Inside the Gilded Cage

A Good Year

2007-06-03T17:00:00.000-04:00

"A Good Year", 12x16, oil on Raymar panel

I realize that I haven't made any entries in this blog for a very long time, but that hasn't precluded me from thinking about my friends that I once had here. I hope that almost everyone's doing well (though I do know that some of you are not) and blogging away happily still. Today, I decided that I could probably still write better than a 5th grader, so here I am back on my old blog, where I once incessantly wrote my heart out. If you have ever wondered what happened to the Globetrotter, she's been painting her heart out and posting regularly over on her paint blog at PaintDance.

Hopefully an old friend or two will still remember me and possibly drop a line to say hello.

Back in March, the hubby and I took a fun trip up the coast of California, which included a visit of course to wine country! There were so many wineries in Napa and Sonoma Valley that it became difficult to determine which to visit and which ones to pass over. We found 2 fabulous finds that day, but I'll save #2 for another day. We totally enjoyed the winery of August Briggs in Calistoga and have wine in our rack to prove it. This is one of the very few wineries in California that does not charge a tasting fee, and the education that accompanied our journey into that very special wine cellar was almost as stellar as the samplings we enjoyed. I highly recommend this winery for many reasons, and that is why I decided to include one of the August bottles in one of my very rare realism paintings.

Over the weekend I determined that it was high time to invest another effort into my realism painting. Although I find colorist impressionism much more fun to do than realism, I truly appreciate the paintstaking efforts that go into realistic still life paintings. One of my biggest problems in attempting realistic still life paintings, is a total lack of north light indoor lighting in my home. So, instead of fighting against confusing light sources, I finally decided to take the setting out to my front porch, where I was able to catch a very nice north light (albeit outdoor) on my bottle of August Briggs cabernet. I also pulled out a tablecloth that I'd purchased in Heidelburg, Germany, and a lovely ceramic carafe that I'd purchased in Strasbourg, France, and the overall composition seemed as ripe and lively as the grapes that most certainly went into that cabernet sauvignon.

I titled this painting "A Good Year" after Peter Mayle's book and the delightful movie starring Russell Crowe, (which incidently had little resemblance to the novel itself). The title will hopefully also serve as a swan song to my endless drivel about the benefits of living in Pennsylvania over Florida. Yes, for me, it's been a very good year in Gatorland.

If you'd like to see what else I've been up to over the past 6 months, just check out my art website here. Otherwise drop me any email (as some of you still do), and let me know what's going on in your lives.

a Painting a day, Daily painters, original art , affordable art, still lif paintings,home decor paintings,Napa Valley Art Art,gardens and florals,colorist art,California Art, Calistoga Wineries, August Briggs winery.
.

My God can beat up your God

2006-11-17T19:49:00.000-05:00

The other day I was sitting at Farlows sipping Chardonnay with the hubster and the guy at the table behind me suddenly said, "Well, it seems there IS a God after all!"

"Whaddaya mean?" asked someone at his table.

"Well...The Dems have regained control of the House, and the Senate, and Rumsfeld got canned! Yup. There is a God after all!"

I turned around to him and said, "Amen,brother!"

I couldn't believe my ears. I was sitting smack center in the heart of Red country and yet the tide had somehow turned purplish. Yes, I am still quite upset about the problems down here in my district, where Christine Jennings got screwed out of her seat in the House of Representatives by a sleezy car dealership owner who reportedly has billions of bucks sequestered in offshore accounts. If I believed in conspiracy theories I'd be certain that those damned paper-trail-less e-voting machines had been tampered with. But I'm too upbeat these days to go there right now.

Sadly, some of my friends who laughed their hynees off at me in 2004 are now having their own little hissy fits now. As one male GOP friend of mine whined like a woman on the phone to me the other day with dire predictions of doom and gloom, I felt like saying:

Yeeeeees. There definitely IS a God!

Well,aside from THAT, I guess some of my blogging friends have given up on me. I don't blame them for taking my gilded cage out of their sidebars. In case anyone's been wondering where I have been, I've been painting. Yup. That's about it. The days when my life was wild and crazy are pretty much over. I suppose I'm thankful for that, although at times I miss some things about my old life, especially the years when the kids were young and I had my dance school and company. My new life is so boring that it's rather doubtful that I could ever again entertain anyone with the type of amusing anecdotes that I used to write about here. I suppose that's one of the big reasons that I've lost interest in writing. I've simply become a huge humdrum bore.

At any rate, I finally bought a new computer this week and it's fast as hell! Yay! So now I no longer have any excuse for not visiting my friends' blogs because of a slow, sick computer. However, I must admit that I do still post pretty regularly in my art blog, since it doesn't involve any writing skills to post a painting, so if you haven't checked it out yet, just go here.
to see what I've been up to with my paintbrush.

I was also interviewed on Monday for an article in our local paper, so if you want to see a picture of me in action with a paintbrush, you can just click here.

Other than that, I must admit that I feel a need to paint all the time because I guess I'm trying to catch up for lost time. I know that relatively speaking I don't have a lot of time left on earth to paint, and since the body and eyes are already giving out, I am doing my best to make up for lost time. Some days I regret not having had the opportunity to have attended art school, because it's tough trying to learn to paint in one's old age. But I know things turned out the way they should have, so I don't fret about things like that for very long.

My 3 sons are doing well, thanks be to God. The youngest is still happy over the success of the Lieberman campaign , where he worked over the past 6 months. The middle one just finished his law school applications today, and is probably going out tonight to get shit-faced. The oldest is already over the fiancee-from-hell fiasco and grazing in much greener pastures these days.

So now that you've all caught up with my boring life, it's time for me to come and visit YOU! I promise that I'll try...

Press Release, Broad voting problem in Sarasota County

2006-11-09T13:59:00.000-05:00

Okay, I haven't posted in this blog in a few weeks, but I am furious! So I'm going wherever I can to be heard, including here!

SUBJECT: Inexplicable undercount in Sarasota County, Florida

To the Press and whom it may concern,

Before you read what I have to say, you can go to today's article in the Herald Tribune for more info by clicking here.

I am outraged by what is happening here in Sarasota County, Florida. There is a very mysterious undercount in Florida's 13th district, which is ironically the former Katherine Harris district. Results indicate that Christine Jennings (D) would have definitely beat Vern Buchanan (R) in the 13th district of Florida AND WON THE ELECTION had these broad problems in certain Sarasota County precincts not occurred. She lost by less than 400 votes, although absentee ballots have not yet been counted. She strongly beat Buchanan in other Sarasota County precincts where these irregularities did not occur. Think about it: People do not go to a mid term election poll and vote for a Hospital Superintendent and NOT for their congressional candidate!!! There is an 18,000 undervote for congressional candidates in this 13th Sarasota County district that is NOT explainable!!!

