. Yeah, I guess I do remember reading that: "All of those colors that the water is running over are micro organisms. All of the different colors have a specific heat range in which they live and have different basis for life; the green ones deriving their energy and color from chlorophyl and living in the "cooler" temperatures, and the reddish ones get their energy and color from iron and live in the relatively "hotter" temperatures." Thanks. :-)

Lots of interesting colors in a place like this. Don't you think there ought to be a pterodactyl flying around there?



Next up: you guessed it, more Yellowstone! Including some big ole elk!

July 9 work in progress and other ramblings

Some WIPS do not photograph well. These are among them, but lest you think I've been sitting around twiddling my thumbs, I must show them to you (okay, so I've been spending great gobs of time getting all the Adventure photos cropped and labeled, but I'm almost done with those, which is sad because once I finish blogging it then you're stuck with my relatively dull existence again).

Anyway. BM's illustrated mat boards. The big one is done, the smaller one is in progress.

Turkeys, a broiler, and some wysteria, all of which is symbolic and important to BM.

Feathers, assorted colors, nowhere near done.


I framed "Jessie" today. The drawing, not the real live arthritic deaf dog. I like! I shudder to think how much it's going to cost me to frame "Thankful" (the almost life size horse head portrait). Gulp! Frame prices have sure gone up in the last ten years.

Now riddle me this, chicken people. What is this?! This bird had struck me as odd all along but it wasn't until a couple days ago that I really had a good look at it and realized that's REALLY weird. I'd just been thinking it was a birchen-ish color, but it's totally not! It's from the Golden Duckwing breeding pen.

Here's a normal colored male. Note that males have the pointed neck and saddle feathers, bigger comb, etc.

Here's a normal colored female, note stippled gray body and rounded feathers.

Here's "it." Feathers and comb say female. Color leans more toward male. Females don't have the solid "wing bay" (the cream colored patch on the wing). A birchen female would be more or less solid black with a silver neck. REJ, do you still read this??

The Adventure: June 26: Yellowstone: more bison and elk

We left Old Faithful and drove toward West Yellowstone (that's an actual town btw, its in Montana, yay I went to Montana!). Somewhere along that stretch of road we missed the bear. Oodles of cars pulled over along the river, so we jumped out and ran up there and people said "you just missed the bear." Dang! Probably a big gorgeous photogenic bear, knowing my luck. Oh well, I did enjoy the bison at Old Faithful. You win some, you lose some.

Onward we went, the sun was setting (oh, it stays light a lot later there). We stopped to take photos at a field full of bison and their calves. A lot of these pics came out blurry as it was so dark outside. I thought it was interesting that these bison were not nearly as shedded out as the two we'd seen earlier in the day.

Yes, a tripod would have been nice, but my luggage was stuffed to the gills with all the other stuff I brought along. Maybe next time. :-)




And then another field of bison.

And then two elk cows out in a field. The light was nearly gone, so all but a few of these came out blurry. Oh well, still useable to me as reference for shape and movement.



Next up: Day two in Yellowstone!

the way things go sometimes

Hmmm.

It looks as though my Coolpix camera might be dying. At least parts of it. It acted a little odd for me once on the trip (froze up) but I didn't think much of it, that happens sometimes. But now the flash won't fire. And if the flash won't fire when it needs to then the camera won't focus because instead it's saying "I'm charging the flash, hang on!" only the flash doesn't really charge, so at the moment I can only shoot pics in which I can turn the flash off. *sigh* Great. Just because I have a monster camera now doesn't mean I wasn't planning on using this one for certain things. I'm going to have to look into getting that fixed versus buying a new "one-handed" camera at some point in the future (NOT now). I do need a little camera.

And then there seems to be no hot water today. Hmm. That's not good. Luckily I didn't get too skanky today (it was 110, I stayed in!) and it was a lovely night for a moonlit swim. So much for washing the dishes!

I've been seeing a pair of bluebirds around, and today I saw 10 fledglings in the yard. Wow. I guess they must have nested in one of the boxes in the pasture. But 10 babies?! Jeez.

The barn swallows fledged on Saturday and Sunday.

I have a REALLY weird looking chicken I need to photograph for my chicken buddies. It's just so dang hot while it's light outside! The feather colors are those of a male, the feather type is that of a female. Huh??

