BLOGAHOMA

“Art is much less important than life, but what a poor life without it.”
Robert Motherwell

A side benefit of being an artist is knowing and being friends of other artists. It is a source of joy for me. Artists are brimming with ideas of the plausible, the possible and the impossible. They can be in the midst of fright/ delight, frustrated, frustrating but very rarely bored or boring. It is always show and tell with artist. What is inspiring them, their new direction and what they think you should tackle next. My artist friends need to be reassured that what they are doing is at least good and appreciated. That’s right, an artist may seem to have a healthy ego but under the top coat there is some level of self doubt. The art is the easy part for most of them, the marketing the most difficult. In return they never mock my ideas or ever let on that they think I’m whacky. In my circle of art friends I never have to explain myself.

Stapler Jam

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.”
Scott Adams

I have all manner of artist for friends, sculptors, draftsmen, graphic artists, naturalists, photographers, assemblage artists, painters, craftsmen, ceramicists and performance artists. I try to applaud and encourage honestly as often as possible when I am not being held captive by my own art. The last show I attended was the reception for Debby Kaspari and her “Drawing the Motmot” exhibit at the Sam Noble Natural History Museum in Norman, OK. Not just a walk through once exhibit for each rainforest painting or drawing was accompanied with beautifully penned journal entry. The show “glowed” thats all I’ll say. “Drawing the Motmot” will be up into January 2010, so go. Then there is Marilyn Artus in Oklahoma City who heads up “Dr. Sketchy” a life drawing extravaganza night out and the “Girlie Show” a showcase for Oklahoma craftswomen as well as finding time creating her own brand of collage images. Her vitality screams “I am Artist hear me roar”.

I have held creative positions in three corporations and have picked up creative friends in every job. And then I have left but thanks to Facebook and Twitter I am still connected to them because of our shared artistic vision, drive, whims and qualms.

Some of my best artist friends are family. A husband Michael who finds the beauty of the surrounding Wichita formations in his oil paintings and gets lost in the clouds in others. Son, Colin Fahrion, whose witty art is visual, written, performing and organized as well. His wife Nifer felts her wooly way with uncommon critters.  Daughter Kim in Tulsa captures places and people through the camera lens, while sister Susan Trentel ambidextrously schemes and seams.

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”
Thomas Merton

A lot of my artist friends are on Facebook so I can see what they’re doing on in their art life. I am there to peek at the amazing undercurrents of creativity some of which make it to create great waves of art.

“Love the art in yourself, not yourself in the art”
Konstantin Stanislavsky

Quotes from ThinkExist.com

June 3, 1997 began my stint at ebay. It was very early in the game actually before Meg Whitman started! I’m not sure how I found the site but it was quite intriguing. I remembering someone selling a bar of soap with Jesus’ face on it. It sold but not to me. My first purchase was a Rubber Baby Buddha designed by Rose O’Neill of Kewpie fame. A squeaky toy that I learned later was named “Happy Ho Ho” created in 1940.  I payed the starting price of $9 (I was the only bidder) its now worth around $60. Pretty happy with my purchase I decided to sell. We had an old Camel cigarette can from the 30’s that someone had left in our first home, a 1906 late Victorian. We kept pennies in it for years but I photographed it, scanned in the photo (before digitals were affordable) and put it up starting at a penny for the fun of it. It ended at $51. Amazed I asked the guy he would pay that much and he said he would have payed $80. I knew then that this was my game. Part time of course. It also allowed me to buy things, as I haunted the antique shops, that I did not collect but liked enough to sell.

I am not, by the traditional sense of the word, a gambler but ebay is gambling and not for the faint of heart. It’s more than just chance however. To do it right it takes an eye, knowledge and research, decent photographic skills, marketing and follow-up (my husband handles the after sales including shipping). Selling at first was a whim and then it became an income when I was laid off my job. It helped buy the house I live in, helped pay for my daughter’s education, and buy the groceries for a while. Now after thousands of transactions I don’t need to sell but I am back for the fun of it trading out collections for the fun of it. We’ve sold estates and remainders of a closed pawn shop auctioning only antiques, collectibles and art. Hankies, guitars, Kiowa paintings, pottery, furniture and vintage cars have left from here to points where they are appreciated most the time in the US and Canada but also to Europe as well.

So when I buy a photo album for $35 and sell one of the pictures for $400, buy a hanky for $50 and sell it for $140, a tin pail for $70 and sell it for $400 it’s all worth it. Sometimes is not the high price that it goes for it is the thrill of someone receiving it on the other end who’s been looking for IT for a long time.  Oh, our rating, well it’s 100%.