In my opinion, Kathy Dent, Supervisor of elections, is a biased official, not for the people, as well as being unprofessional and unethical. (I can cite instances, press, if you wish to email me). She pushed for the e-voting machines here, designed the ballot in the 13th district, and her own people PROGRAMMED it. Why is it that in my precinct (#134) the choices for the candidates for congress (to replace Katherine Harris's seat) appeared in a prominent position right on the middle of the first page where I voted, yet the position for the candidates CHANGED totally on the ballot in other precincts that used the SAME voting machines? A friend of mine, whose name I'll give the press if you email me, was a Democratic poll worker in the 89th precinct on Tuesday and at the polls she was called over to assist someone who was unable to find Christine Jenning's name on the ballot. When my friend went over to assist that person, at first she couldn't find Christine's name either! It seems to have been hidden on the top left hand corner of the second page as a result of the way the screen view had been set up. The only way to know that Jennings was even on the ballot was to wait until you got to the very end review, where you would see that you hadn't voted for the candidate of your choice and it had been left blank. There were dozens of people that day who complained that they could not find their candidate!Unfortunately they left the polls unsure and confused about what to do. In addition, I'm told that Kathy Dent was alerted to the problem during early voting over the past weeks and did nothing to REMEDY IT! Kathy Dent even had the nerve to warn people that the candidates name was hard to find in the congressional race. Unfortunately, she waited until the night before elections to post the warning and many people didn't receive the warning until it was too late! What people around the country need to realize is that the people in some of these districts are VERY, very elderly. In addition, in some of the poorer trailer park districts they are also woefully under-educated in the workings of technology, and could easily have voted without reviewing their choices. The fact of the matter is that Kathy Dent needs to be removed immediately, and her group should not have been given the opportunity to program these computers in the first place. Something definitely needs to be done about this anomaly and since Kathy Dent is the one responsible for these miserable voting machines, she needs to be held accountable. If you are reading this or are a member of the press, please spread the word! A recount will probably not help. The matter needs thorough investigation as do the machines, as I , and many other people I know, believe that there was tampering of these machines!

Any help to get the word out by press or individual would be greatly appreciated!.
You can email me at globetrotter2u@aol.com@aol.com, if you have any questions.

voting irregularities in Florida,
Katherine Harris district voting problems, Christine Jennings, Vern Buchanan , Kathy Dent, voting machine problems,

NO DSL IS WORSE THAN PMS

2006-10-17T21:08:00.000-04:00

"The world is your kaleidoscope, and the varying combinations of colors which at every succeeding moment it presents to you are the exquisitely adjusted pictures of your ever-moving thoughts." (James Allen)

I have been a vewy, vewy bad blogger, basically because I haven’t had any DSL service for a couple weeks. Uploading pictures has become Chinese torture for me, and even waiting for other sites to load makes me nuts. So until I get my DSL working again, I’m simply not going to waste my time looking at an hourglass spinning.

I have been painting a lot, though.

On Sunday I decided to skip my class at Ringling and join the Plein Air painters in my area for the first paint-out of the season. I had never painted outdoors in late afternoon before, so was I ever in for a treat! We ended up at the Casperson Beach Park and another painter and myself chose to paint the park’s canoe launch into the Intracoastal. I finished it today and am satisfied that I was able to capture the luminous light quality of that late day Florida sunlight.

Casperson Beach Park, oil on gallery-wrapped-canvas, 12 by 16

Here is the photograph that I took of the spot that day.

After viewing the photo it’s easy to see why so many landscape painters elect to paint outdoors instead of using a reference photograph. There is absolutely no way that my camera could capture that incredible light quality and the way in which the foreground was literally “lit up” like a jewel!

I'm still hoping the hubby's contract will end soon so I can take a road trip north to see some autumn foliage in the next few weeks. I’ll try to catch up with everyone’s life when Comcast hooks me up to high speed again. (Scheduled for Friday!Yay!)

Hoping all is well with my blogging friends,
Maryanne

No food fight here

2006-09-26T21:32:00.000-04:00

It came over me insidiously.

I’ve gone and become a food addie. Or should I say faddy? Yeah, watchin’ all these food networks and food channels sure makes me feel hungry all the time.

Chris started it. He got me hooked on Hell’s Kitchen. That’s when my life started to revolve around every episode. Even the hour-long weekly re-runs! Well, thankfully that ended quickly, since I tuned in late in the season...

Then, thanks to Waterboy and his food fight, I started watching The Food Network. Now I’m hooked on The Iron Chef. These chefs concoct recipes in that kitchen that’ll either have you salivating or give you indigestion. The secret ingredient one week was pork. I personally hate pork, but nonetheless I sat there for a full hour watching pork being made into appetizers, entrees, soups and even desserts. You heard me – desserts! Iron Chef Cat Cora actually made a gelato with pork rinds in it. I thought I’d puke. I’m glad she lost that night against her challenger, because I’ll never eat gelato again after thinking about ice cream with bacon in it. LAst week the secret ingredient was eggplant. Cat Cora made some cotton candy, dipped it in red pepper and stuck it in her eggplant soup. Creative-yes! Delicious=?????????

A couple weeks ago I finally got to meet the sensuousG-I-A-DA. A goddess to some, a cheesy smile to others, if you ask me. I watched intensely as She whipped up a quick meal using- you guessed it- pork again! My least favorite ingredient. She took a pork roast, gave it a good rub, (Paul and company were you watching?) and drowned it in some puréed figs. Worse yet, she took some fennel and cooked it in olive oil and parmesan cheese, and that was all there was to the rest of the meal. Well, I figured if food like that could give Giada those perky boobs, then I sure as hell better try some too.

So I went out and bought all the ingredients, even though I wouldn't have known a fennel if it introduced itself to me. Luckily, I made mashed potatoes with the meal. The husband took a couple nibbles of Giada's masterpiece and told me that the Italians can have their fennel and their figs. We liked the potatoes though. Last weekend Giada took her viewers on a whirlwind tour of Italy. The hubby came into the room while I was watching and I told him he could thank the cutie with the “It’s sooooooooo good!” smile for last weekend's pig roast. He stared at her awhile and I waited to see if he’d walk closer to the TV and try to look down her blouse. He didn’t. He looked kinda puzzled, and then turned and said to me, “You really think she’s attractive?”

I said noooooooo, but some people do.

His verdict? She’s way too perky for him, and exceedingly unsexy. He does like Cat Cora though. I guess he's into kinkiness.

Go figure...

Adding fertilizer to a creative mind- The Dreamhouse

2006-09-19T09:29:00.000-04:00

This topic of this week's Round Robin Photo Challenge is "Dreamhouse" suggested by Gem.

In this post I decided to demonstrate a few examples of how living in one’s dreamhouse can certainly feed a creative person's juices, as well as causing indigestion from excess in others, as you'll see below.

My first example is "Sunnyside", which was once the gorgeous summer cottage of author Washington Irving.

"A pretty country home is like a pretty wife-one is always throwing away money on decorating it," wrote Irving. The wisteria-covered fairytale-like "cottage" is made up of odd angles and gabled roofs and corners that sort of resemble an old cocked hat, and in addition to the architecture, the home’s gardens and interior are intriguing in every detail. My thoughts are that the house perfectly reflected the eccentric author’s whimsical, romantic nature, and thus set the stage for producing those well-loved shivery tales like "Rip Van Winkle" and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Sunnyside is located right smack on the banks of the Hudson River in Tarrytown, New York and is open to visitors throughout the year. A trip there is bound to stir the imagination of even the most infertile mind, and don’t be surprised if Irving makes good on his promise to haunt the place (though in a good natured way).

As far as visual artists are concerned, the list of painters who derived inspiration from living in their dreamhomes or dream region is endless. Paul Cézanne, for example, was convinced that only in his beloved Provence , a land steeped in light and intense sensations, would he find and fulfill his quest for artistic truth. However, my all-time favorite painter is Claude Monet, and his adoration for his home at Giverny is one of the most dramatic examples of how one’s surroundings can affect one’s craft.

The house itself, a typical French farmhouse with blue shutters, is charming, almost quaint, and picturesque.

