Discussions or Arguments

 

Tonto National Monument, Arizona, April 2011

I had some ideas for this blog; then read what is below. I don't know for sure if the person it claims said it (you never do these days), but the words are right on for our times. Don't avoid all difficult discussions, when they are discussions where you can both express your thoughts and when needed, let it go at the end. 

This image of a hanging garden, on the trail down to the natural bridge, seemed apropos about a discussion that bears fruit.

Anyway, here's  who said it (maybe) and the quote.

~~~~~~~~~~

Helen Mirren once said:

Before you argue with someone, ask yourself, is that person even mentally mature enough to grasp the concept of a different perspective. Because if not, there's absolutely no point.

 

Not every argument is worth your energy. Sometimes, no matter how clearly you express yourself, the other person isn’t listening to understand—they’re listening to react. They’re stuck in their own perspective, unwilling to consider another viewpoint, and engaging with them only drains you.

 

There’s a difference between a healthy discussion and a pointless debate. A conversation with someone who is open-minded, who values growth and understanding, can be enlightening—even if you don’t agree. But trying to reason with someone who refuses to see beyond their own beliefs? That’s like talking to a wall. No matter how much logic or truth you present, they will twist, deflect, or dismiss your words, not because you’re wrong, but because they’re unwilling to see another side.

 

Maturity isn’t about who wins an argument—it’s about knowing when an argument isn’t worth having. It’s realizing that your peace is more valuable than proving a point to someone who has already decided they won’t change their mind. Not every battle needs to be fought. Not every person deserves your explanation.

 

Sometimes, the strongest thing you can do is walk away—not because you have nothing to say, but because you recognize that some people aren’t ready to listen. And that’s not your burden to carry.

what love is

When writing romances, it's part of the deal to care about relationships and the subject of love itself. With a romance, the requirement is a happily ever after-- in short, it has to work out in the end. An example would be Pride and Prejudice where however unlikely it might seem, they're going to be with each other at the end of the book. 

image purchased from Deposit Photos.

With love stories, this is not necessarily the case. An example of that would be Gone with the Wind. One might hope he'd come back but didn't seem likely when the story ended.

Romances are fantasies, not to say love stories cannot also be, but one is satisfying even when it might not feel realistic. Still, does it seem believable that this couple would fall in love to begin or did the writer just throw them together and tell readers that it happened. The best romances make the reader believe, yep, it could make sense. 

I wrote one of my contemporary romances where it began with a couple divorcing, which one wanted and one did not. Divorces do sometimes end with a couple back together in what we call real life. Not always and definitely not needed in a love story.

Always when I begin a romance, I have in mind at least one of the protagonists. Then who seems likely for that happily ever after, with, of course, some major glitches along the way. That is required or there is no interest. When I come up with the second protagonist, I have to believe it's more than seeing each other and bam. If I don't believe in it, the readers will not.

Music speaks a lot about love-- sometimes as a romantic fantasy and sometimes with sad endings. I particularly like this song from the 80s where it speaks of someone wanting to know love, wanting to find someone to teach them.

I want to know what love is

Here's the thing about love. It's within us. Relationships in romances can begin many ways, from friends to lovers or even enemies to lovers, but the real life deals, which last. love for each other, and not in the romantic sense of the word but more the in depth caring for that person and what is good for them as well as one's own self.  

People looking for love in their lives have to be logical as well as emotional. Do I share life goals with that person? Do our backgrounds make it likely that we will understand each other? It can't be just lust, though that might be a beginning. If that's all it is though, don't expect it to last. Real love goes through good and bad times with a desire to work together for a good life. I try to write romances where that seems likely for the protagonists.

Romantic love is lovely in books, soothing to read through dark times, but the kinds of relationships that last take genuine love and that takes the emotion and logic to make it through the dark times-- and I believe all relationships have those. I know something about those long term relationships as I am in one. Not that I don't have dreams that add to what I write.

More than you might think

Image we photographed at the Arizona State Museum

When I wrote the original eight Arizona historical romances, they came widely spread apart in years, some closer to one story or another, but not ever together even though they share characters.

Forced to re-edit them, I did it over a year, which meant I saw elements in them that fit together in a cohesive sense. There are, of course, the themes, but there were other aspects that were a key part of what made them work for me and hopefully for readers.

One of those big elements was how important family was in all the books. Now, that can be in a negative sense, with parenting fails, but also in a positive on where family helped everything to work for the characters. 

Looking then at my Oregon historical romances and I saw the same importance of family as key to the stories.

