Drawing Challenge: CokeCola

In this week's drawing challenge, our charming hostess Rachel of Hi Happy Panda commemorates her home city Atlanta, Georgia USA - birthplace of CokeCola.  (Who knew?)!

When I was a kid my parents were very strict about soda pop, which was considered a beverage for Special Occasions Only.  We NEVER hardly EVER got to drink CokeCola, but our cousins in Illinois bought it by the case!  Going to visit them in the sticky heat of mid-west summer meant being allowed to cool off with a frosty bottle of bubbly brown cola: HEAVEN! 

'Summer Icon' - Inktense pencils and graphite in 6x8 sketchbook

CokeCola still brings back many summery memories to me.

Please visit Rachel's blog for many more artists interpretations of this theme.

UPsideDOWN: DC (late)

Apologies to Patrice and All DC'ers for my tardy response to the Drawing Challenge.  Life itself has been a bit more topsy-turvey than anticipated since arriving back home last week - totally in keeping with the theme of the challenge, UPSIDEDOWN.

'Moon Rest' - 11"x7.5" acrylic collage on paper

As I review the paintings completed for our July exhibit in Ketchikan, the impact of my relocation from Island to City is apparent in every piece.  Here I see the Alaska State Ferry (upsidedown) at the top floating in the blackness of a winter's end sky, above the springtime cherry blossoms of my new neighborhood.  

The three houses descending in a cloud possibly stand for my little family of myself, Flossy and the Sailor.  I also see the prayers of my daughter and my friends for a safe landing.

Enough for now - thank you to Patrice for the challenge (make sure to stop by her place to see the other players' responses), and happy week to all Readers.

Good Bye to Mornings on the Highline Canal Trail

In Denver all month, we walked the Highline Canal Trail every morning to catch the sun rise.

Flossy really liked spending a bit of time off leash, chasing squirrels and visiting with the ducks who shared the path and the mornings with us.

 Grasses blowing in the cool beneath the giant old cotton wood trees made shifting patterns as I thought about the day ahead, and asked for direction; for comfort sometimes.

 

Tomorrow we will be heading north and west, leaving Colorado - perhaps for the rest of our lives.

And although we are excited for the drive - who doesn't love a great summer road trip? - we are going to be sad, too.  My Father, born here, and my Mother, who raised our family, five miles from this neighborhood. 

Who ever thought we would be this old? 
Who ever knew we would travel so far?
And thank God...
we can't know these things.
We probably couldn't bear it.
 

I will be taking a little blog break now, but will be posting to my Instagram place as we travel, as well as visiting around Blogland in the interim.  Flossy and I wish all a beautiful end of May and hope to see you in early June when we get back to Seattle and whatever the future may bring.

Ideal Hiking

 The days of Daughter's visit have flowed by: sunny, warm and lovely.  Both inveterate walkers, we have been hiking every day here on the Island, in the Tongass Rainforest.  Yesterday we walked the Three Lakes trail to Ideal Cove.

Flossy was our guide, of course.

Hill Lake, where the trail splits off to the salt water of Frederick Sound

The water lilies are particularly bright in the sunshine.

The trail is in great shape, boardwalk all the way.

Arriving at the beach, we stopped for a minute to rest, and sniff around.

 

Spot the Sheltie!

Horn Cliffs on the right, looking Northwest up Frederick Sound.

LeConte Bay - those white things at the base of the island are icebergs from the glacier up there.

Too soon, time to head back home.

The wildflowers love the sunny summer days as much as we do.

Forget-me-not - the State flower; Yes, days to remember forever!

Relishing Summer

So much to be grateful for this week...

...blue skies...

...warmer temperatures...

...LONG days...

...and Summer's Screaming Green palette.

crab apple blossoms

baby pine cones

Best of all, our Daughter is coming for a week's visit tomorrow and our Son is coming up to work for the summer on Sunday.

I will be taking a little break from studio work this week.  Here are some projects in mid-stream, waiting for my return:

detail of  one of a series of procion dye paintings, waiting to be stitched

monoprint, acrylic paint and prismacolor pencil on cotton, 6"x8", waiting to be stitched

containers of low-water emersion over-dyes, all cottons, which I will rinse out tomorrow while I wait for Daughter's plane to land in the morning

Hope your week is going well.  Got gratitude?

Road Trip

Denver to La Junta Colorado, to visit my father's old home town.

On the way, we passed Pikes Peak near Colorado Springs, a hazy morning due to forest fires in other parts of the west.

Rocky Ford, Colorado - my Dad stayed in a room in this building during the Great Depression while he worked washing dishes in his Uncle Bob's Green Lantern Restaurant the summer he was 15 years old.

Rocky Ford's high school sports team name was emblazoned on a local shop window.  They were the rival to my Dad's home town team, the La Junta Tigers.

The storefront on the left was the site of the Green Lantern.

Figurines in a thrift shop window on the main drag in Rocky Ford.

Near La Junta we explored Bent's Old Fort, a trading post originally built during the mid-1800's as a trading post for the westward expansion of the United States.  They want you to stay on the trail, right?

Prickly Pear cactus and rattle snakes (not pictured, whew) menace those who stray.

The Fort lies along the Arkansas River.  The landscape is flat, flat, flat.

Old equipment bakes in the sun outside the entrance to the reconstruction.

Our most surprising discovery was the presence of a Peacock.  The docent said there was indeed a Peacock at the Fort during the olden days, serving as a guard bird.

Also surprising was this very friendly little cat who claimed to be a direct descendent of the cats who lived here in 1839.

The adobe structure utilized fur as insulation around doors and windows.

Bee Hive ovens inside the Fort.

Inside the thick adobe walls, the rooms were relatively cool.

View of the prairie through gun port on the second level.

After the Fort we had lunch and then started back to Denver.

 Along the way we saw lots of fields of corn, peppers, alfalfa, and melons, but pictures from the moving car didn't make good blog photos.

We stopped at a fruit stand and bought one of the lovely watermelons pictured in this bright yellow case.  Bought a cantaloupe, too.

Took a pass on the squash, but they were sure interesting shapes.

I will be traveling toward home again in a couple of days.  In the mean time, best wishes from Colorado.

Tyvek Beads in Denver

One more post from Denver, although as I write I am in the Seattle airport on the final leg of my journey back home.  My Mom, Dad and I shared so many fun times.  How grateful I am that we all survived my troublemaker younger years – couldn’t have without their unconditional love.

acrylic on Tyvek envelop

 Making beads of acrylic-painted Tyvek is a lovely addiction we indulged in one cool, breezy morning.  We cut apart Tyvek envelops, painted them with a combination of acrylic paint and Lumiere fabric paints... 

 ...cut the dried paintings into long, narrow strips and then...

 

... twisted the strips around a bamboo skewer.  Some we wrapped with embroidery thread.  The twisted strips were then zapped delicately with a heat gun (ventilation, please).  Push the melted twist off the skewer and the result is a wonderful bead.  

Bet you can't stop with one!

Thanks again to you, Razt and Dad,  for all the love in Denver!