by Diane: Update #4, Inspirations incubating

Thank you Rain for putting up a detail of my painting, "Fantasy" as the blog header.   It is a female strong 2019 fantasy interpretation of Henri Rousseau's "The Dream".  It is still a painting in process. Missing is a monkey and tropical birds hiding in the tree. This change will not change this header.

Playing more with knots to plan the second in series.

 Sunday I anticipated some days this week would be so challenging that actual hands on involvement, even for a few minutes, would not be possible. When this post is published, my husband and I will hopefully be learning how he can heal after no improvement from the hiatal hernia repair 12 weeks ago.

Bok Choy

I love vegetables and fixing them.  I spend hours cooking for me and my husband, so as I cook I am preparing to paint. I continue to seek forms that speak to me.

Purple Cabbage

Some of the waste is just too precious to eat.
Last year we couldn't get the bok choy to grow. Maybe the heart will grow better than seeds so loved by the purple finch we invite into our yard by feeding them sunflower seeds.  Maybe these beauties will inspire new work.
                              

 

 Maybe the purple cabbage will be part of an assembliage. I have many ideas. Too many ideas are better than none. Maybe I can tie them together soon.

 

                      

Ever as Before

by Rain Trueax

Looking for a new read that is a kind of magical realism just in time for Imbolc? How about throwing in a threat of the living dead? A particularly determined demon? Natural born witches, gnomes, warlocks, shamans-- this is, after all the 7th in the Mystic Shadows series of books that move beyond what we consider reality to something else. Might that something else be quantum physics? What if there is an alchemist aspect to how evil can be fought and contained? Imbolc is a good time for a story that is a mix of physical reality and romantic fantasy.

by Diane; Update #3 How my changes in the studio and palettes make painting more relaxing during stressful times

The past three weeks after hanging 34 paintings at the Albany Publc Library, I have worked to make a space conducive to enjoying painting when I have limited small segments of time. I want to also be there for my husband whose hiatal hernia surgery eleven weeks ago has failed to relieve most of his symptoms. Currently there are many tests underway.  He is in good spirits.

          First, I cleared the clutter.  Too many tools! Nice to have them shelved in our shop.

          Second, I have several palette designs for testing. They each have limited colors. My palette keeps the acrylic paint soft without having to twist off caps and prepare the colors every time I paint.

          Third, for the sake of relaxation, I  reduced the necessity of making complex choices in the process of painting.  I choose only one painting tool on the second painting - the back end of a foam bullet found on one of our neighborhood streets.  

           To be worked out  for the next painting: how to find the most expressive handeling of the bullet.
            Fourth, best of all, I did not need to clean brushes. Too often in the past I left brushes with acrylic paint drying and sticking to the hair.

 

Plastic clam shell from the bakery accommodates 3 jars 
left over from Yoplait's Oui yogurt.

Also fitting into the clam shell are fruit cups, small Tupperware,
and of course one pint size paint jar.
The clam shell is easy to close when I need to instantly drop painting.
to be helpful to my husband.

 

  The canvas board of the first painting was too textured
 for crisp stamped marks.
 I saved the painting by increasing the punch of  yellow and red.
I reverted from my goal and returned to my old ways of resolving paintings.
In the second painting, "Three Color Ability of Knots", I achieved a more relaxing painting time.
On the second one
The second, lower right is on
unfinished wood.





Not part of the plan

by Rain Trueax

Well, that last hero was pretty normal-- if being a billionaire is normal. How about a hero who has some unusual habits-- like shifting into an animal? A rock star who wants out of that life? A man with a love that he left due to his frightening secrets? What if his deceased mother was Navajo and that land is still in his blood? What if he has an enemy out to destroy him? Hey, why not!

by Diane: Update #2 - Getting started painting

 

I am going about managing my paints like the Tibetan monk I met in 2002. Like the monk my  tools are made of materials in my easy reach. The monk's paint pots are an assortment of recycled containers. His brushes were handmade with stick handles. I am making a brush cleaner from what I can glean - plastic jar and void credit card.
We are using different paint. Mine is acrylic and cannot be reconstituted after drying like his. So I need to keep the paint moist in a sealed container.



