Comparison

My friend Tom P. took this photo of my meteorite knife from long ago next to this years knife.  I purposefully didn't bring out the meteorite knife during the process of making Brian's knife as often as you might think.  I wanted the new knife to have it's own individuality:)  They are similar, but different.  I don't suppose I can ever really duplicate anything I make.  I am not capitalistic enough to even try that.  I would probably be rich if I could just start cranking out cookie cutter things.  These hands just refuse to do that kind of work...brain wants to, but the hands won't cooperate!

Good Press

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Simply Living Inspired Painting with Environmental Message Concha Castaneda's <conchacastaneda@hotmail.com>painting (Everything's Peachy) was selected for a statewide exhibition and tour of Ohio. The VSA 2014 Exhibtion and Tour begins March 8th at the Westerville Community Center, 350 N. Cleveland Ave, 43082. Visitors can vote for the People's Choice award so if you go please consider a vote for Concha's painting. View her painting here. You can also check out her blog <http://conchacastaneda.blogspot.com/>

Writing Grants And Filing For Entitlements This Week

There has been much favorible comments on my seed packet birdhouse that I donated to our library.  Our local library has a seed sharing program that may be the first in Ohio.  I spent some time linking them up to Simply Living and Deep Green Resistance two groups that I highly endorse with my energy since I can not support them financially.  This week I am back at the grant writing station looking for matching dollars, in kind donations, and I am offsetting that whole process with applying for my entitlements.  I love writing grants, and I hate applying for entitlements.  Hopefully, some funding will shake loose one of these days so I can get the art supplies I need to finish up old projects and start new ones.

Similar Buildings

The Licking County Childrens Home (bottom) could have been Newarks Milo Arts Space (top).  It was demolished last year in spite of efforts to save it.  I took some pictures of it the day before the demolition.  I see the similarity of the two buildings, and how I have been drawn to both of them.  Both buildings are very castle like.  I have my sights of Milo again this year, although I think it is out of my reach.  My rent is about as low as you can go and still have all appliances, full bathroom, and room for all my stuff.  Studio spaces there are more than my monthly check, so it is not likely I will get there without a housing voucher....which is in the works.  I was very impressed with the spaces at Milo, it just has not been within my budget, when you count the cost of moving etc.  There should be an art council contest where the winner gets a whole year free rent at Milo.  I'm putting it out there.  The Universe is always on purpose!

Edmistons Art And Frame

This is a building that I am considering to put in a painting.  I spent a lot of time and money in that building in the 1980's.  These days it is the tatoo parlor parking area.  These days I have to make my own frames.  Times change...change is good...mostly.  I refuse to go to a big box store frame shop.  I am not going to be part of outsourcing this part of my art.  The frame I used for Everything's Peach is made out of that carpet tacking that we never see because it is hidden and the purpose is so the carpet doesn't slip around.  I found a box of it by my landlords dumpster last summer when I needed a fame.  It was hard to handle without gloves as it has nails going both ways.  Most people change the frame when they buy a painting.  My frames are made from recycled material, and made in the USA!  There is much to do before the upcoming Accessible Expressions show, and I will be busy till then.

Sparta Continued

I found a frame that will work for my Sparta painting.  I have written a grant in order to get paint and paint brushes.  In the meantime they placed some ads in the second story windows.  I can't wait to get back to this painting, but I am in desperate need of brilliant blue, hookers green, and any yellow.  I hate to start in again and break my momentum...that can cost me years!

My Art Is In The Library!

My little bird house has a new home on top of the seed saver catalogue in our library.  There is a bird nest and bird house design contest that the deadline for application is March 17th.  It is doubtful that I will get grant money in time to make a suitable bird house for this contest.  The seed saver exchange program in our local library may in fact be the first of its kind here in Ohio.  I wanted to call attention to this vital project, and so I did it in the only way I know how...a little art project.

Simply Living Newsletter And Local Seed Library

In 2012 when my kiln was busted and I stopped paying my deadbeat landlord rent in order to make her take me to court, I used some of the would be rent money to join Simply Living in Columbus Ohio.  Even though I haven't been able to update my dues, they gave me some positive press on my painting Everything's Peachy.
In truth, the ideas inspired by Simply Living have stayed with me since my move to Licking County.  The Licking County Library has a seed and sprout sharing library that is also inspiring to me even though I no longer have southern exposure and it is difficult to garden at my apartment.
I made our seed library a seed packet bird house display.  It is colorful and cute, and all the seeds are still inside the packets.  Hopefully more folks will be drawn to the catalogue and try their hand at gardening this year.

