Friday when I took the salmon "A Natural Beauty at 50" to the I.B.E.W http://www.wildsalmononparade.com/. I was so proud. The woman at the reception desk was impressed with the realness of it, the woman handling the fish was in love with it and several men came out of their offices to say WOW!
So now it's gone no longer in my hands and I was having some separation anxiety and worries about the fishes life from here on out. While encaustic wax will not melt until it reaches 160 degrees, it might, I've never tested the theory outdoors, also the curious can scratch the body and frequently vandals hurt the art, and unscrupulous meanies steal the fish. So I said a prayer; please God take care of the salmon and please see that it get put indoors a place like the Alaska Performing Arts Center, or the Anchorage Museum of History and art would be the best places for it." AMEN

Last night in conjunction with Dawn and my show Paul Pike of Medicine Dream http://www.medicinedream.com/ was giving a solo performance. Great show in an intimate setting, while it was way too loud the songs were good and he explained them fully. Their genre of powwow and pop music blended together is quite good , but when he sang a native song over a hundred and fifty years old with the drum I felt my goose flesh rising, the words and sounds that I could not understand on an intellectual level resonated in my soul and he played a love song on his flute is was so hauntingly beautiful I just about cried.

The lake ice is about 25 feet out from the shore now, Benson our choc lab has been for a swim I saw two trumpeter swans today, some green headed ducks, and heard the cranes flying so high you can hardly see them.
Spring and Summer is coming again to Alaska and during this time I cannot even dream of vacationing anywhere else, the natural beauty and wildlife it is beyond description. This summer I am getting out in nature more!

Stop by Make-A- Scene under the clock tower in the Meta Rose Square,
Wasilla, Alaska all month long and see……….

ENERGY IMAGES
By Dawn Diaz

Angles and Icons
By Judy Vars

Briony writes in the editor notes of Make-a-Scene says, "Judy Vars is a local artist and one of my personal favorites. I'm glad to have her art featured in this issue. Read more about it on page 18." Then she wrote a beautiful one page article interview style about me and my encaustic wax art.

Make-A-Scene is a local Magazine conceived of just one year ago by Josh and Briony Fryfogle to promote, teach music and art in addition the paper promotes events and opporutinites happening all over the Matanuska-Suitsna Valley. I am so impressed to be included in the magazine. Here is their link http://www.makeasceneak.com/
p.s. There is also a nice article about Dawn Diaz.

A New Earth

Awakening Your Life's Purpose by Eckhart Tolle my daughter Charmaine sent me this link~
http://www.oprah.com/obc_classic/webcast/archive/anewearth_archive_main.jsp
Saying, are you ready to change your life? Well yes! Being a huge Oprah fan I linked up and am now up to chapter 3. Isn't the internet wonderful anyone anywhere in the world can watch these discussions get podcasts, participate live on Skype or catch up like I'm doing. I'm also reading the book, doing the exercizes and blogging at the same time.

It's good spiritual stuff.

A Spring Snow In Alaska plus Moss and Moose Turds

When the phone woke me up this morning at 9:00 am I was still warm and cozy under my down comforter snoring and dreaming. The party on the other end was embarrassed to have woken me up. How could I have been sleeping so soundly at that time of the morning? Then I looked outside and noticed it had snowed 5 to 6 inches and was still falling. The snow always makes me sleep so peacefully it's like a cozy cool comforter. Lately I love cold sheets and frosty pillows. Alaska is a good place for me espically when I'm going through memopause you know hot flashes and all............................................

This was taken 10 minutes ago at 10:pm


On my walk the other day I was looking for evidence of spring
and found this lovely moss ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

and moose turds ah Spring I can smell it in the air.

