Category: Angel Fire

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Ready or Not, Here Comes Fall!

What a blur the summer was.  Didn’t it just start last week?  That is how it seems to me, after running through July, August virtually vanished (though I did have a fabulous 50th birthday) and here we are now in September.  Unbelievable! Yesterday was the MVAC’s Arts About Town.  Not so much about town, as there just weren’t enough participants to fill out multiple locations, it still turned with great crowds and reasonable sales for all.  By late afternoon vendors were wrapping themselves in the cloths that had been on their tables, as temperatures fell, the wind began to gust and then, right on cue at closing time (and packing time), the sky opened.

Today, the clouds are hanging so low it looks like a black and white photo outside.  Sprinkling giant drops of water now and then.  The outside temperature is 54 degrees at 11:26 a.m.  I actually have a sweater on! It’s a quiet day for rest and rejuvenation.  Grace is asleep at my feet and the heavy cloud cover makes it seem extraordinarily quiet.  Makes me glad the show (Arts About Town) was yesterday!

Guess I won’t be out doing the outside work on the house I need to do.  Hmm. Sounds like an opportunity to paint! 

Angel Fire ArtSpace,
3469 Mountain View Blvd, Suites B2-4 Angel Fire NM
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Meandering into March

I can’t believe it’s March and I haven’t posted anything since the new year.  Good grief.  I’ll admit, the new year started off rough, but that is no excuse.  It’s likely more accurate to say I’m easily distracted. Well, maybe not since most people know me as tenacious as a bulldog chasing a rabbit.  Either way, here I am back at it.  Honestly, it’s more like I didn’t think I had anything to say and not being familiar with being at a loss for words, I left it alone.

At any rate, here I am at the gallery, watching the blue sky give way to gray and seeing tiny little flakes float gently to the ground.  I actually wish it would just let go and snow…really snow so all the lovers of Spring skiing will have more fun.  Spring break is not all that far away.  So, let it snow. 

It has been actually a very mild winter…albeit a couple weeks of outrageous cold wrecked the heating budget.  The coldest morning, I looked at the thermometer with shock.  It read “error”.  “Error?”  Turned the battery on the transmitter just couldn’t handle it.  I guess I don’t blame it…I didn’t want to crawl out of bed.  -47.  Good heavens.  It brought back memories of high school and Delta Junction, Alaska.  “No thanks”, I said.  “I’m not going anywhere”.

I have been in the studio in my silence.  A few nice pieces came out in the end.  Here’s a look:

Acrylic

Acrylic (Sold)

Scratch board
Pastel

At least I was productive!  The next studio time comes on Sunday.  The first thing I’ll do is finish the scratch board roses.  Facebook friends voted to leave them white, so I’ll just add a few blue hues in the shadows and green in the stems and buds. After that I have 4 paintings to do for customers.  So, I’ll be busy for a while! Nothing wrong with that picture!  And, I’ll do my best to get back here before another quarter passes!
Angel Fire ArtSpace,
3469 Mountain View Blvd, Suites B2-4 Angel Fire NM
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Can’t believe it’s November

Cerulean blue sky and brightly lit clouds float along like candy cotton in the air.  Beautiful.  Most of the Aspen are bare now, but it was interesting to me as I drove from Albuquerque to Angel Fire this weekend (following the delightful week in NYC) that many areas along the way are still green.  Kinda weird, but maybe attributable to the rather warm fall here.  While it is a scant 34 degrees here right now (10:31 am) the only sign of coming Winter is the snow on the highest peaks around us.

I loved our time in New York, but I must confess I was ready to come home.  The bright lights and constant sounds of the city made me appreciate the dark skies and silence of home.  Forests of trees in place of forests of buildings is a stark contrast to the way of life we enjoy versus life in The City.  That said, the multitude of choices for dining, shopping and entertainment were certainly refreshing.  Since we had an apartment, we actually enjoyed shopping for groceries and cooking.  The wide variety of produce, deli items and prime aged beef were a gastronomic delight.  We won’t eat that richly again for a who knows how long!

