All Clogged Up...

I've been on a trip through modern TECH HELL when I discovered that my 3 month old Canon Pro9000 has developed a problematic print head! BUGGERALL! I just went through this same scenario last summer... and wound up having to buy a new printer. Now the NEW one won't print right!

I spent most of the weekend doing cleaning cycles, popping out the printhead, soaking it in hot water, spraying the print head with Windex, searching online support forums... etc.

All to no avail...

I am of the opinion that inkjet printers are becoming more and more UNRELIABLE with each new generation of progress. My old Epson PhotoStylus still prints without any problems after almost 10 years of mosting sitting around... not even being used in the hot summers that would usually bake shut most modern inkjet printheads.

UGH!

p.s. Oh, and the bathtub drain is totally clogged too. So I spent all of Sunday afternoon snaking that, pouring down Drano, snaking some more, plunging it with the plunger for hours on end.
This morning I discovered a cleanout drum in the basement... so that's what I'm doing this morning!

In otherwords, everything in my life is currently CLOGGED UP!
But I'm still laughing about it all....

Two trips to the plumbing store and I still can't get that blasted drump trap cover off! I'm glad I'm not a plumber...

Herons & Hummingbirds

Oh no!... is this going to turn into one of those boring photo blogs with endless pictures of birds?


One never knows... it could happen.

At least taking photos one gets out and about... instead of dragging the pond of one's imagination for bodies all the live-long day.



I was amazed at the details and color in this Blue Heron. It was about 25 feet away and looked quite bleak and grey and muddy in real life. But in the pictures the details astonish!

Maybe I need a tripod next... then you'll know I'm done for.

:0)

My New Hobby...

Words will hardly contain my delight at my new Panasonic Lumix FZ18! My Christmas present... Oh Joy! A new hobby!

It is such a fun camera to use... I'm just guessing what to do and the results are already so satisfying and spectacular. (for me)

It finally stopped raining so I took these in totally awful light... sun almost down, grey gloom abounding. But they came out very well.


I even caught two eagles diving after coots at a distance of 150 yards in the near dark! Amazing!

Anyhow... I'm a convert now. Can't hardly wait for some sunshine to see how it works in real light!



It makes great movies too... the image stabilization is amazing!

Cleaning One's Studio...

I find that cleaning one's studio to be a challenging experience. It offers an occasion for deep reflection and self assesment.

Going through the layers of earlier artwork, all piled up acts like a lens to bring into focus one's accomplishments, or lack thereof. Previous failings come into crystal clear focus. The inner critic shows little mercy from the vantage point of experience.

But there's more to cleaning. It empowers one with an almost religious zeal... as cowebs of the past are cleared away in a mighty sweep. Let there be light! Let reason and sanity return again to this encrusted maze of confusion!

I always liked that scene in Rebecca, (or was it Sunset Boulevard?) where the secret room is cleared of cobwebs. The dark chamber which had hidden the decades of madness is breached. And with one fell swoop the dusty old curtains are town down to let in the sunlight. Out with the old... let the sunshine in!

That's the same zeal I find in cleaning my studio. Looking back through the years of less than stellar artwork, the striving for years after ideas. There's the regrettable artwork... along with the amazing artwork that no one seemed to notice.

It all adds up, or fails to add up.


I understand this is actually a common point of view for artists. I read that even Leonardo da Vinci considered that he had failed as an artist, when he looked back at his accomplishments in old age. Such a cruel mistress. this Art!

I once had a very well known children's book artist in my studio. I had gathered her old books to offer up as reference, as I was doing a project with her. She gasped when she saw them and exclaimed "Don't look at those! Those aren't any good. I work entirely differently now!". They all looked fine to me, but as I say, an artist can be the very worst when it comes to self appraisal.

Oh, and I forgot to do the real zinger... I forgot to add up my yearly income! That's gonna hurt when I do that... best arrange a bike ride soon afterwards or something. I think I'm going to need a little fresh after that.

lol!

Onwards & Upwards with the Arts!

Must be the 'triple weekend effect'...

So this is relaxation... the transformation of a formerly upright & workaday mind into a post-holiday blob without definition. Feeling quite a bit like a leftover plate of dried out Xmas cookies lost in the fog. Entirely too much eggnog too.

You know you've had enough Holiday cheer when you're no longer certain if today is Thursday or Sunday. I think the workaholic in me is having a nervous breakdown from all the enforced leisure time!

