Baby it's Cold out There!

New Year and new work, but man is it cold. I have to rearrange my shop a bit to create room to build two eleven foot gates inside. I've done that now and the heater is on! The human condition is to complain, not enough work! too cold!, always something. I am not going to do that. I have my rabbit fur-lined gloves, a little comfort to the neuropathy in my hands, and I am ready to go to work! I love it. It is what I do and haven't been able to do for about eight months because of that cancer thing. I chased it off and I am back and intend to make this year the very best that I can. I realize that it is all me, my focus, what I choose to see. We get what we hunt for in life. This will be the year of my best art, my best garden ever and a really nice big juicy tomato!

I have been invited to apply to a gallery show where they will pay ME $1,000 to produce ten

art pieces for their show. and still get 80% of my sales! Wow! It doesn't get any better than that! Wish me luck and a warm shop! You can see some of what I do HERE.

I am so thankful that I am regaining my health and my strength, that I get another opportunity, a rebirth of sorts, to do what I like to do. I have secrets and will tell you every one of them, bit by bit, on this blog and The Other One!

One Hand Clapping!

I live in these, they are my friends. I sleep with them on. These are rabbit fur-lined gloves and I take them off for the bathroom and while on this computer otherwise I wear them all the time.

My hands never feel good, always as if I am stirring a bucket of cut glass. It is the prize I won with my voodoo chemo-therapy that cured me from cancer! I am a winner and have this neuropathy in my hands to remind me of the whole ordeal, my cancer battle!

One doctor says that in eight years they will heal themselves, another says that in eight years I will have gotten used to it. In the meantime I am not waiting. If I do nothing they hurt and if I use them they hurt. The gloves help a lot.

So I am returning, doing what I like to do, painting a bit and I have some welding ideas, things I need to be doing. It is part of who I am. To have a good day I need to stand back and say, "I did that!" So soon you will see some iron wok on this site!

A Gazillion Megapixels!

What if God were an Artist? You don't have to look far for evidence of this. His canvas is huge, the Night Sky so mesmerizing, the early morning sunrise so promising, all colors we steal from Nature and we are humbled and left in awe. How it all works we do not understand but even hurricanes and firestorms are cleansing and promise new growth.
Now suppose He gave this to us all at once, everything. What would you say if asked was it enough? Why is it we always want more when we dont make use of what we have?

The NorthWest Coastal American Indians invented the "potlatch", the term now being our "potluck" dinner. This was actually a pleasant type of warfare, the winning chief was the tribe that brought the most to the table, not just food, but gifts of animal skins, even canoes, the best of what they could give away! What a wonderful tradition! God gives so much and also gives us our ability to share what we have.

I wonder sometimes when we hear of people in need, why is it that we want to pray for them?
Are we now asking God to create MORE? Would we ever really admit that what we are asking
is "please, God, let me keep everything I have, but make some more for them"? I think we pray
because it is easier than giviong up our lattes. We pray because we want someone else to do it.
We have our stuff and we pray that you get yours!

I am skeptical of prayer and never pray for things for me or for others. I pray for appreciation
that I could be satisfied with less than I have. I pray for strength that gives me appreciation.
I pray for courage to give me that strength. I have never prayed for more but to make good use of what I have, and sometimes, often, the answer is to give it away!

I think God is an artist and we are here to appreciate His work.