Stuff
(Everybody has to have a closet. More in this place as I can get to it.)
Western Art, up close and personal.
My friend and neighbor is an excellent Western artist, who works in both wood and in watercolor. I am privileged to own an example of each: a carved sculpture of a young Navajo girl, kneeling, holding a lamb, and a watercolor of a mature Navajo woman working at her loom. They hold pride of place in my living room, and I display them as a unit. (Sorry -- no pictures!)
As well as being privileged to own a few of her pieces, I have been equally blessed by watching her in her creative journey. This spring she went to a Western Artists show in Las Vegas and is currently considering placement of her work in various galleries throughout the west. Her talent is awesome, and her interest and knowledge come from being part of a long line of Western cattlemen, lawmen and, on occasion, some who wore the black hats.
She's given me permission to post a couple of her images here.
This is my favorite. Working in w ild cherry, she brought out this image splinter and chip by slow splinter and chip. While she doesn't consider this piece true Western art, I think her sculpture of "Plains Wife" embodies so much that was the West. This photo doesn't really do the carving justice, so I'm also showing the graphite drawing she developed during the carving process:
And more in line with her concept of Western art, and in line with her love of horses and all things pertaining, here is her butternut carving, "Thrown," and a graphite drawing, "Tying the Rosebud."
More of this talented artist's work can be seen on her web site, at http://bdcarr.com. Enjoy!
Present from Shana
She warned me with a telephone call that she was coming. Half an hour later she drove up to the house and brought this in:
Isn't it gorgeous: just the right size for two blocks of a manuscript and a cup of coffee. Those are ceramic tiles, cut and shaped and so beautifully arranged. Shana does terrific work. You can see more of it at her home page, along with work by her daughter and her talented husband.
Apparently I'm not the only one who enjoys a visit with Shana. She sent me this picture last week:
LOL! Below, I posted a picture of Shana's backyard during the ice storm. Here's one in spring glory:
Ice Storm
During the winter of 2000 - 2001, my part of Oklahoma was subjected to a major ice storm. Many of us were without electric service for days (and in my case, weeks). Below are some links to photographs the National Forest Service has put on-line.
The U.S. Forest Service was saying early on that there would be a higher risk of fires the summer of 2001 because of the increased "fuel" on the forest floor following the ice storm. I held my breath. Fortunately, at least in my part of the world, the worst-case scenario did not happen.
Here are some of the pictures:
The first thumbnail here, the "Iced trees" is particularly telling. This is typical of the kind of damage throughout my home county.
Mountain streams dammed and diverted by deadfall.
Recreation area and trails. Some of these photos were taken before the ice was completely gone. None of them show the ice at its most dangerous. All around at night came sounds much like the firing of a .22 rifle, with an occasional large caliber weapon being fired, as trees lost limbs and branches and tops, and sometimes were pulled completely from the ground.
We still have broken branches falling from trees, and partially broken branches completing the break. I suspect it won't be safe to walk under a tree for the next year or so.
Photos of some truly spectacular damage to a forest service district office. Notice the truck. Fortunately, the only tree that landed on my roof was a young hackberry that was weighted over and already resting on the garage roof before it finally snapped, and while trees went down all around my car, all they did was block it, front, rear, and one side. I couldn't have gone anywhere, though. The car was completely encased in ice. Over an inch remained several days later when I finally took a rubber mallet and began chipping it off.
I'm glad these pictures are up. I hope they stay there a while. But just in case, I've talked my friend Shana out of a picture she took in their back yard, which is less than twenty miles north of mine. And yes, those are mature trees in the background.
Photo by Shana Brumbalow, a good friend and terrific bead artist. Check out her work and that of her husband, who is a significant artist himself, working in museum quality reproduction pipes and tomahawks.
Las Vegas Article Archive
Some time back I got a phone call from a friend from my past. She had moved on to Las Vegas and is now managing editor of What's On, the Las Vegas Guide, which has a web presence and a nice archive. One of their writers was going to be unavailable for a while; would I like to do some interviews for them?
And that's how I, still landlocked in the depths of "Pitchlyn County," became a contributing writer for a slick, biweekly Las Vegas entertainment magazine. It was a hoot! Eventually the regular writer returned and resumed her slot, but while the ride lasted, it was a blast.
Some of the interviews I was delighted to have the opportunity to do are archived here:
I really enjoyed this job and would have loved to do more, but that would have meant moving out of my semi-reclusive mountainside domain into the frenzy of a big, rapidly growing tourist attracting, desert city. In the words of one well-known science fiction editor, "alas."
And yes, this page is still under construction. So while you wait for new content, here is a photograph already loaded for you to enjoy. It's clipart, but if you visited the photos above, it ought to be oh, so familiar looking.
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