This is Christmas

Right now I am sitting in my parent's living room on the other side of the United States, with Cheryl falling asleep, Dad checking out the space book he got, and Derek incompacitated on the floor.

The area that my parents live in Nevada is very beautiful... even just flying over this area on the plane was breathtaking because I'd never seen anything like it in my life. The rolling hills with dried brush colored with yellows and browns surrounding the little spot is just awesome. Very cold at 4,600 feet above sea level.
Yesterday we went to Lake Tahoe and although it was very cold and the wind was strong and biting, it was gorgeous out there. Lake Tahoe is completely different than here, with ever green trees and blanketed in about two feet of snow. It's nice to get away from the Pennsylvania weather. The Pennsylvania terrain. I needed to see something new and different, and in some ways parts of this area reminds me a little bit of Texas. I'm eager to do more exploring and picture taking with my family for the rest of this week... I'll post pictures later.



It's been a while since I'd posted anything on the art front. I'm actually coming into a season of re-evaluating what I want to do with my work and where I want it to go. I need to be ingesting more art than spitting it out, letting what I see settle down inside to be thought over. I want to see new things and get to know my contemporaries.... as much as part of me doesn't want to do it because it's going to take work. But if I'm really going to continue using certain types of imagery - intentionally or not - then I'm going to have to feed on those ideas and images. As Rubens had put it, perhaps I should become somewhat obsessed with the images I keep using or wanting to use.

Birds
Wings
Bones
Blood / organs
Human figure
Hands

Now I just need to think of where to start... Where shall my feast begin? And HOW? I'm hoping that sometime during the winter break I'll be able to figure out where to start. Because I've been using the image of the bird (and wings), I feel like this is a good launching point. After getting a library card, I'm thinking about popping into the Free Library for a few hours and seeing what I can find out about birds in art and birds as a symbol. Wish me luck!

Back to Christmas in Nevada.