The off white plastic clam shell take out containers 
are from China Delight Restaurant in Corvallis.
Balanced on the partitions are smaller plastic containers
gleaned from our recyclables. Two are the molded plastic
from Reach dental floss
and the larger ones in the middle are from hardware packaging.
The added small containers leave ample space below and above.
Below is space for a water reservoir to keep the humidity high
enough to keep the paint moist when the clam shell is closed. 
The dome shape above is spacious enough for sticks to remain in each color.
The plastic Daniel Smith paint jar was fitted with a paint brush scrapper cut out from a void credit card.
The small canvas board is where I am testing brushes sticks and stamps made of found objects.
 

In preliminary testing of a partially filled palette, I find I have some failures.
My scrapper failed. Thicker paint stuck to the credit card when theoretically I expected all paint to fall into the jar. Just pressure balanced the credit card when pushed to hard fell into the paint below.
Next week I will bend a stiff wire to stand high up in the paint scrapping jar.

                                

My start looks ugly to me so far. Will keep trying.

   

It's Complicated

By Rain Trueax

What if? Do you know how many ideas for books begin with-- what if. The next thought can be-- ridiculous, but sometimes it's-- why not! 

Why not have a hero who is named after an ancestor who did evil during his lifetime? Why not have that man be the very soul who has lived lives between the evil one in an attempt to get his lives on a healthier course? How much of that outlaw violence would carry over into the one he's now living? Can someone really change their soul through the lives they choose? Since they won't remember those earlier lives, how much do they impact today's choices? What if he has spiritual helpers who have come along for the ride but that he doesn't see or want to hear?

These are the questions raised in Complicated Bargain-- third of the Hemstreet Witch books, now in a series called Mystic  Shadows.

by Diane: Update #1: My process in making a new painting goal

Clearing the way for an exciting new direction 

 is one of the best parts of exhibiting my paintings.

Studio before hanging my exhibit

 

Thirty paintings stacked against the wall

waited to be hung at Albany Public Library January 5 - February

Love seeing my work in a large space like the library! The spaciousness of the library gives me a different perspective in which to self-judge my direction!

With a good many of my paintings gone, I have room to clean and organize my work space. 

   For my quest to make a resolution  in addition to house cleaning, I watched the DVD Netflix documentary, "Monk with a Camera."  For me, an admirer of Buddhist philosophy, but with no plan of becoming Buddhist, a movie about a convert stimulated my questioning the psychological health of playing with art as I do.



Inspired by my 2002 painting
of a China /Tibet
 monk's studio, I am removing all
but the most necessary 
tools from my work space
to make a  relaxing,
 soothing, contemplative,
painting place.
 Easy to use while I continue
 as a care giver
the next two months.
 

        
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

"Monk with a Camera" is a 1914 documentary about the spiritual journey of photographer Nicholas Vreeland, the grandson of Vogue magazine editor, Diana Vreeland and Ambassador Frederich Vreeland. Nicholas rejected the life style of privilege that he was born to especially the glitz and expectations of high society.  Seeking the advise of the Dalai Lama, he moved to India where he in earnest studied at the Rato Dratsang Monastery.

      

        He worried that the more he took pictures, the more he would want to take them.  Making art would be intoxicatingly presumptuous of his importance. As a monk, in contrast to being a photographer, his identity was abandoned first by shaving his head of hair. Without hair on his head he felt in a sense naked of identity. He lived a sparse existence with only the most necessary things needed to live. He gave up his immaculate perfectly polished expensive shoes. After years of being a monk when charged with elitism because he was polishing his sandals like he used to polish his shoes showing off his elite superiority.  He explained the difference,"Polished sandals last longer." 

          As a monk if he spent his time taking pictures, he would be thinking as a photographer even without a camera in his hands.  If he was thinking like an artist photographer much of the time, his ego would be gratified so gretly that he would wipe away the humility of being a monk. In becomming a monk ones former identity is abandoned and individualism does not exist. Photography in addition would become an addiction.

      

         In my opinion being immersed in a pictorial art form is transforming  my values. I gradually  become resistant to advertisements. I do not desire most material things. The longer I have marketed my paintings for sale, the less my ego feels stroked by sales and more and more my art is about sharing my experience.

         Maybe I should take from Niki's first Buddhist teacher Kyonal Rato who at age 80 bought a chest full of windup music boxes in the shape of stuffed animals. He enjoyed orchestrating the play of these boxes to make a pretend musical show. And at more than 90 years of age he took child-like pleasure with his toys but kept them segregated from most of his life. His separating play just like the young Tibetan students at the monastery who played a board game on Mondays.  The China Tibetan Monks also were playing "football" (soccer). Buddhist Monks play. And  I feel confirmed in my art journey. Shouldn't I consider painting serious play fulfilling a basic human need to play?

 

       Another Netflix video "ADVANCED STYLE" by Ari Seth Cohen has one parallel philosophy - "Money cannot buy style."  The video exposes the under recognized fashion sense of individuality in seven women in their 60's through 90's. They embrace shopping to build outfits expressing themselves as art. They flourish showing they are better than the advertised merchandise trying to sell the latest fad to all.  They have found the zest of being alive and vibrant in the  same New York City that Nicki rejected.
         The ladies of "ADVANCED STYLE" celebrated the importance of being individuals while Nicholase Vreeland rejected the importance of the individual when he became a monk.
 

       Also pertinent to my considering a different direction for this period of care giving is a Great Courses selection, "THE SHAPE OF NATURE" of lectures by Professor Satyan L. Devados inwhich the most important concept is that form and function is interrelated.  For me as an artist, the design of my studio space is the form in which my art making is the function. 

       In my next update, I plan to share my self critic of my work at the library and hopefully show  progress in rearranging my studio. Maybe even new paintings.

 

 

Black swans What do you think?

by Rain Trueax

As a writer, I am always fascinated by terms I hadn't known. Such a one came to me this year-- black swan.

Definition: A black swan is an unpredictable event that is beyond what is normally expected of a situation and has potentially severe consequences. Black swan events are characterized by their extreme rarity, their severe impact, and the practice of explaining widespread failure to predict them as simple folly in hindsight.

Some take them only to be about major institutions or events that impact a whole culture or even the world. I think they can be seen as also about our individual lives.

by Diane: New Decade/ New Year's look at my life as an artist

 Before considering my resolutions, this decade, this year, I question my life as a practicing artist. In my current stage of life going on 77 years of age in 2020, I consider my age and the changing of our living location or remaking our home to suit our needs - an expected soon to be reality.  Plus all the conditions of the world around me need to be considered. Putting aside immediate issues for awhile, I consider some hypothetical possibilities far from my reality.
      How would I practice art if I was a Yellow Hat Tibetan Monk? Will such an improbable question stimulate an enlightened goal?


What is missing from the monk's painting paraphernalia?
 No rags? No large container of water to clean brushes?
No container of many brushes?
Only a thermos for his tea and another for water to add to his paint?
Only stir sticks in paint pots to keep paint at the exactly right creamy consistency.
Are the sticks in each color pot tipped with a brush head down in the paint?
Do I remember a few hand made brushes?
 If he uses a different brush for each color, the purity of his colors would be maintained
without contaminating cleaning water or rag. He will not contaminate the environment.
His method insures no waste of precious mineral colors.
Can a brush remain in a gouache type paint without ever being cleaned?
Did he paint with sticks?
Do I see a receptacle for scraping off and collecting excessive paint before applyication?
Knowing his exact working method does not matter.
I have an idea of how I can change my work space process.
 

      I remember my first impression of the artist monk August 13, 2002, at the Drepung Monastery in China, Tibet. Seeing his fascination with my sketches and pen, I handed him a brush pen that I was using. He wanted to try it and I gave it to him for keeps. In my sketch book he drew a self portrait. Later at home I painted Pintolanden ( my poor phonetic spelling of his name). I clearly remember my impression because when I came home, I painted him. His studio was rich in color. I was impressed how cozy he was in stark contrast to the desolate landscape outside. Above all I wanted to work from color pots like his.

The monk's drawing of himself.
 I never explored the meaning of his pose.
Or the meaning of his Buddhist name.

My painting reflects how suited his work space was
to making Thangkas. It should be an ideal space
for meditative, spiritual painting
but I saw this space was impacted
by the world of soda pop and clutter of
plastic bags from recent shopping.
Over his robes he wore a sweater
and under his robes - sweat pants.
He had Western style running shoes.
 On the floor was an open paperback book.
Possibly a corrupting novel?
 

        Historically monks painted meditatively soothed by repeating the same traditional details with minimal need to make independent choices. All their colors were spread out in little pots so they could paint continuously without interruptions to prepare the next color. So impressed, was I that I found a couple of clam shell plastic boxes in which I put  a quarter cup of each acrylic color. I grouped colors that I often mix together. Spritzing them with water whenever they start to dry, these colors remained workable for months. Now I see much more that I can use from the monk's art process.

       On a deeper level, I was impressed in 2002 by the impact of the world on the Tibetan painter, "Pintoladen". He was not isolated from the world.  Tourists like me must be interrupting his work rhythm. He was making thangkas not just for the monastery and local Buddhists but for tourists who may or may not be on a Buddhist spiritual journey. The sale of his work along with other spiritual items made at the monastery supported the monastery in today's world driven by money. Today's world is not perfect.  Neither would returning to a theocracy be better. In by gone ages, the peasants provided for the the ruling monastery.Now it is moneyfrom maybe the Chinese government and tourists.

        At home in 2002  I failed to think of our core similarities and differences until now when I watched a film about a Buddhist convert. Next Wednesday's post will be a review of "A Buddhist with a Camera".

In the next couple of Wednesday posts,
 I will update what kind of art and how I make my work space
comfortable and workable.

    

Heading to 2020

by Rain Trueax

sunrise December 18th from Casa Espiritu

The time between Christmas and New Years is a special time for me. Yes, the calendar is a manmade tool, but it can be used. The idea of moving into a new year, especially a new decade, feels important-- even more when it has such a neat sound to it-- 2020. 

This week used to be when I would write goals for the coming year. I did that for years. I was pretty much always having the same goals. I got more organized with them as I'd put them in three categories-- spirit, body, mind. I would think what did I want to do to move myself forward in each area.

Merry Christmas

From Ranch Boss and me-- Merry Christmas

a state of mind

by Rain Trueax

I hope you are having a great holiday season-- however you celebrate it. It would be nice if Christmas could be a time of forgiveness and joining together with love as we look toward a new year.

Christmas Eve

by Rain Trueax

'Tis the Season

by Rain Trueax

Happy Hanukkah!

I've seen it spelled different ways, which complicates writing about it. Chanukah is the Jewish eight-day wintertime festival of lights, beginning with lighting one candle and nightly another on the menorah along with special prayers, songs, games, and foods. I had always heard of it as the eight-day miracle of the oil lasting during a siege.

The word means dedication because it celebrates the re-dedication of the Temple. It is also commonly spelled Hanukkah but it is pronounced (or so I read) with a gutteral 'kh' sound. 

I first learned of the dreidel when our son was in grade school and the teacher arranged for a Jewish student's mother to explain some of the traditions to the class. 

This year Hallmark has had two movies involving Hanukkah, which has involved one of the characters being Jewish and sharing part of the tradition with the other who celebrated Christmas. It's been a nice tough, I thought, to their holiday season plots. 

Whatever the case, it is part of this holiday season of lights. I found this image in Stencil and the quote one of those online that represent the meaning behind the celebration. 
 

Winter Solstice

by Rain Trueax

We are here, at the Winter Solstice, over the hump and on our way back to light.  From the fall equinox, I look forward to this time when every day will mean a few seconds longer day. It's a time to celebrate, as humans have done from time immemorial. When humans were more dependent on growing their own food, this was so important that most ancient religious sites have a way for the priests/shamans to know exactly when it happened as it also related to when to plant.

When we got back to Tucson, I had brought artificial greens in a box. For years, we decorated with real greens but then realized we got sinus problems about that time. The artificial ones look real, don't require cutting up a tree or getting sick. They last season after season. In the box were two glass angels I'd had on the Oregon mantle. I was happy to see them as they mixed in well with the Southwestern flavor of our home-- plus were a little touch of family as they had been my mother's.

Then I got the idea to order fairy lights. They are tiny LED lights that are run from batteries. It let us have a magical glow at night when we settle onto the sofa to watch a movie like White Christmas on Netflix... A new favorite is Christmas Chronicles-- give it a try if you haven't already. It's not exactly traditional but anytime you have Kurt Russell rocking out as Santa Claus, it's a win/win for me.

There are many traditions for ways to celebrate this day. Most go way back in history but are easily adapted to today. I wrote about some for my book, A Montana Christmas, where the family celebrated not only Christmas but also the Solstice. In writing that book, it had been fun to research the many traditions possible. When I wrote The Marshal's Lady, I

researched the traditions that went with a Yaqui Christmas.

For today, to celebrate this season, decorating the home with sacred herbs and colors provides the right energy. Druidic colors are red, green and white (sound familiar-- it should as many traditions associated with Christmas came from pagan sources). Place holly, evergreen boughs, pine cones, and ivy around the house. A sprig of mistletoe is always good over a doorway. 

Christmas wreathes symbolize the continuity of life and the wheel of the year in addition to being welcoming on a front door.  

Anytime is a good one for conveying love to friends and family, but it was at the heart of Saturnalia, the ancient Roman festival celebrated from the 17th to the 23rd, whatever that was on the Roman calendar. Feasting and gift giving were also part of it as it is now with Christmas and can be for the Solstice. 

Of course, Hanukkah is celebrated for eight days along with traditional games, foods, and the lighting of the menorah.  
 
In these traditions, we honor the new solar year with light, which can be candles or open fires. This is when the Yule log is used. It is supposed to be oak as that has important symbolism but really any log works. 

Finally, contribute to others, donate food, clothing, money. Feed wild birds. The birds need us and we need them-- more than some may realize.

Remember, my books with Christmas in them will be on sale until the 27th. The info on them was in Wednesday's blog with four historical and two contemporary.

Holiday Sampler

by Rain Trueax

As part of the celebration of the season of giving, we are having a sale for my books that have Christmas in them. They are 99¢. Why not free? Well, it's not easy doing free if your books are wide. 99¢ is virtually free since the writer only gets 35% of that.


The banner below is a little unusual because their connection to each other is that celebration of Christmas, which impacts the characters. Usually writers put together historicals or contemporaries. In this case, four are historic, three in Arizona and one in Oregon; two are contemporary where Christmas happens in Montana and Utah.

What does Christmas mean to us? How do we celebrate it? Is it a time of sadness or of joy? These books, two full length novels and four novellas, explore various elements of a season that can mean so many things from great joy to great sadness for the expectations.

We are not planning ads for this sale; so it'll only be found by those who either get my newsletter, follow me on Facebook, or read this blog. While I am into subtly enjoying Christmas here in the desert, my biggest concern is how to get the next paranormal seen when it comes out in late January. 

You just got a sampler of my logic behind this sale...

Historical 

The Marshal's Lady
He wore a gun, which she abhorred. When his estranged, 9-year old daughter showed up in town, Christmas might be a time they could all come together: 
https://www.amazon.com/Tucson-Moon-OBrians-Arizona-Historicals-ebook/dp/B00GYL9DVQ

Rose's Gift
As a widow, she was too old for romance. He came along, and Christmas brought another surprise: https://www.amazon.com/Roses-Gift-Arizona-OBrians-Book-ebook/dp/B00T13IID8

Frederica's Outlaw
She came to Tucson to find her daughter before Christmas. What she found changed everything: https://www.amazon.com/Fredericas-Outlaw-Arizona-Historical-Historicals-ebook/dp/B01MYXKWAG

Where Dreams Go
He had long loved her but when duty called, Christmas was spent a long way from her in the wilderness. Would he lose everything:
https://www.amazon.com/Where-Dreams-Oregon-Historicals-Book-ebook/dp/B00YM71S44

Contemporary

A Montana Christmas
She wanted to heal a broken family. Christmas could be the season for that hope. Would the price be too high:
https://www.amazon.com/Montana-Christmas-Rain-Trueax-ebook/dp/B00AOU0IQ2

Diana's Journey
After losing her marriage and all she thought she had, Diana is on a journey. Could Christmas just be a reminder of what she'd lost or or was this a new beginning:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M5IA26Y

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Regular updates on my work at my Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/RainTrueax/ 

Not much going on

by Rain Trueax

Our projects since we got to Casa Espiritu have been small ones, but I think good for the house. One is to begin replacing the windows in the living room with energy efficient ones. We got several bids and opted for less fancy windows than we bought for the Oregon house. Tucson, with its sometimes extreme summer heat, seem like a place to be practical. It'll take a month and a half to get them here with a crew to install them. I am not fond of having work done in the house and one window is right by my desk. But still, just one day and then better for not having the window let in so much cold, heat, and noise.

The travel trailer also needs repairs from damage done a few years back by the ironwood tree when we drove in. Turns out it hadn't been repaired well enough and now involves damage to the wood around the skylight. That one is more complicated because if we took it to a dealer, it could cost $4000 and have it there a month or more. If Ranch Boss does it, it's a lot of work for him but less cost as he replaces the disintegrated particle board with plywood and then seals it. He looked into a mobile repair guy coming here but turns out that they don't do that kind of work.

In the evenings, we watch to see if we are going to get a good sunset. It does not always happen as sometimes there is color but no structure and sometimes not much of either. Still, worth looking for.

To date, it's only had one time warm enough for me to sit on the patio to watch the birds. It's not cold by comparison to the north, but it's also not that warm without wearing a coat. So no photos of birds yet but there are a lot here.

We also saw the javelina with some babies-- but no photos. They are something to watch out for when going outside. Small and not dangerous to the level of feral hogs, their tusks can tear a person's leg open if they get startled and did kill the neighbor's dog some years back. Something that made us sad, as she was a really sweet dog, but she had to protect her property, and they had babies.

One more project that Ranch Boss had someone do was getting the gravel landing pad ready for moving the travel trailer beside the carport. That won't happen until the trailer has been repaired; so currently, it blocks part of our view toward the Tucson Mountains. 

This is all kind of mundane stuff and other than my writing and some ideas for possible trips down here for after Christmas, that's pretty much all there has been as we unwind from the drive and settle in here.

nature's gifts

by Diane and Rain
 

 Arizona sunset 12-4-19

With Diane taking a break until 2020, due to her need to be there for her husband healing from major surgery, her hanging a new show at her town's library, and computer problems, I will be posting all the blogs until after the New Year. I'll keep a regular one on Saturdays, as always, but the others may vary for which days or some might just be photos, such as the one above.

It turned out that sometime back I had put in a Word doc what Diane had written about a small stone she had given me and a painting she had done inspired from it. I instantly loved the stone, loved to touch it for its shape and smoothness. Of course, I had to buy the painting. With it she gave me a poem she had written. The stone and painting are in Oregon. I had taken photos of them thinking someday I might use them in a blog.

This seems the perfect time and season for the words and images.

seasonal changes

by Rain Trueax

November 29th-- moon setting with the sun from our desert home, Casa Espiritu

How can it already be December with another year nearly gone? Where did this year go? In terms of my writing, I published nothing in 2019. I did write a book but the decision of when

to bring it out kept getting changed. It will be a pre-release, which I'll write more about another time with a firm date set in January 2020-- making it come out before Imbolc, when the story is set. I did not intend to have nothing new for over a year, but it just worked out that way. 

Because of the aftermath of travel, we had debated having a Thanksgiving dinner but ended up doing it with turkey and all the trimmings. This is the holiday season; but after getting the farm ready to leave and then the long drive, I am having to work to get into the mood. 

by Diane: favorite pictures of the week.

The chill of winter has arrived.
 Only a few surviving roses linger.
Light comes late and darkness early.

In a refrigerated atmoshere

 the roses hang on through frost and mist

day after day.

By the warmth of a wood fire,
 I review photos of a sweet spring and summer.
Sweet because one of these years our beautiful view will become an urban development.
I loved the ground cover under the redwood tree.

My phone takes amazing pictures all of which are different from how I see our neighboring fields and woods. I could not capture a good picture of the doves sitting on the iced over bird bath, or the flock of robins completely deneuding the holly bush of what was going to be my season's trimmings. I could not capture the robins' flight.  White from being back lit wings flutter and tail turning downward as they flew in to a perch on the birch tree. But my camera's frame helped me to appreciate small vingnettes of the whole like the ice in our birdbath. The rock being one of my on going painting themes.