My paper cutting titled “Night Birds a’Cryin” based on Bill Monroe’s song The First Whippoorwill is on display at the International Bluegrass Music Museum in Owensboro, KY, as part of the Bill Monroe Centennial Celebration until Sept. 12, 2012, and is for sale through their website gallery: CLICK HERE.
New Retailer: Vermont Folklife Center in Middlebury, VT. They now carry my greeting cards. Check’em out if you’re in that area. 88 Main St.
And lastly, I think it’s about time for a website redeux which will happen slowly and not-so-surely. So if things start to change and look strange over the next coupla weeks, it’s me.. not you.
I had an hour to kill, so I hit up Love Garden Sounds and picked up this newly released remastered recording (originally released in 1969) at the urging of a couple fine folks who own and/ or work there.
I just caught a glimpse of the northern flicker that seems to have made my deck a regular hangout spot.. I had to shoot through the window because had I opened the door, it surely would’ve flown. It’s such a good looking bird — I’m not sure that I’ve ever actually seen one before this one’s first appearance the other day — at least, I’ve never acknowledged one. I know when the woodpeckers are visiting because they squeak when they’re on the feeder. The downey woodpecker has a higher pitched squeak, and the flicker (also a type of woodpecker) has a lower, louder squeak. They’re alternating turns on the feeder as I type. My squirrel friend is also back.. I know it’s the same one as my previous post because when he runs across the deck, he pauses and puts his right paw on his chest, almost like he’s feeling his own heartbeat. He did it the other day, and again today. I tossed him some more seeds to let him know I come in peace. Maybe I’m the squirrel whisperer? …
I had breakfast and coffee on my deck this morning — feels like spring again.. makes me itchy to build (buy?) a cabin in a remote, nature-y area.. it’s my one material goal. Catching up on more emails, getting wholesale orders ready, working on some small commissions for tattoos (yikes!) and trying to figure out some wintery images for a holiday greeting card for Artists To Watch, the company that I’ve published a couple greeting cards with previously.. lots to do, lots on my mind.. til next time.
EDIT: I originally called this bird a red-shafted flicker, but I’m not sure if I had that correct. So, I’ll use ‘northern’ flicker instead– I think that covers it, anyway.
Early this morning I read a short book called “My Life and Love Are One” — a collection of excerpts from letters written by Vincent Van Gogh (hence the previous quote on a previous post). I hate to say, as a person that makes art, that I’ve never gotten into art history so much in regard to styles, eras, ‘famous’ artists, etc. I just like what I like, and more often than not, it’s something you don’t find in the textbooks (Van Gogh is an exception)… But I’ve always enjoyed reading personal accounts from artists whose work I enjoy, because I think that’s the only way to know what’s going on in their head and in turn what inspires their work (as opposed to someone else’s interpretation, etc). From what I’ve read, Van Gogh, in fact, seemed frustrated by the public’s and critics’ views of him as opposed to how he viewed himself. So… here’s a few more:
“Do you know what frees one from this captivity? It is every deep serious affection. Being friends, being brothers, love, these open the prison by supreme power, by some magic force. Where sympathy is renewed, life is restored.”
“Love a friend, a wife, something, whatever you like, but one must love with a lofty and serious intimate sympathy, with strength, with intelligence, and one must always try to know deeper, better, and more.”
“That which fills my head and my heart must be expressed in drawings or pictures.”
11 x 14 inch paper cutting.. complete with a ‘sun spot’ .. or in other words, I tore my sun after I glued it down and had to patch it, hence the spot. It’s like Bob Ross says (I’m on a total Bob Ross kick lately — he was so peaceful and positive about everything) — it was a happy accident.
“When I saw you again, and walked with you, I had the self same feeling which I used to have, as if life were something good and precious which one must value, and I felt more cheerful and alive.” -Vincent Van Gogh
Upon returning from a ‘get-outta-the-house’ mind clearing walk, I found this squirrel hanging out by my deck looking for something to eat.. So I tossed him a handful of sunflower seeds, and he let me come as close as I wanted.. And we hung out for about half an hour.. Strangely I had just read the following Bob Ross quote before I took a walk (I enjoy reading quotes often..):
“People look at me like I’m a little strange, when I go around talking to squirrels and rabbits and stuff. That’s ok. Thaaaat’s just ok.”
The same squirrel is, as I type, sitting right outside my screen door next to where I am, and there’s a red-shafted flicker and a female downy woodpecker about 1/3 it’s size competing for space on my bird feeder while a male cardinal spies them from a neighboring tree. And I’m totally enjoying it all. (It’s the simple things..)
