A Day of Distress

It was a day of things just not working out. Not an oppressively dark day where many died or were maimed in sword fights or something like that, just simply a day where things didn't go well. I was working on the Caravan (needed to try a gasket for the transmission pan) and the gasket didn't do the job. Of course I over filled the transmission anyway so even if it did hold there was to much juice in it.
So another trip to Ellsworth to pick up muffler parts for the truck (as I had gotten the wrong size the first time I went in) and to order a new transmission pan for the Caravan... I know this is getting kind of convoluted sounding but that's the way it went! So, anyway, after trips for parts, getting things about set to put back together for the truck muffler (what an ordeal that was - having to braze a new bracket on the muffler - everything was rusted out) and I couldn't find the dough-nut gasket. I looked everywhere... twice. Then I found it fallen in behind the workbench, put it on and found that I had to drill the flange to put it together, another distressful event. So I finally got it together, not exhaust pipe hanging!
I'm sure that I can think of hundreds of things that would have been worse, but I'll just be glad for a fresh start tomorrow!

Two Reasons to be Happy

Well, I say two, but we both know that there are a lot more than that, are there not? For me it is sometimes the very simplest thing that brings me joy, and then there are the days I have to dig deeply into hardscrabble ground to even find a bit of the top of joy's head protruding enough to be touched by it. Melancholy today, as Torrey went back to Portland to resume the job he likes, which is most fortunate for him; to have the job he likes, that is. The good news with that is that he brought back my truck and I now can drive my little red truck. He has had it all winter as I was using the Oldsmobile (his car) to commute to work (better gas mileage and two riders to share with) the past winter. All I have to do is repair the exhaust system and check the brakes (a bit "soft" for some reason) so I can be happy with that.

The trees are budding out is my next reason to be happy, and that means I have survived another winter and I am looking at spring and summer behind it coming toward me. Again the camera has brought to my attention the parts of the world, the angles, the focus that I feel like I have overlooked or missed or maybe just not appreciated like they deserve for a long time. My art has been so much about the interior me and what I feel and sense that I have overlooked the obvious, I haven't engaged in the reality around me. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think the only way to make art is visual observation, in fact at this point in my life I'm not even a big fan of it. I think the really important things are inside of us and so even though I see the buds coming out on the branches of trees and I understand that they can be a metaphor for rebirth or coming out of a hibernation sleep, it's not the moment in time that I snapped a picture that is important. That photograph might be a perfect example of a part of a whole metamorphosis that takes place in the spring, but I'm much more interested in the whole and not in just one aspect. Hmmm, that seems clear as mud... hope you get it!

Frost and the Forest

The days are really warming up, and it feels great to have the sun warming me as I work outside. There's something about the power of the sun that moves me to better places, and I have noticed in this last year that it is as precious to me in the winter as it is in the summer.


It is also the time of year when the sun goes down that the night air can take a sharp turn to cold. I started a frost covered car early in the morning and had to capture some of the patterns created on the forms of the automobile, they were gorgeous! I had seen broad patterns before, but it was the details and lines breaking up the patterns that I found most interesting on these surfaces.


The cold nights had me thinking about the fragility of the forest and how the trees are so susceptible to nature and its extremes. I am like a tree, trying to stand rooted, clinging to the fragile existence of abstract connections all around me, and swaying, constantly swaying in the breezes of fortune from all the points of the compass. Sure, there are predominate directions that I can be certain things will move from or towards, and I do feel the winds of stress from these directions trying to topple me. The wind is created from the earth, from our planet, and my stress comes from within me... I don't have to give into it, but I have to bend with it, accept it, and do my best to manage it. My technique for coping is for me to bend, and I let the push come and let it flow around me and simply bend with it, capturing what I might need to capture to keep moving forward with life, and letting the rest slide by on its way to who knows where? Ah! I become the pragmatist extraordinary...

Morgan's Birthday!

... and all the children are home to celebrate her birthday as well as just plain visit for a while. Torrey has a couple of days off and will be here this weekend and Morgan has a short "off island" visit, which will be nice for a change. We will all stay up late (everyone is online... it's kind of weird, but it's the 30 year olds mostly) and then sleep late in the morning. Sounds like a great end to an absolutely beautiful day! The above picture is Morgan blowing out her candles with Matt and Torrey in the background.

Here's to April Break!

