to all who still believe.
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
Tuesday, December 3, 2019
#365 • Cheer Up!
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It could be worse - you could me right now. I keep forgetting I have snow tires, having not had them for 50 some odd years. They're in our shed - warm, clean and snug in a plastic bag. I've got an appointment to have them put on next week which doesn't help me right now, but it is what it is. I think I can remember what it's like careening the state without them.
Fortunately, being a freelancer has its benefits during times like this. I can work from home. I don't have to travel until tomorrow. In the meantime, cheer up! Maybe, just maybe, this storm will clear out tonight and leave in its wake a uniquely-silent-other-worldly-city-snow-walkabout, where the only sound is that of the breathless cursing by snow shovelers. On the other hand, you might be pitted against the maniacal-fire-breathing-snow-throwing-iron-dragons that are our city plow trucks. Be careful out there.
Cheer Up! • 8" x 8" acrylic framed to 12" x 12" • $250
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
#364 • That Moon
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That moon still gets to me. Maybe it's witnessing a ball so huge suspended up there with no strings or base holding it up. Or wait, maybe it's gravity I'm in awe of. As I explained to my grandson Jack, I don't see the wind, I just see things in the wind. So actually, I don't see gravity, I just see the moon in gravity.
The gravity of this realization is beyond comprehension, like the moon, and gravity. So I guess I'm back to square one. Just plain awe.
That Moon • 8" x 8" mixed media framed to 12" x 12" • $250
Tuesday, November 12, 2019
#363 • Somehow I Missed A Season
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We have snow on the ground. I was tempted to do a snowfall painting in celebration, but decided to get a few other themes in before. Somehow I missed a whole season.
It started many years ago when I decided I wanted fruit trees, a vegetable garden or two, and flowers beds. The number of plots grew every year because, in hind sight, I forgot in the spring what I had to do the fall before to put everything to bed for the winter.
Today, seasonal yard work around here is a big project. I figure we might as well get used to it because when we're too old to work, ski and sail, hike and everything else we pack into a year, this land and our home will be who we become full time. Weeders.
Somehow I Missed A Season • 8" x 8" framed to 12" x 12" • $250
Thursday, October 17, 2019
#362 • Looking Upriver
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The leaves were already on their way out by the time I found time to stop and snatch this sketch. One of these days I'll do it justice, but right now, it's the way it looked just before the big blow.
I guess I was taking it for granted - it's a scene I see every time I go over the bridge in Kingfield. This is one of the reasons some of us live up here. As a local transplant once said to me when I asked him why he left Brooklyn, New York, "you can't beat the commute to work."
Looking Upriver • 8"x8" acrylic framed to 12"x12" • $250
Thursday, October 10, 2019
#361 • A Fisherman's Place
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There aren't too many of them left along the coast of Maine - places where fishermen live where they work, that is. There's a little stretch in Stonington where the natives seem to be hanging on. It doesn't seem to change much from year to year, thankfully.
A sure sign that things might be tipping for the worse, however, was an experience we had this past summer. You never used to have to worry about getting a real Maine lobster roll in Stonington, but my daughter - she was so excited, bought one in town, closed her eyes, opened her mouth big and wide and took a bite three times her size only to discover that someone had put tarragon in the mayo. Who the hell puts tarragon in the mayo in a lobster roll, she gagged? I didn't mind it too much, but it sure wasn't what I was expecting either. Is there a curse that can be used on these interlopers who think they can change the real Maine lobster roll and get away with it?
A Fisherman's Place 8 8" x 8" acrylic framed to 12" x 12" * $250
Thursday, October 3, 2019
#360 • The Biggest Full Moon I'd Ever Seen
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The week before we hauled the boat is when I saw the biggest full moon I've ever seen.
We had dinner in Rockland and then watched Maiden. I had seen it. Tom had not. The guy behind us was on his fifth go around. The Strand is a great little theater. But Maiden was even better. It was a great night. Fun dinner, beautiful theater, great movie. A trifecta.
On our way back out to the boat in the dark, I was in the bow of the dinghy scanning for navigational markers and lobster buoys with my penlight. We would have been thrown in the clinker had we been caught by marine patrol. Actually we could have been run over by a cruise ship. But we weren't.
