A week ago, one of my co-workers–Andrew Dutterer–was killed in an accident on I-5. To say that the death was senseless is an understatement. While all deaths are hard, the sheer randomness of this one hurts almost as much as any other factor. His obituary can be found here. I work at a very small state agency called the Oregon…
Moooooo-ving On
After the great cow adventure of a couple weeks ago, I had reference photos of cows sitting around all over my studio. So, obviously, I needed to paint a few to get this cow thing really out of my system. Cows aren’t really my thing; except that cows and horses are a little like peanut butter and jelly. So, a…
Editing
Almost every discipline requires some kind of editing. If you garden, you have (at a minimum) weeds. If you cook, you try substitutions or variations. If you run, you try to better your time or lower your heart rate. With painting, there are a lot of editing opportunities. What to paint? Materials? Colors? Which details should be left out or…
Tara sighs
I’m not sure what it is about short weeks that makes them feel so intense, but work this week was “petal to the metal.” When I hit the weekend, I had a little list of chores to do. Doing stupid things like slicing open a finger (twice) and accidently getting garlic/onion/pepper on my hands and blinding myself really wasn’t part…
Cows!
Author’s Note: To get the full effect of the title, say “Cows” like Dug says “Squirrel”. It may be a while before I live down shaving my head. I had a therapy appointment on Thursday and my therapist gave me “the look.” Co-workers are just now starting to mention it. “Ah, Tara… Are you okay? That’s a pretty… drastic… haircut.…
Standard vs. study
This was a big week for art show notifications; I received two acceptances, both of which pleased me to no end. The first was for the Watercolor Society of Oregon fall show. Even though the in-person convention has been cancelled (some digital classes will be available, but it’s not the same), the show will still hang in the Elsinore Gallery…
Museum Meditations
It was a one of those weeks and I was glad to make it to the end. Friday was my day off, so I took the dog for a hike, dropped off the paintings for the ODFW Stamp Contest, and then crossed of a New Year’s Resolution (we won’t talk about that this has been my resolution for the last…
Well, there goes that plan
This week I was talking to a friend about COVID-19. And I admitted to her that I am finding this “stage” of this–group project?– to be the hardest yet. She agreed and admitted she was struggling, too. As if the gods were listening, the next day the WSO convention–the first in-person convention in two years–was changed to virtual. I’m going…
Locks, docs, and barrels
I had GRAND plans for this weekend. They were awesome. However, my supervisor(s) was not up to the challenge of getting me to DO the plans. I’m not sure getting more supervisors is the answer, so maybe someone else will have a suggestion. Docs While I am getting better (or at least stabilizing), I am still taking quite a few…
Captive Ball
captive ball A pinball trapped within a small area of the playfield. The captive ball never leaves this area, and the free ball can never enter it. However, the free ball can knock into the captive ball, which in turn can knock into targets in its area. I was searching for a term to describe the last week, and nothing…