BLOGAHOMA

“The Necessity of Appearing in Your Own Face”
There are days when that is the last place
in the world where you want to be …

Like it or not Facebook is the top social media of our day. What one needs to do is to put their own stamp on it, because if you don’t it can become ho-hum. Now that I have a smart phone with a camera it is extremely simple to take a snap and share on Facebook. As an artist I feel l have the obligation to ensure that what I put up on Facebook is something of interest both in subject matter  as it concerns both writing and images. Photoshop or PicSay might be called into play to get that image presentable. I  do get a kick out of changing out the header on my timeline and my profile pic  depending on the season, what’s going on with my life  or pure whim. Frankly since it is my Facebook it doesn’t really matter whether I get likes or comments sometimes I just like to be the audience and see what is happening with others.

My friend’s number around 300 many of them are creative and quite a few are related or are connected through us living in Medicine Park. We are not of one mind when it comes to the 2 areas of American contention that would be religion and politics. It is not my intention to irritate anyone however when I see a story in the news that I feel strongly about I might put a link to it on Facebook. The majority the time I allow people to comment anyway they might feel about the subject. I do draw the line and name-calling or anything that borders on a racial slur or sexist attitudes.

If anyone has a problem with my  political stance, my artwork, my photographs they can uninstall me as their friend and that would be okay. Facebook for me is a way to stay connected, peruse the latest photos, enjoy a little chitchat, share ideas and link to interesting topics and events in the news. Facebook  gives me opportunity to comment on others’ news,  sometimes to congratulate and confirm but other times to console.

….but you
have to be there, like a movie, because it
features you. ~ Richard Brautigan

It began with a gift of cartoons purchased at an estate sale by Michael’s 4th cousin once removed, also an artist. Out of the blue we received a package from her bearing this fascinating group of cartoons. As it was BG (before Google) we had no luck trying to figure who created these unsigned cartoons. Sure we surmised they were done during WWI just from the uniforms but who created them. Every once in a while I would take them out and study them. And the wild fire happened after which we packed up the house as they cleaned the interior and then unpacked sorted deciding what would stay and what needed to go. This lead to be revisiting the cache of drawings. Now I picked up clues…. dates: 1918, 1919, key words: Chestnut, Everybody’s. Before I started the keywords I searched “WWI cartoonists”, “Judge Magazine” and Delineator Magazine (turned out to be false clue) netting nothing. Moving on I found Everybody’s Magazine and in the magazine I found a humor feature “Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree: edited with cartoons by Ralph Barton. Could it really be him? Yes and after downloading several pdfs of the Everybody’s I found the same cartoons we owned in print.

Yes, I admire his style but feel someone else might want to own them. I am considering keeping one. Meanwhile I will be searching for the best auction venue for this illustrator’s group. I prefer to sell them as a group ideally with an organization that will share them online.  Or possibly in two groups one WWI themed the other not. I have sold on ebay for 14 years but I am not sure it will be the proper vehicle for these drawings. I don’t have to decide yet.
Want to know more about Ralph Waldo Emerson Burton I recommend this excellent Graphic Arts Blog by Julie L. Mellby.

In the distance we see the approach of the promised storm. Under my bookmark category marked WEATHER I have eight sites listed. All this Summer I have been regular about consulting the radar maps in hopes that rain may be coming our way. The pursuit became even more obsessive after a wildfire threatened to take our home. We escaped total destruction but had over $30,000 worth of restoration to be done. After a year of not leaving our town, we left what work still needed to be done and took a long awaited trip North to Ohio and West Virginia to see family and yet I never stopped checking to see if rain had come to Oklahoma and Texas. While we were traveling several large wild fires broke out near our town, one devouring 14 houses in its path. Meanwhile in Texas 1,554 homes were lost to the Summer’s wild fires.

