Category: Spring

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Stunning Sunday

It is gorgeous here. 61 degrees, snow is melting like the earth underneath is hot. Husband and I had a relaxing and rejuvenating respite on the way home from Airport from whence I retrieved him. Home now and wow.

I recorded a short video on Friday evening. it’s below. It’s funny because it looks black and white, but the camera is color and so is the video! It’s the time of day. With still a lot of snow around evenings look black and white. Anyway, pardon the bumpy ride down the hill, as I was holding on to the dog fence with one hand and the camera with the other, but wow, well worth the effort. So beautiful, so melodic, too bad you can’t smell it. Breathe deeply and enjoy.

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

Sitting on the front porch, gazing at the lake as I type. It’s 76 degrees, and the only sound is the birds, the frogs at my neighbors pond and the tinkle of Grace’s collar as she sniffs the ground like she’s never done it before.

I’m relaxing as I post, having just returned from Albuquerque where the noise and the traffic was getting to me. I have tons to do in the next few weeks, with 6 commissioned paintings to produce by July, a hot tub to get out of the house so I can pull up the brick to dry the sand, and a myriad of “Spring” household duties to attend to. Oh, and there’s the gallery. This coming Friday is the monthly reception “4th Friday” event. Hmmm. I’ll breath deeply now and run tomorrow.

The hot tub will be going out in pieces. Daniel is coming on Wednesday to literally cut it up. I’m so mad at it that I absolutely refuse to remove the doors and frame to get it out whole. That’s what it gets for causing so much trouble! Once it’s gone, I’ll pull up the brick (as I just said) and let the sand underneath dry…then re-level it and re-lay the brick. Then, a new hot tub is welcome to come to the room. A smaller one would be nice, to give us more space in the room for growing things. That’s what we’re hoping/praying for, anyway.

Robie (my roomba) is vaccuuming for me. Which is good, because even in 24 hours of being gone Grace left an alarming part of herself all over the floor…black hair, floating about as you walked through and disturbed the air!

Yup, I’m definitely blessed. And, there with the triumphant electronic toot of Robies “I’m finished” tone, I’ll sign off and go investigate the freezer for what to make for dinner. John will be proud of me. I think it will be fish (talapia) and asparagus. Yum.

Angel Fire ArtSpace,
3469 Mountain View Blvd, Suites B2-4 Angel Fire NM
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Been a busy bee this morning!

Rising out of the funk I seem to have been in. Not sure what put me there, but I’m done with that now that I see it. Yesterday was cathartic. I did the laundry, mowed the lawn, pulled the weeds, watered, and trimmed the dead branches from the rose bushes and potentias. I think the winter killed the giant chamisa next to the house…sad about that. I’ll find a way to chop out the dead in hopes the roots will thank me. In the mean time, John and I sat outside on the porch, sipping drinks for the first time this year. The dog (Grace) went for swim in the neighbors pond and we all went to bed last night with a smile and slept! Yahoo! You never appreciate a good nights sleep till you have one after a long spell of being awake from 2am -4am every morning.

Real Spring is finally here (now that the calendar says it’s almost Summer!). The aspen are leafing out with that brilliant chartreuse of spring green. The breeze is finally almost warm and the columbine are a few days from blooming. Ahh.

So this morning, I realized it had been more than a month since I updated my squidoo lenses. Spent a few hours doing that. Check them out: http://www.squidoo.com/katherinemcdermott
http://www.squidoo.com/ArtSpace http://www.squidoo.com/AngelFireNM

We’re still in a quandry what to do about the cell service since T-Mobile lied to us about being able to use their service and now they are cancelling our contract. Talk about bad business!
We’re working with our Village Councilor Stuart Hamilton to try to find a good solution. It’s not just important to us…but to the whole community and to our customers, our visitors and those who own second homes here. It’s a common complaint. “My cell works everywhere but here”. AT&T is apparently our best hope. There is room on a cell tower on the ski mountain….Please, please, AT&T…put your cell on it! I’d bet that the vast majority of cell phone users here would switch in a heartbeat. We (John and I) are not the only ones being cut off by T-Mobile. I know dozens of people in the same boat.