Tom spotted it first - over my shoulder. It was so big I couldn't see it at first. And then I did. A monster was cresting over Vinalhaven. That's the biggest f...... moon I've ever seen, I exhaled. And it was. We watched it float up and into the cloud bank, and that was the end of the show.
And finally, who had the most cribbage wins for the 2019 summer sailing season? It wasn't Tom!
The Biggest Full Moon I'd Ever Seen • 8" x 8" acrylic framed to 12" x 12" • $250
Friday, September 20, 2019
#359 • The Leaves Are Falling Up
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The leaves are falling up - putting on their seasonal colors, that is.
So get out there and enjoy it because all reports are pointing to a rolling-thunder-tidal-wave-cyclone-bomb-event of a winter.
The Leaves Are Falling Up • 8" x 8" acrylic framed to 12" x 12" • $250
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
#358 • A Celebration of Playing
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It's what children do when they aren't sleeping, afraid or in pain. It's what we adults do when we aren't competing with ourselves and one another.
It's what we all need to remember to do every day, as if today were our last day on Earth.
A Celebration of Playing • 9.5" x 9.5" acrylic framed to 15 x 15 • $350
Thursday, September 5, 2019
#357 • Holding On To Summer
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When it dawns a beautiful summer day here in Maine, albeit with her pinky toe now fully submerged in fall, it's hard to imagine there's a hurricane just south of us plowing her way up the coast. It's like witnessing the inner mind of Mother Nature and her daily battle to either act out good or not so good.
The ancients believed we humans, collectively, influenced the behavior of nature. Although I'm simply trying to hang on to summer here, I hope this painting also helps those facing Dorian to fill themselves with memories of a peace filled day. What's the risk?
Thursday, August 29, 2019
#356 • YĆ«gen
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There are only so many ways to describe moonlight. I decided to use the word yƫgen. Yƫgen had flown by me on Facebook defined as a Japanese word to describe mystery and concealment. As it turns out, yƫgen is one of the nine ancient Japanese aesthetics. Their meanings are greatly edited here, but for me, it is the words themselves that I find captivating for some reason - maybe because they are in and of themselves both beautiful and lyrical to look at and speak.
1. Wabi-sabi äœćŻ (Imperfection) - The philosophy of wabi-sabi is one of imperfection, impermanence and incompletion.
2. Miyabi é (Elegance) - Miyabi is about elegance, refinement and courtliness. It is also about the elimination of anything vulgar or unsightly.
3. Shibui æžă or Shibusa æžă (Simplicity) - The aesthetic ideal behind shibui is one of simplicity, subtlety and unobtrusiveness.
4. Iki çČ (Spontaneity and Originality) - Iki is often compared to its older and more universal cousin wabi-sabi. While iki is about simplicity and temporality, it also encapsulates qualities like originality, uniqueness and spontaneity.
5. Jo-ha-kyĆ« ćșç Žæ„ (Modulation and Movement) - Jo-ha-kyĆ« is the concept of modulation and movement. It can be thought about like a tempo in how you do things and connote how all things should begin slowly, build up quickly thereafter to a rising crescendo, and then end swiftly.
6. YĆ«gen ćčœç (Mystery and Concealment) - YĆ«gen is a concept that values mystery and concealment. It describes an element of profound depth with questions that may remain unanswered even as the plot unravels.
7. GeidĆ èé (Discipline and System) - This concept is embodied in the discipline, ethics and systematised approach to apprenticeship embodied in many Japanese traditional arts.
8. EnsĆ ćçž (Void and Absolution) - EnsĆ is represented by a circle that symbolises a holistic form of absolution, enlightenment, strength, elegance, the Universe and the void.
9. Kawaii ăăăă (Cute and Lovable) - Lovable, cute or adorable, kawaii is found almost everywhere in modern Japan and an integral part of Japanese society.
Edited from Japan Talk on the “9 Principles of Japanese Art and Culture.”
