Blank Canvas & Home

This is the wall as you come up to my studio. Ashley was here yesterday to help me clear every thing off and paint. Down below the ledge (seen here at bottom) it will be orange. I wanted the top white as color will come from what goes here - my bulletin boards and project calendar for 2009.

As I've been painting I've been thinking about the blessing of HOME. A lot of energy goes into making a house into a home. "Safe Harbor", above, is a piece that I did last fall during hurricane season. Those of us who have warm, safe homes and places to create should be ever so thankful especially during this time of uncertainty. I know I am. Now back to painting.

Past, Present, & Future

Present: HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009! I haven't posted lately because I was layed low with the hacking cough and other miseries of the cold/flu/allergy season (I could have been a tv commercial). I'm MUCH improved today and doubly thankful to have been well during our Christmas adventure (recent PAST).

The trip was wonderful, beautiful and exciting. There was more snow than I'd ever seen at one time and it was fun to be with Ashley, Frank, Elliott, and Celeste and Elliott's friends! Getting to Lake Tahoe from Reno on Christmas day was a scary start but the skies cleared the next morning and we had a marvelously memorable trip.

This Flying A is over a well restored station in Truckee but I'm taking it as a sign that we're supposed to return in the future (not too distant I hope). Ruben has promised to take us gold prospecting and that strikes me as a fun possibility.

Here's the family gathered together just before we left the last day.
As we left California the weather had warmed and you could see the river east of Truckee. I hope to see it again in '09.

41 and counting

Today is Karl & my 41st anniversary. This shot was made Christmas on the bridge over the Truckee River in California. Here today it's cold but icy and rainy without the brightness of the snow. We agreed that today feels like the weather did that Friday night in Houston, 1968.