But it was undoubtedly the magic of the surrounding gardens at Giverny, rather than the house itself, that was the muse behind this artist. The gardens were filled with an ever-changing display of flowers, and the sweeping willows and cypress trees created dancing reflections upon the glassy surface of lily-covered ponds. Being a plein air painter of light, Monet spent hours painting the same beloved scenes over and over again, capturing different seasons, times of day, light temperatures, and atmospheric moods within a grouping. The famous lily pond, the old fishing boat, the footbridge, and the Japanese garden were all a series of paintings that Monet rendered in gorgeous vibrating color, as an expression of his art and obvious love for his precious Giverny.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic Ocean an American painter and one of the founders of the acclaimed Hudson River School of Painting, was creating his very own dreamhouse.

“About an hour this side of Albany is the Center of the World – and I own it”, wrote Frederic Edwin Church in the late 19th century. He was referring to the exotic dreamcastle he had built and named ‘Olana’, which means “our place on high” in Arabic. Indeed the incredible Byzantine structure is dominated by a 360-degree panoramic view of the Hudson River Valley, which the artist painted so beautifully in his heyday.

I suppose that the early birth pangs of America’s Gilded Age influenced the sensibilities of Mr. Church, for in much the same way that the Newport Rhode Island “cottages” look like European mausoleums, Church's whim to insert foreign sensuality and drama into his dreamcastle resulted in what you see above. I must personally admit that I find Church’s home ostentatious, pretentious and frankly absurd in its total lack of charm and authenticity. But then again, I’ve been told I was French in a couple past lives, and charm always wins hands-down over influence when it comes to my preferences. So if I had my druthers, I’d live at Giverny. Interestingly, by the time Church’s lavish home was completed in 1876, the painter’s popularity had already begun to wane. He devoted much of the remainder of his life to decorating his beloved dreamhome, and perhaps his time would have been better spent painting outdoors instead.

Two vastly different homes, two vastly different painting styles- isn’t it ironic that both of these painters dramatically influenced and helped found two of the world’s most renowned art movements? And although both were under the influence of their “dreamhomes”, is it any wonder that the French think Americans are vulgar? If you’d like to learn more about the differences between Monet's Impressionism and Church's Hudson River School of Romanticism, you can read about it at my
art blog

Another favorite author of mine is Ernest Hemmingway. I’ve visited his dreamhouse on Key West a number of times. It’s rather untypical of the type of house that was built in Florida in the early 1900’s, being a two story Bahamian affair with the unlikely addition of a basement.

The upstairs room in which Hemingway wrote his stories is hot, dark, and uninteresting. It contains an old typewriter and some uncomfortable-looking furniture and only has two small windows. For me, the most inspiring thing about the property is its location at the tip of the Florida Keys, where the Atlantic Ocean converges with the Gulf of Mexico and the Bay of Florida. The property and grounds are spacious, however, and lush with tropical foliage. They are filled to this day with hundreds of cats, most of which have a thumb or extra ligament on their paws. Most of the house is furnished unremarkably with some pretty horrible light fixtures and chandeliers, which are supposedly the decorating contribution of one of the former wives. I do believe that this was Hemingway’s dreamhouse for the simple reason that it was located within walking distance of a favorite subject- the sea, and right across the street from the island’s only lighthouse. Rumor has it that Ernest needed the lighthouse in order to find his way home after drinking forays at nearby Smokey Joes. It stands to reason that Hemingway culled his inspiration not from the house itself, but from those bewitching seas and the sundry characters he encountered each night at his favorite watering hole.

Well, I could go on and on with this stuff. But no one wants to read a novel about dreamhomes on a person's blog.

So I’ll finish with this:

I did live in my own personal dreamhouse for 12 happy years. It was an incredibly special house and I really thought I’d die in it. I was inspired to create many beautiful ballets there, in my basement studio, and I also enjoyed creative writing from my office on the first floor, which overlooked a wildlife pond.

Today I live in southwest Florida and I paint. My palette is as hot and sultry as the weather here. I do believe that my paintings would have a much different tenor if I still lived in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania. But we’ll never know for sure, will we? So in order to express myself, I guess I’ll just go on painting deciduous trees in all their autumn glory stretching over the banks of the Florida Intracoastal, as you can see for yourself here:

To learn about the other Round Robin Challenger's Dreamhomes, please click the Round Robin link at the top of this post.

Round Robin Photo Challenge,
Impressionist, Claude Monet, Paul Cezanne, Frederic Edwin Church, Hudson River School, tonalism,Dreamhomes

Red Tide Bloom- AGAIN!

2006-09-15T08:41:00.000-04:00

Dead Fish on the Venice Waterway

Back in 2005, I wrote quite a few articles in my now private AOL Journal about a horrendous Red Tide Bloom that had plagued the southwest coast of Florida from December of 2004 until October of 2005. The bloom returned a few months ago and yesterday was my first brave attempt in weeks to try and eat lunch outdoors at Sharky's, which is right on the beach. I lasted all of 5 minutes before I went fleeing inside for shelter, all the while coughing and spewing my lungs out. Since I wrote the following article back in February of 2005, many things have happened here. I hate to say I told anyone so, but the red hot real estate market has pretty much collapsed, and there are reports that tourism in Sarasota County was down as much as 55% this past winter. Many believe that red tide has been not just a contributing factor, but a substantial reason for the decline. In addition, there have been studies going on that have documented a higher incidence of hospital admittance’s, as well as pet deaths, during the period of time in which the bloom reached highly toxic levels in 2005. So it now appears that in addition to killing fish, humans and pets are being affected adversely as well.

Gee. What a big surprise.

A few months ago I read in the Sarasota Herald Tribune about a scientist out of the University of Miami who was being supported with large grants for his research on red tide algae blooms. The scientist reported that his grant money was cut off inexplicably after he announced that he suspected that in addition to nitrogen, phosphorous run-offs into rivers and waterways in Florida were causing red tide to reach toxic levels. Reading further, I discovered that phosphorous is evidently much more difficult to extract from the soil than nitrogen, so this was news that certain people did not want to hear. Interestingly, one of the largest benefactors to the University of Miami, where this scientist was doing his research and receiving his grant money, is Florida Crystals, Inc, whose massive sugar farm holdings around Lake Okeechobee border some of Florida’s most fragile waterways, including the Everglades. How convenient to cut off research to a scientist who is telling the public that the key fertilizers necessary for successful production of sugarcane cannot be easily removed from the soil? If you’d like to read more about how the Sugar Industry has polluted politics and the environment in this country, just google Alfonso Fanjul or Sugar Sultans.

In order to keep up the public’s awareness of this horrible tragedy that is being perpetrated upon our Eco-systems, I am reprinting my journal entry from February of 2005.

March 13, 2005

When in the world is someone on the national news going to report what’s going on down here on the Southwest Coast of Florida?

It’s called red tide, my friends. Red Tide. And it’s very, very ugly.

I cannot believe that no one is reporting the massive red tide bloom epidemic that has plagued Florida’s beautiful Gulf Coast since December. It stretches from Tampa all the way down to Port Charlotte.

Now granted I have only lived here in Paradise for only 6 months, but the natives that I have spoken with have told me that the bloom has never been this widespread this early in the year (it apparently usually appears in summer), nor has it lasted this long.

Just today the Sarasota Herald Tribune reported that there was another sewage dump last summer that was never reported. And just last week there was another one in one of the Bayous of Sarasota…

Ah… Gee… Can we kinda figure out what is causing this behemoth to spread?

Now granted, no one wants to alarm all those incredibly rich folk in Sarasota and Siesta Key and Longboat Key (Katherine Harris, are you listening from your Mediterranean Villa, my dear?), nor Casey Key, home of many rich and famous including the widow of some Mafia don… a Victoria Capone or something. Not to mention Stephen King, plus the guy who invented flip top cans and oh yeah there’s…Oprah. (Wait! Oh jeez, how did I almost forget that Oprah has a yumongous estate right on the Gulf side of Casey Key?????)

