The Alaska's Visitors Guide

Hey!My artworks been photographed for the Alaska Visitors Guide 2006.
You will find me on page 60 lower left hand corner my Salmon and Ravens are featured, with some pottery below. Someboby out there likes me (and don't it make me feel good.) So come and see me and the rest of the fine artists at the Girdwood Center for the Visual Arts Olympic Circle near the Bake Shop in Gridwood, Alaska. I am going to be gallery sitting May 27th and 28th.

This is Bull S_ _T or Is'nt It Beautiful

This is my back yard this morning....

This is my front yard this morning....

Today I have got to paint signs for my bread and butter.

Talkeetna, Alaska

Today I went to Su-Valley High to substitute for a science class 50 miles up the road when I got there they had a mixup and already had one, what a bother. I went the extra 12 miles for a cup of coffee and visited Talkeetna. This great little town is the starting place for all the mountain climbers doing Denali. Also a great place to fish.

There I met Josh and asked him if I could have a picture of him. He laughed and said he should charge $50 for all the people who want his picture, mostly Korean mountain climbers he said. Josh told me he lived in a tent all winter in his sub-zero sleeping bag, that he experienced snow blindness, frost bite, hallucinations, his stove being frozen. I didn't think it was possible to survive in a tent in the winter. Josh is leaving in a couple of weeks for his summer job in Denali park cooking. His needs are simple, hot coffee, food, and some good gear.

This is Josh with Stubs the mayor of Talkeetna. The friendly town cat with a stubby tail, he is welcome is any business, and home.

I said you're going in my blog, and they both seemed happy about that.

WO IS MONEY

Today it started with a comment my dear husband made.

Judy: I think I'll make another abstract painting today.
Peter: Yea, if you think it will sell......
Judy: I don't create what I think what other people will like. I create to please myself.
Peter: Your own words were you want to make a living from your painting. So why don't you paint what you know people will buy..............yata, yata, yata.
Judy: (I stick my fingers in my ears) Blah, blah, blah, I can't hear you.
Peter: You're acting like a big a baby.
Judy: And you're a great big @#$%^&* ass hole. (and I stomp upstairs to take a shower).
Thus goes the argument we've had at least 100 times.

It is so frustrating to get into these no win debates. I'm mad that so much of our/my success or feeling of being successful is quantified by the almighty dollar.
I want to just stop, take it easy, get inspiration and paint what I love and paint from my heart and soul. I am taking a risk putting it out there for all to see and judge. So putting some arbitrary number on one of my creations is one the hardest thing I do. Lately I've just said 75 cents per square inch and you make an offer.......
Men anyway they are just so left brained.

Earth Day

The other day my daughter forewarded me an e-mail from her half sister who is a hippy. Right Now she is living in a small town in Mexico with her new husband and her two boys. I wanted to repeat a part her letter because I feel like she is an awesome young lady you go girl...Just be careful.

so, i am here in a tiny mexican town. there was a music festival here. it is over. we have hiked for hours into the steep mounatins to the rushing river...where people shit in the water, and on the trail.....where it is custom to throw your trash on the ground and wash yer clothes directly in the river......these things makes cold shivers shoot in my body. i am angry....so what can i do. every time i talk to someone and they dont like what i say they tell me to go back to the states pinche gringa....well, i am going to take a different approach. i am going to write a letter to all them....and give it to all the pueblos that i pass through.....about all their songbirds that are being sold in the cities to make company for the lonely women working day after day without water, because there are so many people consuming rapidly....i cannot free the world of our consumer ways. but i can free my heart of the feeling that i did nothing. i can do somehting. give the tools freely....so much in life has to be paid for. food, healing, clothes shelter.....all this i question. and walk against....this is my life. to be an example for truth and freedom....many laugh. especially in the family at my seemingly wily ways.

The letter goes on to rail against our disfunctional family so I won't post it all of her tirade.

Yet Another one - I'm On Fire!

AHHH - RED, RED, RED, SO PASSIONATE, SO ENEGERIZING, SO GEORGEOUS, SO HARD TO PHOTOGRAPH.

I know you've heard it before my monitor just can't capture the color accurately, my camera, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH.

You've heard all the excuses; it's true! This photograph was taken in natural light and still....

It is a deep Chineese red and as always with encaustic art it's depth, luminosity and etheral quality

can't be captured with a mere camera you must see and touch with your own 5 sences.

My Latest Creations

Let There Be Light
Lately I have been creating a piece of art every day. Teaching seems to have inspired me and given me a million ideas. Encaustic wax is so great it dries instantly and you can pile up layers and layers of paint. The possibilities are endless. One of the adults that came to the class was frustrated with the wax not doing exactly what she wanted. The wax ultimately does what it wants. I said: "encaustic wax is not for perfectionists."
YAY I am not a perfectionist.

Geometric Patterns
Here are some of my creations. I put them on E-Bay yesterday, but my photographs are getting harder and harder to get. My Gateway 5.0 megapixel camera is being held together with ducktape. How Alaskan is that we use ducktape for everything.

Serenity Prayer
They are all different. Which remimds me of a critique which a judge gave me while I was applying for a grant. "She is all over the map" I just can't seem to help myself I LOVE IT ALL someone suggested that I take ritlin to focus my art. Yeh right maby I just take ritlin and paint in neverending circles. However,I do plan to make more impressionistic work which is perfect for encaustic wax.

I’m Hooome

Since last night I have been processing my experience teaching encaustic wax techniques and all the impressions that I brought back from Whittier.

I was in the company of other great artists Gail Baker from Homer,Alaska
She did mask making. The students made some awesome, frightening masks from leather.

