OMG OMO

i thought i'd died and gone to heaven on earth after watching
this vid, sent to me by Dale.

it's all about the dogs

after attending a canine adoption clinic yesterday with my friend Sheila,
i returned begging the question again,
"what is it about a dog?"

the more time i spend with these guys, after spending a life doing so, the less i know. some day no doubt the answer will be found in some DNA-resonant-crossover-chemically-based-genome-vibrational-distant-cousin-to-a-neuron-recombinant-bark-cell.
but even then, based in another body, i won't buy it.
when you go eyeball to eyeball, even from a distance an opening occurs that is
transcendent, ineffable.




rusty, american foxhound mix, standing elegantly still on the curb as if awaiting the lord of the mansion's next command, has been eyeballing me as i rush by, i suddenly realize. and so i glance back, there is gentleness in those eyes but i am afraid to look too long. "prey drive" are the words occupying my mind, with two cats at home. rusty, more trusting than i; maybe the drive was mixed out of him.

flashback to The Visit to a hybrid wolf farm long ago in Pennsylvania, its founder and operator since departed. The Visit is an Experience never forgotten and always immediately accessible to me like it was yesterday. no eyeball to eyeballs there; you imagine they must at least glance at you as you turn away from the raised pens and walk to see the next, but you will never know. primate that you are, it is unfathomable that no eye contact is essential.

the suspended meat hooks as you make the long drive from the gate through the multiply-fenced property up to the fenced compound should give a clue as to the serious nature of the creatures within. but it still doesn't totally hit till you are standing a few feet apart from a wolf behind bars. there are many, and they are all pacing.

my friend Mindy is a foster mom at the time to hybrid pups bred here. flash forward to sitting in Mindy's farmhouse, watching her feed an armful of voracious part-wolf pups. they are furballs: adorable, feisty, tumbling over each other to be first. i want to take one or all with me. but what if someday they begin to shrink from a glance, pull back into true nature, go the way of the wildest part of themselves.

primate that i am,
i pass on living
with a predator
for the time.

bee's knees

to think that one slim year ago,
Bea the boxer referee
couldn't run, had major trouble walking.
check out her knees and mood now,
on one recent rare sunshiny day
in the recently unflooded back yard.




who's to credit for Bea's new right
knee?
Dr. Faulkner Besancon of Upstate Veterinary Specialties
in Latham NY, who performed TPLO surgery on the little
bea. He and the wonderful staff there, simply rock.

Bea is a living miracle, she proves to me again and again
the essence of life is to never give up and to love through the most difficult
times.

Dr. Melanie Mineo, opthamologist par excellence at the same locale, also rocks for saving Bea's eyesight just over a year ago.

Who makes repeated saves: cuts out tumors, heals Lyme, brings my cat back from the threshold and obliterates cat scratch fever from both my felines and not the kind on your iPod....
well, that's Dr. Laurie Coger of Bloomingrove Veterinary Hospital, who also writes an awesome blog, Pets and Vets.

These doctors are real people and yet they are blessed healers.
All three are the bees knees to me.




real life sans botox


same bee, different flower
he simply won't leave the stage

hail mary hail

holy hailstones, batgirl!
herewith the storm of the week,
grand prizewinner
of several top contenders, as viewed
from the humility of the back yard









Amen.

transparent

Strength of legacy depends
on degree of transparency
in truth.
-quote found in my journal
attributed to mk weeks

which leads right to the recycle of an upcycle,
last seen popped over the edge of the LaFuma in the back yard.







which begs the question: "Is it okay to play dress-up with a lawn chair?"

which reminds of continued thanks to Terry Rusinow for the introduction to the chair at her wonderful Everett Street Guesthouse in Portland.
(to peruse more trip images, click here for two previous photo-rich entries: portland and portland dos.....ah, the memories.)

herewith the long-lost twin, posing on the left in front of Everett Street's new jewel of a guest cottage:


a little plainer than her sister, she is J Crew to
the little Betsey Johnson who began this entry.



i wonder if la Betsey ever dons a polo
and visits the Crew icognita...
nahhhhh!!! ¡imposible!
the thought of it begins to
turn my stomach. let's move on,

it all becomes clear..... have been working with substantial transparency
lately, including a series of macro-shot pieces called Trans.

Enjoy the view through.


Trans II


Trans I


Trans V

backyard

Four corners



frame heaven for



über-zealous zinnias



headed para sol



while other ascensions



like no such thing as too much blue



viewed from behind the sezme door



aclimatically enshrined



budgies caged in open space

with no floor


or the bottom of a dress

seem content.

in absentia

away away
hadn't planned
such a vaca,
but stuff kept happening
(like Bea manifesting Lyme and
then me)
and i just couldn't get
myself to sit and write.
wow,
that did not feel good after
consistent blogging, between here and
@ .mac for four years

but never fear,
i am back.

newbie works include...

more numbers, like "Seis"; just can't get away from the counting of it all.




these are tempera paintings done in front of 20+ kids, begun as demonstrations.
i apparently write down what i am saying (how odd, i have no recall of this habit) like, "make purple" in answer to a kid's question. bring them home (not the kids!) and enhance them. voilá, it's as good as it gets b'tween September-June.




the bird thing, just won't leave the nest either.
this is "Wonder of Birds" inspired by the song by The Innocence Mission.


This painting is currently available at my gallery shop, AtelierMaryK on Etsy.






hope you've been eggsellent.