The Adventure: June 26: Yellowstone: Old Faithful

It was evening when we arrived at Old Faithful. There was a smallish crowd starting to gather. We had no idea when it was going to do its thing and couldn't find a sign anyway so we figured that meant time to go get ice cream cones and wander back out there. Perfect timing. The crowd got bigger and I could hear people saying it would go off in a few minutes.

And then I heard people exclaiming about a bison! Huh? Sure enough, what should come wandering up but a lovely big bison!

Oh this was perfect! Good lighting, he was really close, and all I had to do was sit there and take photos while he turned this way and that. What a guy, perfect reference animal, I thank him for that. And eventually he wandered right into the frame of the photo with Old Faithful going off! Seriously, it doesn't get any more awesome than that. We sure got there at the right time. :-)

Old Faithful not doing much yet:

Look at him, he's great! The urge to bust out a curry comb and fix up that hairdo is hard to resist, but I'm sure he wouldn't take kindly to that.

Me with the bison.

Any second...

There it goes! Whoosh! It lasts a few minutes, I didn't know it went on so long!






Bryan with the bison, on the wrong side the danger sign uh oh!


Hey look, an animal scratching itself!

Us with the bison, too bad it wasn't just a little closer or it would look like it's on B's head. :-)

I'm not sure why I like this photo so much, but I do!


Truly, there could be no better way to witness Old Faithful, that bison just made it extra super duper.

Next up, more bison and elk on the way out!

The Adventure: June 26: Yellowstone

Woo hoo, finally in Yellowstone! I'd wanted to go there for my entire life, I'm just so tickled that I finally had the opportunity. I will say it would have been neat to hike around some, but how does one prepare for altitude? A low-altitude flatlander myself, I can hoof it around here all day no problem, but dang get me up at many thousands of feet and add some hills and it really kicked my butt. Having more time there would have been cool too.

We were almost at the south entrance when we saw a large group of cars pulled over by the side of the road overlooking Lewis River. This is always a good indication of large wildlife. Hopped out and caught a glimpse of moose #2 just as she rounded the bend and went out of sight. Dang. We pulled over farther ahead, too far, then backtracked and just missed her again. Dang! These mooses just were not cooperating with me, and boy can they move quickly.

Before we got there, B said something to me about how he hoped I would not be disappointed by Yellowstone. This has me pretty concerned. Well, let me say I was NOT at all disappointed. It was different than what I expected, for sure, but fantastic and beautiful and fascinating although I think about 99% of the tourists ought to go home. ;-) I did not expect there to be so many trees for some reason. I guess most of the pics I've seen are in the open meadow areas, and I just tend to think of Wyoming as being a lot of open space anyway (just a side note, I visited Cheyenne and Laramie 11 years ago, very nearly went to college in Laramie, talk about open space!) Anyway, the heavy forest (though generally not very tall trees) surprised me, and there were times I found myself looking forward to a change of scenery. The number of dead trees amazed me, all from the fires of 1988. It's incredible that the young trees that have been growing in the last 20 years still seem so small.

I took this somewhere along the West Thumb of Lake Yellowstone, to show the dead trees. I about got obliterated by mosquitoes too.

So onward we went, and encountered another "tourist" animal, this one a skinny bison. He was so close to the road that I had to back up to get him in the frame, as I had the big lens on the camera. By the next day it was "eh, more bison, keep driving." Almost wished we'd stopped more but then we wouldn't have seen what we saw... you'll see. ;-)


Next stop, Old Faithful!

July 7 work in progress

I have to interrupt the recap of the Adventure and throw in a little bit of current events. It is hot here, or as I like to say "stinkin hot." It's 10:30pm right now as I write this and it's 82 degrees. It was 107 this afternoon. Hate hate hate hate. It's going to be worse all week.

Yesterday morning I attended a horse show practice for the upcoming Battle of the Barns show (same thing I did last year, yet another silly costume this year). Shylah is a lazy little turd, I definitely know what I need to practice. I suck at jousting! Not real jousting, we don't spear anyone, just have to spear rings off of jump stands but my aim is terrible and Shylah likes to veer off course right at the last second. Ugh. I need to work on that. Will it ever be cool enough to ride again?

And then as if that wasn't enough fun in the sun, I was in a bellydance performance yesterday evening outdoors at the Galt Festival. It was a long performance, I was hardly in any dances and so spent a lot of time at the back of the "stage" trying to keep my smile from melting off, but probably being in few dances was a saving grace anyway considering the weather. Grossness. It was good to get that outfit off and hop in the pool!