Thursday, August 22, 2019
#355 • One Dead Run At A Time
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ONE DEAD RUN AT A TIME
Sailing with the wind square to your stern is called a dead run. If you have a main and a jib, you can sail wing on wing. The jib flies to one side of the mast, the main to the other. You are pushed across the water like a butterfly. It's lovely.
Decades ago, I took a friend out for a spin on a borrowed Laser. For those who don't know, a Laser is a small but feisty single-handed racing boat with a very tall mast and way too much sail for it's size. As a result, it's very "touchy," with a response time of 0 seconds. I had single-handed a sailfish a couple of times in my career and figured, heck, all little boats are alike - I could handle this one. My friend had no prior sailing experience, but like me, she was gung-ho for a new adventure. No worries, we said, we have life jackets, the sun is shining and the water temp is delightful.
There was a brisk breeze tacking off the dock close-hauled upwind. I was feeling really special - like I really knew what I was doing. We were going fast and loving it because honestly, we were speed freaks having accumulated a legendary number of speeding tickets between us in our day. What a blast we were having.
And then it was time to go back downwind, or jibe-ho as they say. For me it meant spinning the boat around 180 degrees into a dead run. The first jibe resulted in an immediate sail slap to the water. The boat went over so fast, we flew through the air and into the water before we could yell fore! Choked with laughter, we righted the Laser and jumped back into the saddle and took off again. As I started to haul the sail back in, the mast immediately pitched from the left to the right and back again. My friend brilliantly ducked the lightning fast and deadly pendulum that was our boom, eventually pinning herself tight to the deck. But we were in the drink again before we knew it.
It was dramatic. I'm thinking seven, but hoping it was only five times we rolled over trying to get underway. We were like a death roll wind-up toy, and my friend now had justifiable reason to finally ask me if I knew what the hell I was doing. I don't remember what my reply was, but I think I lied hoping it would somehow morph true.
By the grace of God, and I'm not kidding here, we eventually got the hang of it. We both figured out how to throw our weight around - hiking in nautical terms, and were to win the race against impending death when we finally bow-butted our home dock. It was freakin' awesome! we decided over a cold one later, and over several more later on. We scared the shit out ourselves, were exhausted but on an adrenaline high, defined ourselves as Olympic contenders on perseverance and raw guts alone, had a great swim, got some color, and survived!
We never sailed together again - both determining that I needed to hone my technique. She and her husband eventually bought a sailboat, which shocked the hell out of me, so I didn't have to feel guilty about destroying her aspirations. Me, I continued to test my fear of death rolls for many years. I still freak sailing a dead run, but not so much that I feel like it's still a game of high seas chicken - like who's going to take a dunking first, me or the boat. You just gotta hang in there and take one dead run at a time.
Sailing with the wind square to your stern is called a dead run. If you have a main and a jib, you can sail wing on wing. The jib flies to one side of the mast, the main to the other. You are pushed across the water like a butterfly. It's lovely.
Decades ago, I took a friend out for a spin on a borrowed Laser. For those who don't know, a Laser is a small but feisty single-handed racing boat with a very tall mast and way too much sail for it's size. As a result, it's very "touchy," with a response time of 0 seconds. I had single-handed a sailfish a couple of times in my career and figured, heck, all little boats are alike - I could handle this one. My friend had no prior sailing experience, but like me, she was gung-ho for a new adventure. No worries, we said, we have life jackets, the sun is shining and the water temp is delightful.
There was a brisk breeze tacking off the dock close-hauled upwind. I was feeling really special - like I really knew what I was doing. We were going fast and loving it because honestly, we were speed freaks having accumulated a legendary number of speeding tickets between us in our day. What a blast we were having.
And then it was time to go back downwind, or jibe-ho as they say. For me it meant spinning the boat around 180 degrees into a dead run. The first jibe resulted in an immediate sail slap to the water. The boat went over so fast, we flew through the air and into the water before we could yell fore! Choked with laughter, we righted the Laser and jumped back into the saddle and took off again. As I started to haul the sail back in, the mast immediately pitched from the left to the right and back again. My friend brilliantly ducked the lightning fast and deadly pendulum that was our boom, eventually pinning herself tight to the deck. But we were in the drink again before we knew it.
