Where I Stand Sunday

According to the Salina Journal today, Kansas is experiencing the 6th driest year since 1895 (that includes the "Dust Bowl" years in the 30's). 

Today, I was in Russell, Kansas for the art show opening
and stopped on the way home, 'here'.

This little concrete bridge interests me each time I pass it, so I pulled off the highway to just stand and look at it.  My car thermometer read 104 degrees at 5:30 P.M.  Hot, hot, hot.  This bridge is over a dried out creek bed - the farmer enters his fields on this little dirt road that goes over the bridge. 

 

So many fields have dried ponds and dried streams.  I feel for those cattle ranchers.  I don't know where the cattle in some areas get hydrated.  The corn crops look like those dried out stalks you see in October bunches around Halloween.  Just ruined.  (No, we didn't get ANY of the Hurricane rain.) 

 

Lots of people showed up for our art opening at the Deines Cultural Center - which is a true gem of central Kansas' art venues.  I was able to do some 'drive-by' photos of people viewing the show.

 

 

This was one classy gal, she was all decked out.

I got a kick out of her.

You just never know when one or more of these will turn into a figurative study.

I like using them, because they are 'anonymous'.

 

The news article I mentioned above also alluded to the fact that "drought years, usually come in pairs or multiple years".  I don't think I am ready for that one.

Last year was the 4th driest year, so there you go, two years down!

(Whoops!  I am not laughing...)

 

A Pastel for an Upcoming Show

"Chrome, Smoke and Flames" - Art and the Automobile

opens this Sunday, September 2, in Russell, Kansas at the Deines Cultural Center.  Unbelievably, I am ready to go, ahead of schedule.  I have always been a 'last minute' kind of person, but lately I have been working on changing that.  I figure, I need the least amount of stress and that 'hurry-up' feeling, cause these days I can't 'hurry' - it just isn't physically possible. 

This is my last piece, of the total of 4, I am taking to the show.  It is done in pastel - on three separate pieces of Canson pastel paper...

 

 

 

 

  and put into a triple mat opening - and a gold metal 13" x 26" frame.

If I got paid by the hours I spend on framing, I am not asking enough for my work.

This matting and framing took me hours.  The photo below is just the mat and artwork..as once the glass goes on, there is no escaping the glass glare in a photo.

(Click on the photo below to see a larger version of it.)

 

 

 The "Portis Taxi" is located in a nearby town.  It is a 'late 1940's Plymouth fastback',  very clean, a beautiful car.  I loved doing those tedious little black and white checkers...what a neat auto. 

 

This show runs through October 14th.  If you are in the area, hope you can drop by.

Hours are different than above...Tues. - Fri. 12 - 5, Sat. and Sun. 1 - 5.