Ronna Lopisich from Anchorage taught watercolor painting. She rode up with me and is my newest best friend, funny and warm and loves the Lord.


Movie Making – Media Arts – Mike Jipping The teens were given a lot of information and they set out to make 3 short movies. A Day In The Life of a Whittier Kid, that was a very interesting and telling commentary on what it is like for a kid in Whittier….It shows various kids sitting around some room they gather at the BTI (thats what they call the building where everyone lives) just hanging out in various positions of boredom mauling about the furniture, some playing some video games. Another movie showed two kids putting another kid into a straight jacket and dumping him in the tunnel, scary and weird.

Megan Reichart – Theatre, She was an interesting young lady who lives in Anchorage but went to graduate school in New York City studying theatre arts she had the full on New York City - Broadway experience. Lucky Girl.

It seems that all the things that I heard about Whittier are true. There are no single family homes they all live in Begich Towers BTI for short a WWII 15 story structure the government gave to Whittier after the war. The janitor at the school; Karen tattled on the town. She said some people stay there all winter and do not come out. One man stayed there for 19 years. There is an underground tunnel from the BTI to the school so no need to go out.

The weather is mostly windy, rainy, and snowy with a few nice days. The population is 100 to 200 in the winter and triples in the summer. People do come out in the summer and enjoy the awesome beauty of the place. My room was on the sound looking out at the water and harbor. Two huge eagles that hang around on top of the widow’s watch flew so close to my window I couldn’t believe it. I watched otters playing and fishing. Whales come down breaching all the way. The inlet is so deep 400’ the huge cruse ships come to the station the tourists get on the train and leave. I watched 15 fishing boats and trawlers coming back at the end of the day. There are 5 glaciers within view of the village. When the snow melts there are many pretty waterfalls.

I wanted to catch more of a glimpse of the parents of these kids, but I don’t go into bars anymore. So I hoped they would show up for the art show. Everyone displayed their art projects and discussed them, there was a skit from the theatre group, the leather masks were on display. There was a slide show with the artists wearing the masks they made doing artful poses while Phantom of the Opera Music played. The movie making group showed three short films. Sadly very sadly I only saw a couple of new parents besides the ones that were helping all week. Common…....people, I don’t get it!!! This was what was happening in Whittier, or was Deal Or No Deal more important than your kids?

p.s.
My class went great my students loved it A few showed some great talent: Ian Angiak – Chenega Bay, Steven Geffe – Tatitlek, Daryl Haynes – Whittier, Casey Roberts - Whittier, Miranda Dye –Whittier, Brittany Saunders – Fairbanks, Shannon Sanders – Fairbanks, JJ Morice-Cannon – Anchorage, Desiree Englund – Fairbanks, Samantha Englund – Fairbanks. Thank you guys!

To be or not to be a Whittidiot. A Whittier, Alaska resident that is.

Ok, so I'm sorry to any of the good people that I am yet to meet in Whittier, Alaska.
If the Whitidiot is insulting that’s just what we call ya all.
Out here in the valley were called “Valley Trash” some folks were offended and others had tee shirts made that said VALLEY TRASH AND PROUD OF IT and wore them proudly. I, myself, would not want to wear something calling me trash lest anyone actually think I’m trashy. Oh NOOOOOOoooooo

I am so excited to see and visit Whittier and teach encaustic wax art(they are going to be new experiences for me)that I can hardly sleep.

These are the things that I've heard about Whittier, Alaska. That up until a couple of years ago the only way to get there was to take the train or take a cruse ship there. Now you have to wait until 8:30 am and you can drive though the tunnel straddling the railroad tracks with your car. God! don't let me meet a train in the tunnel. That is a reoccurring dream in my life.... Hummmmmmmm Dr. Freud Dr. Freud.
I've heard that the channel in 300 feet deep.
I've heard that most of the town lives in a 13 story barrack built there during WWII. They don't have buildings that tall in Anchor Town (Anchorage).
I've heard that there are 5 glaciers to see right from town.
I've heard there are no lawns just shale.
I’ve heard it rains all the time.
I've heard of people who go there and never get out.
So if I get out I will have stories of my own to tell and pictures to share.
So be on the look out, there's more to come, that is if I get out.

My Very Very Cruddy Week or just be happy to do nothing

After my fall through the ice I have been sick, sore throat, headache and body ache. I gargled with goldenseal yesterday; that stuff is so nasty it tasted like bile, yuck, yuck, yuck. I must get myself better by Sunday because that is when I leave for Whittier to teach my "Encaustic Workshop” This is a first time for me teaching teens how to paint with wax. I'm excited!

My painting "The Lost Lenore" is put on the shelf for the time being but I did make an encaustic piece on Sunday "The Rainbow Trout". Encaustic lends itself beautifully to an impressionistic style of painting

If anyone is reading my blog please give me your opinions.

Snow on April Fools Day

God certainly has a funny sense of humor, all week long the snow and ice was melting and the temperatures were approaching 40 degrees. The pesky squirrels that live in my attic came out of hibernation and I planted my annual spring tonic (wheat grass). And then snow, I decided to take the dogs for a walk in the woods. When hiking across the frozen lake my foot broke through the ice and I went in up to my knee, scary! So I lay down for awhile in the field of snow just to look up at the sky and say Thank You God for your April Fools jokes, first snow and then me almost buying the farm and going through the ice.

Today I went to substitute for an elementary school P.E. teacher in Willow, Alaska and on the way in the door my shoe went through the ice into a big wet hole and I got my shoe and sock and pant leg all wet. Enough already! It’s not funny anymore.