July 2006

I’ve been preparing for an art show of my work at my neighborhood coffee shop. I had an idea about displaying some photos in magnetic frames that I could attach to one big piece of metal. I dropped my husband off at work this morning because on our family vacation we hit a deer and he didn’t have a car. On the way home, I stopped at Ace. I found what I needed and they helped me make a really nice metal piece to attach the photos to. Sort of like a piece of your refridgerator on the wall as an art back drop. They cut holes in it for me and even helped me find material to use for hanging and fastened it together for me. And the ‘labor was free’.

It worked for a piece I’ve been working on that finally came together entitled ‘American Gothic Barbie’.

It’s been a crazy week or two. My computer died last week as I was trying to prepare for vacation. Needless to say I left work with a couple of things hanging, but what’s a computer geek to do. When a hard drive goes, it’s gone. Luckily, I’m a true geek and it was backed up, but it’s a massive disruption. In the middle of it my husband and I decide to drastically change our phones. I still don’t have the info from my old phone transferred to the new one. There was a vacation in the middle of everything. So it all stopped (supposedly). But, on our way to the vacation, we hit a deer. We were 4 miles from our destination. We were ok. The car needs some serious tender love and care. We had just switched to Progressive Insurance and I’m thrilled we did. They made it extremely pleasant. The cabin we were at with my family was so far out we didn’t have cell phone access. They took care of it even though they couldn’t consistently contact us, they kept moving things forward. Our car was towed back to the Twin Cities for us and will be fixed and returned shortly.

When we got home from vacation many email and other activity awaited including the fact that I need to prepare to show my work at Cuppa Java the coffee shop in my neighborhood. Somehow I got on the list to show my work. I didn’t sign up, it’s a mystery. I got a call last month from Bob, the owner of Cuppa Java, if I was ready for my July show. I was very confused and as we spoke further, we concluded I should try to show in August. Bob was able to cover July and the August artist disappeared, so I’m up.

If you are interested in checking my art out, please stop by the coffee shop after August 1st.

My photos and paintings:
Cuppa Java
400 Penn Ave S
Minneapolis, MN
55405

As for the deer, it was over immediately.
And my computer still doesn’t have email.
And my gmail in box has over 100 emails I have to read.
And my podcast is woefully overdue.

Digital life takes maintenance and it’s impossible to maintain when the computer is out.

I guess the lesson here is, always have a spare computer?

WARNING: Some links in this post take you to web sites that blare ‘Melt With You’ really loudly.-Just thought you should know.

——————END WARNING———————-

I never see commercials these days, but I was preparing dinner while watching tivoed content and was not forwarding as usual through the commercials.

Melt With You, by Modern English was the background music for ’sexy’ new ritz crackers with vegetables.

Apparently, it’s also licensed for online usage.

Amanda Congdon, 49% owner of RocketBoom says audios for now.

This is really neat. We were discussing it at the IA coffee today based on Garrick’s blog post.

I just returned from a trip to New Mexico (aka Land of Enchantment) to visit my ‘crazy’ ‘artist’ uncle. It was wonderful to see him. I’ve spent time with him over the years. This trip was all about spending quality time together. He’s taught me many things over the years. One of the biggest things he’s taught me is my history. Meeting him for the first time in his own home on his own turf as an adult was such a huge AHA moment for me. I never understood where I got so many traits until I met him. My dad had many of these traits too, but it was easier to see what biology had contributed to my demeanor when I understood him as a person.

He’s an amazing artist. I was able to photography two of his shows in the past several years and those photos are in my gallery. The Life Is Good show and the Hang Me Downs show both displayed at the now defunct Gallery 211 in Gallup, NM. He views it as his job and he produces work. I got to see the latest body of work entitled ‘33 1/3′ this visit. I’ve got some amazing pictures too that I’m going to post soon.

It’s a beautiful place, but it’s also a hard place. There is extreme poverty there. It’s so frustrating too. Much of it comes from a basic lack of care for the humans. People don’t have a reason to go on, so of course, they become desperate. Wouldn’t you be desperate if you had no job, no possibility of a job, no education, no tools to make your life better? I know that I would be desperate in that situation. So instead of being humane, it’s a drug war, an immigration war and real war. Then the legislators talk about things like gay marriage and flag burning! Seriously…..(ooops, didn’t mean to digress into politics, but when you see things like this and this it makes you really start to put together the pieces…….

Beauty and extreme poverty living side by side. The desert and the sky creating the landscapes that seem like they’d only exist in a dream. Nuevo Mexico!

It actually makes me really happy that Bill Gates, who so many people used to think was evil incarnate, just isn’t evil.

The donation of Warren Buffet this week to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was an act of truly caring for humanity and giving back to it.

I want to publicly thank them all for giving me some hope for the future.