So I'm feeling somewhat more back to normal, just been a lot of adjustment. Of course as RS said the other day when I told him I was having a very hard time getting back to normal life, "well isn't that the point, that you don't want to get back to your 'normal life'?" That's an excellent observation, and no I don't want to get back to the uninspired rut in which I tend to find myself sometimes. :-) I have all these ideas and some seriously hare-brained ideas in mind, but I'm also attempting to focus and get done some of the projects on the waiting list so that I'm not holding anyone up while I'm working on upcoming masterpieces.

I framed the scrimshaw "Nude #2" today. How to display these things has been quite the dilemma, lacking woodworking skills with which to make stands, but I think framing will work. I could have gone a bit smaller with this though. It's 4x4.5 inches, and the ivory is velcroed onto the linen backing. I've framed engraving plates this way before. It would look really nice with a bigger scrim piece, like the micarta bears who are over there missing me terribly, I need to get back to them.


And BM you will be pleased to know I have started on your mats. Didn't get too far on this one today but it's a start, and the feather one will be a pretty slow process.

And now back to Yellowstone (well, soon anyway I gotta sort through more pics).

OMG I need to read! JJ loaned me the new Stephanie Plum novel, I need to go live vicariously through her and attempt not to stay up all night reading it (it's happened).

The Adventure: June 26: Grand Teton National Park

"What a day!" says the journal.

In search of the ever-elusive large wildlife, we started the day in the Jackson Hole area and drove through the National Elk Refuge. I missed the best photo of the day, because at the time it didn't even dawn on me to take a photo, it was sort of a crisis. Really quite funny in hindsight, but you know how these moments go, I am kicking myself for not taking a photo. B had pulled off the road to read an info sign in the Refuge and it turned out all that tall grass was covering up a culvert full of water. Oops! So boy was I surprised when the passenger side of the truck suddenly dropped a few feet down. I was able to get out, and you'll just have to picture this but imagine two wheels on the ground, the front right wheel several feet down in the ditch, and the back left wheel several feet up in the air. It was a spectacle for sure. Luckily it wasn't long after that someone else drove along and was able to tow the truck out. Seriously, can't believe I forgot to photograph this. What a way to start the day.

So onward we went to an area where we were told we'd for sure see all sorts of wildlife. Were we in the Grand Teton National Park or the Teton National Forest... I am not sure. I'm looking at the map and I think we went through both. It was along Flat Creek. I photographed a lot of pretty scenery and got a lot of good background reference photos for art, and we sure gave the truck a workout on some of those roads. As for wildlife? Not an animal in sight other than a few birds, and not even very many of those! I was starting to think I must be some sort of bad luck charm. Must be the camera scaring everything away.

Here are my favorite scenery pics though:







After leaving the Flat Creek area we went into Grand Teton National park. Lots of sagebrush, very pretty.

And finally we started to see animals! This elk I guess is what you'd call a "tourist" elk, right there by the road so everyone can stop and take photos, but hey I wasn't about to complain. It's funny that by the end of the next day it was like "eh, more elk, keep driving." For a few moments I regretted not taking more pictures the following afternoon, but in the end it became clear that the whole day had lined up just to see one thing at the very end of it. Fate. You'll see. ;-)

Anyway, here's the first elk.

Hey look, an animal scratching itself!

And honestly I am not sure if we saw these deer in Grant Teton National Park or in Yellowstone, but I'm just going to stick them onto this post.


Hey look, an animal scratching itself!



Next stop, Yellowstone!

The Adventure: June 25: Teton Canyon ride

This one's going to have a LOT of photos! I thought about breaking this down into several posts, but I think it's a little more cohesive as one, so I'll just overwhelm you all at once.

Okay, so June 25th we got a pretty early start and drove out to Teton Canyon in the Targhee National Forest. Sara was acting odd when I was grooming her and getting her saddled, she seemed really cranky and kicking at herself even after I put on fly spray, and she kept sticking her neck out and doing "airplane ears" and making weird faces. I said I though it looked like colic but I'd never seen this facial stuff before (curling her lip back as though smelling something). I walked her a bit and she kept doing it, so I put her in a small corral there and she quickly looked like she was going to lay down so I got her out again and we traded off walking her for a good while til she felt better. So I guess mules make odd faces when they have a belly ache. Good to know. She was fine after a while.