Late Friday Blog

It is hard to believe that several winters ago, I got a break from all this and went to Vegas....drove to Bakersfield California and was mostly warm while my friends here in chillville were having sub below weather.....much like this week.
I will be in Columbus Friday, goddess willing and the creek don't rise!

Post Cards For VSA Event

The post cards for VSA 2014 Accessible Expressions came in the mail this week.  I only got 7 of them this year.  Dearest readership, if you are somewhere where you can snag a few of these....last year I sent out about 25 of them...get them for me.  If I get some more by March 1st, I should be able to send them out.  Till then, I am low on change, low on phone minutes, and no way to communicate my needs that won't cost me anything.  Communication has become too expensive for me in the 21st century.  No phone, no gas, no money, no way of getting a hold of any of these things, or anybody to speak for me.  Tapped out, is what we call that in modern day povertyville.  Still, I hope many of you will consider commissions, buying jewelry, or in kind donations.  I survived on those last year.

The Language Of Flowers

The perfect frame appeared in my recyle frame bin the other day.  I cut the Sparta painting down so that it would fit.  I am not going to bother with starting any more paintings that do not have a definate frame for as it is too problematic to come up with a frame in time for exhibition entrys and deadlines.  The Sparta painting is front and center this week.  My friend has an original Scull painting that lost the poppy that goes with the professor character in the foreground.  She tells me that the Poppy in the painting represents this street characters drug addiction.  Today, I am looking for a book called The Language Of Flowers....maybe I will find a clue there.  I was planning on cutting out a metal flower for Sadie and Sahara (Annie Liebowitz photo)...a poppy would be pretty, but my friend tells me that the twins were not into drugs.  If Billy Holiday were in the painting, I would put a gardenia....Scarlet O'Hara would get something from the South...My frined Hapi would carry a Yellow Rose.  Only time will tell what ends up in this painting.  More will be revealed dear readers:)  For sure, I am having way too much fun with all the possibilities.

Tuesday Blogpost Is Preposted

I may not be blogging live until Wednesday this week.  I am trying to get back to Columbus to do a couple of tasks, and I am going to try to do that in between snow storms.  It is odd, that this blog can be edited, but the one I posted a few minutes ago was not editable.  Thursday morning, I will be at the Social Security administration applying for Childhood social security benefits....something my enemy certainly are knashing their teeth over:)  I love it when someone screws me over only to find out they didn't get what they wanted, or that there was more for them to get, but greed was reflexive to them:)  Sometimes we have to teach people how to treat us!

Could The Sparta Builders Be Masons?

The progress on my Sparta painting is not yet documented. Each time I drive by there, I see something new such as the 1st story windows that are now painted with ads for free range eggs, and gormet coffee. Lately though, my intuition is nudging me that something about the building seems masonic. It is just a hunch, but of course I will try to find out before the painting is completed. Certainly, it is well built, and the location is at the heart of municiple happenings here in Newark. I wouldn't be surprised if there is not a tunnel underneath the Sparta that hooks into the tunnels under the nearby courthouse buildings and the law library that the public can only access with special permission. Wouldn't it be funny, it the whole reason they don't want the public in the law library is that it is hooked into an intricate tunnel system that the masons build in the late 1800's.
I have been in the tunnel underneath the courthouse and saw the blueprints of such tunnels as well. It is not hard for me to imagine that these tunnels exist under each and every city in America.  I appologize for the errors in this post.  Something screwey is happening with blogger today, from this library computer making it impossible for me to correct anything without the whole paragraph being deleted.  This happens a few times a week....everything I write is automatically underlined, and I can not edit my writing!  Very frustrating, but I trust my readership will be able to read between the lines, and maybe one of these days I can come back and edit the post and say what I am trying to say..."if the whole reason they don't want the public in the law library is that it is hooked into an intricate tunnel system that the masons built in the late 1800's is what I was trying to write.
You have to be a mason to be a judge or a lawyer here in Newark.  It would only stand to reason that they would try to protect themselves by using a tunnel system...even in modern times!