Some might think romances are all about a couple, but that's not the case with  the best stories out there where it's family, friends, couple, and yes, setting that make the stories work.

Maybe, I put that in those books because I've felt family is important in my life, that who my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and even ancestors, which I might never have known, were part of how I became who I am.

But, that led me to look at my own contemporary romances. There I see less of the family element and more of strong friendships, which have also been important in my life. I think that with families so often apart over jobs or even personality elements, modern Americans may rely more on strong friendships, which can be as close as blood kin. 

What this led me to recognize in the books I have written, how much I consider community, in one form or another, as key to our satisfactory personal life. 

When I put something in my books, it's because I see it as important as something that goes beyond the romance, which is, of course, central, to the rest of what life is about. 

From Here to There

 

For the holiday season we often put books on sale that relate to it. I added one this year that introduced some of those characters and explained from where they had come. It will stay on sale longer than the others (until January 3, 2023) as it has a different set of purposes. 

From Here to There is the story of two romances-- one told through an old journal and the other alive at the time. It's also the story of a romance for Montana and ranch living. Today, not many know about ranch living as our culture is so urban oriented. That is logical, but it means many have no idea from where their food even comes-- other than the grocery store.

We redid the cover for the book (for the umpteenth time) as it seemed to never quite catch the zeitgeist of the book. It's not easy to capture a book's deeper purpose when it's a romance and a novel (over 90,000+ words). So if you decide, give it a try for 99¢ for another week. It's not like a novella in that there is a LOT more story to it that depicts what that life is like as well as the relationships. Still, I think for those who enjoy love stories, it will satisfy. For a family, as well as two individuals, it teaches something for the characters and the reader!  

It's a fun read. Although it is tough, I "much love" that life, and have lived it many years.

 From Here to There

Holiday Sales

With the holiday season rapidly approaching, we once again have put the books I've written, regarding this time of year, on sale for Kindle at 99¢ each. They'd be free except that is not an option when writing for Amazon and not in Kindle Unlimited. Still 99¢ isn't much for fun reads on what the holiday can mean for people in various relationships.

First comes Diana's Journey-- about a woman who gets a life-rewrite when her husband wants a divorce. She sells what she has, shocks her grown children, and takes off in a small Class C RV with her two chihuahuas to explore places she's only read about. What about Christmas though?  She doesn't even want it to come, but it always does She decides to spend it in Utah, far from where she expects memories could ruin her day-- except, what she finds is the meaning of Christmas when it comes to community and friends-- another rewrite for her life.

Second is not about Christmas, but is included because it introduces the characters where it is. From Here to There -- When a wedding doesn't lead to a marriage but instead to a bride leaving her new husband before he can be one, the story moves to Montana ranch country, and two romances-- one in the past as the bride learns more about love from an old journal and when her groom follows her to the ranch to convince her she made a mistake. Ranch living and Montana are key to this story.

The third was written because I began to think-- how'd it work out for these characters and can the holidays heal family rifts or can its expectations make them worse? The story delves again into the reality of ranch living-- holidays or not. A Montana Christmas --  uses the beauty of Montana against the difficulty of family dynamics. New relationships are developed with others deepening-- will some be totally destroyed?

Diana's Journey and A Montana Christmas  are novellas with  From Here To There a full length novel. It is a romance, the other two are about the healing energy of relationships, holidays, love, and the celebration of the earth's regenerating cycles. 

      There used to be an ability to create links here but whenever I click on that, it sends me to another blog. grrrrrr.  So, below are the books and their links. The first two are novellas, with their correct links behind them. You have to copy paste to make them work given what's going on with my ability to create live links. The last one is a full length novel that introduces the characters in A Montana Christmas. At worst, you can look alongside here where the links will take you to the books... I haven't used Blogger for a while for linking, hence, not sure what's going on. The books are fine though...

Diana's Journey -- https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M5IA26Y

A Montana Christmas -- https://www.amazon.com/Montana-Christmas-Rain-Trueax-ebook/dp/B00AOU0IQ2

From Here to There -- https://www.amazon.com/From-Here-There-Rain-Trueax-ebook/dp/B006PNS7EC

The sale lasts through December 31st.

Me Too

by Rain Trueax

March Sunset from our desert home

Before I start on MeToo, I wanted to let readers here know that I have a free book at Amazon for Kindles. This is one of the benefits of making my books exclusive to Amazon (as well as that it can be borrowed for Kindle Unlimited members). So, if you have never tried a mystical realism novel, this is your chance for free-- Dangerous Match. It is supposed to show up free Saturday and Sunday but be sure it is before you hit buy.

