You can fool the fans - but not the players.... John Cage

log skidding

A couple of weekends ago we went up to a timber sale tract with our friends to watch them work their draft horses, Marsha and Frost. It was a wonderful day in the pines, and so fascinating to watch the big horses work. They really seem to like it and they pull and pull and pull.

This timber sale is being worked by just one man and his family so I think they like it when the horses show up to help - they move the logs down closer to the road and that saves someone a boatload of work.

There's quite a production getting the horses all tacked up and I just stayed out of the way with my camera - I took over 200 photos but of course only a few of them turned out to be worthwhile. I love digital cameras for that, though. It makes photographers out of all of us.

They worked the horses singly and then hitched them up together. One is powerful enough, but when you get two together it can seem a little nerve-racking maneuvering them around obstacles and keeping them at the same pace.
This is
the thing that grabs the logs. The horses soon know when the log is attached - they hear the mallet on this thing and the driver has to keep them from just taking off. They really are eager to pull.
Just another wonderful day with horses.

finally, our lady of the inner cowgirl

Every since I saw a wonderful belt buckle by Sweet Bird Studio I have wanted to make my own "lady of the inner cowgirl". It's been brewing, and I've been on the lookout for possibilities. It was part of the reason I signed up for the PMC bracelet class at the upcoming Art & Soul in Portland, and part of the reason I bought a soldering iron and am learning how to make art pendants and such. The phrase and the idea - it just got under my skin.

Sometimes you have to let it simmer.

Last Saturday I found her. Well, the beginnings of her. She was in the junk room at the thrift store - the room you enter with great anticipation cause really, anything goes in that room. I mean, it isn't the kitchen stuff, nor clothing, nor furniture. It's the "whatever" room. Lamps, tools, weird storage things - you just never know. It's the room I found two train cases in. I now own one and Shari owns the other.... we keep our art stuff in 'em. It's where I go when I'm trying to help my students create recycled sculpture. I go in and load up with whatever I see that looks even remotely interesting.

So..... want to see her? She's a work in progress...


She's a lamp. I'm not sure where to start except that I started taking the whole thing apart to clean it up and I have to resolder the thing back together if I'm going to keep it a lamp. And I kinda like the lamp idea. I might be able to glue some little horses around and do some other stuff... it might take awhile. And I'm on the lookout for a little cowgirl hat for her. One of my students said she'd make a cowgirl hat... but I'm pretty picky about cowgirl stuff.

I'm off to ponder... here's one more shot of her.

more digital art journaling

fresno gates, part 2

I got this set of gate photos on the way home... driving the rented Dodge diesel and towing the horses home. It is at the bottom of the 4-lane and I had to run across the street and back up the hill a ways to get shots of this one - you can't get too close. But it has some nice features and is in a beautiful west side location... makes you wonder who lives here and what is the story behind the cadillac ranch?

I like the detail on the gates and I love the rusty look of the sign.
and then there is this last detail:

And you almost have to look twice before you realize it too is metal.

Have a great day!

digital art journals

In the online class I'm taking for the 2nd time - XHTML & CSS - someone suggested doing digital art journaling and it clicked with me - I can post some of my collages here and combine it with Photoshop and begin to create sort of an online journaling routine. Yeah! New stuff! So here is the first one.
As orginally planned - perhaps this will prompt me to post more of my art and keep me doing it. Who knows where it will lead?

I'm pretty excited about the thrift store purchase there on the left - I've been wanting to do an "our lady of the inner cowgirl" piece for some time now and there, in amongst all the junk, was this incredible lamp. I looked at it and knew immediately this was there for a reason. My reason. I have no idea how I'm going to recreate her (obviously she needs a cowgirl hat for starters), but I've already taken it apart and have to do some cleaning, some painting, some soldering and then... she'll begin to evolve. Whooo hooo! Can't wait.