Does make me long for a first class grocer though.  Not that our local market doesn’t try, but the availability of the items is surely a factor.  In New York, imagine it and you’ll find it.  Fresh seafood, Fresh produce, beautiful bakery goods and prime aged meats all carefully laid out in tiny spaces tucked into the corners of vast buildings.  Don’t pay attention as you’re out walking and you might miss it. It’s mind boggling in a way.  Here, there are wide open spaces.  Can’t really walk anywhere and even in urban areas the distances between shopping areas require a car.  You can see for miles.  There, you can see across the street, or down the street, but you have to stand on the coast to see any big distance, or perhaps from the top of the Empire State building or the Sears Tower.  It’s so totally different.  In the end, for me, it’s a great place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.  I guess it’s true….

there is no place like home.

 

Angel Fire ArtSpace,
3469 Mountain View Blvd, Suites B2-4 Angel Fire NM
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Streams

I woke up this morning, and realized (startled) that I had slept all night. It’s the first time in months and the number of times in the last 5 years I can count on one hand. Yay.

It’s amazing how much it impacts your outlook, energy and all that. After doing some things that had long been waiting for my attention (laundry, cleaning bathrooms, etc) I realized I didn’t really have time to paint before I had to head to the gallery. Hmm. what to do? I sat down and started sorting through “reference photos” stored on my hard drive. lots of them. I ran across some that made me smile, and some that made me teary. Some that I moved to the desktop to use for reference in the upcoming work I’m planning to start.

As I scrolled through the years I ran across this:

I heard a noise as I came out of the bedroom one morning to make the coffee. I looked out the back door (glass) and saw him. I thought he had a gorgeous tail, and if the door hadn’t been between us, I could have reached out and touched it. That’s the concrete of our back porch under his feet. That close. Stunning. Then Chloe (our dog back then) sauntered out of the bedroom and saw him. Need I say more? We decided to build a fence.

It reminded me of the first days we lived here, specifically building the house and moving in (it’ll take a book to tell that story).

The first morning we lived in our house, as I was sitting at the dining room table, I felt someone looking at me. Looked up and there, peering in that same back door was an elk. Female. Looking in longingly, like she wanted to come in, like we had taken her favorite grazing area. It was not lost on me. When we were building, every morning I’d come back to the construction site to find new prints in the soft dirt that would become our floor. Then I’d clean up the skat from various soon to be rooms. A tinge of guilt clouded my heart, that we were invading.

Now we’ve been here 16 years.

We don’t see the coyote, the bear, the mountain lion (it still prowls our yard, we find the prints in the damp mud beside the garage) or the elk as often as we used to. But we do hear them. We hear the owls hoot, the eagle screech, the coyote’s wail and the elk calling in the fall. It’s where we live, and hope we leave but a tiny footprint when we’re gone.

It’s raining now in Angel Fire while I type this as I wait in the gallery for the next car load of customers. The air smells fresh with wet pine. Remember it, I say to myself. Remember it.

Angel Fire ArtSpace,
3469 Mountain View Blvd, Suites B2-4 Angel Fire NM
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High Speed Internet: So close and yet so inaccessable

It’s infuriating. While I enjoy DSL when I’m at the gallery, it’s another experience altogether at home. Try to watch a video or listen to online radio when it starts and stops and starts and stops. Try to upload a full length video to my new site (www.katherinesarttv.tv) and find that 5 hours later it’s still not done. Take it to the gallery and have it done in 4 minutes.

Before we ever bought land here, we called Qwest to see what was available. The rep we talked to ensured us that all we needed was here. Liar. Sorry, but no other word for it. Now, some 16 years later we are still waiting.

There are businesses and home businesses, non profits and families with children who rely on the internet for everything from education to shopping (for virtually everthing) and many for their livelihood. When the local provider goes down because of a snow storm, or just because it does, business stops. Online Learning stops. Ordering the life saving medicines or vitamins or underwear stops.

Qwest has DSL in Angel Fire AND Eagle Nest….but not in between. We are only about 3 miles from Eagle Nest, but nada. How hard can it be? I’ve been told that fiber runs along highway 64, but I’m not sure. If that’s so, then WHY IN THE WORLD can we not get service?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

A friend who used to work for Qwest once told us it would only take a “DSLAM” in a powered remote box. In fact, there is one just a few hundred yards from our house. So, after 16 years, what is the holdup? I’m about to become a REAL SQUEEKY WHEEL on this issue. This is global business economy in which we MUST compete to stay in business and meet our obligations. I don’t think the mortgage company cares that Qwest won’t provide us with DSL, but it will if those payments stop!