~~~~~~~~~~~

While I no longer watch MSNBC for news, I used to have it as my go-to source. Even then, I wasn't fond of Chris Mathews. Something about his style of reporting turned me off. Still, when I read that he was forced out of his job there due to the MeToo movement, I read more about what exactly had happened.

by Diane, On grooming our flower garden for painting

Every evening a black cat crouched in the cosmos waiting for the unwary finch. So in an effort to make the hunt more difficult, I pulled yet more cosmos.  Don also continued his war against the invasive clover threatening to cover and smother all low growing flowers.

 

A small baby garter snake hiding in the damp cool of the clover
is one of the healthy benefit of weeds.

 I  was dutifully pulling the top leaves off the clover,
 when I spotted this wee little one.
Now I wonder if we should
think more about wild habitat in our gardens.
Clover is also good for adding nutritive nitrogen.
Yet the greener clover spreads over flowers mercilessly.

I like the clover carpet when it is just recovering from
being somewhat scooped  with hoe and shovel.
Roots remain: The clover grows back.
Constantly grooming clover is more back breaking labor than what we want to do.
Past years Don covered the clover with mint compost.
Fall crocus used to push its way above the mint compost.
Recuperating from gall bladder surgery,
Don is waiting to spread mint for a few more weeks
until his ten pound limit is lifted.
The mint is so strong it stinks and grows
ugly orange fungus
 and with the slightest disturbance clouds of mold spores rise.
Even smolders as it decays!
When the mint is first spread,
all my painting of the garden is from my studio window.

 

 



We agree only that a change is needed in our flower garden next year.

More plants that tolerate dry conditions!
More plants that will be compatible with wildlife.

 

Art Heals by Diane, DISTURBANCES IN THE FIELD, a novel by Lynn Sharon Schwartz

 

DISTURBANCES IN THE FIELD, a novel by Lynn Sharon Scwartz was well worth the difficult read. I was up to my chin in attempting to keep from drowning.  I was impatient in a "field" disturbed by vocabulary that I do not often use and by references to forgotten Greek philosophy. I did finally listened to Schubert's "Trout" which played a central part to the plot. I felt I had  to look everything up along the way but found for all of my toil, it was not necessary to understand the book. Every seemingly disparate part of the book did come to an uplifting conclusion for me as an artist.  It is a love story that confirms my belief that art is healing. 

 



Disturbances in the Field, acclaimed when it first appeared in 1983, has just been reissued in paperback by Counterpoint.

The plot: "When she was a girl, Lydia Rowe spent an idyllic month with her family in a house on Cape Cod. As with Proust and Combray, Lydia’s memories of the brown house by the sea became her talisman of the harmonious life. At college, she comes to feel the same way about studying Greek philosophy with her close friends—precise Nina, aristocratic Gaby, earthy Esther, and her first lover, George. The young women form a circle of intimacy and unity, a quasi family that will endure over the next twenty years.

Lydia becomes the pianist in a chamber music group, another kind of family. She marries Victor, an artist, and though their early years together are turbulent, they have four children and finally achieve something of the order and balance of the classical trios she loves to play, the coherence amid diversity that has been her goal since reading the pre-Socratic philosophers in college. Then a tragic event turns Lydia’s life into a field of dissonance and pain.

The stoic Epictetus wrote, "everything has two handles, one by which is may be borne, the other by which it may not." Lydia grasps the wrong handle and grows numb to herself and those she loves. Though she feels stripped and vacant, her inner voice remains, doing its implacable work of observing, remembering, connecting, persistently limning the shape of her sorrow. What is the right handle by which her loss and her broken faith may be borne? How can Lydia reach a place where "ordinary things... resume their rightful proportions and places in a university of ordinary things?"

I highly recommend the book and especially my friends who write, know music, literature, philosophy, psychology or like love stories with substance. 

 

The theme: Last night June 4, the theme that art is healing was aired on Public Broadcasting News hour's Canvas segment. Mothers of homicide victims went to the prison where they shared their story with the murders of their love one. The prisoners were moved and wanted to do something to express their remorse. The prisoners got together and decided to make paintings or drawings  which were sold so the money could go to families of victims to pay for the expenses of the grieving families to pay for example the head stones. The act of doing something that expressed true remorse gave them a good feeling they would pursue doing more good. Likewise the families of the victims were  on the road to forgiveness and healing.

 

In my experience when I had oral surgery, I was able to ease the pain without medication by painting very small tight illustrations for a story book.

 

What are other examples of how art heals?

 

Diane on my paintings dedicated to two of the people I love

My entire body of work is a visual diary of my life including my hopes for the future of two of my most loved people - my husband and my mother.

This is my vision of myself and husband growing older together walking on slippery ice. The hand clasp is symbolic of being there for each other. This is one of the illustrations for a book dedicated to my grandchildren, "When I Get To Be Older"

Mama leaving for the beyond.


I painted mama and I couple a days before she passed away. She said she was tired and wanted a larger space then the nursing home room. I had visions of her desires for her existing in an exotic friendly atmosphere.
She liked posing for me.



The drawing on the easel is copied from a drawing on a prepared board
for an egg tempera she never completed from before or just after I was born.