Would she have the guts, I wonder, to report this filth on her show before she decides to put her beach-polluted palatial estate on the market?

Hey, Oprah. I have confidence in you. You’re an incredible lady in my book and losing 5 or 6 million on the sale of your 3rd or 4th home shouldn’t really be that much of a hardship. Heck, I’d even come on your show and talk about it if you’d have me!

I’ve been mentioning this problem of red tide in many of my recent journal entries, but if you haven’t been keeping up, here’s how bad it really is.

Red tide is a toxic bloom that affects the respiratory and neurological tracts of fish, mammals, and yes, humans.

At least 16 manatees have died recently. If you are not familiar with manatees they are huge, gentle mammals that live in warm coastal waters. They don’t do anyone any harm, but their horrifically huge, bloated bodies have washed up on the beaches far too regularly now over the past couple weeks.

A 450-pound grouper also washed up last week on Manasota Key, just south of where I live in Venice, Sarasota County. Cause of death- suffocation from red tide. Interesting that grouper is one of those "prohibited fish" for a few months on the year down here in Southwest Florida. No one is allowed to serve grouper in restaurants or fish for grouper for fear of over-harvesting. Yet here’s this huge fish dead on the beach because of… because…. Of what???????

My husband and I drove to posh Gasparilla Island last Sunday for a bike ride. Boca Grande (where the first President Bush takes his vacation every Christmas) is located on this very lovely, private island just north of Captiva and Sanibel Islands. We went to the beach for a picture, and though it looked beautiful as hell, (sorry for the bad analogy), we couldn’t stand being out in the open for more than one minute. That is how much we were coughing. Coughing and hacking and spewing our lungs up. We quickly ventured further inland. Still coughing but a bit better…

Finally we gave up, and left a truly memorable and frankly lovely island for lost (without dinner, no less), both of our lungs feeling as though they had been seared without the marinade.

On the road that leads off the island we saw a woman out for an afternoon walk. She was wearing one of those gas masks over her face that contractors wear that work with insulation. It was also the kind of thing that I figured Israelis have in their homes as regularly as Americans have alarm systems. Good to have in the case of emergency.

I said to my husband, "See that? Everyone will need one soon if they don’t do something soon!"

Frankly, it was surreal.

My mother visited us last week. I was ashamed to take her out on our beautiful beach because there were so many dead fish everywhere. The poor things suffocate and then wash up on the beach in droves. Most of the gulls and pelicans and other birds avoid them, but I have recently started to see birds eating the dead, toxic fish.

We are now reading warnings in the local papers that say that humans eating the fish can also be poisoned. Shellfish eaters are apparently especially vulnerable.

We took a 2-hour kayak ride last Saturday at Placido, which is about 30 minutes south of Venice. As I kayaked through the shallow, brackish water, all I could see were beautifully colored dead fish lying on their sides on the bottom of the water. Thank the lord they weren’t floating belly up as I had expected dead fish to do! I did not see any live fish at all. The pelicans and osprey and herons were poking around in the water. I wondered if they were hungry.

We had lunch at least 4 different times in the past couple weeks at a couple of our favorite restaurants on the Gulf. One (Pelican Alley) we left without ordering because every time I peeked over the dock I saw dead, bloated fish floating past me. At Sharkeys on the Pier, they had to put plastic around all the tiki huts because people were coughing so darned hard! I heard a waitress tell a tourist, "Don’t worry. Have a few beers and after a while you won’t notice a thing!"

We’ve noticed that the local fisherman who love to fish off the piers and jetties are getting scarcer and scarcer each day.

A woman I talked to today at the market told me she lives right on the beach but has been unable to go out and do any garden work for weeks on end because of coughing spasms.

The dry, acrid cough is horrible. You feel your lungs spasm and then you just begin to cough and cough until you finally run for cover.

The corrupt officials down here keep reporting that they don’t know what is causing it. (Don’t forget that this is Katherine Harris country, folks).

Yet, marine biologists at places like the Moat Aquarium are reporting that ground pollution like fertilizers being dumped into the Peace and Myakka Rivers could be a possible cause.

So why doesn’t someone speak up so that we can save our precious ecosystem before it’s too late?

I’ll tell you why…

The housing market is red hot down here. Open the Sunday Herald Tribune and anyone can see for themselves that homes on the water in Sarasota are selling for 6,7,8… hell ten million dollars! And that’s pretty commonplace. People are speculating with real estate and turning over homes and condos 3 or 4 times before the end user finally occupies. It’s an even bigger bubble than the market I was used to back on Philadelphia’s Main Line, where 2 and 3 million-dollar homes were rather commonplace, but certainly not 8,9, and 10 million-dollar homes.

In addition, tourism is the other critical factor. Without tourism, many businesses and restaurants would go belly-up. (Hmmm…. another lousy analogy?)

And although I don’t want to break anyone’s real estate bubble or hurt any of the shopkeepers or small business owners feeling smug down here in Paradise, I can say one thing for certain. The tides will turn. It’s inevitable.

And guess what? They’ll be red.

Technorati tags:

Red Tide Bloom, living in florida, Algae Blooms

5 years later- Remembering 9/11

2006-09-11T10:04:00.000-04:00

Venice Airport sign. (The flight training school is located in the small gray building to the left of the sign.)

I’d imagine that there’s very few people living in the United States today who do not recall exactly where they were and what they were doing on September 11th, 2001. For myself and most other Americans, I'd imagine that the horror of those hours immediately after the first tower was hit will be recorded indelibly in the mind forever.

Five years ago my life was hectic and full of stress. As a realtor, I was busily making appointments to show houses to people at 9 o’clock that morning, when my attention was diverted inexplicably to the nearby television set. The rest of the day was like a bad dream, and for days afterwards I recall waking up in the morning and hoping that it had really been just a nightmare that refused to fade.

Ironically, today I live in the town where the terrorists trained for their suicide mission. We moved to Venice, Florida two years ago and it was one of my kids who broke the news to me.

Scott: “Mom, you know how much you and Dad like to go to Sharky’s on the Pier and drink margaritas and dance?”

Me: “Yeah. So what?”

Scott: “Well the airport right across from Sharky’s is where the 9/11 terrorists trained.”

I was surprised at first, until I thought about it a little more. My husband and I have affectionately dubbed Venice, “The Land of the Walking Dead”, since it’s a sleepy little town where the average resident’s age is about 80 plus. Truth be known, the most exciting thing that people talk about here are finding shark’s teeth on the beach and sea turtle hatchlings. So it was hardly surprising that a bunch of terrorists would have found it rather easy to move about without being noticed, as they learned how to fly airplanes. Coincidentally, another piece of trivia is that Venice is located in Sarasota County, where in the next town over President Bush sat reading stories to children on the morning of the attack.

The Venice airport is very small, and directly across the street from the beach where I often go to paint.

This photo was taken at the beach directly across from the airport, where I recently created the painting below it.

Most days I only fight off red ants while I paint, but today I began wondering if I’d have crossed paths with a more formidable enemy had we lived here 5 years ago.

It hardly matters, I suppose, since I’m always looking at skies and trees and shadow patterns, and never at the people who are walking around me.

I’m surprised that some smart-ass hasn’t changed the welcome billboard into town to read: "Venice- A great place to live and play…and train terrorists. "

My hope for the future is that some day, somehow, the world will be able to consider terrorists in the same light that I look at red ants- annoying irritants that aren’t deadly.

God bless America.

Technorati tags:

Venice Beach, living in florida, Venice Airport

New news, new art blog and a new place to get buzzed

2006-09-09T14:32:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone.

