Scribble Typing

No, this brain doesn't "work." It jits. hopes (meant to type "hops"...), stays in one spot for five minutes if I'm lucky. Somehow accomplishes a few things through the day.

Today eyes are on computer, glancing out at black squirrel munching year-old sunflower seeds I'd raised from seeds to feed the squirrels. Of course that plastic bag got put into a work cupboard for safe-keeping/getting lost. Mission accomplished! And because one thing got moved from cupboard other things got noticed, some pitched (yay!), some moved to more useful spots (yay!), and ohters simply piled into neater piles (still Yay!).

But brain wants to start running for five minutes a day because "The New York Times" article says we will be better off if we do, and it's fighting doing paperwork that HAS to be done today, and it wants to start another pastel piece before finishing all the other pastels and acrylics that are ALMOST FINISHED. And it has to keep on task for Powderhorn Art Festival in Minneapolis this weekend, and it misses Summer already because early mornings are becoming dimmer and dimmer.

We shall not type of Guilt.

This bear is not particularly guilty; he was simply easy to post. I have to stop doing the "easy" stuff and start doing "harder" stuff. Once upon a time I judged life stuff by it's being "standable." If it was standable it could be done. It would not be pleasant but it would be accomplished.

I've since turned into a Life Wuss. Not in all things, but in many.

It's time to start Facing Fact Lake again. Life IS semi-peachy keen. Life is O.K. And, as someone else so wisely put it, how we spend our minutes is how we spend our lives.

Another blog post. Not particularly important to others, perhaps, but another life marker to me. Say Hi to YOUR Brain from me and mine.

Come on, brain, it's time for a run.

Fare-thee-well,
Sue

FB page: Sue-Rowe-Studios
web: www.suerowe.com

upcoming art fairs:

Aug. 2 -3: Powderhorn Park -  Minneapolis, MN
Aug. 9: Art Festival at Brighton Beach - Duluth, MN
Aug. 23 -24: Artstreet - Green Bay, WI
Sept. 6 - 7: Art in the Park - Wausau, WI
Sept. 20-21: Marine on St. Croix, MN
Sept. 27 -28: Spirit of the St. Croix - Hudson, WI

Prepping for Ely

Ely Blueberry Festival starts this Thursday and runs through Sunday. One of our favorite shows. But low on stock, sort of, and attempting to fill gallery requests, as well.

This is why Summer hold mixed emotions. It is finally Hot and Sunny and Dry and I am making no Time to Enjoy this rare opportunity to bask, or weed, or read some lazy reading while sipping ice tea lazing in hammock.

Summer for art fair sorts is (if we have good/great shows)  almost never-ending creating more goodies. Improving signage - NOT. Ordering more business cards - OOPS. Updating web-site ......hahahahhaa.

I try to take a morning or evening walk. Often  - nope. What is tennis? Sigh. How did we have time earlier in the summer?

Basil is mature and wants to be made into pesto. Not today!

Paintings beg to be finished. MAYBE today.

Off to begin the driving to tasks and returning to more tasks. Yes, I am lucky. I chose this life and folks buy our bears and other work in enough number to allow me to gladly bitch about doing what I love.

Yes, I am jealous of those who are taking vacations. We GO to lovely vacation spots and then have to motor quickly home to go to another beautiful vacation spot. We see these spots as we head into and out of town. Yay, for scenic drives to and from many  destinations!

The unfolded laundry will stand guard at home.

Garden - you're on your own!

And August happens NEXT WEEK?

Uh, nope, the hammock's still not up.
And it's time to make more bears.

-Fare-thee-well,
Sue

Thankful - More Than Day 3

Yes, I think Thirty Thankfuls almost every day - just don't type them out for folks to see. Helps when I'm pissed off - 30 thanksfuls, trying to sleep- think 30 Thankfuls, when I'm bored - more Thirty. Trying to not repeat ones in a day. You can be thankful for teensy tiny things that we take for granted - but should not. Like working plumbing and post office mailboxes.