My art process is a part of my whole way of living and dreaming. For more of my paintings about relationships see some of my old blogs.
http://widlerwenzeldreams.blogspot.com  is of illustrations for "When I Get to be Older"
http://parapluie-fromthentonow.blogspot.com is a short retrospective

Relationships

by Rain Trueax

While I might enjoy seeing new types of birds, have a bird book often nearby, my biggest fascination with birdwatching is seeing the interactions between them. I remember years back renting a home in Montana where the owner had bluebird houses right outside the backdoor. I would sit on the porch stoop and literally spend hours watching them coming with food for their babies.

Here at the farm, I like to watch the song birds as they come to the feeders, but don't see much interaction with the families. I do recognize when the fledglings appear based on size. In Arizona, with the trees closer, I would see fledglings being fed by their parents, watched the squabbles over territory, but most of all saw how the Gambel's quails interacted within families and without. I spent hours and not know more than minutes had gone by. 

depression

by Rain Trueax

Dreamscope app using one of our photos of the desert

Let's talk depression. It's one of those things I hesitate to bring up here because it's nice to be positive-- depression is a negative. I also feel like people tend to think you are looking for them to fix it when you talk about it. I don't expect anyone but myself to fix it and really only want to address it because it's a reality and has, for the last few weeks, been one element in my life.

When a person looks for the why of depression, sometimes there is no reason. Other times, there are reasons; but at a different time, they'd not lead to depression, which feeds on itself. Depression does not need a reason for why it's come.

As an example of how that works is my writing. I have written all my life but when I didn't try to put out the books, there was no feeling of rejection. Once I did put them out, then something new had the potential to come into the equation.  Rejection can lead to feelings of depression.

So early in May, my books were not selling at all. Days went by and nada, zilch. I've never had a LOT of sales but to have none-- well, it definitely felt like rejection. I understood the potential reasons for that, which included doing no advertising to get them seen. Using logic, I also believe in the zeitgeist of a time. If my books didn't fit what readers wanted (more sex/no sex; more violence/no violence; etc. etc.), advertising would only mean I'd be out money as well as feeling rejected lol. Come on, it is funny. It also isn't. I think it impacts anyone who takes creative work beyond being a hobby and tries to turn it into a business where it pays for itself or even supports a life.

So what to do about lack of any sales being a possible reason for my feeling dark. Ranch Boss, who is my editor and partner in this writing endeavor, began to research key words for ads. For months, we had known ads were important but neither of us knew how to do them. He spent more hours learning then I was spending writing. Keywords are a critical component in having a search find a book. It took him a couple of tries to get one ad right (limited amount of money going into it) but finally he began to see results. No, the sales are not blockbuster status but no longer are there zero. 

Is the depression gone? Nope. It wasn't really about the writing. I do know of other possible causes for it like the crossroads I mentioned last week, but it really won't solve the depression either. Some say go to pills but I've gone that route years back (in my 40s) and it did help, but it had side effects I didn't like. 

Recently I read that only one state in the country (no, I didn't read which one that was) doesn't have higher rates of depression right now. I think the zeitgeist of our times is a factor for a lot of us-- on both sides of the partisan divide. The sometimes physical hate has put out an energy that you can almost feel if you are sensitive. Read the papers and there are more reasons to feel depressed. The answer though isn't-- head in the sand. It might be less time reading papers...

I know from the past, that life is better when I have a dream I am working toward. Dreams are wonderful things. Depression though tends to stomp them out. I think that's where I am now. I don't know what I want, and I am at the point in life where some dreams are no longer feasible. Practicality is important even with dreams. 

It's not a dream for me to write books. I love to write about people in relationships, facing challenges, where they have dreams they must fight to attain. I have control over that-- what I can't control is whether anybody else will want to read them. It's important, I think, to do what I can and then release what I can't control.

My immediate answer is to remember dark times don't last. I try to walk regularly, not as far as I did a few years back, but keep moving. Small projects help. Lots of deep breaths. Watch some comedy movies-- laughter is always good. Concentrate on the good things and don't allow the negative ones to crowd out all that is working right. Remembering how many writers do suffer from depression as part of the gig helps... No, it doesn't. *s*

What has helped the most down here is bird watching... particularly the baby quail as I have gotten to see them grow. It's a kind of meditation where an hour can go by, and I don't even feel it. This little video is a compilation of some of what we've enjoyed with different ages of babies. I think I'll write a blog about quail and what I've learned. They are interesting.

A painting could sell a ranch : A fantasy that emerged as I overcame painter's block

 
Initially I overcame inertia  by just mixing colors and painting without a plan. I decided  I did not have to paint a meaningful painting. Some vague notion of landscape would be a starting point. I didn't know what kind of landscape I would make -  maybe a seascape, alpine meadows, water reflections or near non-objective abstract.  Internal or external type was not decided. As I brushed on the acrylic paint covering about two thirds of the canvas,  new thoughts of possible meanings flashed across my mind.