It was dramatic. I'm thinking seven, but hoping it was only five times we rolled over trying to get underway. We were like a death roll wind-up toy, and my friend now had justifiable reason to finally ask me if I knew what the hell I was doing. I don't remember what my reply was, but I think I lied hoping it would somehow morph true.
By the grace of God, and I'm not kidding here, we eventually got the hang of it. We both figured out how to throw our weight around - hiking in nautical terms, and were to win the race against impending death when we finally bow-butted our home dock. It was freakin' awesome! we decided over a cold one later, and over several more later on. We scared the shit out ourselves, were exhausted but on an adrenaline high, defined ourselves as Olympic contenders on perseverance and raw guts alone, had a great swim, got some color, and survived!
We never sailed together again - both determining that I needed to hone my technique. She and her husband eventually bought a sailboat, which shocked the hell out of me, so I didn't have to feel guilty about destroying her aspirations. Me, I continued to test my fear of death rolls for many years. I still freak sailing a dead run, but not so much that I feel like it's still a game of high seas chicken - like who's going to take a dunking first, me or the boat. You just gotta hang in there and take one dead run at a time.
Sailing Downwind • 8" x 8" acrylic framed to 12" x 12" • $250
Friday, August 16, 2019
#354 • Public Gardengeek Tour
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Public Gardengeek Tour • 8" x 8" acrylic framed to 12" x 12" • $250
Monday, August 5, 2019
#353 • Trees
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Trees are important. They give us oxygen and store carbon. They provide shelter for wildlife and humans, and stabilize the soil. At one point, a third of our planet’s land was covered with trees. Today there are eighty billion trees in the protected forests of the western US. The ratio of trees to humans is well over 200. In the last ten years we’ve chopped down around fifty billion of them - and there will not be trees re-planted. Every ten years we humans cut down one percent of those forests.
I'm gong to take a walk to appreciate trees tonight, and pray we figure out how to curb our appetite for them.
Trees • 8" x 8" acrylic framed to 12" x 12" • $250
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
#352 • A Meditation Manifesto
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This is a memory from long long ago in a galaxy far far away, when we children had no idea what was really going on out there in the world. I was lucky. This was not, and is not a scene a lot of children will ever know in their lifetime. All the more important therefore, to suggest it to them as a possibility now.
Constant bombardment of information forces me to be involved. It is a part of my life. There is too much at stake to ditch my brain. A side must be taken, even if it means bucking the powers that be, choosing peace over war, or love rather than hate. Intellectual liberty is what makes a democracy a democracy.
To be able to balance on the bongo board, I occasionally stop all activity, close both eyes, and conjure up a prompt that will, like a quiet harbor, release all surrounding chaos to a quiet mind.
And then I share my meditation with the world to balance out the karma I create with the other stuff I post.
A Meditation Manifesto • 8" x 8" acrylic framed to 12" x 12" • $250
Tuesday, July 16, 2019
#351 • Another City Garden Poster
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Another City Garden Tour Poster • 8" x 8" acrylic framed to 12" x 12" • $250
Monday, July 8, 2019
#350 • Frenchboro
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It was over a decade ago on one of those days you could sell a clam shack on a no-beach-rock-bound-wind-battered-all-day-shade-side of an island with no ferry access in a heartbeat to someone from away. Frenchboro was holding it's annual lobster festival and we just happened to be there on one of those spectacular summer days.
Set up on a hillside in the churchyard near the head of harbor, local fisherman's wives were, and had for over fifty years, been preparing for their annual fundraising lobster feed - a bunch of picnic tables with plastic table covers and the atmosphere only a hillside on a harbor on a remote island can offer. Although lobster was the star, the homemade pies made you nod yes please, though your bloated stomach sloshed no way. I had chosen a pecan pie, and unbeknownst to me, this artist had thrown a handful of chocolate bits into the mix.Yeowza!
The Frenchboro Congregational Church always hosts this event on the second Saturday in August, rain or shine. It benefits the church and outreach programs in the island community including the Historical Society, library and Solid Waste Committee. It's gone mainstream now with live music, a road race, children’s games and other activities.
We stopped by last summer, missed the dinner, but made a donation to the cause. It's a good honest one.