Well, here goes for today:

1) I don't have to sit at our garage sale all day.
2) the baby spinaches are looking good.
3) Walgreens stays open till 10 PM - or a tad later - last night. Thanks, crew!
4) It's not raining here - and maybe not for the next few days.
5) "The Big Band Theory"
6) Johnny Cash
7) Winter - when it should be Winter:

8) garage-sale customers.
9) toothbrushes
10) German Shepard Dogs (we grew up with King, Queenie, Toby, Lassie(?), and more
11) Forever stamps
12) Clean sheets of wonderful paper
13) sharpened pencils
14) BACON
15) large cups of steaming beverages
16) hills
17) waterfalls with walking distance
18) more than enough wool blankets
19) the glass-doored oak display cases Dad built for our model horse collection.(The Bestest ones get to go in these. The rest have to make do with the dusty shelves.)
20) lots of battery power on any electronic device I'm using.
21) YouTube
22) Reddit
23) radios of any kind.
24) the color RED
25) memories of our town's kids playing hide-and-seek when most kids would be "too old" to play hide-and-seek.
26) the big school bell at the Gurney Community Center.
27) all the many places where Lake Superior is.
28) knowing that sister, Lynn, HAS "the Gift of Crust." (I do not.)
29) that the forecast for this Saturday's Stockholm (WI) does not include Rain. (At the moment.)
30) Jasper Johns:

Now - on to your own!
Fare-thee-well,

Sue

Two in a Row

Thirty Thankfuls -

Why? Because they are real, often easily typed, and if I don't write stuff down it doesn't exist in this brain's universe. Here goes:

1) Tara spotting the hummingbird flitting around the flowers. THEN we watched it PERCH on a maple tree branch!
2) Mozart
3) Sunny day in low 70's today
4) Todd setting up garage sale
5) English muffins (I do prefer an excellent scone)
6) Books made of paper
7) Audio-books
8) Books any style you can get 'em
9) Little Libraries (see if you have one nearby! Stuff it full!)
10) Paper - in general
11) Vintage coin dispensers (we use ours at art fairs)
12) People who will sketch AND pose with result (Betty is ceramics artist who makes Frogs):

13) Garlic
14) Money
15) Tasty herbal teas (time for another cup)
16) GOO GONE (registered trademark)!!!
17) This Gorgeous Summer Morning (7/16/14)
18 Derek Jeter (Long May You Wave)
19) New kitchen towels
20) Work I enjoy doing (most of the time)
21) Earthworms
22) Sister, Lynn, starting more baby African Violet plants from Grandma Rowe's original that I got in 1976, after her death. Keeping the memory of Grandma's well-watered Northern-exposure beauties alive - and enjoying their living great-grand-plants, as well.
23) Memories of this year's iris crew:

24) Keeping paper letters written by friends and family back in letter-writing days (Write some some. Send them. Folks who get them might be Thrilled!)
25) Very few apples falling from tree this year.
26) Smelling blooming lilacs up in Grand Marais, Minnesota. Yup. In mid-July.
27) Netflix
28) Dishes to be washed. Many people do not own a dish.
29) Still enough time in day to maybe sneak the hammock out to patio..... Maybe.
30) No need to turn on air-conditioner today.
31) Not really caring whether some of these lines end with periods (Serious nod to Weird Al for his terrific truthful new video, "Word Crimes.")

Oops- thirty-one things that I'm thanks for this morning. Better more than less!

On to the day!

Fare-thee-well,
Sue

Another Thirty Thankfuls -

Today I am Thankful for:

1) Sunlight on yellow lily blossoms
2) The audio book, "Yes, Chef."
3) Friends sending online "NAN/Breyerfest updates last wek
4) A Very Good art fair weekend up North in Grand Marais, MN
5) Folks canceling their motel reservations in GM
6) New ideas for more bears
7) Going to the shore to put hands in Lake Superior ("my" Lake - ha!)
8) The iPod Nano
9) Fast funny chat about Dark Energy with pro Physicist
10) This photo of me and the red bear an excited lady bought at Spring Green Art Fair:

11) Fresh baby dill sprigs from the garden
12) Chard from the garden
13) Basil from garden
14) Kale from.....
15) Baby tomatoes peeking out from lush greenery
16) Todd driving most of the way to and from Grand Marais
17) Goat cheese
18) Beautiful Art Made by Others
19) This morning's low temperature being 54 degrees - because it could have ben COLDER
20) Stillwater Library lending out magazines (pace yourself, Susan!)
21) New Likes on Sue Rowe Studios Facebook Page  - Thank You!!!!
22) Learning yesterday that there are 94 species of fish in the St. Croix River (I will look at this river differently from now on.)
23) People with small bills and coinage at art fairs
24) Quote collections
25) Crow on a mission:

26) A few CLEAN spaces in the house
27) Bluegrass music
28) Stockholm (WI) Art Fair being able to be held in usual beautiful park location instead of alternative
29 Mississippi River deciding to retreat from above park in time for this Saturday's Art Fair
30) Knowing that there are WAY MORE than 30 reasons for which to give Thanks!

On to the day. Some parts of plans are going smoothly. Others - not so much. Life as usual!!

