The Joy Of The Oregon Coast...

The weather report was for light rain, high 50's with wind in the 15 to 30 mile per hour range.

The reality: Heavy to torrential downpour, mid to high 40's with a steady wind of about 40 with gusts up to 75 miles per hour.

I wish you could hear it from where I am. The wind is howling through the doors and windows. Every now and then the building actually moves and shakes from the gusts. It makes the rain sound like little rocks hitting the glass. The power flickers on and off.

Guess how many people are going venture out in this today to come look at art. No really, guess.

Anyone that guessed more than a big fat zero, you're wrong.

Holy Hurricane's Batman!

To the frame shop Boy Wonder. There is always work to be done in the name of fine art.

*****

Can you say, "It's time for a vacation?"

RAIN...

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Never mind...

In the amount of time it took me to write the last post, it clouded over and is now raining and hailing.

Puke!

Rainy Day...

I had lived in the Pacific Northwest before. I have lived in many places that had winters. Cold and foul weather. I never imagined that coming back to the northwest, after close to ten years in places of constant summer, would be so hard. It has been 10 months now. It's not just the northwest. It's small town northwest. I am pretty sure it's the small town part of this equation that I am still having trouble with. Even though I grew up in small towns, I have clearly been away from them for too long. I don't understand many things. I have become a snob. My expectations of others are unrealistic. Do I make things better by lowering my expectations or am I giving up? Is it fair for me to expect so much?

I have been told that I need to be more realistic. That I tend to spend too much time dreaming and worse, following those dreams. Is that a bad thing? What am I if I don't follow my dreams?

I know I have written about this same thing many times. That's what these sites are for right? Working these things out. Some days I'm at a total loss.

*****

The day is cold, and dark, and dreary:
It rains, and the wind is never weary:
The vine still clings to the moldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.

My life is cold, and dark, and dreary:
It rains, and the wind is never weary:
My thought still cling to the mouldering Past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast
And the days are dark and dreary.

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining:
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining:
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

*****


Yes, it's been raining for the last two weeks. Do you think it's getting to me?

There's No Place Like Home...

Where do I begin?
The last few days have been wild.

Thursday we(Precious, Mr.Man, Ivy Dog and I) went to Portland to deliver some art.
On the the way home the rain was coming down harder than I have ever seen. With about 20 miles left to the coast we were stopped. The highway was closed because of downed trees. It was about 3pm. After an hour sitting on the road without moving I drove up the wrong side of the highway past the line of other cars to Camp 18. It was only about 1/4 of a mile. Only about 20 others had thought of doing the same thing.

Camp 18 is a restaurant, 18 miles from the coast. It was built 20 years ago to resemble a logging camp. It's very cool. Large, well built, big fire place, bar, food, all the necessities. Once there we learned that power was out all over Oregon and Washington. The Camp has its own generator.
We kept hearing conflicting reports about how long we would be stuck. While we were there trees had fallen behind us as well so we could not go back to Portland either.

Long story short. We were stuck for about 20 hours. We spent the night at Camp 18 with about 30 others who came inside. The rest spent the night in their cars. Crazy.

Mr. Man and I spent most of the night under a table in the loft with an other family with two girls.


The woman was on her way to Cannon Beach for her wedding. I'm not sure she made it.


Mr. Man played most of the evening with the two girls which was a huge help. He could not figure out why we could not go home. He kept asking to leave. Precious did not want to leave Ivy Dog in the car all night so she spent most of the night in the car. Around 4am we traded.

At about 10am Friday morning a guy came in saying he had just cut a path in the highway between Jewel and Astoria. Anyone who wanted to follow him could most likely get to the coast that way. Most of us jumped at the chance. Highway 26 was going to be blocked for sometime. Up to 100 trees were reported down.

Camp 18 is the greatest for letting all of us stay and feeding us. They were life savers. We met some very nice people while there. It could have been much worse.

Along the drive we saw this heard of elk. About 200 head. This only part of it. I had to stop. The rest of the cars drove off. The storm was coming back and the winds were getting stronger.



Just up the road from the elk I slowed as this tree was coming down. I'm, glad I had stopped for the elk. The power pole on the left was bouncing up and down about to break. I drove under it anyway. I wanted to get home.


We finally made it home around 1pm Friday. To no power. About 1 million people across Oregon and Washington were without power. The radio was saying it would be Sunday or Monday at the earliest to get it back on.

Thank God, it came back on at 5:45pm Saturday. On the up side we are well stocked with fire wood, canned goods, water and other survival stuff. It was quite the adventure.