There was a forest service truck parked in the lot too (the only other vehicle there) and B noticed a fuzzy critter underneath. Turned out to be a marmot, and not a very shy one! I'd never seen a marmot before but by the end of the trip I'd seen plenty. :-) It crawled up into the underparts of the truck and came out the wheel well.


Me and Sara, I LOVE this photo!!! (I'm the one with the sunglasses). ;-)

Saddled and ready to go!

So sit back and enjoy the ride! I'll point out a few things along the way, but note the changes in scenery: meadows, canyons, pine trees, aspens, streams, snow, etc. It was gorgeous, just absolutely stunning. I took about 150 pics. Many are scenery reference photos but for the sake of cuteness I made a point to take plenty with ears in them and that's mostly what I'll show you here. So pretty!!! (Just to note, all pics on the ride are taken on the old coolpix camera, I really just "point and shoot" and hope for the best).













We went as far as we could easily go before the trail was getting too hard to ride due to snow, and then we turned back.

Lunch break!

Amigo is good at getting himself wrapped around trees.

Sara doesn't do that.

Yeah, this totally sums up how I was feeling. "Woo hoo!" :-)

Then B disappeared with my camera and went down to the river.


And returned to find the artist lost in her own thoughts.

Back in the saddle, here's photographic proof that I rode in snow (no, I was not cold). Oh, and I removed my riding helmet for photographic purposes only!!! Not many people wear riding helmets up in that neck of the woods but I've had enough close calls I don't care to have my brains spattered about. It's terribly un-sexy, but then so are spattered brains. Sara was great, I really really liked riding her and felt like we really clicked and I felt very safe with her.


At some point B turned back and I went on ahead. Amigo was being a pain in the you know what and needed some work on separation anxiety, so Sara and I set off on our own adventure until he came back.


And it was right about here that I saw the moose. WAAAAYYY up ahead of me, crossing the trail. It was so far away I couldn't even tell if it was male or female, just looked like an enormous long-legged chocolate colored animal. It was long gone by the time I got there.

B eventually caught back up with us, though sadly by the end of the ride Amigo had thrown a shoe and was pretty sore. :-(




To quote the journal: "All in all, I'd have to say this was the best ride I have EVER been on! I wish I could do that more often, and I wish I could bring Shylah here. This IS the adventure of a lifetime and I am having a totally great time and so glad that I am here." And then I drew a big smiley face. :-)

B says that area is full of those rides. *sigh* I want to go back!

the story of the camera

Hey, Happy 4th of July everyone, hope you had a good one. We had a little BBQ tonight. It was pretty low key and smaller than normal but still a lot of work to prep for. I'm missing a poultry show this weekend up in Eureka. I miss seeing my buddies but even if the dates hadn't been a conflict I doubt I would have gone anyway just because of gas prices. It is weird to not be there though, that little summer show is one of my favorites. Gone are the days of me attending 7-8 shows a year. I have a feeling I'll be lucky to make it to maybe two or three of them this season. I think I will find myself cutting back even more on the birds, but it's a little early to say that yet...

So I have to tell you the story of the new camera, because it's a doozy. Remember before I left I said there was a situation causing me great angst but I didn't want to get into it yet? Well that was it.

I'd been wanting a digital SLR for years but couldn't afford one, and the requirement was that I not have to buy new lenses. And finally one came along that would work for me, and with the Adventure coming up I decided it was time to go ahead and buy it. So almost weeks before leaving I ordered the Nikon D80 from an online company that had it on sale for about half of what the local store sells it for.

A few days went by and I realized I had not gotten a shipping confirmation, which seemed odd, and sure enough in my junk folder was an email telling me it was back-ordered and they had cancelled my order. It was now one week til I left. I frantically searched the net and called countless stores only to find out the following things:
- the ones that had it really cheap included nothing with it, no instructions or cables or anything. They called that the "accessories package" and charged several hundred more for that (um hello, you can't USE the camera without those things)
- don't believe it when a website says it's in stock
- customer service on the phone pretty much sucked
- I think a LOT of those online places are all the same store. Same phone system, same hold music, same crappy service if anyone bothered to answer the phone, hung up on by many of them...

I finally just placed another order from another online company which had a really good review and to which I had received a referral from someone I know. I called the company to confirm that what I ordered was indeed in stock, but after about a half hour on hold they hung up on me, and then it was after hours, and I just had to cross my fingers. This was Friday the 13th... It was $150 more than what the original place had it for "on sale."