Sadly, since I've last blogged, I've discovered some major changes in my little blog world of special people. One of my favorite bloggers has taken a sabbatical from blogging. Although I am a huge fan, I understand the need. Thankfully, Robin has such an incredible wealth of gorgeous pictures and information on her blog about religion, world travel, art, and philosophy that my needs shall continue to be met to my dying day, even if she decides to never post again. Thanks so much, Gannet Girl . I am still crying overApollo as I type this...

PS: I did send you a very, very long heartfelt comment that never got posted, thanks to AOL. (Why I keep that piss-ant service is beyond me...)

In addition, two long time buddies have endured fights with heart disease and breast cancer during my absence. Somedays it's really mind-boggling to contemplate everything. My prayers continue to go out to Vince and Kimberleigh...

I've been tied up with things that have kept me from blogging and leaving comments on my favorite blogs for quite a few weeks now. Here's the Reader's Digest version of what's been going on:

Wedding Bell Blues:
God does answer prayers. In this case, I would much have preferred that He/She answer it a year ago. In His/Her time frame, canceling a wedding with a little over a month to go has been heartbreaking and costly for all involved. My prayers go out to my son's jilted fiancee and her family, but my thanks go out to God for granting my hoped-for prayer.

Website crashed:
My art website crashed, (too many pictures) and in the process of re-building it I recreated it for many days on a hosting site that doesn't really exist. Warnings to all, and I hope that the perpetrators of www.intrahost.com rot in hell.

New Art Blog:
I've been feeling quite guilty for the longest time that I bore some of my regular readers with the conundrums of my life as an emerging artist. For that reason, I have decided to start an art blog that relates solely to art. In addition to art tips, new art and "paint masturbation", I'll be posting some small original art there that people can purchase instantly for only $50. Read my first entry here: Paint Dance

Still in Florida:
My dreams of escaping the swamp have dissipated like dust in the wind. The hubby continues on with his current work project as I wallow in my turpentine. However, we are still hoping to leave for an escapist trip up north in October, in lieu of the long-awaited Wedding from Hell.

New place to get drunk:
I really don't drink a whole lot any more. Really! I'd much rather paint than feel tipsy and bloated by mango-bangos. However, the hubby and I recently discovered a new place that almost makes it bearable to live in Florida all year, as well as inbibe in drinks to the tune of jungle drums and macaws mating. It's called "Farlows" and comes complete with a water view, a tropical rain forest setting, a tasty Caribbean menu and live Bob Marley music on certain nights. (I know. I know. 'Cept how can it be live when poor ole Bob's been dead for quite awhile?...)

Anyhow, we went there for the fourth time in one week last night while a band called "Democracy" played "Stir it Up" and the hubby and I drank it up while dining on fresh crab in a pineapple boat with Caribbean rice and mangos. Here's a pic of the garden in the daytime...

Gallery News:
I finally had "Autumn at French Creek" reframed for Abbacino Galleria. It looks great and is available for $525 by contacting the gallery. You can see it on my website by clicking the Oil Gallery link here : My Gallery and Website

Next week they are having an auction to benefit Girls, Inc. of Sarasota. I can't wait. I am donating my "Thirsty" painting because I was so impressed by the work this group does with impoverished young girls. The former owner of The Florida Buccanneers donated a tiger painting to be auctioned off that night, too. I saw the invoice for the painting and am wondering if anyone will match the $33,000 originally paid for it. I certainly hope so, since this is such a good cause.

Okay, I've tried to keep this as short as possible, but know I haven't been terribly successful.

Hope everyone is well and enjoying the lovely pre-fall weather around the country.

Maryanne

Technorati tags:

new art blog, living in florida, a painting a day, Bob Marley

Short and sweet

2006-08-26T09:29:00.000-04:00

Crack Skull Bob/aka Wally Torta is hosting a collection of artists' work inspired by poetry, so I decided to work bassackwards and write a hiaku to go along with my new cow painting.

"Bucolic Beauty", © Maryanne Jacobsen, oil on canvas panel

Meander slowly
sweet brook of quiet waters,
refreshing and pure.

How sick am I?

2006-08-18T14:17:00.000-04:00

As Robert Genn of The Painter's Keys points out in a recent newsletter, every now and then some researcher will publish fresh info on the mental or physical problems that often besiege creative people. The general implication of these articles is that you have to be a bit of a sicko in order to be creative. The research suggests that many historic artists have had something physically or mentally wrong with them throughout the course of their artistic careers. However, the latest news declares that illnesses, rather than being obstacles, can be the paths to genius. Dr. Paul Wolf, of the University of California, cites Einstein, Warhol, Newton, Cezanne, Goya, Michelangelo, Turner and Berlioz as perfect examples. According to Dr.Wolf, these folks all suffered varying degrees of depression, autism, myopia, anxiety, chronic pain, gout, stroke and dementia throughout their lives. In addition, other studies seem to indicate that problems with vision actually lead to the Impressionist movement! Citing Monet, Renoir and Cassatt, the implication is that eye problems helped the artists to paint the way that they did. Cezanne is mentioned for a condition that caused the colour blindness that shows up in his work. Van Gogh's probable epilepsy is believed to have spurred on his hallucinatory imagery—hence the fuzz and swirls around the stars in "Starry Night." (Personally speaking, I find it rather hard to believe that someone could paint while in the throes of an epileptic seizure.) Edvard Munch had "floaters," which also floated around in his paintings. I guess he was also one of those primal screamers, don’tchathink?

After contemplating the above, I conceded that my eye problems, which include floaters, myopia, astigmatism and now farsightedness, have affected my painting to a certain degree. As a matter of fact, while I was painting in my impressionist class yesterday, one of the guys in the class looked over at my painting and said, “Is something wrong with your eyes? Do you really see colors that way?” I just ignored him. But eyesight is way down at the bottom of the list when it comes to my own personal painting obstacles. It’s my state of mind that affects my art most profoundly, and therefore I try very hard to control my environment. For example, I’ve noticed that turning off CNN in favor of a Mozart CD while painting can totally alter the tone and subject of a painting as well as my color choices. And if I’m feeling depressed or a little bit psycho some days, what goes down on my canvas is usually a reflection of that mood.

Last Saturday, I picked some pretty flowers from my garden, added a couple of sunflowers that I purchased at Whole Foods and decided to stage a still life in my kitchen/studio.

My mood was really upbeat and within a couple of hours I felt I had made a very nice beginning, even though I was using acrylics, which I’m still inexperienced using. But over the course of the next couple days all hell broke loose in my life and slowly but surely the painting started to change, too.

Without going into too much detail, my three sons sent my stress levels through the ceiling this week. The oldest is canceling his wedding that was less than two months away. (For very good reason I might add, though that doesn’t make it any less distressing). The youngest, who is still working for Senator Lieberman up in Connecticut, managed to lose his wallet, cell phone and break down on the highway all in the same day. The middle one was stranded in Minneapolis over the weekend (thanks to the wonderful new airline restrictions that caused long delays and overbooking at the airports) and needed emergency money wired to him to get him back to his job in Boston by Monday.

Of course, it’s always mom and dad who come to the rescue as banker, shrink, and triple A. By Wednesday, I had finished my still life painting and yesterday I finally had a chance to sit down and observe what had become the literal wilting of my once-promising piece of art. The once perky flowers were now drooping, petals falling and stems akimbo, and the soft pastel lighting I’d wanted as a background had become rather garish on one side. A once lively and upbeat painting now looked bedraggled, and it seemed to echo my own depleted energy and emotional levels. I originally had titled the painting, “Just picked”. It’s now called “Thirsty and Wilting”.

