One Week Until I Become More Bionic!

 View from the door of the Beluga

A month has passed since my last blog entry, and almost everything I've done since then has been focused on my upcoming total knee replacement, which is scheduled for a week from tomorrow.  

When we moved to Tucson for the summer so I could get medical treatment, I had these ideas about joining arts organizations and maybe joining a collective studio and all that.  But it wasn't realistic.  Pretty much, I can't walk anymore.  So I can get out and do stuff if there's a scooter or wheelchair available, but otherwise, not so much.

 One morning when I had the pool completely to myself!

So I've mostly sat at home, but I have no complaints.  There is a nice swimming pool and hot tub here at the South Forty RV Ranch, and I can hobble enough to get into the pool, which is nice and refreshing at the end of a hot day.  We're close to lots of good restaurants and grocery stores and everything else we might need.  Steve has friends and relatives here, so we've had a built-in social life.

And, it's temporary.  Once I have my surgery and have completed my PT, I'll be able to get out again, in ways that have been beyond my abilities for several years now.  

In the meantime, I'm working on some larger acrylic paintings for a solo art show in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.  I'll be at RioBravoFineArt Gallery in December 2014 and January 2015.  My show is called "Faces of God," and it's a fun exploration of spiritual beliefs and ideas.  Here are some of my pieces so far:

 God As Explained By a Four-Year-Old, 24 x 30", acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas

 Love, Sweet Love.  24 x 30", acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas

Chosen and Unchosen, 18 x 36", acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas

That's pretty much all that's going on with me from now until my surgery.  I'll be in the hospital for about four days and then at a rehab for twice-daily physical therapy for about a week.  I'll probably be back home, continuing PT on my own, when I post again in a few weeks.

Time to Hit the Road Again

A poster for my upcoming solo art show

I have this thing going on in Truth or Consequences next weekend.  It's Second Saturday Art Hop on April 12th, and I'll be showing my recent acrylic paintings and mixed-media works at January's.  If you're nearby, I hope you can come!  My artwork will be showing at January's for several months, but the opening on Saturday night will be the most fun, with live music and a tarot card reader.  

My work for this show has been very enjoyable and, in fact, it's kind of hard to stop painting and get moving.  I've been making monoprints from everyday objects--egg cartons, the wire binding on a notebook, bubble wrap, corrugated cardboard, etc.--and then painting whatever I am inspired to make from the simple print.  Lots of fun!  And it's interesting how something can transform from being just a bunch of rectangles to, say, runes or cards that are perhaps predicting a fabulous future.  I really don't know how that happens.  It isn't deliberate on my part.  Sometimes I really feel like my job is just to dip the brush into the paint and move the paint around on the canvas.  What it turns out to be seems to be a process that I am involved in, but don't dictate.  

 Snapshots from Space, acrylic on stretched canvas

Well, I'm in Why, Arizona, so I have a trip to make this coming week.  I'm packing up most of my recent artwork into my Tracker and I'm heading over to TorC.  I'm not taking my motorhome, the Beluga, with me on this trip, since it's a quick one and I have a friend to stay with in New Mexico.   

Meet Me Downtown, acrylic on stretched canvas

My Tracker is maybe not turning out to be the best tow vehicle for me.  I'm not sure at this time.  This winter, I've had to make a lot of trips to Phoenix and a couple to Tucson, and I've found that the Tracker is not a comfortable vehicle for these longer trips.  So, I'm going to take my time and take two days to drive to TorC, and I hope to stay at a motel with a swimming pool.

Incubator.  Acrylic on stretched canvas.

I'll do the same on the way back home--except it will be a longer trip, because I have to go by way of Phoenix for a Motor Vehicles Division administrative hearing on April 15th.  I bought the Tracker in New Mexico, and when I got it back home to Arizona to get it titled and registered, the Arizona MVD records showed that there was a criminal restitution lien on the vehicle because a former owner had a driving while intoxicated conviction.  He was probably two or three owners back.  I have to go to this hearing to prove that I had no knowledge of the lien when I bought the car.  Boy, that should be easy!  If I'd had any idea there was this kind of glitch involved in buying the car, I would never have bought it!  I guess they just have to be sure that the buyer isn't somebody who is in collusion with the criminal defendant, trying to help him get rid of the car without having to pay the victim. 

 Runes.  Acrylic on stretched canvas.

The Tracker has also needed some repairs.  A new starter, then a timing belt.  Now a relay switch for the A/C, which I hope can get installed before I leave for my trip on Wednesday, because it's supposed to be in the 90s during my two driving days to New Mexico.  I use a shade tree mechanic who is too thirsty to work some days, so I'm not sure if this will happen.  If he's not at work on Monday morning, I'll bite the bullet and go to the bigger repair shop in Ajo.    

Two-spread from an altered book

I'm also going to go sign a will at a lawyer's office while I'm in Phoenix on the way back home.  So I'm taking three days to get back from TorC, and I will do a little sightseeing and relaxing along the way.  

Two-page altered book spread with spiral pop-up

And then when I get back, it will be almost time to head off to cooler climes for the summer.  We're thinking Prescott.  And it will be time to begin work on my next show, which will be another solo art show at the Happy Belly Deli in Truth or Consequences, coming up in November.  This one will be an all paper show, and I'm looking forward to spending the summer exploring paper crafts.  I've finally begun doing some altered books and pop-ups, which are bucket list items for me.