That Sunday morning I got an email from the company saying they needed to confirm my order and I needed to call them. Hmm, weird. So I did, and they confirmed my address and then the guy said something about did I realized it came with a 20 minute battery, and I said I'd ordered extra batteries anyway. He asked if I wanted to buy the warranty and I said no it comes with a 1 year warranty and that's what I want. He said "you realize that warranty is not good in the US, right?" Um, what?! He went on to say that I had ordered the "import version" (as in, the plugs don't work in the US, the menus are not in English, etc) and did I want to change my order to the US version. Ka-ching for an extra $100. Holy crap! So I'm thinking well stupid me I must have somehow clicked on the wrong thing, and I do some quick mental calculations and figured out it's still less than purchasing locally and I already had memory and batteries and I knew I'd kick myself if I went off on The Adventure without it, so I went ahead and ordered it.

I later checked the website to see how I had managed such a stupid mistake and found listed only the exact camera I had ordered, which said nothing about it being an import version, and the company was based in New York, so I really got pissed off and felt like they'd pulled a fast one on me.

So I sent an email saying so and asking for clarification and suggesting a refund for the false advertising.

And the next morning I got an email telling me my order was unavailable for 4-6 weeks. WHAT??!?!?! This was now Monday the 16th, and I was leaving the 20th. Irate, I got on the phone and after AN HOUR on hold I finally got through and demanded to know what was going on. The guy said the email must have been a mistake, since the camera shipped that morning and would arrive on Weds. As for the other stuff, he said when I placed the order there "should have been a popup window" that asked me to change my order when it saw that I had a US address. Well there wasn't. I was mad and pretty much let him have it, it didn't do any good but felt good to be bitchy about it. I just think that's such a crock and a really crappy way to do business. I would never order from them again, never never never. I'm going to refrain from posting the company name, as I don't want to get in trouble, but it rhymes with "Fraud-way Photo". Think New York.

It did arrive that Wednesday, and after taking it out to inspect it I packed it right back up to take along with me. I had no chance to play with it at all before I left, but I can't tell you how many times on the trip I said "I love this camera" and I am SOOOO glad I bought it, I would have gotten totally crappy shots without it. And it was fun that B enjoyed using it too. :-) I did bring the Coolpix too and took that on trail rides, as it's something I can shoot one-handed, where the D80 is definitely a two-handed camera.

So in the end, worth every penny but geez what an ordeal to get it here, it almost didn't happen. I was about to give up on it.

The Adventure: June 24: wildlife and scenery

After leaving Jackson Hole that evening, we stopped by a property where the company B works for is doing some landscape work. What a place, it was gorgeous. Huge house, winding trails that crossed creeks and bridges and went through forests and meadows. Oh to live on a place like that!

Note pic credits, we're getting into lots of pics I didn't take. :-)









We stopped at the top of Teton Pass on the way back to get some obligatory tourist photos.

Look, snow! How weird was that to see all this snow in June!

Overlooking the Jackson Hole valley. It was really hazy there for a few days, I think that's probably bits of burned up California hanging in the air (I picked a good week to be gone from here).

artsy musings

I talked to an artist friend this morning who has been there and done that with this gallery stuff. He said don't get an agent if I want to deal with galleries, they will want to work directly with me. I was actually thinking agent more for the licensing stuff, about which I am clueless, but that's another conversation and that's good to know about galleries.

I was discouraged to hear him say that what I need to do is get into galleries closer to home. The reasons given for that were this:
so I can actually get to know them and have a personal relationship with them
so I can drop in un-announced and make sure my work is still hanging
so I can hand-deliver stuff

That's all totally valid and I see the point, but at the same time would it not make more sense to show work in a place where there's a market for it, even if it's 900ish miles away from me? I don't feel that my own physical location ought to place limits on my art (although I feel like it in fact does).

If a collector of western or wildlife art is looking to buy a piece, do they come to Sacramento? No. Anywhere in NorCal? Mmm, that I'm not sure, but I'd suspect not (if anyone knows of an exception, PLEASE let me know). It's not that there isn't an art scene in Sacto, but I really don't fit it. I can see that there may be places more toward the bay area that would have more of an art market in general, but a western and wildlife art market???

When people tell me things like this, it makes me want to prove them wrong. It's the stubborn streak, which as many of you know is well more than just a streak. ;-)

The Adventure: June 24: Jackson Hole

After visiting the National Museum of Wildlife Art, we went back to Jackson Hole. I'd had a pretty good look around a few days earlier but wanted to jog my memory as to exactly which galleries were which, and I had missed one or two of them. Plus there were some things I wanted B to see.