When the four foot by five foot canvas was almost completely covered,  I thought it was good. The painting was a nice backdrop to holiday clutter being  decorative and calming.   But if it was done in just three hours, it was void of a possible ricer involvement. So I took courage ignoring fears of spoiling the painting.

New directions 

My paintings are a pictorial journal of my life with some even becoming solutions to problems I have encountered. Time to paint when changes are near. The beautiful wood lot and ranch in back of our property is going to be subdivided. The view will be gone forever, but I will have a sentimental memory painting. For awhile I thought I would paint a deer jumping over the foreground fence out at the viewer, which shortly occurred to me was merely an exercise to see how good I was as a painter - a short lived shallow reward for me.

Once a painting solved a problem I had. I used to sign my maiden name to my paintings in hopes that I would find a long lost cousin when all the usual means of searching failed for a decade. A painting of a common ancestor published on a blog did result in one child of the lost cousin calling me.  Then I  visitited the cousins I never knew as a child.

Though it is a long stretch, maybe a want to be ranching family will read this blog and  buy all 13 acres and continue ranching while rearing their children like my painting reminisces.

The flow was strong with purpose for a couple of weeks



 

After blocking in  the atmosphere and colors, each day I added a small pictures of my heart warming memories like the house decorated with Christmas wreath, along with the barn and horse arena. I have more memories that could be added like the chipmunks, rabbits, humming birds, robins, peacocks  and steers. There were quail, China pheasant, owls, raccoon, coyote and skunk, shrews, mice and rats, hawks, woodpeckers and more. My husband giving a neighborly assistance in the falling of trees, and cutting wood, the tractor added too. The small family farm opens up the continuation of fundamental values upon which our greatness as a nation was built - neighborly caring for each other sharing our labors and bounty with one another. Urbanization of most of us is at the heart of our loss of empathy. saving this life style is important.

 Because in this season I was overwhelmed by adding so much, I placed the painting with the front to the wall in my studio out of sight until next year.

 The  view outdoors had changed from being autumn to wintry frost.  I was mesmerized by the pastels as the sun started to melt away the whites. When the sun set behind the trees at 3:30 PM, the purples and greens died in my painting, only coming back to excite me in the early mornings when the sun glow peeped through the window.

 What is slowing the flow now? Wanting to paint a winter scene?  Indecision? Would more additions  take away from the pony ride?  Or have the holidays called me to do some baking and shopping that I have been avoiding? Time to put it away until next year. I am too close to it to make a decision.

 

I have successfully kept a flow going but not the holiday preparations.  Enough is enough. Time to hide the painting away until next year when with fresh eyes I will determine if it is complete. Time for undivided time with family. Next year I will be ready to do more paintings of the neighboring ranch.

I hope my Jewish friends are concluding their last day of a happy Hanukkah celebration and to my Christian friends a Merry meaningful Christmas with hope for peace for all faiths and beliefs in 2018.

Thanksgiving Thank You for the Support I Enjoy as an Artist

“East Indian Dancers”, my mother, Margaret Widler's egg tempera.

I am thankful for my family for many reasons. Their support of my creative journey whether thay understand my art or not is very valuable to me. An art teacher in high school and various other rejections through out the years makes me even more appreciative. My family support started with my parents who shared their creative interests with me. They took me to the the San Francisco Art Museum and lifted me up to adult eye level so I could see too. Then after I graduated from Portland State College with a degree in Drawing and Painting, mother helped to market my art for a number of years. My sweetheart husband, Don, volunteered as he always does to engineer aspects of making and exhibiting my work. Just this week we were considering yet another box, travel easel. My daughters also value my work and hang it in their homes as do my brother and sister-in-laws.

I feel the past 60 years was a charmed time period inwhich I had the leisure to develop my creative path.

sharing or not

by Rain Trueax

Writing about writing is one of those things I only began to do in what could be called my elder years. Heck, I didn't even talk about my writing much to anybody for many years. A few friends knew I wrote, but sharing my work was even rarer. To be honest, I didn't think most of my friends would have had any interest in it. 

Because I will be joining a new group blog, which requires writing some sort of introduction for those there who don't know me, and because recently I was asked to do an interview about my writing, I've been thinking about questions I rarely do-- who am I? From where did I come? How can I describe myself to others? What parts of my life are important and which are things maybe I should have already discarded? 

Pretty much, I am a live in the moment kind of person and generally spend little time considering those kinds of questions. I am sure I did more of that when younger or maybe just off and on. It's not part of my average day. I don't often stop to think-- am I happy? What if I didn't like the answer!

