I decided not to go up to my cabin in Rangeley, ME to paint this weekend since I was expecting a visitor at my "treehouse" down here in Andover.  I also figured it would be much more interesting to watch Irene wrestle with my trees through my skylights.  So with a new battery powered Multiflex LED Task Light and a few extra bottles of water at the ready, I decided to set up camp here and make a few pies.   With the fall and holiday selling season coming up soon I felt I needed to make (i.e. paint) a few pies to add to the Table Saver/Trivet group. 

I started with a pumpkin pie.  But since there is usually not too much going on with the top of a pumpkin pie... except color... I added a few defects (i.e. cracks) to make it more interesting.  I'll have to see if defective pumpkin pie trivets are still interesting (i.e. sell) to my customers in the fall.  By the time the pumkin pie was done Irene still hadn't arrived so I decided to move on to something more textural, colorful, and well, sweeter.   A cherry pie.

On a side note, a funny thing sometimes happens while painting.    Little things, like cherries, start popping up out of nowhere in the painting.  Its quite fun to watch these things emerge.  Try too hard and they seem to stay hidden.  I'm told that this happens in other areas of the arts too.  It's a pretty sweet experience to bear witness to.

Time flies when you're having fun!  The pies are done and Irene has passed.  Goodnight Irene.

I got a call yesterday from an old college friend.  It was his 65th birthday and he was planning to give his new medicare card a test drive.    Among  other things we talked a lot about music, especially older pop music...."back in the day" music....captured on vinyl, tape, & cd.  If you've held on to all that stuff over the years but can't remember where you put it all (check the fridge!) there's still hope:  Spotify!  Millions and millions of songs for free.  The best part is that you don't have to wait for the download.  It's almost immediate.  And yes, you can (sort of) "go back" in time.  Strap on the headphones, close your eyes and go back to the Filmore East for Creedence Clearwater singing Green River, to a sleepy Woodstock night to hear Sly and The Family Stone, or to the college dorm to hear Simon and Garfunkel singing Homeward Bound.  My guess is that you'll be up all night.  

For a little taste, click on Paul below.

I bought a nice big book last weekend.... a beautiful book of botanical illustrations and designs that were an inspiration for the Art Nouveau movement at the end of the nineteenth century.  It will surely end up on my coffee table along with a few other cherished books.  I'm glad I got it while I still had the chance!  Today Borders closed 400 stores employing 11,000 people.  And I'm seeing that some libraries are going "book-less".

I guess I can put a Kindle on my coffee table but its just not the same.  I can look at artwork on my computer, enlarged and in great detail, but its not the same as turning the pages of the weighty Audubon's Birds of America, Elephant Folio.    

I think I'll just hold on to, lug around, or pass on a few "old school" books.  Not for the investment value, but just in case the power goes out.   

For the past few years I have pretty much stopped eating red meat.   But I’m not a fanatic about it and I do allow exceptions.  The “Maine” exception for me is when I drive up to my camp in Rangeley, ME.   About half way up I usually stop at Roy’s in Auburn for one of the best burgers on earth….with cooked onions….served on a napkin.   Roy’s is usually packed with a lot of heavy-set meat eaters enjoying lunch…and my guess is that for them it is more the rule than the exception.  

I wonder if the moose in Maine make any exceptions in their diet?  Unlikely since they are herbivores and eat only plants.  This time of year they eat mostly the grasses and other vegetation around lakes and in fact need to eat about 50 pounds of the stuff every day!  I’ve seen quite a few moose in and around Rangeley’s lakes over the years but had never painted one.  So since I do get an occasional request for a moose painting I decided to paint a moose on my last trip up to Rangeley. 

A moose looks like it was designed by a committee and my moose painting is no different.  The moose I painted though also looks like he has eaten most of the grass around the lake, that he is bored with it all and that he’s thinking, maybe just this once, about making a dietary exception….perhaps raiding one of the backyard grills over the July 4th holiday!  Probably not though since I’m sure he’s more disciplined that most of us part time carnivores....already  looking forward to the holiday and another trip up to Maine.  And a stop at Roy’s!

I just returned tonight from exhibiting at a classic, old American Craft Fair in Deerfield, MA.  It was a beautiful summer weekend, loaded with plenty of Pioneer Valley birkenstocks & good old folk music.  For the most part it was a nice vibe.  But something, other than the large crowds of the past, was missing.  The demographics of the American Craft world have changed.  I exhibited at Deerfield and at other similar shows over 25 years ago and have just recently returned to this world. 

Although I could be mistaken, it seems  that the people coming out to this market are now a much older group of folks.  I saw very few young adults and families and only a handful of teenagers.  I just hope that the interest in and the value of handmade American Crafts is not eluding our young people today.