Pretty much the first thing we did was go to Dan Shelley. We'd both been on this website months ago when B sent me the elk teeth he found, and I visited the gallery that Sunday and admired all the jewelry. As luck would have it, Dan himself was there, and what a nice guy. He really spend quite a bit of time talking to me about elk teeth and ivory and gave me some great pointers on how to polish the teeth. He also referred me to another store in town that might have some teeth for sale. So off we went.

Turned out the guy who was in charge of selling the teeth wasn't there but I got his contact info. Later, after much thought, I decided to hold off on purchasing any more. I'll get back to that later. But the really interesting thing was that there was a LOT of scrimshaw work for sale in that store. They said they had work from three different scrimshanders. A few of the pieces were nice but over-all I wasn't all that impressed, and it was interesting to note that it was all "functional items" like napkin rings and letter openers and whatnot). I gave some serious thought to meeting with the owner, but decided it wasn't the place for me. More on that later..

So we toodled around and saw more galleries though by then many were closed. That was okay, I really just need to peek in the windows and remind myself which ones were where (oh, JJ, I went in the one were CP shows her work but couldn't find any of her stuff, I wasn't all that impressed by that gallery anyway though, it seemed rather disorganized and half the stuff wasn't even labeled).

Oh I'd better throw in some pics and then I'll ramble on some more about art.

Being a tourist, it seemed a requirement that I have this photo taken:

A few pics from the town square. That gallery there is in my opinion THE gallery in town. They really had an emphasis on large oil paintings and bronze (don't they all, it's tough being a "drawer" and not a "painter"). But there were some drawings there too, granted by hugely famous people...


Okay, so thoughts about art. I forgot to mention that on Sunday on my first visit there I'd gotten into a long conversation with a really super nice lady at a jewelry art gallery and I showed her all my scrim that I'd brought and she was so impressed. She suggested one particular gallery in town for submitting art (she said a lot of artists "get their start" at that one) and as far as the scrim goes she suggested the National Museum of Wildlife Art gift store. So I got to chatting with the tour guide at the NMWA (yes, I can work the social skills and turn on the charm when I have to), and she introduced me to the (manager? proprietor?) at the gift shop and I got her card.

As I thought more about it that day and following days, I decided that what I really want to do is submit scrimshaw ART, not jewelry (and mostly the samples I had with me were jewelry, and none of the art was display-ready anyway). I want to get away from the jewelry a bit though. I mean it's fun, I enjoy it, but the wear and tear issue really concerns me. I recently had to re-ink a pendant that had been worn daily for six months, and most of the ink was gone. That's no fault of anyone's, but the super-fine technique I use just can't handle that sort of wear and tear. So I'd like to be making things that are going to be displayed, not worn or touched all the time. And that would be art. Granted, small art. ;-) Oh, yeah, so that's why I decided not to try submitting stuff to the store that had a bunch of scrim already, I just would rather see my scrim work in a different context.

Now as far as big art goes, I'd like to try some wildlife in my funky painting style. And I have several ideas in mind right now for (big?) drawings, like a scene from the trail ride (ears!) and what we saw at Old Faithful (you'll see!) and maybe something we saw in Yellowstone (omg!). I also have in mind to "redo" as drawings some of the humorous sculptures I did in college (the bear and bison, if you've been here and seen those two) I do know that galleries like to see consistency, and in that world it's sort of frowned upon to have a wide array of work. Well, personally I think versatility is an asset, I couldn't stand to do all the same thing all the time, and people always compliment me on that at art shows, but I realize I'll need to keep my techniques separate as far as gallery submissions go. How to handle that, I don't know. Submit everything everywhere, but separately? (drawing, painting, scrim?) Pick and choose? This is where I need help from people who know the ins and outs of how this stuff works.

There's a lot to think about, I'm still in brain-overload. I was talking to RS this morning when we were out with the horses and he says I need to check out Santa Fe before I put my eggs in one basket. Anyone want to tell me anything about Santa Fe, art-wise? He also pointed out that to sell really high end scrim jewelry, it would need to have really high end settings, gold and platinum and whatnot, and I don't have the ability or the means to do that, so again, I'd like to actually back off the jewelry (other than commissioned stuff).