It's been an interesting week

While reading a book that Mary gave me called "Making a Living as an Artist" by different contributors, I read this article titled "Overcoming Myths About Being an Artist" by Carolyn Blakslee, here is a quote that helped me; "Recognition during one's lifetime is much more fun than playing dead, but it is more risky and it takes planning. Resisting negativity, whether it comes from within yourself or from others, is a necessary life process if you are going to "succeed." Your unique talent is built into the miracle of your own unique being and it emerges with practice, life experience, and time. It is your talent, unique and precious, and only you can mine and discover its depths."
I like what Thomas Wolfe said, "If a person has a talent and learns somehow to use the whole of it, he has gloriously suceeded, and won a satisfaction and a triumph few men ever know.

Junque Into Art and Earth Day Celebration

Title: Junque Raven #3
Medium: Found Objects and Wax
Artist: Judy Vars
Price 100.00

I met a cool lady last week with a passion for recycling Terry Koch she runs the Valley Community for Recycling Solutions http://www.valleyrecycling.org/ and a U-Tube video http://youtube.com/watch?v=-P1VSo9xgO0. I stopped by the recycling place to gather junk for my art. She was positive and helpful when I admitted that I wasn't as good at recycling as I should be she just said "start with one thing and go from there", I can do that! More later about my worm fertilizer farm. If we all make little changes then we all can make a huge difference in our planet, take care of your Mother.

CELEBRATE

EARTH DAY &

VCRs 10 yr. Recycling Anniversary

Join us at the Palmer Depot
Sunday, April 27th, 2008
2pm t0 6pm
live music featuring"
LULU & the AQUA NETS

My Assemblage Art will be there also.

Presenting - A Natural Beauty at 50

Could this Silver be any more juicy?

I'm ready for my closeup Mr. De Mille.

I Am An Artiste' and a Few Other Things

I tend to look at people who have a wonderful talent with awe and respect, artists have the power to touch others souls and spirits in some way, transport them somewhere else if even just for a moment. The definition of artist is less romantic:
Artist
1. One, such as a painter, sculptor, or writer, who is able by virtue of imagination and talent or skill to create works of aesthetic value, especially in the fine arts.
2. A person whose work shows exceptional creative ability or skill: You are an artist in the kitchen.
3. One, such as an actor or singer, who works in the performing arts.
4. One who is adept at an activity, especially one involving trickery or deceit: a con artist.

To the end of honing my skills as an artist I am looking foreword to a class by Dean M. Larson
of San Francisco http://www.deanmlarson.com/ five days immersed in art learning from an accomplished artist for me its as good as it gets.

Max my 9 year old grandson got just back from a field trip to Washington D.C.! He told me about visiting with Lisa Murkowski, Don Young and Ted Stevens, he is funny desccribing Teds speech to the class; "blah, blah, blah, oil, blah, blah, blah, north slope, blah, blah, blah, oil production" one poor kid fell asleep. At National Museum of Art he told me of a wax painting of a man that looked like a photograph when you steped back and he said his most memorable sight was the painting of Mona Lisa the eyes really follow you.

p.s. to Hypnotic Steve if you think that I would give you or anyone else 20% of my earnings for coaching services, all I can say is "on what planet? you're not just a little nuts you're a con artist."

p.s.s. How dissapointing the fish eyes were too big for my silver salmon so I still have to wait.

Time, time, time

If the average lifetime has approximately 30,000 days then 68% of my days are spent. It seems strange thirty thousand does not seem like a huge number in terms of days, weeks perhaps, the weeks in an average lifetime is a mere 4,286.
Time the phases of the moon, the click of the second hand the beat of the heart this is linear time. This is the way we measure time. Einsteins theory is that time depends on the reference of the observer. In altered states one might say it's 10:00 but what does 10:00 mean? A psychic relates to time in a non temporal way catching glimses of the past and future. Wise people tell us " If you regret the past or worry about the future you should on your present" (I paraphrase).

This has been my day swimming around in circles, wondering why I don't seem to get anything accomplished and simultaneously knowing that I am.