It's like one of those dreams where you're trying to get somewhere but never arrive... paddling in slow motion through a swamp of obstacles. Must be the 'triple weekend effect' of the last weeks.

Let's go see some salmon!

Here in the Northwest we do love our salmon. Let's go see some! We're off to the 'Locks'. That's where the water from the gigantic freshwater Lake Washington & Lake Union meets the Puget Sound.

Boats and ships of all sorts go through the locks to get to dock. And there's lots of wildlife around too.


Here's a little Kingfisher with polka dot feathers. It's almost impossible to get this close to them anywhere else, as they are so skittish. In March there is a nearby roosting tree where dozens of giant Blue Herons all nest in one tree. It's really quite a sight.


This freshwater is the gateway to many salmon that swim back from their 4 years in the ocean. I guess it's sort of like college for them. They want to return home after 4 years.


I luv this sculpture that is installed here. Usually public sculpture misses the mark, but this one is fabulous.


Fall is the best time to see the salmon. But there's usually some all year round.


It's a mesmerizing sight watching the giant salmon slowly swim past. They're getting acclimatized to the fresh water. Just imagine all the places they've been...

Hooray!

Why not smile a while? The Xmas chore is nearly finished! Hooray! Now I can relax and work on more book ideas...

Let's go through the Holiday chore list:

Holiday cards: check
Christmas letter written & sent: check
All 12 impossible Holiday gifts chosen, wrapped, boxed and sent: check (no line at FedEx ground!)
Tree up: check (took two trips in the rain)
Lights up: check
Christmas cookies imbibed: check
Sherry on standby waiting for sundown: check
Multiple trips to department stores completed: check
Multiple online gifts hidden away: check
Gift baskets launched online to distant recipients: check
Multiple trips to small local stores: check
Eggnog on standby: Soy egnnog! check
Holiday music loaded into iTunes: check
Holiday movies rented: check
Holiday monkeys now almost all off my back: check

As you can see... I'm nearly done.


These are some spots for a new book concept I've been pondering. And I'll use them for promotion too... even if the book idea doesn't sell. I luv digital art! The avenues for escape seem to be nearly infinite.


Who knows, maybe some bored art director or editor is clicking around blogs online instead of madly rushing through the stores trying to finish up Holiday shopping! lol!

Christmas! It's such a chore!

Basically Christmas is the one holiday of the year with the most urgent deadline. Just what the busy freelancer needs... one more deadline!

It all starts with the guilt and the procrastination... which feed off one another for weeks of pre-holiday brooding. Then when denial won't work anymore, the actual shopping must begin.

This is, of course, a nearly impossible task of searching for that one missing link that will fulfill the recipient's life. Can't be done... even after weeks of brain wracking. The perfect gift remains elusive. But we compromise. Often just buying the first thing you see is the best strategy.

Then come the letters... the standard Christmas Letter. And then the individual letters...

And finally we arrive at the Herculean task of wrapping and addressing. That's an all day job right there... sorting out the wrapped presents. Trying to find the boxes they'll fit in. And then wrapping and addressing them... takes forever.

One is soon on the floor, surrounded by bits of brown wrapping paper that aren't quite long enough to wrap all the way around. And tape that sticks to itself more quickly than sticking to anything else. A frustrating sticky mess! Did I remember to put everything inside? Which box goes to which person? Ugh!

Now comes the mailing... hoping you've met the ticking deadline clock of the countdown to the big day.

My little holiday mailing secret is FedEx ground. Usually there's no line at all and it gets there in 3 days or so and you can track it's every step along the way. And it doesn't cost that much extra. Needless to say the post office line at this time of year will drive a person Postal!



Then comes the Holiday itself.

It's all those family relationships that make the Holidays such a trying time. Each year that same glaring emotional spotlight of the holidays shines all too brightly, probing the hidden places that I'm happy to just leave out of sight.

Next comes the trial of the gift exchange. I think the best metaphor for that is an intercontinental ballistic missle exchange! One answers each received volley with matching armament, and hope the desired effect is achieved!

I can offer up thanks to Amazon and online shopping for the push button ease of long distance Holiday gift exchange... I don't know how anyone could survive without it.

Ho Ho Ho... Bah Humbug!