In conclusion, I think the guys who did those studies were on to something. But regardless of how many nutcase artistic types there are, I also know there are plenty of creative people around who are healthy, happy, and untortured souls. For me, I know there will be more good days to create uplifting paintings than bad ones. I’m also fortunate that I don’t need to sell my art in order to eat, although that could change if my sons continue their current trends. The last thought that I had, thanks to that funny Inane Guy Chris, is that orgasmic art could become a bigger trend than organic art. And if Van Gogh can paint while having a seizure, why can’t others paint while experiencing pleasure? Just imagine what masterpieces could be created! So next time the sons start calling with their woes, I’ve decided to set up my easel in the bedroom and share the thumbhole in my palette with the hubby...

Cow Pee and how to send the Dems into the wilderness

2006-08-13T14:00:00.000-04:00

There are days when I really hope there’s an afterlife. Days when I feel like hell warmed over, usually from listening to CNN while I paint. Life is getting harder and harder it seems. And I admit that I am one of Earth’s luckier inhabitants, at least for now. The local news is really bad- filled with missing children, perversion, murder and corruption night after night. My dreams have become a series of nightmares every night. I wonder why.

I don’t know why I don’t go to church anymore, since I really could use a good dose of religion. I guess the aftermath of guilt developed from a Catholic upbringing and the nasty taste I have in my mouth for the fundamentalist Christianity I embraced in the nineties prior to the Bush debacle have made me weary of it all. I could never be a Muslim, however, or a Jew, (if there’s a God, I’m betting on Jesus), or one of those New Agers that talks to rocks and grows crystals. So where does that leave me? Depressed mostly.

Speaking of the Bush debacle, it’s official. Poor Joe Lieberman has become another casualty of Bush’s radioactivity.

Since I wrote about the primary in a couple of my past posts, here’s how I feel about his defeat.

I think that Ned Lamont’s victory (with the accompanying media frenzy surrounding the primary in general) has definitely sent the Democratic Party into the wilderness. I personally think it’s assured another GOP victory in 2008. Why so negative? Because as a person who is vehemently against the war and George Bush, I nevertheless can also say that I will always be a moderate in values. I could never align myself totally to the radical politics of the George Sorros and Jesse Jackson crowd that backed the multi-millionaire any more than I would align myself with the Ann Coulters and Pat Robertsons that make up the Republican Taliban. This in spite of the fact that watching George Bush talk on TV either sends me into the bathroom to vomit, or to the floor in fits of laughter over his idiocy.

So if I refuse to join the fringe festivals, where does that leave me? In the wilderness, my friends… in the wilderness. Although I am closer in values to the Democratic Party’s way of thinking, if I am forced to choose between a Hillary Clinton and a John McCain in 2008, I’ll vote for McCain. Hillary can disguise herself as a moderate all she wants. She’ll never fool me, even if she were to don a Condelezza Rice recycled Barcalounger suit. And although I respect Hillary’s intellect tremendously, I don’t trust her integrity and never will. Intuition. It's just intuition.

Personally, I think it’s high time we had a successful third party in this country.A purple voice so to speak. One that melds the best of the red and blue voices together and represents a moderate American like myself. In fact, I think a McCain/Lieberman Independent ticket would be a real winner for folks like myself who are currently disgusted with both sides. Bedazzled, my blogging buddy and a staunch Bush supporter agreed it would be a helluva ticket in terms of sending a message to both parties. Anyone else on board? By the way, in case you didn't get it, the color purple results when you put blue and red together...

Hmmm… how to get that going? I think I'll start another blog and try to find out if I am on the right track or not. Let's find out how many purple voices are out there!

Okay. Done with that.

Here’s my finished painting of the Spanish dancer. I’ve decided to call her "Kitri" after the heroine in the ballet Don Quixote. I screwed up the lace effect on her costume so I took the easy way out and made it into a pattern instead. She looks quite lovely in person and I think for once I am happy with this first attempt of mine at portrait painting.

"Kitri", oil on canvas

I took a class last week with a woman who was supposed to have studied the Impressionist method of painting. It took me all of 10 minutes to realize I knew more than she did about color. However, she did introduce me to a new oil paint color that I had been previously unaware of. It’s called Indian Yellow. Unlike the cadmium’s, it’s translucent, so great for glazes. Guess how they make the pigment? From the urine of cows that have been fed mango leaves! Ya gotta wonder who figures this stuff out!

Tomorrow will be the Hell’s Kitchen finale…. Down to the last two chicks. I’m betting that Heather will win and I always, ALWAYS get this reality TV stuff right. Just ask my husband who’s lost every bet he’s ever made with me!

That’s it for now. Gotta go whip up some cow pee glaze for my newest painting, which I just started this morning. Guess what the focal point of the painting will be?

"Cows", first notes

Technorati tags:

Joe Lieberman, Ned Lamont, Connecticut, Democratic Party

How does my garden grow?

2006-08-08T22:57:00.000-04:00

This week's Round Robin Photo Challenge asks the question "How does your garden grow?"

As much as I complain about Florida, there are certain things about it that I truly love.
To name a few: the exotic birds, the marine life, the amazing sunsets, and the tropical flora that grows right in my own back yard.

I say this rather grudgingly because I still miss the changing of the seasons that occurs up north in the spring and fall and adorns trees in gowns so dramatic, that they'd make a costume whore blush in envy. However in Florida, there's a year-round parade of constantly changing exotica to make up for that lack of deciduous trees.

In response to the Round Robin Challenge, I wrote this poem after marveling at the fantasmagoric glory of colors and variety in my own back yard. The pictures were taken after a lunch with the hubby that included a couple margaritas and some really tasty moussaka at a new Greek restaurant we recently discovered. If the pictures appear fuzzy, just come join me for a couple margaritas and you'll never notice the difference!

"Tropical Fashion Show"

As I gaze at the trees so abundantly clad
And pregnant with flowers, I’m suddenly glad,
That God has provided these beautiful gifts
To cheer me through sorrow, mourning and rifts,
Weeping hibiscus, so graceful and small,
And cypress adorned with a Spanish moss wall,
Crepe myrtle’s all dressed for a night on the town
Jacaranda, she sulks in her lavender gown,
the elephant plant lays her ears to the ground
as Kitty 'neath orchid makes narry a sound,
Cuban buttercups primp and pose all around
While lemon tree tosses her fruit to the ground
The queen palm erotically sways like a tease,
Frangipani's sweet fragrance aloft on the breeze,
By morning the grass will be covered with mist
And dewdrops ablush from the past evening’s tryst,
And last but not least one more toss of the head
Bougainvillea’s a-blossom with blooms pink and red.

Peach Hibiscus

Kitty peeping under plants...elephant ears, yucca, orchids

Frangipani- a tropical tree whose flowers are used to make perfume and Hawaiian leis

Happy orchids

Bougainvillea over gate

Now go check out the other gardens and round robin challengers here:

Another Lieberman/ Lamont rant, New Art

2006-08-06T12:43:00.000-04:00

Well, the radical political group MoveOn.org has managed to fall to the lowest depths of disgusting today. I opened up my email and found a solicitation to join the group’s nationwide telephone campaign to score a big progressive win for Democrats by helping to defeat Senator Joe Lieberman in the Tuesday primary in Connecticut. I was almost tempted to add my name to the volunteers to acquire lists of progressive Democratic phone numbers so that I could use my own script in support of the current Senator. In the end, I’d be stooping down to their level of pathetic.