But what minutes! Count them by sensation, and not by calendars, and each moment is a day. ~Benjamin Disraeli
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
~William Shakespeare
It's time to sleep says that nagging voice in my head, but I might miss something.
~Judy Vars

Salmon Update: and Six to 12 Inches of Snow

It's a snow day six inches of cold spring snow and still coming down. Today I wanted to stay home and paint but I had to keep some appointments so I dutifully dusted the snow off my car and drove off at 10:23 am, the radio said the Parks Highway is closed because of an accident with injuries. I waisted no time turning my car around grateful I heard the traffic report in time.
I painted all morning and most the afternoon, I even played Mozart.

I hope the people are doing OK, I hate it when I hear of an accident or someone was killed, there is always a chance that you know the person or heaven forbid.....

This is how the salmon looks today, I am waiting for some taxidermy eyes and praying that the oil paint stick that I used will be fully dry by May 4th drop off time.

I've nothing much to say tonight so I'll say; adieu adieu to you and you and you

He Who Eats Here Must Trust To Fate

I found this little framed saying at an early garage sale, and put it in my kitchen window, everyone agrees that it suits me and I've got miles and miles from it already, hubby has cooked delicious meals most of the week while I work on the salmon. It looks awesome by the way. Funny how inspired and productive I become when it's time to cook.

In my moms kitchen there was a plaque that said; I'm not a slow cook, I'm not a fast cook, I'm a half fast cook. Get it, half assed, ha ha. I'm getting a little punchy got to go to bed.

New Moon Tonight

I see the moon,
The moon sees me
God bless the moon,
And God bless me.

Welcome To My Mess and Left vs Right

While I try very hard to be neet and organized for me it's very hard. Because I'm a Creative and people like me think on the right side of the brain. Example: I am chaotic and disorganised, though I know where most things are, when I'm creating time passes by quickly almost unnoticed, when I get an idea I just jump straight in and see what happens, I am very intuitive and make most of my decisions based on my gut, I never forget a face but names are harder, I have a very hard time being on time for appointments, when I begin a painting I have a vision in my mind of what I'd like the painting to look like and then jump in.

I thought I suffered from AADD (Adult Attention Deficit Disorder) because I tend to space off and daydream allot, and being organized is a skill I cannot seem to learn, being right brained is preferable to having a disorder. Don't you think?

It's all in the way you see things and say things.

Salmon Update

This is not a great picture Mr. Salmon is not finished yet, but look, how georgeous is he!
The silver leaf is working out beautifully if I do say so myself.

This week I am being a test proctor for 4th graders so I must get to bed at a reasonable time.

iT'S sNoWiNg!#*

I know it's Spring but it's not done snowing yet, I don't care the long summer days are coming. In the summer I get a little manic the sun never sets, people are busy with all the regular summer activities, boating, fishing, racing, swimming except we are doing it with a crazy intensity, playing and running around like there is no tomorrow. Because really there is no tomorrow the sun never sets. Yes it is a little strange and hard to get used to 24 hour of eternal sunshine it's the opposite of the endless darkness of winter, that's why I'm depressive in the winter and manic in the summer and I love it!

Last night we went to see John Gorka and Susan Werner at the Center for Performing Arts, they were good professional performers with voices as clear as bells they had a good clean sound, the lyrics they wrote were thought provoking, entertaining, funny and interesting, it was very enjoyable night out.

Salmon Update: It took almost a week to properly glue the fins with JB Weld and now the salmon has the first coat of wax. I am going to wait until tomorrow buff and paint some more.

N.L.P. and Me

Yes so tonight I attend a class in N.L.P. Neuro Linguistic Programing and the other night a class on self hypnosis, thinking of a shortcut to 20 years of psycho therapy.
Being a self help junkie like me I keep my mind open to any ideas to improve my well being and help me get off some of my bad habits. N.L.P. taught me how to match an other's demeanor and energy, how to infer feeling, meaning, intent from their body language, eyes, etc. and relate to them by matching, pacing and leading them to get what I want. Ha, I already know that stuff.
While I am not into manipulating others to get my own way it's a skill I should use more often.