Meanwhile back at our bungalow my rain watch continues. Yesterday a storm hit about 5:30 PM and continued for an hour and half. I dissected the rain as it happened. The sequence: wind, streaks off in the distance, light rain, heavy drops, thunder, dense heavy drops with 50 mph winds, hail hitting every window and then gentle dripping off the trees. After which a dazzling sunset painted the sky as if it was taking a bow after the performance.

In a few days summer will be over, an unfriendly summer, a summer of 86 days of over 100 degrees, 4 times the norm. Autumn will not be the usually pallet of green, orange, red and yellow colors but contrasting hues of burnt and drought damaged trees and young green things popping up from the ashen soil.

The Weather bookmarks will remain the same on my toolbar but my relationship with rain will be forever changed.

Reconstructing your house after a fire is done by Restoration companies. The company we are using, Dutil,  is a family owned business located in nearby Lawton. We gave them the go ahead a week and a half ago and it has been cleaning, construction and painting ever since. We escape during the day but have our breakfast and dinner at home if we can. For us it is hopeful to seeing the house being brought back to its former tidy mountain bungalow self. I admit I have been taxed further than I had ever imagined during the past year. Pneumonia (me), Cancer (my husband), chemo, extreme chemo reactions, fire, death of a friend and days and days of 100+ heat and now reconstruction. It is my spirit now that needs the most restoration.

Some of our friends are dealing with the fire aftermath while others the loss of loved family member, not related to the fire. And when you are all in it together, this misfortune, you are all needy as well. So how does one lift oneself up? Can’t say, but I am determined to get through the next hurdles and not feel depressed or completely downtrodden. I picked happy colors for the house and am now sitting in my hot buttered rum freshly painted great room. And yes, I am writing a new post and perhaps I will start an art piece of some sort as creating makes me happy. My expectation is not extreme happiness but not being sad will suit me for now.

I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.
Hermann Hesse

At any one time it is not surprising to have peaks and valleys in your life. It is the balance that you come to expect but some years are remarkable for the change that they bring about. One of those years  was 1977. After eleven years in Humorous Planning Department at American Greetings Corp and creating thousands of greeting cards I was ask to draw a ragdoll character, it was to be later to be called Strawberry Shortcake. In 1978 I moved to TCFC (Those Characters from Cleveland) where I no longer drew greeting cards but created toys. We boarded a train that year and took a trip to see the King Tut exhibit in Chicago. My husband followed crafting unique Egyptian themed pieces of jewelry.  It was the year we traveled outside the continent, we flew to England. We became aware of how old mankind was as we visited continuously inhabited places from 12th century, no longer continent bound. In 1977 after a my promotion we moved from a house in Lakewood, OH a suburb I had lived in since 1953 to Fairview Park, a place we would raise our children. That same year our future daughter would be born in Akron, OH. She came to live with us in 1981 when we adopted her.

“You must leave now, take what you need, you think will last
But whatever you wish to keep, you better grab it fast”

Forward to 2010. The year Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma came rudely barging in on our life. My husband diagnosed in the summer of the year. Followed by six months of chemo. And now in 2011 struggling with after tremors he is trying to get his feet back under him.

“The carpet too is moving under you”

In 2010 the year my daughter left her teaching position. In 2011, after a year of here and there and helping her dad and helping herself she is actively looking again. She will be landing in a new place with a refreshed sense of self worth.

“Strike another match, go start anew”.

2010 found our son’s thirteen year marriage floundering leading to a separation in 2011. What will follow will assuredly be a changed world for him.

“The lover who just walked out your door,
has taken all her blankets from the floor”

In 2010 my doctor stopped her practice and I moved on to a new doctor. One who prescribed meds to keep my asthma in check. I am back walking in the Park my husband walking along with me. The inclines are harder now but the reason to continue, an insatiable curiosity, still exists.

“Leave your stepping stones behind, something calls for you”

Note: Lyrics,  Bob Dylan’s It’s All Over Now Baby Blue