In my humble opinion, Senator Kerry of Massachusetts doesn’t deserve the lousy 12% of support that recent polls showed he’d have if he ran again for the presidency in 2008. I must admit that I subscribed to MoveOn.org during Kerry’s run for the presidency in 2004, since I supported Kerry at the time. However, if we’re looking for a disappointing Democrat we needn’t look much further than John Kerry. IMHO he turned out to be the biggest disappointment the Democratic Party could ever have produced in the feeble and callow way in which he quickly conceded defeat without contesting election results. Since then, it has been proven pretty thoroughly that flawed voting machines and machinations by the Republicans during voting guaranteed that Bush would have his second term. How can I respect him or his Move-on group after that?

I was one of Kerry’s most avid supporters, mind you. I also hate Bush as much (or more) as the majority of Democrats. However, if Ned Lamont wins the primary on Tuesday what really does that prove? It proves that a person with virtually no political experience whatsoever can become a senator if he’s rich and powerful enough. Owning a cable company and inheriting $300 billion qualifies, wouldn’t you think? It means that billionaire Julia Louis Dreyfus (Elaine of Seinfeld fame) could just as easily run for the seat and win. It also pretty much skews the Democratic ideals supporting blue color workers and lower/middle class values, don’t you think?
Although I believe that Lieberman’s judgment was flawed when he supported Bush in the Iraq war, I do not believe that that is a sufficient reason to turn against a good man who has supported Democratic principals and ideals in other areas for many, many years. And when you think about it, it takes a helluva big guy to not hold a grudge and take the high road in support of the President, even though in truth Al Gore won the popular vote and therefore Joe could have currently been VP instead of evil Cheney.

It's true that Joe’s strategy to run as an Independent if he loses the primary was a risky move and has alienated a lot of people. But Connecticut Democrats would be wise to remember a couple of things when they vote on August 8 in the Senate primary. Although their rank of better than 600,000 outnumbers that of the 400,000 or so Republicans in the state, they themselves are outnumbered by unaffiliated voters, who exceed 900,000 in number. Of the 5 Members that Connecticut sends to the House, three are Republican, and the winner of the last two gubernatorial elections was a Republican – as is the current, appointed incumbent, who is, at the moment, the odds-on favorite to be reelected in the fall. Thus, if the Senate seat now held by Joe Lieberman is "safe", it may be so more because of who Joe Lieberman is and the record he has compiled, than because he is also a Democrat. In that light Lieberman’s decision to run as an independent should he lose the primary, coupled with his commitment to remain a Democrat should he be elected in a three-way race in the fall does indeed represent a form of Democratic loyalty that Lieberman’s challenger hardly displayed when he decided to go after Lieberman’s seat.

For the people looking for a scapegoat to Bush’s failed policies in Iraq, I do not believe that a Lieberman defeat is the answer, and voting for Lamont on Tuesday could actually cost the Democrats the Senate majority in November.

Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, and made lots of enemies amongst my fellow Democratic blogging friends, just to change the subject here’s some pics of my latest paintings, which are pretty experimental in nature and dramatically different from the landscapes I’ve been painting over the past few months.

Spanish Dancer in Lace, oil, started yesterday but far from finished!This is my first attempt at portraiture, and considering the fact that I used a photo as reference, I'm pretty happy with the way it's developping.

Norwegian Wood, acrylic abstract, currently on display at Englewood Art Center

Raining Rose Petals, From a photo in a calendar. I started this to gain additional practice with acrylics. I hate the colors compared to oils!

Technorati tags:
Joe Lieberman
Ned Lamont

LSATS, Big Breasts in Hell’s Kitchen, and some artsy-looney stuff

2006-08-04T14:51:00.000-04:00

LSAT stuff:
Remember a few weeks back I posted a question from my son’s LSAT test? I invited you all to try to pick the correct answer and almost everyone picked “A”. Turns out that the LSAT committee also had designated A as the correct answer. However, my son David chose “D”, as did Vince and also Paul , whose motto is "Think less and rock more".
Since all three of these fellows are without a doubt quite brilliant, I wasn’t surprised when the LSAT committee responded to David’s challenge by admitting that D was in fact the correct answer. (Dave had used logic to prove his reasoning). They also told him that he wasn’t the only test-taker that had challenged their designated answer. This just goes to prove that challenging the authority is sometimes necessary if you truly believe you’re right, even when the odds are against you. Good job Vince and Paul! (And David, of course.)

Abandon hope, all ye who tune in here:
Thanks to Chris, I was turned on to a new TV show last week. Although “Hell’s Kitchen” lasted for two hours (I usually become bored with TV after ten minutes), I was glued to the chair the entire time it was on. The best line of the evening was when an irate restaurant patron wearing a low-cut blouse and wielding a copious bosom complained to the chef from hell that she was tired of waiting for her dinner order. He responded with an icy, “Madame, remove your breasts from my hotplate immediately!” At that point she threw some food at him and security was called to escort the woman and her breasts from Hell’s Kitchen. If you haven’t yet seen this show, tune in Monday nights for a fast-paced gastro-nightmare.

PS: Yikes! I always test links before publishing my blog and so in testing Chris's link what do I find is the title of his latest post? "Abandon Hope all ye who enter here!"... or something like that. Yeah, Chris and I ...our brain cells seem to be similar in more ways than one. Spoooooky.

Gaining legitimacy:
Well, as my completed paintings have begun to accumulate in the spare bedroom, I decided that the next logical step in my journey as an artist was to seek out a gallery to represent my work. Here in Venice there are a number of fine art galleries, since this little beach town attracts a lot of tourists during the winter months. I scouted them all out and set my sights on the one that outshone them all in terms of quality, reputation of the artists represented, and presentation. The other night I met with the gallery owner and she offered me a contract! Yay! She chose just two paintings to start out; with the requirement that I take them and have them professionally matted and framed. Aside from the fact that it’ll probably cost me a couple hundred bucks to do that, I was very happy to have a gallery of that caliber accept me. Although they’ve only been open since December, they are the talk of the town, bringing in well-heeled customers from Sarasota and Boca Grande. The gallery is called Abbacino Galleria and if you happen to be in Venice you can check out my paintings, "Autumn at French Creek" and "Spring in Chester Springs" there.

"Autumn at French Creek" ,© by the artist

"Spring at Chester Springs",© by the artist

The Painter’s Keys:
If you are one of the artists who regularly subscribes to Robert Genn’s newsletter,

I’d highly recommend that you take the time to submit a response to his beautifully written and often very cerebral artsy articles. He published one of my responses a few weeks ago here and also added a picture of one of my paintings, which he took from my website .
(Interestingly, he also featured “Autumn at French Creek”, which I really didn't think was very good. I've retouched it since his post, however.) I had over 100 hits to my website in the two-day period after my article was posted; proving it was well worth the time it took for me to write the response.

A name by any other name…
Last fall the hubby and I visited beautiful St. Augustine on the other side of the state. We walked into an art gallery in town that contained some of the most gorgeous portrait and figure paintings I have ever seen in my life. Yesterday, I accidently discovered that I have a natural affinity for painting faces, so for inspiration I decided to go online to see if I could find some works by the two painters whose art had blown me away last fall at that gallery. I was able to remember the name of the gallery because it was called Love's Gallery and who wouldn’t remember that!?

So I googled the gallery and sure enough I recognized the paintings of 2 of the artists that had been represented while I was there. The first artist is probably familiar to many because his beautiful paintings of gorgeous woman have graced the covers of many romance novels over the years. If you’re a male, (or a lesbian) check out the paintings of PINO and you’ll probably agree that it wouldn’t be too difficult to fall in love with any of his subjects!

The second painter, simply called 'Royo' on Love's website, also paints lovely women in the style of the Impressionists, as you can see here...