While I was at Howling down the Moon Holistic Healing Center http://www.howlingdownthemoon.net/ it I left some art, Angel Cards and encaustic tiles and business cards.
This business offers, massages, herbs, books, classes in everything from Old Way Classes, (it's probably not popular to say Wicca in this town) to Reiki and massage. I support holistic healing, alternate therapies and metaphysical journeys just as long as it's positive and productive. The book I am going to get is The Users manual for the Brain http://www.amazon.com/Users-Manual-Brain-Bob-Bodenhamer/dp/1899836322/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206687689&sr=8-1 The book ranges from 37.00 to 100.00 holy krap!
I guess I am not getting this book. The whole thing seems like too much work anyway, like my grand pappy Abe always said "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.'

Besides I've got a fish to paint.

Have Fish Will Travel

The original fiberglass form.

The first coat of gesso has been applied. With rabbits glue I plan to apply netting for the encaustic wax to stay on the form and later for scales.

I had my rabbit glue ready, but my dog ate it. Benson does look a little green around the gills. Silly Labs they will eat anything! He must have thought it was porridge, thank God it's organic.

Day by day, step by step, Mr. Silver Salmon is going to be simply marvelous, a natural beauty at 50.
Well got to run darlings, I've got so much to do.
Chiao for now xx

Shameless Self Promotion

Today I picked up my salmon at the I.B.E.W. (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers). The news cameras were there, we mingled, listened to some instructions and congradulations, the artists took a group picture holding our salmon forms, then we collected our stipend's, the base, and we all left left. Once in my car, I obsessively think to myself, did I get the very best base? so I went back inside again to look again. Someone asked me if I wouldn't mind being interviewed, quickly I looked around to see if any other artists were available, I was the only one left so I agreed, and besides, I think, it's a chance to self promote. He, He.
I nervously answered some questions hugging my fish.. I felt like a nut....this is a video taken from my TV and the 10:00 oclock news. Hopefully all my friends are in bed and will miss my 10 seconds. I can't sleep! I'm way too excited!

A Natural Beauty at 50!

Title: Angels and Obscure Objects D'Art
Artist: Judy Vars
Medium: Encaustic Wax Description: 15 3.75 X 3.75 X .75 wood tiles
Price: 25.00 each or 250.00"You are the master of every situation."
A Natural Beauty At 50. That's the name of my Wild Salmon On Parade entry and guess what! They accepted my idea! Yipeee, Oh ya, oh ya, happy dance.

Encaustic painting; the technique of melting beeswax mixed with dammar resin (for strength) using natural pigments and painting while the wax is hot. Each layer is fused with a heat gun creating integrity and strength. The fusing is why it is called encaustic.

I plan to use my practiced skills with this medium, along with thousands of iridescent sequins for scales, real silver leaf for the belly, and scribing tools to create a beautiful natural salmon. The look will be a hyper-reality but still naturally beautiful, making people stop and stare, wanting to touch and wondering how it looks so real and how this salmon was created. Encaustic wax can withstand the elements for a time.

This years theme needed to be something celebrating Alaska's 50 Years of Statehood. Friday at noon I will pick up Ms. Salmon. I am soooooo excited to get a chance to participate in this way fun event, each Salmon gets an honorary place somewhere in downtown Anchorage and folks and people from everywhere else come and see the salmon. Fish Fry Dinner and Auction, This is going to be fun!
http://www.wildsalmononparade.com/

Sometimes It's Not All About Me

Title: Begin Again
Artist: Karen Helton
Mixed Media
Price: 200.00
I picked out my favorite piece of art this weekend at G.C.V.A.
I love it! It looks like Tromp Ole in this photo, but is actually a twig, birds nest, feathers, and tiny beads.
The background is a beautiful palate with dark jewel tones (which I love). This is a wonderful, spiritual, uplifting, mixed media painting. I almost bought it.

My dear friends Mary and George sold their home in Girdwood and are moving to New Mexico. They were having a garage sale this weekend with antiques galore!. I bought tons of good stuff and she gave me even more booty, a whole box of Southwest Art magazines, antique frames, oil painting supplies, the baby tears plant that I admired, baskets, etc. etc.

Friends are relatives you make for yourself.
Eustache Deschamps
I concur.