"What a neat town" says the journal.

Next stop, some wildlife and scenery on the way back to Idaho (I told you this would take ages to blog about!). Of course B already spilled all the beans in his blog but you know me, I drag it out as long as I can. ;-)

The Adventure: June 24: National Museum of Wildlife Art

Blarg, I cannot shake this funk that I have been in since getting home. I need to get over this. I am restless. I don't want to be here, and I want what I don't know if I'll ever find.

One of the first places we went on the 24th was to a bead shop that one of B's friends owns. Totally gorgeous stuff there, and a woman at the store said something to me about how I'll never get where I need to be with the art unless I dump "the other things" in my life. Maybe she's right. I wish there was some sort of easy answer to this, some sort of formula to follow.

I'd been wanting to visit the National Museum of Wildlife Art for quite some time. I'd heard of it before, and when I found out B lives fairly near that, I knew I had to go! I am in a way wishing I had gone later this summer instead because the Robert Bateman exhibit opens this week and runs through October and I would give my left arm (I need the right one) to see that (ok, I'm being sarcastic there but you get the idea). I had no idea that was happening way back when I booked tickets, and truth is I made the trip at the right time anyway for a lot of reasons but dang I wish could see that! However, those plane tickets aren't free, so that's pretty unlikely. :-( Bummer.

Anyway, the NMWA as I'll call it is a pretty cool place and there was so much to see that just rocked my world. I am going to quote my journal here: "Went to wildlife art museum. WOW. Mind boggled, what amazing stuff and so cool to see other works by artists I'm familiar with like small painting by Bonhuer (I saw "The Horse Fair" in NYC) and small sculpture by Akeley (I saw his taxidermy at the AMNH in NYC). AMAZING huge painting by R. Bateman and SO neat to see his technique up close. Wow wow wow wow wow."

Yeah, I really wish I could see that Bateman exhibit!!! Anyone up for a road trip before Oct 5? ;-) (I'm only half joking).

Okay, here are some pics from the museum.

It's a very interesting looking building, quite distinctive:

Across the highway from there is the National Elk Refuge. It's just a wide open expanse right now, but B says in winter it's full of elk. And snow, obviously. I find myself really wanting to see that. And I want to see Bison in snow. Hmmmmm. Here's a poorly stitched together panorama:

Me with the big bison sculpture:

Me with the elk sculpture. Hey Bryan, you take really good pics of me, that's a feat!

Okay, so that's not flattering, I was being a dork:

Me and B:

Next up, back to the town of Jackson Hole.

The Adventure: June 23: misadventures with clippers

June 23 was another pretty relaxed day, at least for me. ;-) Following a very early morning mule-escape, I zonked out on the couch til late morning. We went to Rexburg again in the morning to get some stuff at the feed store, and I needed a new duffel bag because mine had decided to start falling apart somewhere between Sacramento and Denver a few days earlier, and the last thing I needed was for the entire contents of my bag to fall on the floor of some airport. Back to the house for lunch, and since Sara had gotten so sweaty on Sunday's ride, B decided to clip her. Meanwhile, though a few days early I went ahead and baked birthday cake. My first attempt at high altitude baking! I used a recipe from Joy of Cooking, which was rather complex. It came out a little dry but tasted pretty good and the texture was fine.

But then, problems... This is an awkward time for one's clippers to break:

I was afraid this meant no more riding, which was tragic beyond belief.

So off we went to another feed store in Driggs (neat place, I left some of my brochures there the next day) and acquired a spiffy new clippers. So B was able to finish clipping Sara, I made dinner, and all was right in the world.

stuff from today

I love my new camera! I am soooooo glad I had it for the trip, and soooo glad I have it in general, I can get all those great shots I've been missing for years!

I made 18 jars of apricot jam today. That's only two batches. Much more to go, keep those orders coming! I need to go get more jars...

The Adventure: June 22: riding and Jackson Hole

So I was a little peeved today to find out that Photoshop CS (what I am using) does not open .NEF files, which is the raw format that my new camera uses. I had been shooting in high quality JPEG but then switched to raw. It's not a crisis, I just have to convert them all using the Nikon software, it's just a pain and takes a long time. I'm only up to the afternoon of the 26th as far as photo revision goes....

Anyway, so June 22 (good thing I kept a journal!) is where it starts getting really exciting. We went riding that morning in the barley fields behind the house. I opted not to take along my camera, since I wanted to get acquainted with Sara (the mule) first, but I should have taken it. Not that I missed anything really, but it would have been fun to take along.