This Saturday, July 19th, holds the Stockholm Art Fair - this well-run show in small town of Stockholm, Wisconsin, is always one of the high points of our season. Great friends, wonderful art, great music, and located near the shore of Mississippi River  are  just a few reasons we love doing this show. Now to cross fingers for a lovely day... If you DO come visit - remember to buy a slice of pie at The Stockholm Pie Company and walk through the other shops and galleries in town. No, I don't know where folks park. I only know and appreciate that they usually come early and in great number.

Then - next week (July 25 - 27)- the three day Ely Blueberry Festival - usually our best show of year. We shall not remember the weather (BAD IN MANY WAYS) of 2013. New year. New bears. New Hope. Old Space: Booth 15 - yay!

Also -  one last bear and our 30 Bear Challenge will be over at long last. Am aiming for TODAY.
Crossing paws......

Fare-thee-well,'
Sue

Another Day, Another Fool

Beginning the new series of Jesters and Fools hasn't been a bad idea. So far. Whew.

When starting out one something "new" I seldom know if the end result will be worth time/effort or if the whole grand plan should have been shut down on the first day. It's the playing out of the run that will leave it's evidence. And I feel that there may be a whole lot of Fools and Jesters with which to deal.

No, I'm not going to discuss politicians, religious sorts, business ethics, weird family members - just going to scribble bears!

Therein lies the Magic of Metaphor. HUZZAH for metaphor! The bears can represent and express almost anything!!!!! And yet they are not as they appear - at least some of the time. Once in a while they are simply Bears. More often they are Us. Whether we like us or not. The bears don't care. they are too busy Representing. This gives me a wee tad of artistic freedom - because as long as I don't pun the bruins will usually gladly play along. (During the first months of drawing the furred ones they warned: If you pun - we will not come. I've heeded this bit of growling ever since.)

In "In Just North Enough," my first book, one bear peers out from under his dunce cap. Caption: "Soon, yes, they'd learn to fear the patient fool..." I don't know this bear. I don't know his plans. I know that he definitely is no dummy, has plans, and WILL carry them out. But for now he remains playing the fool. His time will come... his time will come...

This new Jester seems to be playing The Fool well; it's just not his life's ambition. Doin' the job, but wanting much more. My problem, as an artist, is what to do with the guy. I sort of am in control of his destiny and I, too, don't know his path.

I like his presence. His willingness to carry on - for the time being. I enjoyed researching styles of jester's caps. But now the decisions start to pile up. Add some color with the Prismacolor colored pencils.Enough? Enough for now. Words? No words? (No words were coming out of brain or Sharpie Marker - O.K. - let that go for time being.) Background? Plain white? Something inside or outside? (No thoughts there...) But that weird stripe at top of page must be disguised. O.K. - I still love scribbling a "crocheted" line of semi-darkness. We will go with that. Plus, drawing this scribble is almost a Zen practice for me. Production with some thought but more simple free-arm repetitive movement. Another decision decided. Whew.

(color distortion due to lighting)

This image shows result of "crochet" scribbling. Defines a space - in a way. Hides the odd mark. Makes the air come alive. More decisions.... I ask Facebook sorts for opinions. Most who post like the spareness of the drawing. Huzzah? Less work for me? O.K. - for now this Jester, like many of us, is biding his time. He may or may not be "finished." So few of us seldom are -  and that's not a bad thing.

There is space in which more may develop. This piece has yet to be ruined by overworking or being over thought. We will allow this fool to perhaps relax for a few weeks. Did Jesters get vacations from amusing their royal rulers?

On to the day's real work. Prepping for Shell Lake, Wis. art fair on Saturday, July 5th, but also planning the sneaking away (Thanks, Todd, for allowing me this) to attend my hometown celebration of Gurney, Wisconsin turning 100 Years Old this year! Our tiny town (7 miles from Lake Superior, 3 miles in off U.S. 2 - on Wis. State HWY. 169 (our childhood "playground") - no sidewalks, no store/gas station, NO BAR!!! -  will be The Destination for the day. Hard-working locals (almost all are relatives - ha!) will have mowed the ball diamond where our dads and we played, figured out the parade sequence (the route is EASY - Go down the hill on one side of the road, turn around at the bottom, and head back up Gurney Hill), and made the community center ready for the odd assortment of interesting folks who will come to our favorite "World's Smallest Thriving Metropolis.").

Our 30 Bear Challenge on our Sue-Rowe-Studios Facebook Page is coming to an end. One bear to go, and some semi-lucky winner will get an original of one of the thirty pieces!

Happy Birthday, to our son, Tyler, today, and Happy 4th of July! to everybody tomorrow! No Foolin'!!

Fare-thee-well,
Sue