I personally know of several businesses along the highway 64 corridor that lost their internet service AND their email for FOUR DAYS. Let’s rally and rally and rally Qwest to get on the ball and get it done. Our money is as good as the businesses in Angel Fire AND Eagle Nest!

Angel Fire ArtSpace,
3469 Mountain View Blvd, Suites B2-4 Angel Fire NM
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August, must be madness

It’s my birthday. 08-08. I’ve written this post over and over and over. Long gone are the days when birthdays were exciting. Get up, make the coffee , make the breakfast, feed the dog, go to the gallery, water and care for the plants, sweep the floor, mop the floor, open the new space, hang the prints, move out the print bins, open the windows (or I’ll suffocate), dust, vacuum the other rooms..wait it’s almost 9:45, turn on the lights, turn on the music, and, turn on the open signs, it’s 10am.

breathe.

oh, boot the laptop (this takes forever—it’s Vista) download the email (this takes forever, too.) check the website (s).
Check the phone for messages. Figure out what’s left on the desk that needs attention.

breathe.

feel guilty. didn’t get the robie cleaned (the irobot that vacuum’s the house for me). guess that won’t get done today. oh well. I did manage to get a load of laundry in. didn’t walk the dog. didn’t……ad infinitum.

breathe.

I notice that lots of my Facebook friends are leaving birthday greetings on my page. It makes me smile. I write back, still smiling.

Customers come in. We talk. Some buy, some don’t, but they all say “happy birthday”(because, of course, I told them it was my birthday). Some comment that they didn’t know there was a gallery in Angel Fire..(never mind that there are two). They live here.

breathe.

The country is a mess. That’s what I hear.

breathe.

My mom calls. I smile. My mom-in-law calls. I smile.

Then she tells me someone walked into her house and stole her wallet. Yes, she (mom-in-law) opened the door, and welcomed ‘her’ in…mistaking her for someone else. (shame on you, whoever you are. ) I’m shaking my head, feeling the slime. shake it off. or try to. shaking my head. unbelievable…or status quo. refuse to ponder that right now.

Breathe.

Missed by sister’s call. Sad..but we’ll connect later.

And, I celebrated the fact that I’m ‘only’ 48. I know, it’s bizarre. I didn’t know how old I was. I got stuck somewhere. husband had to tell me. Made me laugh, really deep, really long, really funny. Nice to be 48.

Angel Fire ArtSpace,
3469 Mountain View Blvd, Suites B2-4 Angel Fire NM
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Grey and Rainy Sunday

Good day for a day off! Dark skies, howling wind and scattered rain, now soft, now hard, now scattered. I hope it doesn’t damage the beautiful peach colored iris that just opened this morning in my front garden! They are lovely.

So it is a good day to stay in. Which is good because we had big day yesterday! My morning was filled with people and painting as I did demo after demo of painting watercolor on yupo paper. In all, I think I did 14 paintings…some as small as 4 x 6 inches, some much larger. By the end I was wiped, but I ran home to shower and rest a bit before the big wedding we had been anticipating for what seemed like months. I’m sure it wasn’t, but we were really looking forward to it. And we were not disappointed! Congrats and all the best, Tom and Bonnie. The setting was beautiful, the ceremony sweet and fun, and the party afterward will likely not be topped! It was way beyond fun!

We actually slept in this morning, sleeping off the exhaustion. This morning we spent mostly brainstorming. We want to start a business incubation center and were tossing around ideas and dreams in advance of a meeting tomorrow to pitch it to some locals who might have guidance and know-how. What kind of thing would you do with a business incubator..or do you need one, and why? I’d value your input.

When we decided to move on with the day, I headed down to what was the hot tub room and did more brick laying. The floor was so badly out of level, that it is tricky to fix it and I’ll have to remove the trim from the doors because it is now too long! To slide a brick underneath it would mean that brick would be a full 1/4 inch below all the others….and I’m barely a third of the way across the room. wow. It’ll be good when it’s done though. At least I know how to do it right now!

So, it’s almost 4pm and the angel food cake John is making has the whole house smelling incredibly yummy. It’s my favorite cake and strawberries were on sale….guess what I’ll be having for desert tonight! oops..the dryer is chiming it’s “I’m done” song. Guess I’d better get to it.

