Hot and Cold

What a difference three weeks make. On Jan 3rd we had about 6 inches of snow, by last weekend we took the Mustang on a ride down the coast with the top down.

It was our final ride in the Mustang, we had to turn it in Monday (the insurance settled the claim on the flooded Jeep).

Sorry to see it go, it's a great car.

Business

Welcome to the New Year. Here we are just over two weeks into 2011, and I haven’t picked up a brush yet (except to help paint the gallery space at the Eclipse Gallery). I’m just getting over the holidays, and yesterday celebrated my 50th birthday.

So today it’s back to work on the business of art. Most artists are probably like me and are not thrilled at the marketing side of the business, but without it, there are no paychecks.

I’ve created an on-line shop for shirts and gifts, feel free to drop in and pick up a coffee mug or shirt.

http://www.cafepress.com/KWDrylie

"Works on Paper and Chairs"

The upcoming show at the Eclipse Gallery is “Works on Paper and Chairs.” When Joan, the gallery director, told me what the theme would be, I really wondered, first for her sanity, then, what would I do for the show?

I thought long and hard on the subject and remembered something a friend of mine once told me, that art is about emotion. Art should elicit a feeling in the viewer, and is successful even if the feeling is positive or negative. Real art is about emotion.

I decided to do a chair, and located a child-size wicker chair that I used to use in my portrait studio. Being small and white, I felt it represented the way we enter this world, small, pure and innocent. I used paint to represent the emotions we feel as we begin to grow, yellow for fear, blue for sorrow, green for envy and red for anger.

The final product is like our lives, splashes of emotion, but if we are really lucky, the innocence of our youth should still shine thru.

Everything Looks Worse in Black and White

A friend of mine sent me a newspaper clipping about the loss of an American Legend. No it’s not a big star or politician, it’s wasn’t a member of any championship team, yet it was a true icon, even celebrated in song.

Last Thursday, the last roll of Kodachrome film was processed at Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons, Kansas.

Two of the images I shot on Kodachrome during my career.

Kodachrome was the finest color film made, it was a bit touchy, but the results of properly exposed Kodachrome were unbeatable, which is why some of the most iconic images of the last 75 years were shot on the Kodak film, including many for “National Geographic” magazine.
I shot hundreds of rolls of Kodachrome film, and although I made the move to digital several years ago, its loss is a tough pill to swallow. Maybe, I’m feeling a little old, watching my old work companions fall by the wayside.

I guess in the end Paul Simon said it best:

When I think back On all the crap I learned in high school
It's a wonder I can think at all
And though my lack of education
Hasn't hurt me none I can read the writing on the wall

Kodachrome You give us those nice bright colors
You give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah!
I got a Nikon camera I love to take a photograph
So Mama, don't take my Kodachrome away

Ah Christmas Memories

Well the gifts are all open, the turkey is now soup and it’s almost time to put away the decorations for another year.

It’s been a different type of Christmas this year. Usually we go to my sisters on Christmas Eve and my dad’s on Christmas day, unless we travel to New England to spend the holidays with my wife’s family.

This year, we met with Dad early, and we aren’t going to see Sis until next week. So we had a mostly quiet week at home with the kids.

It was a really wet week, especially for the desert. One thing I did not plan on doing this year was meeting the town Swift Water Rescue officer, who by the way, they call Scuba Steve. That should give you an idea how wet it got. Let’s just say the puddle didn’t look that deep, and that Jeeps don’t float.

I should probably explain, I wasn’t in the Jeep, I was watching from the “shore” as they tried to get my son and my Jeep out of the flooded street. In his defense, he was just trying to get to work and had tried two other streets that had been blocked off. This one wasn’t blocked, the water didn’t look very deep, and so he gave it a try. Unfortunately there is one big dip for a drain right in the middle of the road. Had he been going East instead of West, he most likely would have made it through, but he didn’t.

By the time they got the vehicle hooked up to the tow truck, the water was up to my son’s backside, but they asked him to stay in the Jeep and steer as they pulled it out with a winch. They managed to pull it out, the boy is ok, but the Jeep is in bad shape.

Water pours out of the door of the rescued Jeep.

With all the commercialism and hype about the Holiday Season, it’s times like these that make you remember what is really important, it’s not the cars, the toys or the shiny baubles, it’s the family and friends that we should cherish.

Turn, Turn

Although I’m no connoisseur of fine wine, I have heard how wines and beers are described by those who proclaim to have superior knowledge of such things. They use terms like smoky, nutty and describe a plethora of fruit tastes associated with a particular vintage.

While I’ve been working on projects for Christmas, I have had the pleasure of working with several types of wood in the turning projects I’m working on.
I’ve noticed that each type of wood has its own fragrance; the cinnamon notes of Burmese Rosewood really are what caught my attention.

Rosewood, Cocobolo from Central America, Olivewood from the Holy Land and Koa from Hawaii are among my favorites. They are all “wood”, yet each is distinct in how they perform when worked.

I like to think that the projects I create will have the resonance of a fine wine and grow better with age, if only in the memories of those loved ones who receive them.

Santa's Workshop

It’s getting closer to Christmas, and I’ve been busy on Christmas projects. I’m getting things done, but starting to feel the pressure of the Holiday deadline.

I wonder if they ship tums by the pallet to the North Pole this time of year?