Frenchboro • 8" x 8" acrylic framed to 12" x 12" • $250
Thursday, June 27, 2019
#349 • What Appears To Be Peace and Tranquility • Isle au Haut
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I was content to sit on the beach in my chair looking cool, the only big worry being not to let my tan go a shade lighter. My brothers, however and of course, tried to get into as much trouble as they could, but not on purpose. Trouble just seemed to be attracted to them - a magnetic pull they were born with.
Inevitably something would happen - a busted toe, the discovery of a dead horseshoe crab, the terror of a shark (dog fish) slithering around their legs, or a full on no-mercy mud slinging fight at low tide. Compared to those days, these kids looked pretty tame, sweet even.
I wanted to peek over their shoulders, but decided to leave them to their discovery and take this pic of what appeared to be a period of peace and tranquility. Sometimes it's more fun not to know what's really going on behind the scenes. It might be perfectly normal, or were they scheming to snag whatever it was to hide it in their mother's apron pocket when she wasn't looking, or better still, under their other younger brother's pillow that night?
I'm sure adults were looking at my brothers and I the same way. God, they'd whisper, were they raised in a barn?
What Appears To Be Peace and Tranquility • 8" x 8" acrylic framed to 12" x 12" • $250
Friday, April 26, 2019
#348 • What Gets Left Behind
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Unfortunately, the roads and lift lines are also littered with our trash - discarded beer cans and bottles, cigarette butts, coffee cups and nip bottles. Get a grip people.
*The name was trademarked registered by Frank Epperson of Oakland, Calif., presumably from (lolly)pop + (ic)icle. ... Seeing that it was a success, in 1924 Epperson applied for a patent for his “frozen confectionery” which he called “the Epsicle ice pop.” He renamed it Popsicle, allegedly at the insistence of his children.
Saturday, April 20, 2019
#347 • Antidote To Spring Whiplash Syndrome
Click here to purchase this painting #347 • http://www.claudiadiller.com/blog.htm
It's pretty easy to pick up a case of whiplash throwing your head back to look up at the sky for signs of the sun, then flipping it forward to the ground searching for any hint of spring. If you slow the rotation down by stopping midpoint to look straight ahead, spring emerges. It's in the color. The color is subtle, but if you gaze long enough, you'll see it out there.
Toss into that gaze some memory, a smidge of wishful thinking, and a dose of desperation, and it becomes a veritable vernal springtime color show experience not unlike those spectacular Philmore East Light Shows of my youth.
Antidote To Spring Whiplash Syndrome 8" x 8" acrylic framed to 12" x 12" • $250
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
#346 • Is Spring Stuck in a Pajama Bottom Somewhere?
I was in bed reading one night when suddenly the avocado and kiwi I had thrown into my clothing satchel the week before popped in to my head. Luckily they weren’t in as bad shape as the banana I found last month, and fortunately their skins were tough enough to hold innards under extreme pressure.
While I was rummaging for the avocado and kiwi, I discovered two bars of dark chocolate I had purchased during a two-for-one sale a while ago. I don't remember tossing them in the satchel. I do remember thinking I had bought two bars of chocolate, looked for them, but never found them. I figured I had left them in the shopping cart or worse, never bought them and just thought I did. As it turns out, they had settled on the bottom of the satchel - sunken under a sea of clothing. How does that happen?
Which reminds me, I found a missing dryer ball all the way down in the ankle of my pajamas. How does that happen? And while we're at it, how is it that spring gets lost? Is it too stuck in the bottom of some satchel or pajama bottom somewhere?
Is Spring Stuck in a Pajama Bottom Somewhere? • 16.5” x
10.5” acrylic unframed • $350
Thursday, April 4, 2019
#345 • The Invisible Lady at the Miss Portland Diner
THE INVISIBLE LADY AT THE MISS PORTLAND DINER
I was meeting a friend at the Portland Diner the other day and was late.
I didn’t see her in the new addition, so stepped up to the original diner and glanced around to see if she was there yet. A waitress swooped down the aisle from the opposite direction. I told her I was looking for a friend.
She said, oh yes, she's right here and pointed to the booth to my right.
