A Day Late and Quite a Few Dollars Short

I'm back from my Mid-Missouri trip during which I spent time in a semi-retreat and more time in family matters including graduations, parties, meals, seeing old friends, and much more. I drank lots and lots of coffee, so much really fine coffees and espressos I could barely stomach the breakfast coffee here at home in Denver. Oh well ... I'm back and getting back to work on my many art-related projects.

I hiked in prairies with my son and daughter-in-law one afternoon. Eventually the green grass turned into green poison ivy. Fortunately none of us got the itch. I also drew sketches of many Missouri native flowers and made a good start on a rather complex writing project about a challenging year of my life. I'm so pleased to have quite a few pages of writing and even more of drawings, both of which I will draw on in the next months.

I also found a surprise project. When stuck at a motel without my writing notebook, I grabbed a map from a display and wrote my regular pages on it. The Kansas City map led me down pathways from back in my early teen years until just two weeks ago. So with my pen I traced story after story--fourteen in all--and before I left Missouri last week I transcribed them all in a Word Processor file. I suppose they will guide me into even more stories.

In all, I had a great time with my ex-wife, son and his family, daughter and her family, and a large constellation of friends and acquaintances that surround them. And I am glad to be back in the city. After all, I have Artist Trading Cards to make and trade later this week and next week new stories to tell.

Artistically speaking, do something beautiful.

Denver, 2015

Retreat Update

The arts retreat continues. I've been drawing native plants for a couple of projects I have decided to undertake. I roamed my son's farm drawing plants from a small prairie and down by a ravine, all the time watching out for snakes and hoping I would not pick up too many ticks. I didn't see snakes out there but of course did get acquainted with ticks. I don't know if they came into the house on my clothing or in the fur of the dogs who seemed to want to be with me all the time. I drew and took photos for color references. 

I also got underway with the writing project I've been thinking about for the past twelve years. The time seems right and I have made a good start on the project. I have no idea just how long this task will take, but I suspect several years. I'm quite pleased to be writing.

I spent about a week at the farm finding there the solitude I imagined. The disadvantage was that I didn't have on-line service there. (Yes I'm outdated in the electronics end of my projects, a fact that doesn't matter to me. I recall the first writing job I took on when I first got my word processor. It was truly primitive. I recall the first bulletin board I used to visit for games, freeware, and occasional messages. The upshot is that my now rather outdated computer is ages beyond what I used to write on. Also I know that writing is not a function of the pen, typewriter, word processor, or super-up-dated computer, but rather it is a function of the writer's mind and imagination and, of course, an able editor.)

For several days I've been in Jefferson City tending to family matters, but still I've found time to write. I also have drawn on a side trip to Missouri Wildflowers, the native plants nursery where my son is the farm manager. I spent part of a day at the Runge Nature Center, a project of the Missouri Department of Conservation. There I drew and engaged in an interesting conversation with a young man who was interested in my drawings. Today in the gardens around my ex-wife's house where I am staying I discovered two native plants I have not drawn. I've been writing for about two hours and I will soon go outdoors to draw. SO I'm addressing both projects. I don't have the right connector between my camera and computer, so I won't be able to show you photos of my favorite flowers and the like. Perhaps you will be so lucky next Monday if you read blogs on National Holidays.

Keep smiling. I am.

Jefferson City, 2015

Arts Retreat

I write from Mid-Missouri, the place where my ex-wife, children, and grand children live. I’m here getting ready to begin an arts retreat at the Green Goat Farm near a tiny town named Prairie Home. It’s a rather tiny farm, too, just about 20 acres in some upland just 10 miles south of Booneville, and not far from the mighty Missouri River.

I begin my retreat on Tuesday morning, a retreat that will feature two main parts. I’m going to spend many hours drawing native Missouri plants for a project I am planning. I plan to fill quite a few tablets with drawings of vines, grasses, flowers, bushes, and trees. I do hope to avoid poison ivy itch and chigger bites. Of course one can never be sure just what may take place.

The other part of my retreat is to write. I have a plan to start a new story of a past relationship that meant a lot to me. I have no good idea of just how this will develop but I’m planning to fill a 400 page notebook of my scratching, type it all into my word processor, and get somewhere beyond a rough draft. Who knows?

I’m looking forward to being in my son and daughter-in-law’s house where arts rule. Music, writing, and dancing are just a few of the things that occur there regularly. Perhaps I’ll add dancing to my repertoire. Who knows? I just hope the animals that live there are nice to me. I think they don’t have any goats right now, but there are chickens (which means roosters) and ducks and cats and dogs and cows and horses. But I’m not there to draw animals, just the flora.

I’ll be back to my regular Denver schedule late in the month.

Missouri! 2015