I can't wait till the Xmas chore is all done so I can relax and watch the lights blink on the tree and enjoy a quiet eggnog & brandy.

Honestly I don't know why I keep doing it year after year. Most of my family doesn't bother sending me letters and wrapped gifts and all. Maybe just a phone call will be the perfect gift next year. But I'll probably go through the whole thing again all over.

:0)

The Artistic Brain vs. the Logic Brain

You know you're probably not working with all cylinders when it takes 3 tries to get the Blogger codes typed in correctly. I suspect that after the second failure, the computer signals to send up the 3rd grade code this time, so the persistent moron (me) can finally get through.

I've been fascinated, of late, by the phenomenon of the artistic brain vs. the logical brain.

Thinking about it, I'm a living example of this basic divide of intelligence.

I flunked college algebra 3 times... but I was at the very top my class in Geometry, where I excelled almost without effort. Although I prefer to forget everything I can remember about flunking college algebra 3 times, I remember with glowing pride how the geometry teacher would call me up to solve the real sticklers.

After all the other poor students had run out of ideas, she'd say "John, will you solve this for us please?". Then I'd waltz up to the blackboard with a prideful smugness to demonstrate how easily the various arcs would intersect to provide the correct solution to the problem.

Hard to believe its the same person who can't do Algebra. But it's good to be good at something. It's just how to make money with the Artistic brain... that's the real stickler.

The 'Beret Effect'

Whew! One must wear many hats in this line of work! I am amazed at how much time I seem to spend just scheming... instead of actually just enjoying making art... or writing.

By scheming I mean figuring out the next move in sending around dummy books, writing cover letters, making mailing lists, putting together promotional cards, printing mailing labels, working on one's web site... and probably one of my least favorite hats, changing the domain registrar of one's web server!

That one really bites.


But seeing that its wintertime, I'll talk about some real hats that keep one's head warm. Like my beret.

It's true that there exists a very real phenomenon known as the 'beret effect'. I doubt it's entirely in my imagination.

I have noticed that when one simply switches one's hat from the standard baseball cap to the wintertime beret, people act differently towards you.

Old ladies smile more readily on the sidewalks, as a sign of seasonal cheer.

The women at the grocery store seem to look up when they see a beret go past in the avacado section. And most alarming of all, the lady cashiers seem to grab one's hand and press the change & receipt into one's hand.



It's true... I'm not just making this up.

Of course the men mostly look at you a little funny... sort of like you're a harp playing choreographer. I don't get what the big deal about a beret is. It's not like I have green hair, or umpteen nose rings or tattoos. It's only a little beret.

I suppose it's that people imagine I'm an artist. That must be it.

But they don't have to imagine... I really am one.

The weather has turned inclement...

Here the weather has turned inclement...


Might even keep the postman from getting through on his appointed rounds... I notice the postmen aren't what they used to be.


But the cat knows where things are still hot & summery! She's secure at the top of her food chain after all!

Today it's just pouring down a miserable mix of gloppy rain & snow.

When the Lewis & Clark company arrived in the Pacific Northwest in 1805, they had never encountered such miserable weather. By all accounts they could hardly wait out the winter they spent here, until they could once again return to sunnier climes.

It's the damp humidity... that's what makes it so miserable.

A little ART film...

I know my blogging has fallen off of late... what can I do? I'm out of ideas! Yes, the bottomless pit has run dry.

Although I'd like to claim it's because my inner soul is trying to hibernate, I can only make feeble excuses. But here's just what you've been waiting for... an ART film!

I've been playing around with iMovie and my ancient Oympus Camera, which really isn't much of a movie making device. But it's mostly just for fun.



My only hope is that the viewer won't fall asleep halfway though. It was filmed down at the Montlake Fill, a wild place that used to be a dump, but now it's like a place in the country, even though it's quite nearby. And it's filled with wildlife... amazing birds & critters of every sort..

red tailed hawks,
osprey,
harrier hawks,
muskrats,
nutria,
kingfishers,
grebes,
bald eages,
golden eagles,
canada geese,
sandpipers,
downy woodpeckers,
pheasants,
kingfishers,
wood ducks,
peeps,
virginia rails,
blue winged teals,
buffleheads,
box turtles,
soft shelled turtles,
and giant great blue herons....

And crows, of course... lots of crows.

(actually I do have some new ideas... but like they say, Bees make honey in the dark)