An old guy sitting on a stool hunched over a big piece of pie at the deserted counter across the aisle looked over his left shoulder at the booth at about the same time I did.
“Well, if she’s sitting there, she’s invisible,” he rasped turning back to his pie.
He was right - all I saw was a cup of steaming coffee.
The waitress quickly added that my friend was currently in the ladies room. She never cracked a smile and asked if I wanted some coffee.
I replied no thank you and fell into the booth trying to contain hysterical laughter in my cupped hands, afraid someone might think I was a head case.
I was meeting a friend at the Portland Diner the other day and was late.
I didn’t see her in the new addition, so stepped up to the original diner and glanced around to see if she was there yet. A waitress swooped down the aisle from the opposite direction. I told her I was looking for a friend.
She said, oh yes, she's right here and pointed to the booth to my right.
An old guy sitting on a stool hunched over a big piece of pie at the deserted counter across the aisle looked over his left shoulder at the booth at about the same time I did.
“Well, if she’s sitting there, she’s invisible,” he rasped turning back to his pie.
He was right - all I saw was a cup of steaming coffee.
The waitress quickly added that my friend was currently in the ladies room. She never cracked a smile and asked if I wanted some coffee.
I replied no thank you and fell into the booth trying to contain hysterical laughter in my cupped hands, afraid someone might think I was a head case.
Saturday, March 30, 2019
#344 • Last Wintah Painting Again
I think I've whined about winter's staying power in the past. Here in Maine the first day of spring will often pass us by like a cruise ship heading south vibrating with Jimmy Buffet music and fans.
The southern part of the state can be springlike for a minute when suddenly a sea breeze kicks in like a frigid vortex dipping its way south - a hand stretching down from the north pole cupping us back to winter. The western mountains and north too still have big filthy snowbanks, bitter gales that howl through your bones like a freon syringe, and a lot of worn out rotator cuffs.
So I have decided that this is it for winter paintings from me. I'm throwing in the towel. I'm fed up. This wintah is ova for me, O-V-A, ova!
Last Wintah Painting Again • 8" x 8" acrylic framed to 12" x 12" • $250
Thursday, March 21, 2019
#343 • Waiting For The Weather to Cop a Better Attitude
After a stunning sail across the bay to North Haven - sunshine, a favorable breeze and following sea, we woke up the next morning to gray and fog, and decided to delay our cruise a bit to see if the weather might cop a better attitude. So we rowed to the public landing, walked over to the community building to check our email, and ate something chocolate because there was chocolate sitting there on the counter to be eaten.
We then took a stroll up and around the village to stretch our sea legs, came back to the landing and rowed back out to the boat where we prepared to let go. The weather hadn't changed moods, but it never makes much sense hanging around in a cozy cabin with our noses stuck in good books when we could be freezing our kahunahs and kahunohs off in a potential downpour looking for adventure in pea soup fog instead. One does not spend a kazillion dollars to keep a sailboat afloat simply to float nowhere.
Waiting For the Weather To Cop a Better Attitude • 8" x 8" acrylic framed to 12" x 12"• $250
Monday, March 11, 2019
#342 • Route 27 Through Those Moody Mountains
I put hiking on the list because I was surrounded by mountains and miles and miles of hiking trails including the Appalachian. I bought myself some decent leather Raichle boots, figuring that if I spent a goodly amount of money I would be forced to carry out the assignment and like it, whether I liked it or not.
I struck out on my inaugural solo-soul-searching-sojourn up in to Avery Peak - one of those bumps in the background of this painting that make up the Longfellow Range in Carrabassett Valley. Sauntering along, I'd periodically stop and ask myself if I liked this hiking thing. I honestly didn't know, so I just kept putting one expensive boot in front of the other, asking, climbing, asking, and climbing until I eventually, and to my surprise, summited.
Looking west along the spine of the range, I was riding a gigantic sea serpent cutting through an ocean of undulating green swells that were the many ridges below. The stunted trees were like druids riding along, grooming the patches of pale green, blue and lavender moss growing in and around the bold rock that was the mighty beast's hide. And then I sat down and smoked a cigarette. It was heaven.
