Indian Head Button

One of two silver nickles that I made into buttons yesterday.  While I was doming them Lady Diana stopped by with a nice sample of green beans from her lovely garden on Central Ave.  So my hands were busy and the weather was beautiful.  Friends stopped in throughout the day and I got to show some of them my process.  I did pretty much whatever I wanted.

All in all it was a nice birthday.

Portrait of Eve

My friend Eve and her kitten on my birthday...after she made me a breakfast fit for a queen.

Great Birthday Gift

Today is my 56th birthday.  It isn't even 10:00 yet and I have 3 cards and a gift of two silver buffalo nickles.  These are circulated and worn, so they are good to make buttons.  Thank you Vic.  These are very special and maybe even before the day is out, I will fire up the torch and make them into bright shiny buttons for a birthday coat my mother gave me years ago.

Marvelous Sky

My friend Diana took this photo.  We have been having exquisite sky's this month.  I would love to start a painting using this picture as a starting point.  Diana has an eye for photography.  We need each other (artists of all kinds).  I made myself a birthday cake today.  I think it might just be a first for me. 

Look Up Columbus!

Predators

Predators are always lurking.  We don't always see them.  But, lately I have been able to spot them.  This old Speedway gas station used to be a hoppin place 24 hours a day.  Behind it is a wooded area that goes all the way to Jefferson Street.  There is lots of drug activity that goes on back there.  We were relatively safe the other day because Veterans park has heavy surveillance.  You can bet the thieves and thugs pretty much know where all the surveillance is.  We had a great little first art outing, and I hope there will be other outings to other key spots in our little town. 

When Johnny Comes Marchin Home

We had a great time sketching Johnny Clem the other day!  Next week we are going to learn how to transfet sketches onto canvas or poster board using carbon paper.  While we were sketching I tried to verbalize civil war drum calls.  One of the students picked up my tambourine after class and rap a tat tated the very exact drum call I had sounded out in class.  He is a natural born drummer.  I sure hope that someday someone can cultivate that talent.

Here's Johnny!

My art class will be sketching Johnny Clem this week.  Today, I am studying a thesis about him.  He was a remarkable little boy who wouldn't take no for an answer LOL!  He reminds me of two of my little budding art students.  It is my hope that someday all of my little art students will be called to the drum.  I hope there is upcoming drum opportunities that would not require military service.

Farewell Song

I would definitely want this song to be played and sung at my funeral!  It speaks to my love of nature and specifically trees.  They chopped down alot of trees this spring.  Some of them could have been trimmed and saved.  Consequently, folks that had nice shade trees in their front yards will have to rely on air conditioning instead.  I can't afford air conditioning.  I have relied on the shade trees to protect me from the scalding heat during those August days.  Thankfully, this summer has been mild so far.  I miss the trees that were needlessly cut down.  This song speaks to that issue....the Canadians seem more progressive to me these days LOL!

Attention Deficit Rainbow:)

My friend and I went to a singing and drumming full moon women's circle last night.  Here in Newark the sky around us was stormy and those grey, blueish tones...don't get me wrong....beautiful in an artistic sense.  As we were driving to Columbus the sky opened up to those pop corn clouds and baby blue hues that I always associate with a happy day:)  We drummed, we sang, we listened and performed readings and poetry.  We felt our own vibrations in a common balloon passed around by a deaf woman...who wanted us to know....she could feel us.
On the way home we couldn't help but notice we were driving toward the stormy weather we had just escaped from LOL.  I told my friend I had seen a black rainbow one time over our town.  She knows very well how I feel about our town.  So it was funny in a way that only people who come from Newark can understand.  A few seconds later, I pointed to our right and said....hey look....there is a real rainbow.  Unexpected...but very well timed with my little joke about Newark.  You really had to be there LOL....but you wouldn't want to LOL.  The picture I snapped does not do justice to the actual visual display we experienced.  I was driving and could not mess with camera settings.  I only looked away from the freeway for a second at the most and tried to snap two shots before giving up.  The new camera does have settings for such a thing like that rainbow.  It does not have a spontaneous setting for the unexpected.  I have the same trouble with taking pictures of drumming.  I just can not drum and snap pictures at the same time. 

And The Hate Goes On

My enemy's are cleaver.  The careful planting and use of lies is one of the tools in their toolbox of hate.  Imagine...trying to walk around, doin the right thing and encountering acquaintances that are suddenly unfriendly.  Imagine being disinvited, and not knowing what caused it.  
Yesterday, I uncovered a big fat insidious lie that has been going around drum groups I had belonged to in Columbus.  This morning I am relieved in a way.  I am off the hook.  Don't expect me to apologize for something I didn't do in the first place.
What I did not uncover was the motive.  I have no idea who all is responsible for the spreading of this lie, or how many other lies may be in play.
It is hurtful to be a target of such hate.  Some people are so fractured that they would take it out on themselves.
In 1998 I confronted the hate group that targeted me, other gays, environmentalist, feminists, witches.  I confronted them with scripture.

 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.

