Blog

Well, the really big news at my house is that I've just been appointed the director of the Arts Department for the City of Jasper. This is a very great honor and an enormous responsibility. I've already been working twelve-hour days as we're wrapping up our busiest season of filling ticket orders. The other great news is that we have our first sold-out performer series season in 31 years! Kudos to my predecessor, Darla Blazey, and the education coordinator, Donna Schepers, for a wonderful line up. Check out the season at www.jasperarts.org.

This also means that my biking time will be limited and, thus, all the more precious. Not to worry, biking and painting are part of my life and always will be.

September 2006

Autumn is creeping up, leaf by leaf. Above is a basket of freshly picked Seckle pears. If you've never had these before, they are tiny and the sweetest pears you've ever eaten. I had to get out there before the sun was up to beat all the bees, hornets and wasps to them. Even dripping with dew, the scavengers were zooming in already. Also above are a couple of images from my walk in the woods with my dog. We recently had over a week of rain followed by warmth and humidity. This has lead to a particularly spectacular display of funguses of every variety. The puffball above was as large as my hat...and not even the largest I have seen this past week! And this tree striking with its decorations. I spotted tiny orange finger funguses, dancing red toadstools, fairy rings of every kind. A good day for a walk in the woods. Oh, and the dog and I scared up an eight point buck. He must be a very good hider during hunting season to have grown so large.

August 2006

Sunday, August 13, 2006

A little surgery has curtailed my biking for a few weeks but then, the weather's been so hot with heat indexes in the 100s, that I don't mind....much. Meanwhile I've been working on a few large oil paintings and a very large watercolor commission which will take some months to complete. You'll be able to follow my progress on my formal website, www.kgmiracle.com. Hopefully, I'll be back on the bike by the end of the month. I'm getting a little antsy...or so my family tells me. ;-)

Friday, August 4, 2006

It's been sultry here in the Midwest the past week or two, but it is August, after all. I'm pretty caught up with things at the arts center and am just hanging loose here at home. Some painting in the studio when I get a chance. Fresh vegetables from the garden and hot salsa! Yummy. I also just wrote and uploaded a new IMHO editorial so check it out. Buying Art: How to Build Your Art Collection.

July 2006

Friday, July 21, 2006

Peach tree loaded and bent to the ground.

Peach cobbler, anyone?

This looks to be a particularly good year for fruit. All the peaches, pears and apples are loaded and will be ripe for picking in about a week. My friends start running away when they see me approach with my basket of garden goodies. I am looking for recipes for peach brandy or schnapps.

It's been a rough week, weather-wise, with temps in the 90s and humidity to match. I've been getting up before 5 a.m. everyday in order to beat the heat. I can feed the pets, ride ten miles, and be home before 8 a.m.

It's been a very busy week at the Arts Center with ACT (Actors Community Theater) rehearsing The Music Man, a well-attended reception for Zach Dawkins and Tom Schum, finalizing the season's brochure, plus trying to keep things rolling while the Director's position remains vacant.

Sunday, July 9, 2006

The past couple of weeks have been very hectic. I've wrapped up classes at the Satellite Art Space for the Jasper Arts Department, where I work part time. I've taken down the Plein Air Painters show, hung the new show, Tom Schum / Zach Dawkins, lined up slides for the judge of our annual Juried Show, held a meeting and small gathering for my boss, Darla Blazey, who is leaving. In addition, there is the gardening, biking, housework, my chickens, and my own painting. I need a vacation!

A gathering of friends at my house. What a lovely evening!

June 2006
	I've been adding new products to my Cafe Press site. This will make my work more affordable and available to everyone. T-Shirts, calendars, clocks, mugs, magnets and much much more. If you have a favorite painting you'd like to see reproduced on one of their 70+ items, just e-mail me and I'll try to get it up as soon as possible. Thanks!