Fiona Mcvie, the interviewer, surprised me with some author questions. It took some thinking to come up with answers. I have no idea how many people read her blog, but I do know Rainy Day had more hits after that piece ran-- which may or may not be related. As with sales of my books, I mostly have no idea what causes people to come here or stay to read more posts. I write about what interests me and just hope it interests others. Here by the way is that interview:

Interview for Rain Trueax

One thing I took away from these questions was that I am a more private person than I had been thinking. Some of my long time friends said they learned things they hadn't known about me.

If you do a blog for over ten years, you'd think you'd be out there-- and in a way, I am. But not much about my private life. I don't use this blog as a personal journal. While, I always have known that I am a good secret keeper, I hadn't thought all that meant in regards my own secrets. 

If you and I were having coffee somewhere, and you asked me a question about myself, I'd tell you the truth or smile and change the subject. I don't have time for game playing. If it was a question about someone else, expressing something negative, unless the two of us were part of the solution or problem, I would smile and change the subject. I am not into gossip. Fortunately, I don't have friends into it either.

If you didn't ask me a question about me, I'd be unlikely to offer much. I would be way more interested in your life, your motivations for your work-- if you were into sharing that. If two of us got together, who weren't much for sharing our personal lives, there might not be much conversation happening beyond the shallow-- my gosh, can you believe the abundance/lack of rain.

Despite the risks of talking politics, I am pretty well versed on many issues and might talk that with trusted friends. These days, I don't share it here. Despite enjoying a good debate, I don't like getting mad or making someone else angry. Once in a while, a political idea, appropriate to its times, makes it into my books. It can be fun for the hero and heroine to argue about it as they learn more about each other. This works better for historical books than contemporary where views can prove more hot button than funny. 

Another thing I don't think I've ever shared here is-- I am a repository of silly and unneeded information on celebrities. I grew up on movie star magazines that my aunt would pass down to our family. I'm not fond of the mean stuff but like seeing their homes, vacations, who they are dating, who broke up with whom, what they wore to a big party. I like learning about people from all walks of life, which leads to watching documentaries about creative people of different sorts.

Does any of that seem important enough to put in a bio? If it doesn't, what does? Although the interview is now done, I still have that introductory thing for the new blog (I'll share its link before it goes up November 12th).

Before I close this down, what do you like to read in a blog? I'd love hearing from you in a comment or email as to subjects you'd like to see here. I am open to having a place where others can give opinions on issues they find important, you know over that cup of coffee...
 

All images from Stencil

Part III: Diane Widler Wenzel on How I Hang the Pictures I Paint

A general description of a painting studio is a work place for painting fine art. I seldom work in my mostly storage for painting studio.

In Part III the bedroom storage studio contains a large selection of easy to find paintings. They are assessable whether I need them to hang in a gallery outside the home or for experimenting with   throughout my home. In the doorless clothes closet two storage bins are on wheels so I can pull them out to for the paintings on the sides and back.


The small studio work area gets messy but I know where my watercolors, acrilics, oils, brushes are more or less. Also some of my tools for hanging pictures are on the shelves below like the studfinder, hardware for aluminum frames, hooks and screw eyes. Sometimes the tape measurer is there or where I was last using it, but can most likely be found in the kitchen drawer which also contains the hammer, plyers, wire cutter and screw drivers. Behind the workbench not in the picture is a step stool which often is a neccessity in hanging pictures since I am short. The pictures on the wall with pictures is wall storage. The antique grade school first aid cabinet contains ceramic pieces and collage items.

The open  storage cabinet is also on wheels important for a small room. I have plenty of wall space for paintings and a bulletin board for notes on coming shows, inspiring quotes, and reproductions of favorite works by other artists.

The cabinet has doors that open to a top shelf with new and used sketch books. The middle shelf has my oils and some framing supplies. The lowest one holds a wooden box for hauling paintings currently filled with framed paintings under glass ready to take to the next venue.

 

 

The clothes closet is converted to storing two rolling open cabinets for storing paintings and other supplies. The metal shelves were purchased from a family who used it as a pantry. The top half has finished work of mine and other artists and below I sort whatever papers that are in process.

I feel blessed to have a husband who is not only supportive but provides for my life as an artist by building art stuff and giving me space in our home and time to paint. My working painting studio where I actually paint is any place on our property indoors or out where I can hang a painting and set up my painting stuff.  Often I look at a once finished painting and think of a new direction. So I haul out my paint brush and add a stroke or two of paint. Most often I paint on our patio or I roll back the tablecloth from the paint drop cloth underneith.

 

In conclusion to this three part series I hope to interest at least one person to be more adventurous. Fearless enough to ask what if and then follow their instincts.  Buying or making paintings, then starting to bravely pound hooks into their walls in places they hadn't considered as ideal.  Then leaving empty wall spaces to compliment their groupings of paintings. 

