Friday, February 24, 2017

Writing Art Newsletter While Dogsitting


hand trimming of olive trees in Tuscany Italy Italia
This pose amuses me. :-)

Dear Art Lover,
     There is a reason that olive oil is nicknamed “green gold.”  It is a lot of work to raise good olives.  In this period in Tuscany, the olive trees are being trimmed, usually by hand, even if in some cases, one may use a pneumatic cutting tool. 
     This means that my landlord has been here a lot this week, working his field of trees.  He has been using a new hand saw that he and his brother bought.  It is strong and fits in a sling that attaches to a belt around his waist.  I love it that they still use old wooden ladders here.
      It is slow work and lots of climbing on, in his case, fairly young / thin tree limbs.  Falls are not uncommon.  Sadly, I know one Tuscan woman who fell from the tree in her own yard and landed funny. She has been paralyzed from the waist down ever since. I hope to never hear of another accident such as that!

     One another subject:  It usually takes me about a week to write one of my art newsletters.  It may not seem like that when you read it, but I often do research to fill out or connect stories (and to be fair, for me research means MANY distractions on related subjects, sometimes even getting more ideas for future works).  I also take tons of images and must sort and edit those.  And then, of course, there is the writing of the Web pages for my new art, updating the site and supporting pages, and creating the online version of the newsletter, as well as later creating the version to publish to my newsletter subscribers.  After it gets sent, I try to respond to the letters and comments that I receive, as well as updating the list.  Then there are the follow-up promotions, such as this blog post, to entice people to read all that I just published!

    But, it turns out that when my landlord is up in the trees, he is hardly accessible or interesting to his dog, Gregory.  So, by now, Gregory knows that I will often have the door open, even if only slightly in cold weather.  He comes bounding into house, stops to have a drink out of the little bowl of water I always leave for him, and then pounces through the house until he finds me.  Sometimes he is ferocious and drags me outside with him for a much-needed break from the computer and sitting.
     In the case of many of these images, he jumped up on my bed where I was resting my injured leg while I worked on the computer.  I have learned to have a variety of little spiky, spongy balls or even round rocks of a decent size to entertain him and keep him from chewing up stuff I like.  What these images do not show is that he really wants to be the center of attention.  That means that he wheedles his way into my lap between my torso and the computer.  Sometimes my right forearm becomes his pillow, while my left rests on top of or behind his bum.  I have learned that if I play lullabies or even soundtracks from films, he can be calmed and even lured to snooze for a bit.  Before Gregory, I never imagined that a scruffy little, often earth-covered-toed dog with jealousy-inspired chewing tendencies could ever steal my affections as he has.
    
Dog in artist's BED Dogsitting while writing an art newsletter
Dog in my BED! Ugh.. I blame this behaviour on his owner!

Ball with Internal Light for Dogsitting while writing an art newsletter
Gregory loves this ball with the light inside!

Art by Vasily Fedorouk on computer Dogsitting while writing an art newsletter
Selecting art by my mentor Vasily Fedorouk for this month's art newsletter

      
Snakes serpents in art with people Adam and Eve
Snakes in art
     All of this is to say that I have finally finished another art newsletter and introduced a new painting that depicts history and … snakes.  I hope that you enjoy it and I invite you to click here to see the many images and news that I have shared with you.
    

If you like, please have a look at some more of my paintings and sculpture online here:

Peace and thank you for following this journey with me,

Kelly

P.S.  Subscribe to the art newsletter here (it is FREE):  http://www.borsheimarts.com/contact.htm


Dog dances with local man at restaurant for lunch
I love this local man's expression at Gregory's dancing with him after lunch at a nearby restaurant.

Dogsitting while writing an art newsletter My Kitchen Studio
Gregory took over my chair in my kitchen studio

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