Corpse Corners

Mercury retrograde offered up some strange days last week. I usually don't put too much investment in that happening until tragic events started happening. It wasn't just the miscommunications and inconvenience of misbehaving mechanics. This was real life and death.

The week started with the disappointment of getting notice that NONE of my entries made it into the ArtsWest show. Bummer. Dang!!! Not tragic, but has me scratching my head about my brilliant art career. (Yes, note sarcasm.) 

Next, my friend accidentally ran over her border collie killing her instantly. Poor Lilly was a youngster and it was just heartbreaking that this bundle of joy and energy had her life abruptly cut short.

The last shoe dropped when the Pepin County Sheriff and deputy knocked on our door. They wanted to know if they could access the railroad tracks by passing through our woods. Seems there was report by a train engineer that there was a BODY just off the tracks behind our home.

Shortly before the sheriff arrived we heard a loud sudden shudder from a passing train. A bit later a helicopter was circling. The engineer had spotted the body and slammed on the train brakes and called it in. Fire trucks and rescue vehicles were parked on the highway in front of our house for the next two hours and gave the horses quite a thrill.

Don offered to go out and help, but they had scads of people to go out there on that blustery15 degree day. His plastic otter sled was used to haul the person out who was quite dead and frozen solid. He was wearing blue tennis shoes. We watched them work in our driveway as they loaded the plastic wrapped body into a white bag on a gurney and loaded him into the awaiting vehicle for the ride to the St. Paul Medical Examiners office. 

A couple days later the young black male was identified as 35-year-old Steven Jouie Glaze. The link tells his story up until 2008. It seems things literally came off the tracks to the sad end of his life. It's still a mystery why he was on the tracks and not dressed for the outdoors. Pleas by law enforcement to contact family members have gone unanswered.

After a week of sad events, it is good to appreciate having a warm home and a great life. Things could be so much worse. 

Art Glass Sculptures Entered in ArtsWest

This will be my third year of entering the ArtsWest competition that is sponsored by the L.E. Phillips Memorial Library in Eau Claire. It's always fun to have something like this to look forward to and this year it was my goal to enter glass works instead of paintings.

"Equus Glass Co." is a stained glass sculpture on wood.....the end of a glass crate to be precise. A few embellishments turned it into Equus Co! The nordic tattooed horse head is made of black iridescent glass is copper foiled. The mane is twisted lead came and the whole thing was treated with black patina. The light will dance across the glass in an array of colors.

My second entry is called "Something About Bees" and is layers of glass, starting with mirror. Etched honey comb on frosted glass flanks the amber cathedral and opal hexagons. The base hexagon is framed in recycled brass window channels. Super large bees are dimensional. If bees were really this big we might be paying more attention to them! The plight of honey bees is real and this "squeeze on bees" is illustrated by the outside (dead) combs encroaching on the live hive. Ultimately the source of the problem? Look in the mirror. 

That's as deep as I can get today! Now to await the jurying process and think about all the fun new creations to work on this year.

Happy 2015 From Hagar and Nikita!

It's kind of a sad day when adults are having to put on their furry hats and take selfies!

Oh, well! Here's to a FUN new year!

Stanley's Back!

Winter has arrived with a bang.....very early and is staying on....for sure!

Our DEER Stanley has arrived at the bird feeder with his wife and kid in tow this week.

He's older and bigger and more .... tired. Hopefully increasingly wiser! From appearances he can make it through another winter. We are thinking he's looking good but hope he knows he is safe here and can continue to father many more youngsters in the neighborhood!

The Rise and Fall of Fall

The water is very high for this time of year. A rainy summer especially up north has given us a great supply. The mosquitoes have reached a new fever pitch. Just waiting to see how soon the frost will arrive and take care of those pesky biting problems.

This time of year brings an assortment of art tours but I decided to do my own THANG this season by being "open" at my own studio a few weekends a month. Since I spend nearly every afternoon out there it just seemed to make sense.

Getting the main barn area presentable is always a problem and keeping it that way is an exercise in futility! Whether it is neat, or not, the show must go on. The Fresh Art Tour is going on the first weekend in October. I wasn't entered early enough to be included officially on the tour map this year, but will plan to be open for the three days anyway. Will try winging it!

My Etsy shop has been growing and I'm up to over 70 items offered now! The sales of these little Crazy Legs boxes has been one of the top sellers. I appreciate the "likes" and "shares", too! Thanks to all who are so supportive of this new offering.

Mother Goose and New Mother Goose

The blessed event occurred Friday morning, before we left for our day, and it involved the hatching of four baby geese. They were properly placed under Mother when we left, but were decidedly LEAVING THE NEST when we got back.

So we let Mommy and her babies, daddy and the two uncles take care of the clan over night.

THEN....the word came through that a NEW MOMMY would be taking over the rearing of these young.

My brief Facebook post about these youngsters prompted my friend and super farrier, Kari Hoyer, to say YES, indeed, I shall rear those youngsters at my beautiful home in Esdale! The spring that sprouts from the backyard, and makes a 3/4 moat around her home......yes! It will be perfect for these lovelies.

So, a little more than 24 hours and the four little geese have their new Mommy! And her name is Kari.

Thank you for offering these four youngster a great place to grow up!

Getting Zesty With Etsy

Another work in progress: starting the Etsy shop for sherristudio! This process has been going on since May, but I resisted posting because I wanted to have something to show before I started trumpeting the news. Learning a new format, finding measurements, taking the photos and and trying to keep things organized has been time consuming, but I'm getting the hang of it now.

Getting new photos of everything has been interesting to say the least. I get WAY too much help from my chickens. I have a display that I move outside to hang the glass, try to catch the sun in the afternoon, try to hold up a reflective panel, get a few shots, and how much help are these birds? Well.....take a gander:

A simple photo of a danish heart. Here comes Barney the barred rock rooster.

Then he gets a little red hen over for company.

Next thing you know, he gets an urge and ..... HEAVENS TO BETSY!

I hope they don't throw me off ETSY!