Do What Thou Wilt And Harm None

Time to place the ricassa on this skinner knife.   This will be the first ricassa that I have put on a blade, so I will do the first one with a handtool rather than a power tool.

Late Saturday Morning Blog

My latest knife is painstaking to say the least.  This little dagger was a 2nd from a commission in 2009.  I like to make two, in case something goes wrong on the first.  That way the good people who pay for the commission get the best of the two, and I get to learn from my errors.  This morning I chose to sleep in, and finish my grant application.  I don't use an alarm clock these days as I can not afford to plug something in that pulls power when I don't need it.  My enemys I am happy to say have to live by their alarm clocks.  All time is now.  That statement is finally true for me, and it has become fact from affirmation.

Social Security Benefits dating back to 1980

I am preparing for my upcoming meeting about my back Social Security benefits.  It is too bad I couldn't get a lawyer last time, but hey...the up side of it is that that money is still there for me.  Of course they are not just going to give it to me, I have to jump through all the hoops.  I confess, I have known for a few years that I am eligible for more than I settled for in 1990...the problem was always timing and not being able to get a hold of my own medical records.  For those of you who believe that "everyone" is entitled to their own medical records, you are wrong about that.  Some of us are not entitled to them, nor are we given an explanation as to why.
You can bet that the Eugenic doctors that tried to route me into an unneeded hysterectomy in 1997/8 have a copy!  The Eugenic movement went underground in this country in the 1940's.  Even though it is illegal, the movement is alive and well.
Maybe someday our government will declassify the documentation of the Nazi "scientists' given new identity, bank accounts in the name of "rocket science".  There is no telling how many folks like me have suffered at their hands without the protection of the government.  You can bet me not having access to my own medical history has everything to do with protecting those murderous bastards.  The good news is, most of them are dead.  The bad news is "ironically" they were allowed to breed.  Had I been in charge of letting them into this country given their war crimes, I would have let them come here under the conditions of sterilizing them first!  That would make me damn near as bad as they are...but I bet none of their Nazi asses were a decendant of the Powhatan tribe.
Aside from using the records that I can't get a hold of to blackmail the system into giving me more benifits, I don't know what to do.  Maybe something will shake loose.
Oh....and I am working on two knives this week.  This is an old picture, and I don't have a picture of the Eugenic doctors in my county who have most probably harvested organs, while pretending to help the poor.  Hell isn't hot enough.

Morning At Jeffs

Thanks to a goodhearted mail carrier, I got unstuck this morning and was able to do a months worth of laundry.  This afternoon, I am working on my upcoming grant proposal, and if there is any energy left, go to the grocery store.  Some days I don't get to work on my art:(  I love to have clean clothes though.  The good thing about doing laundry at a laundromat is that no matter how much laundry you have, it all gets done in an hour!

Remake

This is a ring I made and then accidentally burnt up when trying to set the stone.  Sometimes, we don't know when to quit.  This was one of those cases.  I had all but set the piece of turquoise, when I noticed the beaded wire needed moved a smidge.  When I fired up the piece and got it hot enough to remelt the solder is when I burnt up the whole bezel.  I grieved over the loss of that almost ring:)  I didn't have the silver to replace it, so all I have left is the picture.  The bracelet is for sale on High Street.  It was requested to be plain, that is why it is plain.  Supposedly, copper is good for arthritis.

RIP Ruth

Last Year after my VSA exhibition excursion in Westerville, I met two new friends who couldn't make it to the exhibit and cerimony...Ruth and Brian.  Both people became important to me and both people ordered and commissioned work that I completed in 2013 and 2014.  I am sad to say Ruth passed, and I had known her less than a year.  Here she is as she was at the Sparta that spring day last year.  We never know how many days we have left, or when one of us are no longer.  RIP Ruth.  Thanks for your support and your brief friendship.

Up Off The Bench

Happily, I can get this knife up off my workbench and out of my way until my next move to improve it comes to me.  As I said yesterday, this knife sheath isn't too bad for a first effort.  I am looking forward to beginning the next two knives and making sheaths for them.  Hopefully, I have learned the tricks of the trade and can improve.