Being creative is natural, satisfying, challenging and never complete. The feeling when overcoming the frustration in learning to master a new skill is very much the feeling felt from being a fine arts painter with a rich creative development.  In addition, I have found that I can be a continuously prolific painter in a limited space.  The thinking behind collecting and hanging paintings can be just like the thinking process of a painter.

Part II, Diane Widler Wenzel on How I Hang the Pictures I Paint.

I couldn't be happier with last Sunday's  lunch with visiting family to celebrate 120 paintings hung at home and then the public art opening at Albany Public Library's main branch.    A sister-in-law commented,  " I could hang way more paintings than I ever thought I could. "  upon seeing how I hang groupings between large empty spaces.  One of my daughters wanted a grouping of 3 paintings from the corner fireplace installation in the dining area. The home celebration and reception made me feel loved by my supportive family and friends.

Part II of how I hang paintings continues with examples of how empty spaces around the paintings are important to their effect on us.  Also covered are my experiments in hanging solutions in the dining area and the entry from the kitchen to the laundry room.

Dining with Paintings that Contribute to the Room's Ambiance

Below is Don eating and a panoramic view of the green paintings that he sees from his side of the table. I selected for him green, his favorite color. Green is clean looking and soothing.

Below is Diane and a panorama of what she wants to see - a cozy corner:

Walls of three entries frame paintings.
From the front door the eye is apt to look beyond on into the dining area with busy activity and also paintings.

From the kitchen entry to the dinette the view includes empty wall space.

The  hall from the back of the house. 

The cool colored green paintings and white matt make the warm colored collage dominate the grouping. The collage is suppose to be the first thing seen.  Then looking at the collage the eye is directed leftward by a  shape pointing to the warmer colors in the green paintings, thus the eye moves around this grouping. The green vertical painting with a black matt counterbalances the warm collage. For me this group works. I hope that it works for others. Purhaps the reason Don slows down as he eats is because he has some greens around him.

To frame or not or hang out from a corner?

Two of the paintings and the collage are framed with oak frames made by my fantastic partner, Don. The paintings that are unframed work better in a grouping?  Or do these frames isolate them acting as obstacles preventing the eye from moving from painting to painting?

I feel none of my groupings have to be perfect because my hangings are works in progress. I am learning and do not know all of the answers. I like to ask, "what if," as I decide the next grouping.

 

An innovation for me is to draw attention to corner paintings by hanging them so the sides are on opposite walls. The kiddy corner arrangement makes them more dominant especially when walking down the hall from the back of our house.  From down the hall the left side wall is at too much of an angle to see what is happening in the paintings hung flat to the wall. Corner paintings work less like windows on the wall and more like a three dimentional architectural fixture that I have difficultyillustrating in a two dimentional picture.

For the coldest wintery nights we remove paintings close to the fire box and keep a fire burning.

 Paintings are clutter busting by creating distance in tiny laundry / fly tying / utility room.  

In this cluttered place I see the painting before the clutter. How about you?

After adding a painting with deeper dark green depth to the wall behind the sink,  there is a greater sense of depth. I feel less cramped.

Because of the humidity of the laundry room I do not leave pictures here for long periods especially during the winter. 

Rotating paintings is a favorite way to get inspired for making more paintings. Some of the ones I will be rotating are stored in my studio.   I will show my studio with storage cabinets in the next blog, Part III, How I Hang the Pictures I Paint.

Part One: Diane Widler Wenzel on How I Hang the Pictures I Paint

This post is about hanging art in my home but first a brief announcement.
Everyone is invited to my painting exhibit, "Water Speaks,” opening tomorrow Sunday, October 22 at the Main Albany Public Library upstairs in the periodical area between 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM. The library is at 2450 14^th Ave SE. The paintings can be seen during regular library hours until October 31^st.

I am Diane Widler Wenzel, a fine arts painter with a large collection of my own art. Over the past 65 years I have sold some of my art but still have a big representative collection of my own creations. I like to live with my paintings so I rotate them. I swithch paintings around every time I start to clean house. Revolving art gives me a lift in spirit like living in a newly remodeled home. A recent epiphany came to me while washing windows and hanging 114 works in my home to show to possible clients.

The way paintings are displayed in a home can change how we feel.   You bet they can.  Painting groupings can even improve how I feel about my spouse's habits and different likes.

My husband Don and I live in a 1950's vintage, 1,200 square foot, one story, ranch style house. The living room is long and narrow with a long gallery wall facing a large picture window providing north light.This gallery has expanded over the years to every available wall space in the house creating an uncomfortable, visual stimulation overload. Bright active paintings were jumping out at us everywhere. So I have come up with ideas on how to hang more and more paintings so they both energize and sooth us. My aim is to make our home beautiful for both of us.

When hanging my painting I consider the views of my work from the locations we occupy during our daily doings.