I was not in the church at the time of my "tantrum".  I was in the building next door.  The building that housed the labyrinth that I had dedicated a year of my life to raise money, and support for.  I was not there for the LGBT program.  I was there to construct the labyrinth.  I attended the feminist Sunday school class upon occasion.  I had attended "spirituality" circles that met at Church members houses.  I had attended a habitat for humanity house raising.  I was strong armed into having my picture taken for the church bulletin.  A year of interaction with the "good" people of First Baptist Church.
I was a target.  These groups that stemmed from that church were nothing more than an elaborate trap constructed to lure in seekers.  A welcoming and affirming hook, that resulted in much misery for anyone unfortunate enough to fall for it.  At first there was love bombing...most cults operated that way.  I stayed right up until I could not endure the quiet hate being directed at me.  I couldn't stand one more minute of it.  It was not a clean confrontation.  
That day the hate came in the form of a "white trash party".  A postcard circulating that featured a poor white woman in front of her broken down trailer and 3 snotty nose kids.  It is only funny if you are a right wing conservative.  So I knew, at that moment that I was in the midst of a wasp nest.  They took a year of my life, and I have tried my hardest to move on.  I moved away, out of their reach, and began making a new life for myself.

So this new lie that is being spun, stems from my behavior that day.  There is a lie that was carefully constructed 2 years ago that I had cussed out the drum leader in public, in front of not only the drummers, but an audience.  That simply isn't true, but I have to applaud the cleverness behind it.  Is this the long arm of the religious right getting at me through my sister and brother drummers, or is this the work of one person who is using the information from that day in 1998?  The whole outburst would be out of context, so parts of the story have been cleaverly changed....scripture of Jesus Christ, becomes cussing a drum leader out, embarrassing her in public.

I was surrounded then by pretenders.  People pretending to be welcoming and affirming, while behind the scenes setting up heartache for the targets.  I was not the only target.   

2 years ago, when the lie about me began circulating, a new drummer came into our midst from Granville.  Not only was she from Granville, she had social media ties directly linking her to that church and the hypocrites I met there.  I blocked her, as I did not want the First Baptist Church members having access to my daily posts.  I knew they were not going to change their tactics.  They are above all else self righteous.  They actually believe in their superiority, and to my knowledge there are no laws forbidding them to set up fake groups to entrap targets.  It is no wonder that 911 happened on US soil, because hate groups are protected under the 1st amendment in our constitution.  

1n 1998, I did not have access to a computer.  I didn't want access.  Everyone around me seemed so enamored in that artificial world, that the real world was somehow not as important.  I did not want to separate myself from the natural world as my comrades seemed to be doing.  How easy it was for them to have this type of communication unseen by me, quietly working against me.

It is a lot more complicated now.  Computers are seized, records recovered every day when the powers that be are threatened enough to look into it.  I don't expect the NSA or CIA to care about little ole Concha who has and continues to be the target of hate.  I don't expect a white knight on a white horse to come riding up and rescuing me.  I don't expect my sister and brother drummers to confront the lier in my behalf.  Heck....I don't even expect Jesus to save me from this.  One thing for sure though, if he did come back, he would not condone the actions of the Granville First Baptist Church (they have changed their name of course), nor would he condone the lie from the drum leader, nor the actions of our military in foreign countries.  If he did come back today, I would expect him to pop in on Wall Street, and upset the money changers:)

So what am I gonna do about the 2 year old lie that the drum leader has been spreading LOL.  Nothing today.  My ancestors warned me that if you tell a lie, you will tell another.  I figure she has two years of spinning the same lie, and I expect that she will spin more to protect the first lie.  Will my sister and brother drummers continue to be fooled?  Will someone ever confront her, and ask her the particulars?  I seriously doubt it.  I know, I came to the drum events, to drum.  All that other drama, just got in the way.  Anytime that drum leader singled out a drummer, we all felt uncomfortable.  She can ban me from Columbus Community Drummers, but she can not do anything except spin this lie behind the scenes in order to manipulate other drummers in other groups.....which she has already done.  She knows I know about the lie today.  She is a coward.  She will insulate herself, by pretending to be afraid of me whenever we happen to be at the same place.  It is her only move.  She has no other moves.  In order to preserve her original lie, she has to pretend to be afraid of what I might do.

I feel sorry for her.  I have many moves left on the great chessboard of life.  I have more options than she does.  I am not protecting a lie.  I am not protecting a hate group disguised as welcoming and affirming.
 

A Little Boost

My little truck is coming to Columbus today to move my friend Pipers toolbox.  He bought me my truck a few years ago when I was down on my luck, so occasionally he gets to use it.  Friends like Piper make my enemies look rather small.  We all need a little boost sometimes...and sometimes a big boost:)  Hopefully, his next job will be everything a job should be.

Don't Forget Doodah Parade Today

If you haven't experienced the Doodah Parade in Columbus Ohio...then you haven't seen the best parade ever!  I believe it is always on the 4th of July...and there are motorized coolers, the marching Fidels (Castro)....LOL.  A good time, and the absolute best parade.

White Rabbit Lives On!

Grace Slick is a painter!  I didn't know that.  I have always thought she had the most spectacular voice of our times.  White Rabbit was my favorite.

A Pretty Good Start

My young art students painted with tempera paint on canvas this week.  They know how to mix primary colors to get secondary colors.  Each of them wanted to paint a favorite animal.  Next week we are going to learn about composition.