Because I'm much more of an impressionist than romantic-style painter, I decided to google Royo to see if I could find more of his stuff online and you all know what happens when you start to google! Before you know it you’re deep in cyberspace following weird links you've never heard of, and although artist Luis Royo’s name immediately came up on Google, I wasn’t at all certain if Luis was the right Royo. Nonetheless I hit the send button and found myself in the artist's website, which had been composed mostly in Spanish. Since the Love Gallery site had said that Royo was born in Spain, I figured I was in the right place and hit a link for the only word that sounded familiar to me- galeria. Which brought me to this picture:

Now I must admit that I was a bit shocked, because it certainly didn’t look like the Royo art I had seen over at Love’s. But being curious in nature and because I also liked the way the chick in the painting looked like she had just hopped onto a trampoline after a paintball game, I decided to delve deeper into the gallery's depths...

Big mistake folks! The next painting that I saw seemed to depict a yucky monster performing cunnilingus on the big-bosomed woman from Hell’s Kitchen.

Ugh! I hate Goth art! I really can’t believe this is the same artist that painted those beautiful impressionist paintings that I had seen last fall! However, since Love’s Gallery didn’t give Royo’s first name, I’m just guessing based on observation that they must be two different people.

So this brings me to the topic of names. What do you do if you’re an artist or writer, or journalist, or whatever, and you share the same name as someone you’d rather not be associated with?

I guess now I understand why people have pen names. Look at Prince, for example. When someone mentions Prince, most people immediately think of the creepy rock star rather than the handsome Prince of Wales.

Amazing!

Boy George would certainly not be confused with anyone other than...well Boy George, either!(Except perhaps the President of the United States. )

I’ve decided that if I could change my long boring name I’d change it to L’una which rhymes with tuna. Yup. L’una with an apostrophe, kind of like Jod{i} with an “i”. I came up with that because my ability to paint well seems to fluctuate wildly like the cycles of the moon, and also because L’una reminded me of a wildly romantic night in Tuscany. Sigh. D’art de L’una. How cool is that?

And did you ever wonder how your life could have been different if you’d been born with a different name? I would absolutely kill to have a name like author/editor Dominique Browning, for example. How can you not be successful with a name like that?

So there you have it, folks. If you could choose your own name, or a pen name, what would it be ? Tell me please, and remember that the boobie prize is either an invitaion to Hell's Kitchen, or a print by Luis Royo.

The Old Watering Hole

2006-07-26T12:18:00.000-04:00

This week’s

Round Robin Photo Challenge has the theme, “Ye Olde Watering Hole”.

Since I had been asked by Carly and Karen to pick the theme, I had a lot of cutsey, naughty, thirst-quenching ideas in mind about some of my own favorite watering holes. In the end, I took the high road and decided to spotlight the Olde Watering Hole of my beloved and recently deceased cat, Boris.

Boris was a singularly unique and incredible cat, which he would have had to be in order to win over my heart as he did. You see, I am definitely not a cat person and really never have been. Nope. Litter boxes and cat hair are simply not my schtick. But Boris was special. Whether you believe it or not, he could talk and communicate with people much better than our current President can, and he even had telepathic powers to add to his charms.

Boris was rescued from a trash can in Philly back in 1990, and died this past March at the tender young age of only 16 years. Unfortunately for Boris, curiosity certainly killed the cat, since he probably had a couple good years left in him had he not insisted on always drinking from his own favorite watering hole instead of his little cat bowl. No matter how many times a day that I put fresh water into his bowl, that darned cat insisted on drinking from the swimming pool instead. He didn’t even care if it contained algae or bugs, as you can see by this picture which was taken the first week we moved to our new home in Florida last year.

He simply loved craning his skinny little neck and indulging in the overly chlorinated, lukewarm and slightly organic taste of his own personal huge and home-based watering hole. Sadly, his faltering steps as he advanced in years must have caused a misstep one night.

My husband and I awakened at 4 o’clock in the morning to a surreal primal scream the night that Boris fell into the swimming pool. I rushed out into the pitch-blackness of our lanai and followed the screams, finally locating him in a sad wet heap under the ferns. I picked him up gently and talked to him softly as I tried to calm him while my husband ran inside for a towel. The poor thing no longer even looked like a cat, dripping and tiny as a church mouse in my arms. I dried him carefully and thoroughly while talking and cuddling him in the comfort of my arms, and when I was certain he felt a bit better I placed him carefully onto the carpet to see if he could walk. Although he hadn’t drowned, he certainly didn't seem to be his usual feisty self (outside of the screaming), and my fear was that he had injured himself when he’d attempted to foist himself out of the pool water. Very slowly and shakily he stood up and walked into my closet where he crawled into the most remote and darkest corner. I had a terrible feeling about him at that point so I decided to check in on him about 10 minutes later. He looked up at me with those gorgeous soulful amber eyes of his, and maintaining his reputation of being a very vocal cat, he emitted what I knew in the depths of my being was a heartfelt good-bye. Ten minutes later I checked in on him again and he was gone.

Our pool is located on what I had believed was a cat-safe screened- in lanai. The lanai has multiple sliding doors that open onto our family room, kitchen, living room and master bedroom, keeping the outside/inside living spaces almost inseparable. Boris always had his choice of being inside or outside, but inevitably he loved his little outdoor jungle of tropical flowers, croaking frogs, and dancing lizards much more than the comfort of our Henredon furniture and usually slept on his favorite chair out on the lanai. He loved the outdoors so much that whenever my husband and I left for short 2 or 3 day trips; we always left the door to the kitchen ajar so that he could go in and out at his pleasure. Sure, we know it invited burglars and wasted a whole lot of energy, but Boris’s happiness was worth it to us.

In conclusion, Boris was a beautiful and extremely intelligent cat. The lanai suddenly became a lonely barren desert when he departed from us. The hubby and I had shared most of our daily meals out on the lanai with Boris, and during our regular swims he was always there to communicate with us through the branches of a wayward orchid or bromelaid. So it was that upon lunching one day in Sarasota's lovely

Lavanda Restaurant we noticed a little black cat snaking his way across the colorful courtyards. This rather expensive lunch resulted in the adoption of our two new expensive black cats, Sebastian

and Sabrina

(also known as Schitzo) who seem to be of the same lineage as our beloved Boris. The two new cats also seem to love their tropical jungle garden, and have already fallen into the pool a couple of times since we adopted them back in April. But they simply jump out, shake off, and go about their business unperturbed. They are young and Boris was not when he had his one and only accident. Because he always loved listening to the warble of the birds, and the music of the fountain, we buried him under the birdbath that’s under the three huge queen palms that overspread the cage of our lanai. We wanted his spirit free to wander the place that he loved best, which was his own little jungle and personal watering hole.

If you would like to read some of Boris's adventure's straight from the cat's mouth, I have opened up my old AOL Journal so that you can go here:

My Hellish Ride to a Hellhole Swamp
and also here:

The Tale of Boris and Jezebel

Thanks for listening, and please visit the other Round Robin challengers for pics and stories of more intriguing watering holes.

Karen... Outpost Mâvarin - http://outmavarin.blogspot.com

Carly's Ellipsis... Suddenly Carly - http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com

Pamela...My Photos- http://journals.aol.com/lanurseprn/MyPhotos/

Suzanne...New Suzanne R's Life - http://newsuzannerslife.blogspot.com

Julie's Web Journal - http://www.barrettmanor.com/julie/journal.aspx

Valorie...RetrospectUSA- http://journals.aol.com/redbird914/RetrospectUSA/

Tammy...The Daily Warrior-http://mylifeasawarrior.blogspot.com/

Tess...First Digital Photos-http://journals.aol.com/tc01hm/FirstDigitalPhotos