Monday, June 12, 2006

Another busy month. I gave a painting demonstration at the Hoosier Antique Mall during Old Jasper Days. The following weekend found me coordinating an artist paint-in at the river walk in Jasper. Boy, that was an early day! Up at 4 a.m. just to get everything ready and set up for the artists, most of whom were members of the Indiana Plein Air Painters group. It was a beautiful day with a mild breeze and very cool at the river walk. Artists signed in, then spread throughout the county, returning in the late afternoon for a critique, reception and sale of artwork. I think the local people responded well to seeing artists at work in their own community.

May 2006

Thursday, May 18, 2006

A week of cold, dreary, damp weather has forced me to work in my studio. Darn. ;-) When working with oils, I find it expedient to set up two easels so that I can work on two paintings simultaneously. Oils take considerably longer than watercolors to dry so this allows me to work continually rather than just lie about waiting for "paint to dry."

To my surprise, I did learn that I was the feature artist on the Indiana Arts Commission web site this month. No one even notified me but a friend saw it and told me about it.

Saturday, May 13, 2006

The boys came in yesterday as I was unpacking some groceries from my second, no third, run though WalMart this week. "Healthy food! Healthy food! Don't you ever buy any food that we can just eat right now?" Well, duh. I wouldn't be making two or three trips a week to the grocery if my teenage bottomless pits weren't eating it all. "Like what?" I replied. "Something in a box or a can. Dad can come home with six bags of groceries for $40." Yeah, right. So I issued them a challenge. I gave them $50 and told them to go buy their own groceries and see how far they could get. There was plenty more miscellaneous discussion here but you get the drift.

Sooooo....My fifteen-year old was so motivated that he went to work with his older brother and sat in the Wendy's parking lot for FIVE HOURS! I'm not kidding. Then they did a late night run through WM. Actually, they didn't do too badly. It was the expected assortment of frozen pizzas and frozen dinners (like they don't get homemade pizza at least once a week), Little Debbies, cookies, burritos. But, they also bought a fair amount of generic items to make their money go farther and NO chips or candy, only two cheap liters of pop and lots of packages of Kool-Aid.

I told them this was not going to be a weekly thing but it's nice to know that they did make some sensible choices. And I'm going to continue to buy healthy food. ;-)

Moms rule!

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Wow! So much has been happening, that I can't believe it's been two months since I've written. I'm still painting and biking, although not as much of the latter as I would like. I've been sneaking out very early to catch sunrises. A family member had bypass surgery and my eldest son attended his first prom. I've also been occupied at the gallery with arranging workshops, portfolio reviews, taking a group of artists on an outdoor painting adventure. Plus, here at home, I have scads of new chicks, cleaning up the yard and planting the garden. There is always more to do than time allows. But whose life isn't like this these days?

Painting by the lake at the Azalea Path April 2006

March 2006
Monday, March 13, 2006
	We've experienced several days of torrential rain with flooding in these southern Indiana hills. Finally, I think it has blown over. The sun is out but the temperatures are still a balmy 70 with gusting breezes. Spring is rolling in quickly as these daffodils by my farm well will attest. I have been working on a project (still a secret) for the past two weeks which excites me very much. Unfortunately, I totally messed it up yesterday and will have to start over. Just a blip. I'm still juiced about it.

I know I have mentioned my small flock of chickens several times but I actually enjoy them. They're a remnant of a homeschool project which my eldest son started several years ago (and which I inherited when he lost interest.) Each hen or rooster has it's own personality. They're actually pretty easy to care for and they are only pets I've ever had which have given me something in return (not counting the slobbering devotion of my dog.) Well, the cat is a good mouser, too so I guess they all have their jobs. The mild temperatures seem to have upset the hen's cycles as they have never quit laying this winter. I'm getting about three and a half dozen eggs a week! I feel like Bubba in Forrest Gump, only with eggs. Beautiful though they are, enough omelets already! And look at this super egg on the right. It's as big as a duck egg. Poor ol' biddy.