In the mean time, now that my head is out of the fog I’m working on catching up all the web 2.0 stuff, and giving the gallery a thorough once over and cleaning. It smells good too! It’s been completely rearranged. If it’s been more than a few days since you were here, you’ll hardly recognize it! The MVAC’s Reflections show is up till June 22. It looks great! Thanks to all the artists who entered, and congrats to the lucky (skilled) winners! Second Place went to a cool photo by Michael Blassone, from Taos. It was the first time he ever entered a show! Way to go! First Place winner is Jeanne Green, a lovley work on canvas “Reflections of a Coot”. And Best of Show went to our own Jacqui Binford-Bell, for “Past Reflections”, mixed media on canvas. Take a look at that one! It’s Stunning!

Wow, this post has turned into a book! At any rate, Kat is Back! Yay!

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

I know it’s been a few days since I was here. Had to be out of town for a couple days and then there is always the catch up from that. Got back on Thursday afternoon just in time for a Chamber Board Meeting and then spent Friday preparing for my Fourth Friday Reception. Whee! Passed myself coming and going!

This is Sunday, my day off, and I’m having fun. I was building a new web site for the Northeast New Mexico Arts Alliance that will become the primary site for disseminating information about the upcoming Art Trail that you may have read about. I don’t remember if I wrote about it here or not, but our press releases were picked up by the Raton Range and the Sangre de Cristo Chronicle.
Anyhoo….I got the website essentially built and then started learning about how to use Google Maps. Way Cool! and so very easy to learn! Wahoo! Check it out at www.nenmarts.org
and be sure to click on the tab that says “3Ts Art Trail with clickable map” It’s too cool!

Now that the trail is moving ahead (almost taking on a life of its own) I’m breathing easier. If you are an artist, artspace or gallery along the trail, be sure to download the application after reading the eligibility requirements. Get those applications completed and in as soon as possible! We’d like to be ready to work on promotional materials for approved sites by May 30! (yes, this year.) I know it’s a tight time frame, but required for our start up funding.

So, did I say I’m breathing easier? That was dumb. I’m still up to my ears in the Maven bootcamp materials and now I’m trying to digest Butterfly Marketing all at the same time. Have I lost it? Not likely. Just madly driven. I’m learning so much it makes me hungry for more! Education is a good thing! (too bad I didn’t figure that out in school!)

So, the next video I’ll do (I hope tomorrow) will feature the work of Jacqui Binford-Bell. A local to this lovely valley and a huge support to me, Jacqui is a fabulously creative lady. I’ve talked before about her masks (from which she retired, but I still have a handfull) and her new bright and somewhat mystical paintings. They are getting better all the time. I think you’ll enjoy seeing it so I’ll try and keep the camera still!

The snow is melting here, and the spring winds have returned. I’ve still got 4 feet or so of snow outside my living room window, along the north side of the house. As it slowly melts I’m optimistic about a plethera of columbine waiting to sprout underneath it. Take a look at this pic taken in January. Now you can see that it will take some time and warm temps to melt this pile of snow!

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

What a Spring this has been. I’m sure you can see its been a couple weeks since my last post. Spring is generally seen as the coming forth, and new life rising from the frozen death of winter. This Spring has been, for me and my (extended) family, a new level of understanding of new life.

March 12, 2007, my Dad, Richard Crabb, passed from this life, in death defeating the foes that he grappled with. Only 68 years old, the legacy he left us is only now coming into view. I used to think all I inherited from my Dad were issues that I considered I would be better off without. It is only in his death that I have come to see there is a richness and indeed what many consider positive aspects of who I am, that are mine, from my Dad. I’m thankful to those who have shared with me, how they saw my Dad, how my Dad impacted them. You knew him in ways that I never did. How bittersweet it is to know those things…why could I not know it while he lived? Such is the nature of Spring, perhaps. The flowers that will bloom after the heavy snows and harsh winds of Winter will fill this valley with color we have not seen in years. Is it that the harshest Winter brings forth the brightest life that awakens in Spring?

My Dad’s death was not to be the end of it. April 25th, my Uncle, Dr. Francis Wall, joined my Dad on the other side. So fitting, yet so ironic. A giant chasm existed between the two men for decades. Though some level of reconciliation had happened in recent years, it is profound to me that little more than a month separated them in the final reconciliation. I’ve no doubt the passing of the two of them will bear fruit in the lives of their children, me, my sisters, and my cousins. It is a perspective that humbles me, and compels me…not a moment to spare in really loving those we are connected to, be them family by birth, or by choice.

I’ll be honest here, really putting myself out there for those I love, is not something I’ve been good at. Letting them in, really in, something foreign to me. May I learn to do that. To participate in relationship rather than to simply be there. Now, I think I’ll hit “publish” before I change my mind at being so frank. Besides. the washing machine is calling.

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