Siniorita, and Patriotic Zebras, and We Stand up and Deliver Our Awsome Eagle and Tropical Birds

Well, it was a great week for Martha and I and our various art endeavors. The week started well with a lovely lady taking home one of Martha’s paintings for her dear mother.  And, then later in the week we received notice that Martha’s painting ‘Inflorescence’ had been accepted for the Allied Arts of Yakima Valley’s 45^th Annual Juried Art Show. We’ll be taking it out to the Peggy Lewis Gallery tomorrow.

During the week Martha worked on some new paintings – a beautiful seniorita and a couple of new and interesting plant paintings. I really like the one that looks almost sculpted, oh yes and lest I forget, she put the finishing touches on her ‘Patriotic Zebras’ a mixed media piece she did for 4^th of July.


And, while Martha worked on these I reworked the bases for her three tropical birds, so they will stand properly on a floor rather than needing to be screwed down to a deck as they were on our parade float. After having rebuilt the bases for these Martha worked her Magic and decorated the bases with moss and such.

For me the big project of the week was completing my Eagles Nest and the two giant eagle’s eggs for the nest that I made as accents for the giant eagle. That done I went to work over at Terry Johnson’s studio at Terry Signs where we have been storing the birds and set about putting the nest together with the eagle. Out back behind Terry’s I found a treasure trove of materials screaming to be put to use in this recycled materials art project.

Back there I found a perfect sort of wheel to serve as a base for the nest and an old, and I mean old, wooden box that could do as the stand for the base and even a tree limb to add yet more of a natural environmental feel to the work. As it turned out the wheel was actually the remains of an old kick powered potter’s wheel. How perfect is that for a recycled art project.

The wheel had a steel rod of sorts that stood up two feet or so which I found could replace the stand I had built previously for the eagle when it was in the parade. A little reworking and voila the nest and eagle with salmon in claws and two eggs in the nest was complete and ready for installation.

Then, came the big day, on Friday, to deliver all the birds to the Icicle Arts Gallery in Leavenworth for the Recycled Art Show.  I had been stressing for some time on how to get them there and finally it came to me to ask my good friend Van Ford – yes that’s Van Ford not Ford Van about using his dive trailer. Some readers may recall that Van ownes Orca Scuba Center which is home to two of my marine themed sculptures. Van was more than happy to let us use the trailer. So, early Friday morning we were off to Orca Scuba to get the trailer and over to Terry Signs to pick up the birds.

The trailer was perfect for the job and we got the birds to Icicle Arts without a hitch (well actually we did use a hitch to pull the tailor- sorry I couldn’t resist that). Once at Icicle Arts finding the right spot for the giant eagle was something else again as it was too big to go through the front door.

Anna Miller found the perfect spot and between Anna, Martha and I we got it installed and secured so it wouldn’t take off on a whim or from the wind whichever. Anna had a bit of a scare at one point as the eagle looked pretty awesome and frightening… 

Martha’s birds were quite a bit easier to carry and bring inside – there final resting place will be determined later by Bryan Miller. There were already some other interesting pieces that had come in for the show which looks like it’ll be as great if not better than last year’s show.

Since the Steel Eagle ordeal is over with I have been able to get back to my ongoing project of painting my sweet granddaughter’s portrait. It’s getting there, but getting that impish early childhood expression takes some real care. I’ll get it right yet.

Well, enough for now. Let’s all have a very artful day.

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