So this was my first time riding a mule, and dang she's big (a little side note here, but I rode Shylah this morning (7/1) and she seemed SO small, like where's the rest of the horse, and why are her ears so small, lol). I had to be a weenie and get a little help climbing up there. Her gait is different, more of a forward and back kind of movement, but it didn't take long to get used to it. I had to establish pretty quickly who was the boss (me) but once we got that straightened out, Sara was an absolute doll, and I think she really liked me. And that was mutual. :-) I really had fun cantering her out in the fields. I didn't know what to expect but she actually had a very smooth canter and really covered some ground! I couldn't stop grinning. The colt, Smooch, went along off-lead and he looked so pretty galloping around the green fields.

It wasn't a super long ride, since Bryan had to be in Jackson Hole that afternoon for mounted patrol. At some point on the drive over there he said something about how I should not take pics of him because he didn't have the right shirt on that day. And what do I do, I take people seriously. So I snuck up behind and took a stealth shot, because I'm bad like that, but then later in the day he tells me he was just kidding and really wanted pics. Sheesh!!! ;-)

This was the only pic I took that day:

Anyway, while he was keeping the city safe (btw I think that looks super fun, I think Shylah would be great at that, don't have that in Wilton though!), I spent a few hours doing the tourist thing and seeing oodles of shops full of knick knacks and moose and bear stuff and Native American jewelry and OMG the galleries. Oooohhh the galleries. *grin* That was a big part of my wanting to make this trip was finding out if Jackson Hole and I might get along artistically, and the answer, at least from my point of view, is overwhelmingly YES. Like, if ever there was a place my art belongs, it is there. Without a doubt. I need to be there. I looked at all the galleries I could find, and some immediately struck me as not a good fit for me (not my kind of art, or just something about the place put me off, or I didn't like the layout or something, yes I'm very picky). But several, I think, are well worth applying to. I can't stop thinking about this place, and art, and it's so exciting and just this overwhelming feeling of "MUST BE THERE." Maybe not me personally, but the art for sure.

I saw some absolutely amazing art, by some really big name people. And I also saw some stuff in big-time galleries that made me think "I can do that, or better, I should be here." The prices just floored me, things priced at several times what I make in a YEAR. And I saw people in galleries buying stuff!

I belong there. I can do this. I will do this. Repeat as needed so as to not lose this feeling that I have right now. :-)

I DO need to talk to some people with more gallery experience than I have (um, none) and find out exactly how this works. And I really think it may be time to get an agent, so I'm going to email JK and LH about that and get some expert opinions. And JJ if you hear from Carol I still REALLY want to talk to her to get her inside opinion about the various galleries up there, I'm way bummed that did not work out to see her when I was up there.

There's a lot I need to think about though, regarding the art. I'll talk more about this after my next post about Jackson Hole, I think it'll be more relevant then. It was an absolute brain overload by the end of the day, in an entirely good way. I made some good contacts that day though and got some good advice as far as places that might be a fit for me, and I am grateful to the people who took the time to talk to me.

The Adventure: June 21: the local scene

Saturday the 21st was sort of a lazy day. Bryan (aka BK or B if I'm in the mood for initials) had to take the horses to the vet in the morning, so I puttered around for a while and took a few photos, and then a few more when the horses returned:

This is the view from B's back yard. Can you say OMG gorgeous? Those are the Teton mountains in the distance. B says you can ride there from his house. I am sooo envious of that. I'll post pics later on of these mountains again, the snowmelt was noticeable over the ten days I was there.


Here's Amigo, a Quarter Horse.

And here's Sara the mule and Smooch the solid colored Paint colt.

Later in the day after lunch we went driving to see some of the local scenery on the way out to Rexburg to run a few errands.

JC, this one's for you. This is Robinson Lusitanos, and there were some pretty awesome looking horses there. What a spread!

We drove into the Targhee National Forest. I am sitting here looking at the map but not entirely sure what area we were in. It's SO pretty there, and all the flowers are blooming, I really was just in awe of this place. We stopped and walked back to a lake, hoping to see some wildlife but didn't see any other than the multitude of hungry mosquitoes.

Hey look, a fence (inside joke). ;-)

A view from the walk out to the lake:

The lake, sadly devoid of mooses (this becomes a theme):

A pretty mountain view on the drive back: