A Piece Of Me...

I was born in the second half of the 1900’s, possibly descended of "Scottish Tinkers" (still finding this), Tetched with Megalomania, Decidedly Hetro and an emerging Crone!

Winter, Blue, Spiritual, Empathic, Artist, Artisan, Wordist, Herbalist and a Stone Caster!

Now then, for good measure I’ll throw in ADD, Bi-Polar, OCD and a bit plain ole NUTZ….. J I refer to this as having numerous "Cats In My Attic", which means I still have control...otherwise they would just be "Bats In My Belfry"! : )

Most of my time, these days, is spent dealing with a semi-bizarre condition, "Arachnoiditis w/Myoclonic Dystonia"! Such is life after a fairly severe (ACDF C4-7) spinal incident. I am so grateful to no longer be paralyzed after successful surgery, that I try not to whine about the “Chump Change”! I’m sure any Quadriplegic out there would gladly accept the sacrifice for the freedom of Mobility!

Monday, February 16, 2009

"Hopping" Hearts Happy Honeys!

Valentine's Day revelers abound out and about for the ArtHop in Redding Saturday night! Troy and Adam have out done themselves, and I bet just about exhausted themselves in the meantime! Whew,what a fun and entertaining venue the monthly HOP has brought out here for locals as well as a few tourists even! I overheard at the "Vintage" a couple that had made their way from Chico just to check it out, another young man here visiting from Sacramento and a wonderful woman that traveled in all the way from San Diego! Okay, so maybe she was visiting her sister here but they chose to Hop for their entertainment of the evening! Wow! I believe that Redding is a natural resource for artists and should be an artists "Mecca" as it is!


I made my way through as best I could at several places, however, I was unfortunately stricken down fairly early and actually didn't get to all the places I had on my list! Phil Fountain was at the top of my list over at the Infinate Designs and I didn't make it over there because it was supposed to be the last place I was going to go, but I ended up at the NVAL for my last stop and had to head home! Bummer!


I did manage to fall into another one of those little hole-in-the-wall places in downtown called the 501 Club! I have to say I discovered a couple of really awesome metal sculptures done by a pair of "unknown" (?) artists, one of which I spoke with at the bar named Michael, (Bartender). I tried to take some pictures but I am afraid that (sigh) once again, they did not come out!  If you are at all interested in seeing them I am sure you would be welcome to walk right in and look at them for yourself! Michael stated that the other artist involved was no longer interested in producing anything, What a SHAME!


I am making a habit out of finding these places, I might say on purpose! I love to look at things that others sometimes do not see and see it from a different perspective!


I did get into "Carnegie's" to see Luke Lucas for his show and demonstration/participation installation in the galleria! Luke is such a fine artist! His work has a deep character to it that draws you in!  Then, what kid can resist a shot at his "Paint Free" Exhibit?  Always a hit!  I would love to see him travel around to some of the schools with his show, the arts suffer in the schools so much in these hard times!  You go Luke!


Also KUDOS to the proprietor of Carnegie's, JULIE, for the Sculpture/Mural on the wall in the main room! WOW! I would love to get another chance at taking a couple of pictures there, because of course, once again, my pictures SUCK!


I talked with artist Celeste White for a minute while I scoped out the really awesome interactive art installation at Board Mart, I love her "Assemblage" pieces!  I want her to join my group on Yahoo!  I'll have to send her a link! :0

As a final tribute, Big Kudos to the ladies manning the doors and floors at the NVAL, Bless them as it was wet and lonely!  Especially after the packed house they had last month!

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Slam Buckra Pulls One Off For Pio Loco!

Woo-Hoo!  I finally got out to see Slam out on the town!  Part of my new philosophy of "stop thinking about it and do it"!  It was really great, we sat upstairs on the balcony overlooking the stage, drank too many margaritas and had a blast!  I tried to get some video, and I did manage some pieces, but I look like I might be a little tipsy while I'm doing it!  LOL!

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Cultural Cruise Clips

It was a lot of fun to get out on the town for the annual "Cruise".  I of course headed out early to catch my favorite Dyna-duo "Still Married" kicking off the bash at the city hall.  I did arrive early enough to recieve the autographed picture and CD that Erin was wonderful enough to give me as well as say hello in person!   She even let me prattle on a little! YAYA!  Then Erin even sang my favorite "Possum In The Hen House", Not on the CD, maybe on their NEXT!  As we explored the art on the 2nd floor of the beautiful City Hall, Erins voice was resonating so beautifully that I had to stand up there to listen for awhile.  The extra acoustics really brings out her voice!  We stayed long enough to enjoy Nick Ciampi as well as Steve and Diana before heading out to try and catch some other venues!

We hit Turtle Bay, and even though the Geckos were fantastic, there was not too much art, I'm not sure why though?  There was only a couple of pieces but from Bay area artists?  No local artists could supply anything for them?

We headed straight over to the North Valley Art League to watch the Awards for the 25th Annual National Art Show!  Wow, what a great idea to combine the two events!  Unfortunately, I think they may have been ill prepared for just how great of an idea it was!  Maybe next year someone could come up with a microphone?  The HUGE crowd was totally unable to hear anything and there was even some angry people at the back of the crowd.  I have to say though... THE ART! WOW,wow,wow!  More on that later!

The one place I was totally stoked about was going out to the Shasta College Art Center, I thought they had a show by the instructors going on.  I was wrong, way wrong!  So wrong I will not even go on about it other than to say.."Who Was IN CHARGE of that?" OMG, I'll probably never go back there again, it was VERY disappointing is the nicest thing I can say!  Is there only one artist out at that place?  Did they not have enough time to prepare something, someone, anything else?

I do not want to end on a bad note so I will say that we had a great time overall and it brings me to a new level of appreciation for the level of effort that people do put into making these events happen for us!