Angel Fire ArtSpace,
3469 Mountain View Blvd, Suites B2-4 Angel Fire NM
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Time to get productive…

It’s been about two weeks, I think, since the last post. Sorry, guess I’ve just been busy.

The brick is still being slowly laid in the great drying out of the room that held the hot tub. Sand is mostly dry now, and the adobes are dry, but the mud in between is still damp, so I’m holding repainting the walls for more dry time. I’ll finish the brick after the walls are painted, anyway.

In the meantime, alot has been happening around here. Let’s see, since I last wrote, I was elected President of the Angel Fire Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, held the annual planning meeting (which was very productive!) and have been diligently working on the stack of commissions sitting in my studio. In the middle working on the 4 16 x 20’s I got the drawing done for an 18 x 24 and got a rush order for an ink and watercolor illustration for a local builder.

That, has been quite a challenge. The unfinished house Ray Renfroe of BlueRay homes is building is going to be stunning…but capturing the detail through the array of trees, scaffolding and workers has been a task! I spent 3 hours on the drawing yesterday, another hour last night and I have sent it off to a friend to print it on paper big enough that I can transfer it to watercolor paper in a half sheet (15 1/2 x 22). Once transferred, I’ll ink all the lines, then wash in some watercolor. I have to have it done by tomorrow…so hopefully she can get it printed this morning! Whew!

So, off I go, to add a few more layers to the three canvases I have in process. Feast or famine…I’ll take the feast!

Angel Fire ArtSpace,
3469 Mountain View Blvd, Suites B2-4 Angel Fire NM
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Hands in the Soil

It’s cathartic. I don’t think I ever even got to the garden last year, so when I headed out this afternoon to coax the weeds from the soil, I had forgotten how cathartic it is. There is just something about the sun warming your shoulders, the wind tossing your hair, the damp soil soaking through the knees of your jeans. The dirt in your fingernails, even though you were wearing gloves, and the errant twig protruding from your sleeve.

There’s something in my thumb now, and it hurts…probably a rose thorn or something similar. I pruned the roses, trimmed the potentia , raked the pine needles to expose the rich mulch I did get down last fall. I dug out grasses and weeds and dandelions galore. Now, it’s a lovely site to behold, the happy grape hyacinth with bright purple berry like heads bouncing in the breeze, free from the tangles of grasses and weeds that were holding them back.

Once cleared, the circular space in the center of the front garden looks clean and the columbine are standing tall, buds just beginning to form. I discovered the peonies are up and about a foot tall, the rebar I used to support it when it reaches some 3 feet, lying beside it, ready to be deployed.

Ahh. It’s that good, tired feeling. Tomorrow, it’s back to the gallery. Tuesday, its Taos, where I need to pick up some canvases for my latest commission. (yay…thank you Dr. Tami!) I already have compositions swimming around in my head.

Oh…and, Happy Mother’s Day to all you Moms out there. And a big CONGRATULATIONS and wow, I’m so proud of you, to my sister..the middlest one. She (Rebeka) just got a HUGE promotion at work…one she richly deserved and waited a long time for. And Thanks to God for honoring her! I’m very blessed!

Angel Fire ArtSpace,
3469 Mountain View Blvd, Suites B2-4 Angel Fire NM
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Beautiful Sunday Morning

Wow. I can’t believe it’s been a month since I last posted! My how time flies…regardless of whether or not you’re having fun!

Of course, there’s not really a good excuse. Part of it is a result of messing up my back/ribs again, yes again. Guess it hadn’t really healed before I forgot I wasn’t supergirl and set about to tear the hot tub apart. I was determined to find the leak(s). Well, I actually succeeded, but not without injury. Sigh. It’s been more than a week, and it still sucks the air out of me if I move wrong.

Won’t let it slow me down to much. I can’t, there’s just too much to do! I’m “off” today, so I’m going to head to the studio and paint. Wahoo! I’m working on a large watercolor on canvas, and if you get my newsletter it’s in the header of this month’s edition, even though its not quite done.

Of course, as Mr. Murphy would have it, the newsletter directs people to my site, which of course is down this morning.

Add that the fact that my house is under attack by those infuriating flickers. When I go outside to yell at them to get off my house, they mock me, laughing and come flying just past my reach.

However…

I’m determined to have a fabulous day! And I hope you will too….

Angel Fire ArtSpace,
3469 Mountain View Blvd, Suites B2-4 Angel Fire NM