For 32 years on my living room gallery wall I have auditioned my latest work next to older pieces for comparison. Also, I view them here before choosing the final touches. Since my epiphany I understand Don and I view the wall differently from our different easy chairs, the computer, the coach and when we enter the house. Don and I gravitate to different places with different views of my paintings so I can select his favorite impressionistic works where he is most likely to see them. I place more abstract warm and active paintings in the locations I see them.

I didn't use to think as deeply of how my work was effecting Don. Now I understand that my husband and I want to live in a comfortable space for both of us where we can be free to spread out our activities without the confines of decorator magazine perfection. He can lay out his fishing gear and prepare for his next trip. I can paint in either the livingroom or dinning room when it isn't nice enough on the patio.

 The shape of space around the pictures in a grouping is very important in making an overall impact.
 

Intuitively I have hung the largest paintings at the entry into the living room creating the impression that the wall is longer. The spaces between paintings is larger at the entrance than between the paintings at the end. The stair stepping of heights, and different sizes create an interesting negative space around the paintings. This shape around the pictures makes an overall casualness that impacts our feeling about how we want to live.

 

The more active are the color contrasts,

the greater the need is for a larger surrounding empty space and order.

 

 

Hanging next to the window is a painting called “My Palette My Table” in which I, with an open bag, stand small, practically unnoticeably harvesting lushious color. This painting is energizing to me but also is orderly because of the repetition of squares. Repetition goes beyond the painting. Squares and rectangles in my chair space include the stacking of abstract square paintings on the white wall, the lamp shade, the Guatemalian tapestry and the picture window.

I view this island of energized order at our computer desk where I am immersed in an island of clutter, I am too close to the gallery wall to see the casually hung paintings but I do see Don's island of doings and an occassional hat or pair of sandals. For a rest I can turn towards the window and my corner chair with the energized large painting made orderly with repetition of squares within and surrounding the painting. Then beyond to the empty front door area with empty walls.

A balance of motion and rest is not a newconcept to me but now I can apply with love to my relationship with my husband. It is as true in a painting as it is true when considering how to hang paintings in the architectural spacet o make a home our oasis of activity and rest.

Coming in Part Two of How I Hang the Pictures I Paint will be about our dining area, kitchen and laundry room. I will share ideas on making better use of corners that get visually lost. Discuss museum wrap, frames and  framing pictures with the architectural elements in the room.  Part Three I will show my studio/storage with ideas for storing more art in a small space with easy access for making rotations throughout our home.

I believe every painting collector has a different living space and different needs that their collection can satisfy. Collectors not only own a part of someone elses creativity but they can embark on a personally rewarding, creative journey of their own in finding what gives them the most satisfaction in how they display their collection. Perhaps some of the principles I have discovered here and the ones in future posts will be adaptable to your own collecting process. I hope you will share some of your experiences here in comments. I am still learning.

Rainy Day co-author Diane Widler Wenzel

by Rain Trueax

In 2004, with no real idea what I'd do with it, I began blogging. I did it for almost two years and thought-- I don't want to do this. A few months later, I had second thoughts, but someone had already claimed the title I'd been using. Fortunately, I had saved the posts and put them into a new blog I called [Age Old Beauty]. 

In 2006, I began this blog and have continued, once in a while with some doubts but kept on through them. I basically like connecting with readers, sharing my ideas, and now and again getting comments. It's been fun.

Now I am starting something new with it-- taking on a co-author. I have debated how to introduce her here, as we share a friendship over 50 years. Wow, that's hard to take in-- basically as long as our respective marriages. Our husbands actually met before they met us. When they entered grad school, we all headed for Arizona, found apartments in the same complex, swam in the community pool like fish, hiked and explored. She painted everywhere we went. I did some too but mostly I wrote-- my first manuscript got it's first rough draft in that apartment. When we returned to the Northwest, the friendship lasted past starting families, seeing them grow up, and finding ourselves heading into old age.

What I tried to decide is how to introduce Diane Widler Wenzel here. Do I do it as that longtime friend, with lots of shared photos including most recently in the spring renting a house together at the beach or do I do it as how I've loved her art through the years, have many of her paintings on our walls, and enjoy seeing what she's doing as she creates new work constantly? Maybe a little of both.

So starting on Saturday, Diane will be posting here with sometimes about her art but also about whatever else piques her interest. She is a very talented painter but more than that, an interesting woman with diverse ideas on many things. We often don't agree, but we always can discuss and respect each other's views. I have no idea what she'll choose to bring to this blog-- to me, that's exciting.

She also has an open house at the Albany Library here in Oregon from 1-3 on Sunday. If you are in the area, come check out the many paintings she's had hanging there. Diane is generous with her art, hangs it in many places to share with others. Her philosophy toward that art will be one of the many things she will be sharing as she joins Rainy Day Thought.

 from 2013 when Diane also hung her work at the Albany Library