checking out the neighborhood

This evening I'm heading out to the local Badlands Gallery here in little Dinosaur-capital-of-Canada. It's a co-op of about 25-30 artists; ranging from self-taught-at-the-kitchen-table to having a FA degree and earning a living from their art; ranging from painter to sculptor to photographer, etc. They meet every third Wednesday evening. It will be my first visit to the group. I think I'll join. Fees are only $50/year (prorated to $25 this late in the year). Membership responsibilities include taking time to "man the gallery" a few times each month. I think that would be fun.

Considering the small size of this town, and the small size of the gallery, and the small size of the pieces of art, they generate quite a respectable amount of business throughout the course of the year. Apparently there is even an Art Walk in September in the arts district. Oh....I may have already missed that....but I haven't heard anything about that. I guess I'll find out tonight.

Hmmm.

Could be fun.

she knew it was easy to find

Remember that one day art fair* during the blizzard in December 2009? Well, will wonders never cease? I received an email from one of the guests that stopped by that day. Some had glanced through my portfolio and took a b'card. I don't usually expect anyone to contact me again--but she did! She wrote to say that one painting, the one with the gem stones, wouldn't leave her. She asked if she could "meet it in person." She was trying to decide if she needed to purchase He Said It Would Be Easy To Find or not. We made an appointment. She came in and was smitten. That's all I can say about her reaction. She could barely take her eyes off of the painting and wanted to know everything about it--why did I paint it, what does it all mean, is there a hidden reference, what are all the stones, etc.

Eagerly she made the purchase and took this beauty home right away.

I was astounded.

Just like that, she bought my work.

Just like that, I sold art. It's been a long time.

*See posts: Nov 28, Jan 5.

down in the dinosaur dump

So....nearly half a year since my last blog. We have settled nicely in Dinosaur-capital-of-Canada, in our new home (Well--we are still surrounded by towers of boxes, though. How could we possibly have accumulated so much?). We finally made the move here at the end of June. Our house in our City-of-1.2million hasn't sold yet, and it continues to be a concern. Life here is amazing. I wonder why everyone doesn't move to a little town? City-of-1.2million (though I've heard that it has diminished somewhat) has news headings about local shootings and torture victims. A recent front page report here was a two car pile-up to which EMS and police were sent, but it was happily reported that no one was seriously injured.

Sweetie-pie-love-of-my-life and I pruned our hedge. The top reached the eaves of our house. We felt we lived in a shrub box. Four feet (1.1m) less later, we filled the truck and headed to the dump to dispose of the branches.
Well....
Who would have expected that we would be overwhelmed with a sight of incredible beauty at the local dump yard? I had never seen such a thing! As we drove in, we passed an area of level ground FULL of hundreds of gulls squished together, all facing the same direction, as if waiting for further instruction from their master. Then we rounded a mound to the area we could dump. At the end of this lane was the wall of dirt and trash to which we headed. Gulls! Hundreds! No...a thousand or more! All were flying in a circle over the lane. As we neared the back dirt wall, hundreds of gulls flew off the wall, right over our truck, only about 4-5 feet (1.5 m) overhead.
It was stunning. All these birds flying right over us, so close, so in unison with each other. It was magic to behold. Oh, where is a camera when you need one?
I was moved by this gift of unexpected beauty in a place where most would not think to look. Indeed, next to us a mother hollered at her daughter to help unload the trash so they could hurry out.
Both of us were present at this same event, yet she was totally oblivious to the wonder that circled above us both.
I don't ever want to become so complacent or jaded or even just too busy that I fail to see the wonder and majesty that is all around us every day in even the littlest things.
P.S. The above photo was taken at a later date. I hoped for a repeat scene, but the gulls just weren't there in the same numbers. This picture only gives a taste.