by Susan Lobb Porter | Beloved Beasties, Life |
I collect things. Shells. Beach glass. Rocks. I don’t do anything with these collections, just scatter a few here and there throughout the studio and the house. Before I had a laptop my computer desk looked like a cross between a natural history museum and Disney does Burger King. Kid meal monsters shared valuable space with geodes and sand dollars. Feathers stuck out of the pen cup. A realistic toy aligator was glued to the printer.
All my kids had to do was give me a rock, make up a story about it and I’m tellin’ you, that was Christmas for me.
I posted a photo on FaceBook the other day. Turkeys. Wrote a whole post here but FB is where all the comments were. The comments eventually touched on feathers and that got me thinking about this whole collection thing.
Because I collect feathers. I’ve got at least one basket of them in the studio. Mostly white goose feathers I gathered along the lake where we used to live. After we moved to the foothills the feathers changed.
And so did the display. Most of these are from the wild turkeys. Maybe all of them, I dunno. Don’t come with name tags. They’re just there, on the ground.
I took this photo sometime during the winter. It was just….there, in the snow. Sticking up like you see it here. I don’t have a clue what bird this is from or what happened to him. Maybe the tracks leading from the upper left tell the tale. Anybody want to guess?
I collect bird nests too. Ones I find on the ground, usually in the fall after the residents have left and there’s nothing anchoring them down in the wind. At least that’s my theory. They’re abandoned and quite interesting but that’s another post entirely.
Anyone got some collections you want to share?
by Susan Lobb Porter | Food, Life |
I’m writing this post on Thanksgiving day. Got one pie cooked (pumpkin), another in the oven (apple). We did the turkey thing last week when family was in town. Today we’ll dine on roast beef. And veggies, LOTS of veggies. Carrots and onions roasted with the beef. Broccoli and salad served on the side. And pie. Don’t forget the pie. A lot of food for just the three of us–Mr. Spouse, Darling Daughter and myself. Enough leftovers to take us through the next couple of days. Which is good ’cause most days I’ve got better things to do than hang out in the kitchen.
Like make art. I’m itching to do that right now. And I quite possibly will. It’s a low key kind of day, you see. Guests were last week. I could slip away and no one would notice. Mr. Spouse and Darling Daughter are happy watching football while Studio Grande calls to me. It’s a good place to be on a rainy, cold afternoon. A quiet place for meditation, introspection, creation.
But for now I’m in the kitchen, sitting at the table. My favorite place to write. I can look out the window. See the forest. And the gray skies. Check out the ever changing parade of wildlife. Deer. Coyotes. Jackrabbits. Squirrels. Sometimes a bobcat or a bear.
Or I can look to the right, at the purple wall I managed to get past Mr. Spouse’s conservative paint sensibilities when we repainted last spring, and enjoy some of my students’ art.
Sophie was sitting on Mr. Spouse’s chair until she was displaced by the spouse himself, come to check his email. We both leave our laptops on the table, you see. Now she’s awake and concerned…there’s a couple of pies cooling on the stovetop–the apple came out of the oven since I started this– and she can’t have at them.
Sometimes it’s tough being a dog.
I’ve got a couple hours free now that the last pie is baked. Mr. Spouse is back on the couch watching the game. Sophie has given up on the pie. I’m heading down to Studio Grande to meditate. Love on Studio Quat. And quite possibly, paint.
Before I go I’m leaving you with this. A marvelous video courtesy of my friend Judy Shreve. It’s short, under 10 minutes. And watching it will change your day for the better. Guaranteed.
by Susan Lobb Porter | Food, Life |
Family was in town over the weekend. We took advantage of the opportunity and celebrated Thanksgiving Saturday night. The whole non-enchilada enchilada. Turkey. Dressing. Mashed potatoes. Pumpkin pie. And yes, there were vegetables. Lots of greens–mustard, turnip, collards, kale–all chopped up and lightly sauteed in olive oil and garlic–the only healthy thing on the whole table.
I ate too much, felt like crap and swore off all non-essential edibles for maybe 12 hours. Typical post Thanksgiving pig-out remorse. Before going to bed I threw the remains in the stockpot and set the stove to simmer. By the time we woke up Sunday the entire house smelled like turkey soup.
But I was sooooo DONE with turkey.
I drained the stock, stuck it in the fridge and hoped it would just go away.
By Monday afternoon I was feeling kindly towards turkey again. So I took out the stock, dressed it up and turned it into soup. Some sort of cross between turkey and minestrone.
Check it out. Carrots, celery, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, kale, beans, turkey and stock. This is towards the end, after I tossed in a handful of Italian herbs.
Here is is with some shredded Parmesan cheese. Sourdough baguette, a little butter and that was dinner. Another option is to drop a big spoon of plain yoghurt right smack in the middle. Mmmm…yum.
And by the time Thanksgiving rolls around we’ll be done with the leftovers. YAY!!!
by Susan Lobb Porter | Art, Dogs |
Sunday night. I’m needing inspiration. When in doubt, pick up the camera. Aim it at something. Sophie was too busy but Benny, AKA Bean. AKA Precious Man Dog, was hanging out on the sofa. Been a long day for him, way too much football. He’s such a couch potato.
Just look at that face. At that ‘stache. Inspector Clouseau, no? Next thing I know he’ll be woofing with a French accent. But he is half poodle so I guess that’s to be expected.
And this is Benny’s ear, top of his head. Against the back drop of the sofa cushion. It’s a way comfy, squishy kind of sofa. I’m looking at this photo thinking there’s something arty about it. I was going to tell you to squint to imagine the painting. But I did one better. Went on photoshop and played with a couple of filters.
This is Photoshop cutout filter.
Drybrush filter. Monkeyed with the color too.
Paint daubs filter. Hard choosing the right level of squiggle on this one. Loved ’em all.
But this one is my favorite, the pallet knife filter. Played with the options to get this effect. Practically a painting, don’t you think?
by Susan Lobb Porter | Girlfriends, Life |
You see that beautiful woman up above. The yummy luscious one in the glasses…that’s my friend Cynthia. The little munchkin is her new found friend Emma. Emma was helping Cynthia celebrate her birthday.
A lot of us did. We drove through freezing rain, braved hairpin turns on dark country roads because it was Cynthia’s birthday. And we were NOT going to miss this party.
Because we love her. And we almost lost her this summer. So this was a birthday to celebrate. A time to be grateful for healing. And living. And the love of family and friends.
And Dieter’s chocolate cake.
Happy birthday Cynthia. May you have many, many more!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyrYC_DO6G8
by Susan Lobb Porter | Art, Life |
Big, big sigh of relief. Show hung. Postcards out. Last minute details done. Look at that picture over there (to the right). Sister M and her coffee. We actually SAT down this afternoon to eat. OK, so it was fast food. Thing is we sat. We savored. Slowly. We lingered over coffee. Chatted. Imagine that, just chatted. Like we had nothing better to do. We talked about growing up. About our grandmother. About the family summer cottage on the Long Island Sound.
About my new haircut. Very nice, by the way. A total stranger came up to me in a store today and told me how much she like it.
We did NOT talk about art.
But this is an art blog so let’s talk about art here. A little tease with a couple more photos. Things I finished the day before the show. Nothing like cutting things a little close, eh? Well, they were almost done, just needed the words. And more wax. They started life as oils on cradled wood. There’s some plaster involved. They’re from the “Portals” series.
Crappy photo alert. Should’ve adjusted the color. Too green.
“Chronicles”
“Messages from Home” Or maybe it’s just “Messages”. I don’t remember….