This tree was just down the road from our house. I can't believe it missed this coffee hut. How lucky was that?


Anyway, everything looks to be back to normal. At least for awhile. We're home. Safe. Our power is back. Our phones are working again. I have access to the outside world again. It's time for a Martini!

A Cross Road...

This is a view from our gallery today. What you can't see is that it is raining fairly hard and the wind is blowing about 40-50 miles an hour. The only cars on the street belong to those of us that are working.
I have spent too many years in So Cal and am now freezing my buns off. I do have the fire place burning, so it is nice and cozy inside the gallery.

The last couple of days have been spent on reflection and going through the inventory of my work. I have decided that more than half of them are going to get painted over and given a fresh start.

Maybe it is a period of self loathing. My work is just not up to professional standards.

After 20 some years in the art business and countless years of study, I have reached a place where I can almost always tell the difference between 'good' and 'not quite'. It has nothing to do with whether or not I like it, but the quality of the work. The good ones have three things; Head, Hand and Heart.

It isn't even something I can describe. It is more of a feeling. To be a real professional you need all three. Sure there are many people who have made a living having only one or two, but their work will never have any lasting value.

Over the last two years I have put much more effort into my painting than I have in some time. I think I have a good eye. I can see the designs in my head and they're good. My heart is still there. I feel my work as if it's a part of my soul that I slice off and put on display. It is my hand that is failing me. It is just not where it should be. Every now and then, the three come together and I create a work that is great.


This painting I think is one of the best I have ever done. Technically speaking.

Once in a while however, does not cut it. If it were another artist that wanted to show in my gallery I would tell them they are not quite ready yet. Well...

I'm not ready yet!. I need more practice, more study, more time... I may never have it. I know that. Most wont. I have met thousands of artists who are good, but will never take it to the next level.

I'm close. I can see the next level and it is killing me that I can't take it up a notch.

It leaves me at a cross road. 1) I can keep going down the same path, painting when I get the time. 2) I can sacrifice some of the time I want to spend with my wife and son in order to spend it in the studio. 3) I can give up being a painter and go back to photography. Precious likes my photographs more than my painting and has been trying ever so kindly to tell me, that's what I should do. Replacing all of my equipment is another set of roads. 4) I can chuck them all and devote all of my energy to the gallery and sell other artists work. 5) I can just sit down and stare at these many roads until I decide which one to follow. There will definitely be more intersections on all of them. 6) I can lay in the middle of one of the roads and hope I get run over and wont have to think about any of it any more. 7) And there are I'm sure other options I have yet to consider.

I wish there was a bar on one of these roads. Is it too early for a drink?

What is this wet stuff fallin' from the sky?

This past weekend, with the "Stormy Weather" events going on in town, was very busy. We had some great traffic through the gallery.

I was amazed at how many people came to see my work, and want to talk about the "Quick Draw". I ended up selling a couple other of the practice works I painted also.

This morning I was going to spend some quiet time in the gallery boxing a few things up for FedEx, try to clean the gallery up and re-hang the walls.

No such luck. It has been raining here since last Wednesday and has not let up. Right now it is still coming down in sheets. Anyway, the highway between where I live and the gallery is under water and closed. So I am stuck at home.

It makes me wonder how often it rains here. I am being sarcastic of course, because I know for a fact that it rains here a great frickin deal of the time. It's coastal Oregon for crap sake. What I want to know is why, in the last almost 200 F'ing years of this town being here, has NO ONE thought about raising highway 101 about 4 or 5 feet up so it wont flood? Am I the only one who has ever thought of that? Every bloody year the highway has to be closed for an indeterminate amount of time because the river over flows and ends up on the highway.

This is not to mention the fact that the streets flood, the parking lots flood, every building in town leaks. What the hell is wrong with these people?

The best part, is that every year they act surprised that it all floods and leaks.

Duh!

Ok, enough about these local Bozos.

Halloween pics are here! I know, you are excited. Clam down here they are.

The little guy was hard to photograph this year so there are only a few good shots. The one with me is not one of them.





Thank you very much to all of you who commented and emailed with support during my Quick Draw rantings. For something that only lasted and hour. It took about a month of hard work. Your support meant a lot to me. When I start giving away some of the practice works you will all be at the top of that list. Feel free to let me know which one you would like and where to send them. Unframed of course. Sorry, framing is expensive.

Lets hope I can get to the gallery some time this week. Looks like more rain.