This is one of a series of Diptychs I am working on. The working title is The Yellow Dog series cause there Yellow Dog visits each canvas and observes the bewildering activities of us humans.

FINAL INSTALLATION

For those who could not attend the open studio here is the installation:

POSTER FOR THE OPEN STUDIO

 

I put this together as a poster, perhaps to sell at the opening, but also because I thought it might be cool thing in and of itself. I have a wall in the studio with 35 of them. I posted a photo of it earlier. I think I will continue with the grid made up of smaller pieces, there is something that has always appealed to me about them.

35 little pieces on a wall

 

For Pascal

 

Pascal forgot his cigerettes when he last visited before going off to China for three months, so this would be from his point of view, here in lovely New Mexico...

Fish

 

Another telephone call doodle...

She picked what she imagined

 

Well I have been reading a lot of fantasy fiction while laid up, so I guess it is getting into the work.

Museum Goers

 

I like the idea of paintings in paintings, or the interaction of an artificial reality with an artificial reality. I am going to play with this idea in some more paintings.

clown

 

Nothin much to say here, doodled it out durring a phone conversation, painted on it later. looks nice in my black mock up frame.

Three, vs3, when horses fly, etc

 

 

 

 

The last few days work.

out and about

 

 

On March 26 we got 6 inches of snow, Jill was out of town so I did my second walk in the green belt. Did not go far or fast, but it was good to get out see just how mobile I can be.

The Final Bill (more or less) Rant.

Well, I was doing okay with the doctor charging me $5500 dollars an hour for an hour and half operation, but today I got the hospital bill and I am frankly disgusted and outraged. Come on, $8000 dollars for a metal rod and 6 screws! $7600 for anesthesia,
$2300 for drugs and pharmacy which I barely used! They say the problem is the insurance companies, I disagree, it is the providers, and while the insurance companies may be the enablers of this insanely cost bloated medical system, to me it feels like an ethical (or lack there of) decision on the part of those providing the services to charge these enormously inflated fees. Well, if I don't qualify for the financial support this may be the straw, or more like the elephant, that breaks my financial back. With our house upside down, me not getting any traction on my credit card debt and now this I see little reason to hold on anymore and believe I will somehow pull a rabbit out of my magic hat and start moving forward. Add to that the recession is killing both my art career and my long established carpentry business. I am just flummoxed by how one group of people taking care of our essential medical needs charge amounts that we by doing our work that make their world possible can't pay them for their services. It has been said before, but something is terribly wrong with the medical system. I heard one story where a bicyclist crashed her bike in the middle of nowhere, an innocuous not that out of the ordinary kind of activity. She broke her pelvis and had to be medi-vaced out with a helicopter. A reasonable fee for a couple of hours work? $3,000? $5,000 maybe. No, $38,000 just to get her to the hospital. What was the profit margin on that I wonder? So at this point this broken leg cost $35,084.00. The good news is if I had been paying health insurance for the past 30 years, (since Medi-cal was gutted by Reagan) I am still ahead. That would have cost me $75,000.00 at least, and I still would have with a $10.000 dollar deductible, be owing $25,000. Maybe it is time to pack it in move to a civilized country?

Introspection with Hardware

 

 

Went to the doctors today. Looks like in two weeks I will be taking up swimming to work on keeping my muscles up and my joints loose. The Hardware looks cool, they gave me the jpg files that they now use. we don't have the hospital's bill yet but this little bit of invisible artwork cost about $9,500 so far. We were introduced to yet another source for covering the cost. Next week I will be making apointments to get these applications in. Wish me luck!

Where I want to go:

 

This begs the question: How can I speed up the healing of my bone? This was sent to me by James, thanks.

FOUR VS.2

 

This is more like what I have in mind for this series...

THREE, VS.2

 

Still just working on creating a stage here.

The Screaming Banshee is at bay...for now

Things have progressed that I can sit for hours without pain, as long as I keep my foot at least level with my seat. Up from 9 to 5, painted most of that time, well about half. I feel very connected to the work, like something unexpected might come of this. Too bad it took a broken leg to get me to sit down and take this seriously. Seems like I wanted to but then I would have been off riding today if not. My little camera is not great at photographing this kind of stuff, seemed the DSLR did better, but it has bum lens. I am also limited at how elaborate a set I can do. (I have dismantled the bum lens from both ends, seems the broken part is in the middle, so it remains stuck at wide angle. Today I am happy.

WORK STATION

 

FOUR

 

THREE

 

TWO

 

I got an idea to day to do portraits of Jill's salt shakers, she has a large collection. Well they will need environments to dwell in so today I painted three, or started them. "ONE" may also be finished.

ONE vs2

 

Home of the screaming Banshee

 

See the indention in the upper third of the leg, just above the ankle, kind of in the middle of the triangle formed by the staples? There is a groove running up the leg from there. That is where the banshee lives that I all too often awaken.

one

 

So the set up worked, this is about an hour into the first one, tomorrow when it dries I will add color and see where I take it. Yeehoo, I am back.

OK, so this is not going to be as much fun as I thought

I have not posted for a few days because just exactly what can I say that is new and inspiring about the screaming banshee that lives in my leg every time I get up?

The good news is that over the last few days my supplies arrived, I got em unpacked, and I have experimented with different locations around the house and yes there is a way to proceed that is not so painful. (sitting at a table, foot up on another chair, good cushions on both). It does require rearranging the studio though, and frankly my muddled mind forgot about the work table buried under the canvases and paintings. So this morning I set to work on that. I can only go so far before I have to take a break, but I expect to have a place set up where I can work at least an hour a day soon.

Working off my bed did not work out, too messy, I love art, but living in my paint drippings is a little to Van Goughish for even me. Guess I am getting old and middle class.

So I hope to continue with posting the new work maybe as early as tomorrow. I was talking to my friend Bev who was visiting the National Gallery, I could see some of the works she was looking at and for some reason "Rug" by Phillip Guston, an influence from the past, appealed to me.

 

 

 

It is only day seven since the break, and it was not too bad. Instead of bullishly running forward and hoping for the best I moved slowly through the day, paced myself you might say and things went much better. I am off the meds all day since the blood thinning asprin this morning.

There is just no way to be comfortable sitting at my easel so I set up my cool but never used anymore thumb box on the tripod, got out my oil pastels, took a clayboard panel I happen to have a lot of lying around and did a sketch of a tulip Jill gave me. Sitting on the edge of the bed I figured I could regulate the pressure in the leg and if it got bad I could roll up onto my back and continue working on my lap.

Worked perfectly, tomorrow I may take the rig out to the deck and set up shop there where I can keep my leg raised and take in the sound of the garden and the fresh air too.