The winter months are over, and I think I have enjoyed them as much this year as I ever have. Rediscovering the "Art" of photography (yes, it is an art form) has been amazing for me this winter, and as I often do I have plunged headlong into it, with students reinforcing and producing some excellent work.
I am looking forward to some time at home, getting outdoors and cleaning up from the winter, igniting the burn pile, seeing Torrey and Morgan home for a bit... and more!

The Ducks, the Moon and the Biker

How do I really know if things that occur within the course of the ordinary day are related beyond my slim reality? I can make connections, sure, after all I teach constructing meaning and looking for the connections between and among things on a regular basis. Things get by us, that is, we don't notice meaning and connections until after the fact or something becomes so obvious we can't miss or refute it. There are clues, some broad and some specific, but not always noticed... for instance the Eagle that appeared out front last week which also happens to be the mascot for Ellsworth High School, and I end up with an interview there tomorrow.

Can there be a connected flow, a stream of connected events and forces that takes us through each day? My students continue a flow within classes that leads to learning from one another, so they relate and share to direct this flow forward in time. I guess it is all in how you look at it, how one perceives what is around them.

The biker was riding an old (79-ish) iron head Harley, and had run out of luck with the wiring, causing the generator to kick out and the motor to run down the battery. Bruce and I stopped, and charged up his battery while we stood around and talked. A good deed at the end of a good day always works for "the flow".

61 Years...

... and I really don't feel it, although I don't know what it's supposed to feel like having never been here before. I'm sure that in this year of pragmatism (or is that year over, and now I need a new mantra?) which I guess, being such a creature of habit (unfortunately on so many levels) goes from school year to school year, I can find a solace in the fact that I'm still here. I love the act(s) of living, loving and learning, and each day seems to bring something new to the table, so I guess I'll continue to stomp forward. I've really had the urge lately to get into the studio and I even vacuumed it up last weekend. I have a few things on my mind that need to be exorcised and working on my art is the best way to accomplish that for me.

The inner glow... I am most usually on fire inside, my mind active and curious... and so I will continue as the days slide far too quickly into the past. It's hard to believe that there have been twenty two thousand, two hundred and eighty one of them!

Doe, a Deer

Driving along into work this morning and I happened to spot a doe in a field on the left of the road, so I stopped and captured a couple of images of her. The beauty of these creatures, the grace and elegance of movement reminds me of a dancer, each move being an expression of their delicate coexistence with humankind. I whistled at her and she nonchalantly looked up at me, perhaps wondering why I would bother to stop and what reason I could have for watching her. I let a few cars pass by and then put the camera away, and as I started to leave she immediately bolted for the woods. She had her beautiful full white tail up in the air and was bounding from side to side, again like the rhythm of a dancer bouncing back and forth to a good old rock and roll tune! A good start to the day about 6:30 this morning.



I was late in school tonight "prepping" canvases for an Art Honors project, and I just get into the rhythm of things and crank. It only took me an hour or so to prime 16 canvases that were two feet square. The kids want to do an "event" for induction to NAHS and they will work on pieces on their own first, then begin to match color and line in the afternoon (May 12th is our set date), and finally finishing up in an hour or two after school. I think we'll have music, some snack food, and a really good time!

Easter Sunday

A day of "celebration", I wonder if it is all about the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end. I do know that we have a beautiful world around us and that if we support one another in our endeavors we just make it that much a better place for everyone. The joy of being human and the joy of waking up still breathing does not escape me, but the negative is always trying to intrude and I feel like I must fight it off. It may be the classic battle between good and evil taken to a simplistic level, but it is there, and I think it's a fight we must fight at least to make our own surroundings real and meaningful. Viva la "positive attitude"!


Speaking of that, what a beautiful sunset out a west window last night. I was drawn to Winter Harbor today and got a couple of pictures, while swimming in melancholic nostalgia.

Injured Eagle

Funny how one might mention Native Americans and the fragility of life and then there is an injured eagle that appears in the front yard. I have no wonder that the native peoples of this land hold the American Bald Eagle in such esteem. What a noble bird! Even injured (the right wing seemed to be damaged around the metacarpus with the inner primaries and some of the secondary feathers bent or distended) it was fighting off three crows that apparently sensed it was in a weakened state. I watched it from the house, where I shot the first couple of pictures and then it flew up into a tree, damaged wing and all, to take shelter from the crows and to rest. Even the picture of the eagle in the spruce reveals its determined and noble presence. The proper authorities have been called to report the injured bird and hopefully it will survive its injuries intact. I love watching those creatures fish in the bay early mornings and late afternoons.

What a day, from the snow this morning to the eagle this afternoon, the range of living creatures and how they function together on this planet is astounding!