when the rain came...

It was getting pretty bleak around here. The river levels were super low, we were on water restrictions, then the rain came. Boy-oh-boy was it great! it rained for about 3 days straight. We had a bit of flooding on our back porch, but it went out as fast as it came in. The pond was actually over flowing. I went out and checked on the fish, I called down to them: stay low fishes!...Yes, I do talk to all the animals!
I found a turtle in the yard once the rain stopped, He was really cute. I haven't seen him for a few days. I guess he went back to the river. I lost the photo I took of him.
Today the sky is clear and the ground is still wet. The birds, bees flowers and trees are looking good again. But damn, I am going to have to cut the grass!..it grew a few inches in the time it took me to post this!

Update:

The Big Irish head is back! A lot has happened since my last post. For one thing we are now living in a Post-Civil Rights era. The drought we were struggling through here in VA,was broken by a wonderful 3 days of rain. My computer was down this past week (I lost a bunch of photos some cute Frankenstein photos and videos too). Needless to say, I have been plugged into TV politics...like a junkie for a week. I need to detox before I can get back to my work. It is going to be a thick, thorny path for us all to slog through till November. But the Head is back home! No more trips to the airport and hours of our lives spent waiting for delayed flights and lost luggage. It is time for us to get our home in order and refresh for Fall.

We have two mini trips planed for next week. One to PA where the Head has some business and I have The Philadelphia Museum of Art to visit. Then later in the week Frankenstein, TBIH and I will be enjoying a few days at the beach!

Mr.Eleven has been working in NY all Summer with a woman from NM. She got him the most awesome Mexican Wrestling Mask ever! She also gifted us some amazing chile peppers. Last night we boiled them and milled them and made a rockin chile sauce! We have a counter full of tomatoes from our garden waiting to be cooked. There will be a lot of cooking going down around here for the next few days!
I have a great start on the globe...it is very connected to what I witnessed last week. Living History as we all did. So much of what I learned and herd were the same things I am working on in my own work: Empathy; A world view; looking at things form a micro as well as a macro perspective and the power of telling the truth, to name the biggest ones. The philosophy is what I connect to. The ideas that I have been working through all my life. Striving for excellence and believing with every fiber of my being that hard work pays off. That, truth is power.

So for the next week I am going to be detoxing, looking at art, walking in the sand and getting reacquainted with The Big Irish head!..wink wink nudge nudge!

When next Monday rolls around I will be off and running!
I'll try and do some posts along the way.
till then...ONWARD!

globe update....

I began work on Globe 5 this week. I have been trying to squeeze as much studio time out of each day as I can, so I haven't been doing blog postings. I finally got my nerve up to paint in egg tempera. It is a very different medium than painting in oil. It is a much slower process, colors must be layered not blended. But I really like the idea of egg and pigment for the globes. It is much more 'green' for one thing. I do have this egg theme going, too. In fact in the last image, the rat is laying on an egg. I have eggs in most if not all the globes, although they are not prominent images in most. I love the softness of the egg surface. It feels velvety, smooth almost waxy. The colors are very translucent and really sing. I have a ways to go on this one, but I feel I have a good start.

I have to go pick the big head up from the airport later today...lets hope it is on time! I included an airplane in this globe..hmm, wonder where that came from?! as always...marching...Onward!

Frankenstein Friday

Is it really Friday? Mr. Eleven 's plane was delayed for hours then canceled yesterday. When he finally did get on another flight and landed in Richmond they lost his luggage! All in all it took him 8 hours to get home. It is a 45 min flight. We are waiting for his luggage to arrive.

I posted a few new chug clips here.

Frankenstein had a bath yesterday! He did so well. After he was in the tub a while and got all scrubbed up. I towel dried him and the first thing he did was put his front paws up on the tub edge and watch the water go down. I think he wanted to go back in. Now he is a clean bean.

We are a family again...till Monday at 4 am when the airlines and the big head meet again!

Run-chug-run!

Run-chug-run!
Originally uploaded by tracey st.peter

Today we are running around getting ready for the return of, The Big Irish Head! Yep, yet another trip to the airport. Hopefully this time the flight is on time and we stay well clear of the Waffle House!

Garden update...

Check these guys out! They are called a Peruvian Purple Chile. I have 2 plants and each is loaded with pretty purple blossoms. You can see the chilies, look like mini eggplants. They are doing really well.
These are Thai Dragon Peppers, they will eventually turn red. The plant looks very elegant, tall with graceful curved shapes dancing under the umbrella of foliage. I bet they are Hot-hot-hot!

getting back on the horse!

My weekend stared with Mr. Elevin's flight home from NY being delayed for 5 hours. He finally arrived at the airport at 1:30 am. When I found him by the luggage carousel, he was surrounded by a group of people he had befriended along the way. Including a 17 year old African girl on her first trip alone, on her way to College; An Italian Neuroscientist who spoke very little English, yet was still fascinating and very funny; and a fellow who works for the same co. as the Head and lives near us. We drove the Italian to his Hotel and got the girl headed in the right direction, before we arrived home at an un-godly hour.
My weekend ended at 4 am Monday morn, when on the way to drop Mr. Eleven at the airport, we received a call from the airlines that the flight would be delayed 2 hours. Since we were in the car all we could do, the only place open at that hour, near the airport was: The Waffle House! It was my first time at one and all I could think of was a story I heard recently about someone stepping in a human poop, that was under a table, at a Waffle House! We were one of two couples dinning at that hour. It was a trip! The cook and the waitress got into a big shouting match before we had our first sip of coffee. The kitchen in a Waffle House is in the same space as the dinning area so we had front row seats for the fight!
Mr. Eleven has been traveling a lot lately for work. it wouldn't be so bad if the damn flights would run on time. But that is rare these days. It really sucks...but I am trying to spin this in a positive way. I must say, we have met some interesting people. I can now say I went to a Waffle House and survived with no poop on me! I am sure there are more good things I could think of. But the lack of sleep and time it takes to recoup from these 'wonderful' moments the airlines have provided us, make them a bit fuzzy.
Needless to say this week is getting off to a slow start. However, yesterday I kicked some ass! With the help of Jarvis. We set up shop on my driveway. We cut 12 panels for paintings from 4x8 sheets of ply wood and all the side pieces to make cradles for the boards. Some of these will serve as mounts for Hundred Dresses Paintings and some I can paint directly on. It will take a while to get them all glued. But we put in a full day and got a lot done.
Today I work on globes!
Onward!
-So why back on the horse?....well that is a little shout out to my friends who are horse women! One is training a horse. The other is trying to rescue an abused horse and give it a good home. Then there is me who just needs to shut up and get back to work!