Times Up on Ebay

Dedicated to my father Jack H. Norris

Jack Norris behind his desk Greyhound Bus Terminal, Cleveland 1949

I’m a night owl, and my father is to blame. He worked two jobs to support his brood so in order to get my one-on-one I stayed up late, very late. After homework, approved television was a diet of news, travel journals and variety shows but following the last newscast father and “daughter number three” shared old movies while munching on sardines in mustard sauce and saltines. Dad was fond of operettas like Rose Marie or Naughty Marietta starring Jeanette McDonald & Nelson Eddie. “Ah! Sweet mystery of life at last I’ve found thee,” we’d sing. More intriguing to me was Lena Horne in Cabin in the Sky an all African-American cast. Dad proclaimed Lena a “torch singer” and then (like always when introducing new words) he proceeded to define the term. It was at that pivotal moment I declared myself a fan of “torch singers”. During commercials dad critiqued the movie du jour. He pointed out great dialog or retched triteness, historic accuracy or slipshod inaccuracy. He expressed disdain for predictability or lackluster lyrics. I never asked questions but waited for my father’s effusive explanations.

The emergence of the penny stash in the majolica sugar bowl signaled gin rummy night with Uncles and buddies. Hours after siblings scooted off to bed I remained. I didn’t ever ask to stay up I was just never told to go to bed because I was unobtrusively quiet and most helpful. I fetched beer and refilled the pretzel bowl. Selfishly I stayed up to learn gin rummy by my father’s side watching over his shoulder as he played. He would (without utterance) point out possible run combinations. I watched intently as he drew and discarded. His movements were deliberate as if recorded in slow motion so I could catch on. After sufficient amount of “lessons” dad suggested his 8 year-old play a hand. I was paired with Ted, a bus driver, who had honed his skills on layovers. There was great amusement among the observers when demonstrated that I had not only grasped technique but after a few verbal slings of “mini snatcher” “are you fishing?” I also talked the talk. The “ah hah” moment came when I timidly announced “Gin” and scooped up the pennies.

Yes, music, vocabulary, history, critical thinking, strategy and a million things taught in stealth manner by my father who avoided triteness, sang like Nelson Eddie and delivered the most amazing dialog.

Susan, Lucy, Dad and Me 1947 Rocky River, OH

The clock I chose to render in 3D is the Nelson Wall Clock designed by
George Nelson in 1948. George Nelson was a signature mid century designer. And this clock clock which produced in wood and metal both painted and unpainted symbolizes that post WWII era (the atomic age).

A full Nelson is a wrestling hold executed from the backside and so the the metaphor. Holding back time, grappling with time, wrestling with time. Interesting to note that it is not a “finishing” action and you cannot pin you opponent “time” down.

Not that either of these came to mind when executing this 3D. I liked the clock and thought “easy” to recreate in 3D.

So what’s next in my 3D brain buffer? Perhaps something by Heywood Wakefield. Mid-centure Moderne so much easier than Victorian.

Created in Cheetah 3D on a 13″ MacBook.

She didn't look up for long!

My mom is gone now, my husbands mom is a 1000 miles away and my kids, although they will call, live too far to stop by. I wanted to celebrate anyhow, celebrate by handing out Medicine Park Marauders Mother’s day cards with mini roses attached in “Random Acts of Marauding”. Some will ask to have their pictures taken with us. It will be fun.

Mother and Son have a Heart to Heart

I gathered some quotes from various sites around the Net. Many from thinkexist. Read and Enjoy.

“My mother always told me I wouldn’t amount to anything because I procrastinate. I said ‘Just wait.” ~Judy Tenuta

“The patience of a mother might be likened to a tube of toothpaste – it’s never quite all gone”

“When I was a child, my mother said to me, ‘If you become a soldier, you’ll be a general. If you become a monk you’ll end up as the pope.’ Instead I became a painter and wound up as Picasso.” ~Pablo Picasso

“To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power.”~ Maya Angelou quotes

“His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork. ~Mae West

“No matter how old a mother is she watches her middle-aged children for signs of improvement.”~Florida Scott Maxwell

“Who ran to help me when I fell, And would some pretty story tell, Or kiss the place to make it well? My mother” ~Ann Taylor

All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother.  ~Abraham Lincoln

“My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.” ~Mark Twain

“Nobody loves me but my mother, And she could be jivin’ too.”~ B. B. King

Happy Mother’s Day!

Mother's Day Cards from the Marauders