Clean, Hard, Fast: 3

CLEAN: Two-square feet of work desk. This will have to be good enough for today. It IS nice to see the antique maple top under the clear Plexiglass. I wonder what got accomplished by others who have owned this old, useful piece of wood-working. What goodies were stored in those four small drawers? Who dusted the shelves?  Enough pondering. On to Hard.

HARD: to believe how "loud" the old noggin is today. Even with pills and music - well, she's a hard-chiming rascal. Must remember that so many have things so much worse, but boy, would an hour of "peace" be appreciated. Not deafness, but what I used to know as "quiet." There is NEVER any quiet. Oh well. I can still hear. Hoorah for Hearing!

FAST: How the many bugs, insects, birds, squirrels are making use of garden. We have two old wooden chairs set in a sunny corner of the place, and once in a while I sneak off to sit and watch our personal version of "Nature." Today a dragonfly lit upon some basil. Flies are chowing on the rotting tomatoes. Bees are still sucking at the sunflowers. A lucky look up in to the blue sky and wazaah! and yup, a bald eagle glided high above the picnicking crew down below.

The sunflowers are being felled by the black squirrels.... Mixed emotions. Mixed emotions. And once they decide a stalk or head is coming down - it's coming down. That we should have such Focus and Keep at that task till it's Accomplished. There are yet quite a few upright beauties, and it's a Simple Pleasure to photograph them.

We will miss the brilliant colors of plants and skies in the Grey Months a-coming. Not that snow isn't brilliant and the winter skies can be, too. I guess it's the sense of Life and Growing and the Possibility of Green that seems missing from November till whenever Spring might decide to happen.

For now I'll appreciate even the "Autumn" colors of  maturing sunflowers and other garden goodies past their peeks.

These colors are actually inspiring new bears. Woo hoo! Time to get the acrylic browns, yellows, purples, blues, and their shiny metallic friends out to play. I appreciate folks' kind words pertaining to the new stuff. Playing with mono-prints has opened new paths for the bruins and us. And sometimes it's good to start down a new path. Just don't forget your way back! You can view some on our Facebook Page at Sue-Rowe-Studios.

Time to put in an hour at Work-Fun," put on some excellent tunes, ignore the loud personal cymbals, and make some jazzy bears!

The Roycrofters Creed from John Ruskin:

"A belief in working with the head, hand and heart and mixing enough play with the work so that every task is pleasurable and makes for health and happiness."

On to the trying!
Our next art festival is Sept. 14 -15. The Edina (MN)Fall into the Arts Festival at Centennial Lakes. We are "downstairs" this year. Booth 154 - on the north end of the north end. Come walk the path, enjoy the water, and those great wooden swinging chairs, but don't forget to visit the excellent artists "upstairs."

Fare-thee-well,
Sue

Clean, Hard, Fast: 2

CLEAN: how the living room WILL be by the end of the afternoon!
HARD:  to know where to start.
FAST: how the 29 years have gone by since being married to Sir Todd on that September 8th a long/short time ago.

Yup. Going to spend some of our Anniversary Day cleaning. Because tennis and football can keep us indoors AND because it simply has to be done.

BUT will also try to sneak some time to stencil acrylic paint into dancing bear designs. It's freedom inside a form. Simple, yet, because of the mixing of metallic and regular colors, a mystery of final outcome. Yay for Mystery! And feeling more like Play than Task.  And WANTING to create instead of NEEDING to create. Such an airy difference.

But first must make more open spaces - literally. I like piles of stuff and I like clean flat surfaces. This is not good mix.

So, today, inspired by friend, Sarah M., will be partially devoted to CLEANING. And part to Anniversary Doing Something. And cheering on the Green Bay Packers. And Appreciating a Breathing Day.

May your day hold at least one small Grand Adventure!

Fare-thee-well,
Sue

Clean Hard Fast: 1

CLEAN: part of the living-room floor that had been covered by greeting card stuff, drawing books, and       misc. papers. Now to KEEP IT CLEAN! Dusted under card racks in studio - yes, all the way to the wall.

HARD: to believe how quickly tomatoes ripen once they put their little green head to the task. Have made sauce, tomato basil soup, given some away, & yet a number lie rotting on the ground. Will harvest more tomorrow, and probably give them away - hooray!

FAST: how that first three-mile hike in a long time went. Radio headphones helped hide the head's constant ding ding ding. Got to walk with Bach for a while. Can't go wrong hoofing along to all those great and lovely notes. Made it back before dark. High-point of walk was an in-shape dude striding along in white muscle shirt and red shorts, sporting a really good mohawk haircut, and  accompanied by a gorgeous black German Shepard Dog.

We're prepping for River Falls, Wisconsin's "Art on the Kinni" - Sept. 7th. Because The Grand Hand Gallery in St. Paul have hung so many of our originals I've been "forced" to work on new goodies. Yes, I know it's a good problem. I don't know what will be done by this weekend, but we have five more shows in following weekends so the work will be shown SOMEWHERE. And it's been fun to play with acrylics and mono-prints. Might have to frame the large rabbit drawing done during rand Hand event a week ago. It should hold it's own against the bruins!

Here are two of the small mono-prints now part of a Fine Print Show at the Stillwater Art Guild. These are made by layering acrylic paint on plastic, flipping plastic onto printing paper, then burnishing paint on to paper. Some images printed easier than others, and I kept adding more paint where it seemed to be needed. Darned judgement calls! But I'm excited with the technique and plan to do some larger pieces soon.

Colors included black, brown, and the Magic Touch - GOLD. Can't go wrong with a golden dancing bear. But I still love the shapes of sitting bears, so had to play with one here. Playing with a brayer created the large area of dark on lower center bear. What to do? What to do? Why press a gold bruin over the area. Yay for Play!

Now it's time to watch live-streaming of U. S. Tennis Open and cheer on Rafa Nadal. AND keep working through the competition. Little yellow balls and little golden bears.

And don't forget the tomatoes....

Fare-thee-well,
Sue