To the flower.

To the flower.

I’m sorry,
that had to be incomprehensible pain
to be ripped from your plant
just when you were blooming
hoping for bees
to fertilize
to make seeds, a future.

But he plucked you I know,
doing it in love
of your beauty,
of me,
of the day.

He brought it with hearts in his eyes
one sunny morning
wanting nothing but to make me smile.

I talked to him later,
asked that next time he bring a photo,
leaving other flowers where I like them,
still on the plant.

He said he’d plucked you from a patch of your family
like a field of orange,
the world might not miss just you.

Then perhaps you can forgive him,
of your kind there were so many
and of him, that man,
and the love he has for me,
there is only one.

Spider alert!

I decided to do a new mural.  I’d never been happy with the moon, but had never really made the effort to fix the problems:

So seeing as I have more time on my hands, I thought there was no excuse.  I had enough Kilz to go over the moon.

I sketched out guidelines for the rays of the web using a string and two pencils, so I could more accurately get the fall of the threads.

Painting in the top of the rays where the side of the garage is in the shade.

Getting there!  Decided to put a rough outline of the spider in to figure out how big I want it to be.

That’s enough for the first day.  It’s a really rough siding board and not easy to paint detail on!  And maybe my neighbors driving by will enjoy a bit of entertainment as the spider progresses. 

Shakin up the Arts

Each year there is a ‘Shakin up the Arts’ show at the Carmen Durazo Center in Calexico.  This year the show was just about equally divided between high school students and adult artist entries.

Some of the adult entries

There was quite a crowd at the reception

Some more adult entries.

The support pillars are ideal places for the small artworks

The one on the left was my favorite in the whole show

Artist Sherry Nash and I met and discussed work – this is one of her mixed media pieces

Sherry also does acrylic pours

Some more of the student work. This young lady had no qualms about asking me whether I liked her painting!

There were some 3-d pieces also.

Another nice little surprise

Yesterday I went to pick up my paintings from the Imperial County Fair.  I often enter about 10 paintings but this year only had four that fit the categories well (you can only enter two in each category).  I was pleasantly surprised to find that ‘Arrows‘ had won 3rd place in “Non-objective or abstract paintings, any media”, and “Hope Rising” had taken 1st place in the same category.

Following the county fair, one of our local museums, Pioneer’s Museum, hosts the first and second place winners in each category, so I had to run off to drop Hope Rising at its next venue.  My good friend Ginger Ryerson who curates the art wall there and the art shows was there for the intake.  Hope Rising is a heavier piece so I helped her hang it.

Just leveling it a little more….

Calexico 110th birthday art show.

Yesterday evening was the reception for the Calexico 110th birthday celebration at the Carmen Durazo Cultural Arts center. The art show had 110 pieces of art in there. Fortunately it’s a big hall, and there were some paintings in the lobby of which I didn’t take photos.
The reception was well attended and there was a short speech by the Mayor, followed by a group photo of all the participating artists that were present.  Enjoy the show!

Salton Sea News

A symposium on community impacts, recent research, and possible solutions

via Shrinking Shorelines and the Salton Sea — Salton Sea Sense

A row of ribbons

Nice little array.

I had entered eight paintings in the Imperial County Fair this year and seven of them won ribbons!  Four of them – the first and second place winners will be on display in Pioneer’s Museum in Imperial until the 27th.

Monthly newsletter for February

Here’s what’s happened and happening at Skyscapes in February.

Collapse of an eco-system and the last superhero.

I’m not usually an openly political person – this is something of a political posting, but more of an ecological item, not party politics.  If you live anywhere in North or Central America, this could affect you.

Monthly Newsletter

 

A life-in-the-desert moment.

I thought for some time that the hole that was dug under the fence at the south corner of my yard was a jack-rabbit construction.  The cottontails can get through the chain fence, but not the jack-rabbits, so they would need a way of getting in if they wanted to get some water from the bottom half of the birdbath.  But I did begin to suspect that hole was rather larger than jack-rabbits needed.  I was right.

This morning I saw a coyote walking down the street outside my window. He glanced over at the birdbath and looked at the water level, then continued along the fence out of sight behind the plants. A moment later indeed he reappeared but did not initially go for a drink.

Maybe he’s curious about the movement of the blinds…

He turned and walked round the house to the west and I lost sight of him – there’s no window on that side of the house.  The pigeons, feeding at the back suddenly scattered so I knew he was close.  Went back hopefully to the bedroom window and was rewarded.  Looks like android movies upload seamlessly to Windows10, so I hope this works for you!  I wasn’t able to upload it into my post, but I was able to put it on my website: CoyoteInYard