February 2006

Wednesday, February 8, 2006

Finally, after two months hiatus from my studio, I am heading back there. It feels really great to have spent the time accomplishing a necessary task, clearing and sorting my books. The local library is very happy. I have discovered many of my old friends and feel as if I am rich in new treasures. Spending time away from the studio has also been good for reflection. I've always admired artists who work steadily every day and I often have myself when deadlines loomed. However, I find my normal style is to work like a locomotive for weeks or months on end, then take a total break for a while. This method seems to allow new ideas to burble up, like a spring renewing itself. Then after a break, I am eager and overflowing with new ideas and directions. Each artist works differently and this is the way that I work best.

January 2006
Happy New Year, everyone! Let's hope that this is a healthy and prosperous year for all, filled with fun, excitement and new adventures.
Those of you who follow my blog will have noticed that I haven't made any entries for a few weeks. I still seem to be on a cleaning, tossing, paring down mood which started last fall when I tackled my greenhouse. It had become a catchall for lawn chairs, sports equipment and other miscellany. It seems the more space one has, the more junk one is tempted to hold on to. Or at least that is my experience. This month I have been tackling my bookshelves. I am a self-avowed book addict of long standing. It had reached a point of ridiculousness so, once again, I dragged everything off the shelves and only put back what I really wanted. I was able to donate two boxes and four bags of books to my local library. I think they thought it was Christmas again. And this was primarily from my downstairs shelves. I haven't touched the bookshelves upstairs. Yet.
Sunday, January 22, 2006 Today I spent four hours cleaning up the chicken pen, coop, and surroundings. Three days in a row this week, the neighbor's horses have gotten into the feed, trampled everything and made a huge mess. I finally called the sheriff who didn't seem overly interested. I'm afraid the neighbor, whose other livestock pretty freely roams the area, played the sympathy card. I've heard it all before. Fortunately I took photographs and have documentation going back for years. I think I'll just have to keep calling the sheriff until one of us gets tired of the problem. The good news is, my pedometer says that I walked about two miles today just in cleaning, repairing, raking, etc. Every cloud has a silver lining, right?

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Five eggs today. There are few things so wonderful as gathering warm, fresh eggs from the nest. They are nothing like those pale, store-bought imposters. Thank you, ladies!

If you have read my quote for the week, it will give you some insights to my state of mind. I have been wrestling with perhaps the toughest decision of my life. That is, to not do the Ann Arbor Art Fair this year...or anymore. I have been doing this fair since 1988 and have always enjoyed it, although it is unequivocally the most grueling of art fairs, for many reasons. It is long, set-up has always been difficult since the booth space is not the normal 10x10, but is 6 x 10, meaning I've had to jury-rig my booth every year. Lasting a week, the fair is one of the longest, and the sheer numbers of other artists and vendors is overwhelming.

But I've always loved doing it. It is the largest art fair in the country, boasting over 1200 artists and attendance of over 500,000. I love the energy, seeing all the other artwork and artists from across the country, meeting old friends and new, selling and meeting new customers and patrons. However, after carefully weighing the expenses, the hassles, the climbing exhibition costs, I have decided that it would be more prudent to find other avenues for my artwork. This saddens me greatly. Especially as this year, the first year that State Street has gone to 10x10 booths, I have a wonderful corner spot, right in front of the Art Museum, across from the Student Union. I have been depressed for weeks knowing the inevitable decision I must make. I will call the Guild tomorrow. Some other hopeful artist will be happy to take my place and I'm sure only a few friends and patrons will miss me. I'll miss them much more.

I have been distressed for weeks thinking about this. However, this does not mean that I will be giving up my artwork. Only a part of the dream. I will be looking for another door to open...as I'm sure it shall. Meanwhile, I'll be spending some time contemplating, regrouping, luffing and finding new direction. Thank you for your patience if anyone is reading this out there.

Online Journal from 2005

Online Journal from 2004