I got hooked on hiking and eventually unhooked from smoking, and continued to solo up into those mountains over many many years. I witnessed the mountains morph from green and lush in the summer, to colorful show offs in the fall, and then hauntingly dark and moody in the winter. At some point I realized I did the same thing. It was a hard-earned Zen truistic-mystical-moment.
Those Moody Mountains • 10" or so x 8" acrylic framed to whatever • $250
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
#341 • Holy Oh Shit Corner!
Oh My Gosh Corner might be the most famous piece of road up here in these parts, but the one that gets to me is about halfway along the access road where you veer a bit to the right, hit a little rise up and into a view of the mountain that really lets you know what kind of a day you're going to have up there - and "Holy Oh Shit" blows out of your mouth like a freight train, leaving you gasping for mercy.
Holy Oh Shit Corner • 8"x8" acrylic framed to 12" x 12" • $250
Tuesday, February 12, 2019
#340 • Route 27 Through New Vineyard
I've driven the same stretch of Route 27 for about a quarter of my life now. It's not bad as roads go once you get past Augusta. The Belgrade Lakes region is lovely, as are the fields of working dairy farms through Farmington. The intervale running beside the Carrabassett River before you get to Kingfield is unique in this state as is the drive north along the river and up through the valley with its rolling ridges and some of Maine's highest and prettiest mountains towering in the background. If you cruise northwest all the way through Carrabassett Valley, you will pass Stratton, Eustis and Coburn Gore, and in to Quebec, Canada if you feel the need for a weekend hiatus from the hijinks of our great country.
I've seen some of nature's best along this route. I've also witnessed some of man's worst - like the slow and insidious erosion of Maine's countryside to strip malls with bright lights and acres of black asphalt parking lots. But until they all return to dust, there's a pretty little piece of Route 27 right around New Vineyard that is still in tact and I hope never changes. Even during the coldest, darkest and most colorless months of the year, there are still parts of the countryside that belong only to nature. I hope we see fit to leave them that way.
Route 27 Through New Vineyard • 8" x 8" acrylic framed to 12" x 12" • $250
Tuesday, February 5, 2019
#339 • The Way It Was
The only constant is change - I get it, but this city was way more interesting when it was authentically gritty and hard working, when gulls would fling dead herring at tourists on Commercial Street, when streams of sticky, smelly bait juice flowed under foot making a walk in some parts of downtown treacherous, when there were bars where you tipped more than you paid for your beer, and because of that, you likely got a "howdy ma'am" from a drunken sailor who couldn't help himself but be happy trying to find his way home.
The Way It Was • 8"x 8" acrylic framed to 12" x 12" • $250
Monday, January 28, 2019
#338 • Cats and Apples
I've watched cats get off-the-ground-and-in-to-the-air-like-a-cyclone-wound-up batting an apple around the floor. You have to wonder what thoughts are whirring in and around their tiny processors. And although I've never witnessed it, I bet it's not unusual for one of these psychos, in a full on frenzy, to end up having taken bite taken out of an apple at some point. And if a bite is taken and ingested, what happens?
As it turns out cats can eat a slice or two of apple now and again without harm, but those apple seeds are killers. Unbeknownst to me, apple seeds contain cyanide. They contain only a small amount so they won't harm humans, but cats are too small to handle them. I find it unlikely however, that the attention span of said cat will get them that far into an apple core anyway, no offense.
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
#337 • Wintah Wake Up
When the local bears relax into hibernation, I wake up. I become a processing center for calendars - thank you to my fans for a fabulous year, and buy into holiday merrymaking like a fool. So when January rolls around, unlike getting back into the saddle, pedaling a bike and swinging a baseball bat, I begin the slow tortuous and arduous process of getting back into painting. What is it that makes us think we can start where we left off? Is it an invincible boomer thing - a reluctance to look our future in the eye without tinged lenses? Maybe.
In the meantime, here's a simple wintah painting. While I understand many are up to their ears in it already, winter is still an awful/pretty time of the year here in Maine when we settle down and take a minute to look around.
Wintah Wake Up • 8" x 8" acrylic framed to 12" x 12" • $250
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