Patti Gibbons Art

Meredith laughed at my childish joy in brushing my teeth outside. Put toothpaste on brush. Fill cup with "safe" water. Brush teeth. Rinse and spit directly on PI (poison ivy) Pour the rest of the water on brush to rinse out. Done. I did this at least three times a day. The next joy was the bathing in the lake. Put on teeny bikini (easier to wash with) usually after 11 am when sun is strong and water warmed up a bit. Go in water, usually screaming (for no reason other than to scream) Soap up, washing all places suspicious of harboring bacteria. Jump back in water to rinse off. Then go for long paddle boat ride, or noodle swim. But the most interesting part of the hygiene routine was the outhouse, or, as Meredith called it, "the Privy". There is something strangely exciting about being able to pee and poop on the ground, then throw your dirty tissues on top of it. It goes against everything I have ever been taught, and it is up there with "thou shalt not covet ...

Part 1 I have just returned to "the Cradle of Civilization" (thanks Karen for being my Kingston pundit) after three days in a cabin on a reservoir in Douglas, Massachusetts, not too far from Worcester, and pretty much in the middle of nothing. The town is quaint, and there are no chain stores to be found. The cabin was in the woods, with a driveway-width path that led to the reservoir, which had its own private dock and beach. The cabin was rustic and charming, replete with the biggest bathtub I have ever seen (the lake) and a fully functioning two seater privy. (oh so much more in the privy later) I did not write one blog, (save for take a few notes), make one painting (OK I messed with a few photos in Photoshop) or even crack the binding of a book. What did I do? Eat, drink, rest, sun, shop, and live languidly in a 75 year old cabin. Easy camping was what my girlfriend told me. And that it was. As soon as we opened up the cabin, the initial whiff of mothballs sent me ...

I am getting ready to pack the car and such for my trip. Just a quick muse. I have been buying post consumer waste/recycled paper towels because Larry is a paper towel nut, though he does reuse them till they fall apart. He hates the recycled ones as he cannot recycle them much -they turn into a stiff crumbly mess after 1-2 uses. Now Bounty and this other brand whose name eludes me, last for many hand wipings, as well as wiping down the stove/fridge etc. afterwards. Is this one instance where being greener is not helping? Just a thought for the day. Patti O Wipes

Tomorrow I head to a cabin on a lake with a good friend. There is no running water-the lake is where we bathe. I have not asked about the toileting facilities. I think there is an outhouse. There is a fridge for the soups and salads I have made, and an oven to cook. To wash dishes we carry water from the reservoir, boil, and wash. I am glad to be away from the phone (though I do have my cell w/me, but only family calls me on that) though I will go through some withdrawal not having internet access, unless I can steal a signal in town somewhere. I am bringing books, paints, my laptop, and Ipod. Oh, and my Garmin is essential as I need to figure it out before I take off next month to Kentucky. This will be the first long time in my car, and it will be interesting to see 1)how comfy it is on a three hour trip and 2)what long distance gas mileage will be. The maximum I have gotten on a one hour trip was near 30 MPG. I am hoping I can squeeze out a bit more. I wonder if one gets be...

Wow, I just realized that I did not blog at all yesterday. I suppose there was very little time, and I was in no state of mind to write. Perhaps writing would have been good for me to "defrag" from the days events, but I had already taken myself to the pool, where sadly the sun never came out and I never swam, and then to Macy's to buy a hot plate on sale for my encaustic paints. And there was the shoes. I never meant to buy the shoes, but how can a girl resist a pair of Kenneth Cole 80.00 shoes for a mere 17.00 and change? Funny thing is, when I looked at the style name in order to get a photo for my blog, I noticed that it was "CLEAN THE HOUSE". Now does this mean these look like maid shoes? Or did it mean they are comfortable enough to wear while cleaning the house. OR WAS THE UNIVERSE TRYING TO TELL ME SOMETHING. I finished off the evening by going downtown on the water for a glass of wine with Karin at the Steel House, then uptown to Ugly Gus's for m...

Another night of poor sleep. If it isn't hormones, it is a severe thunderstorm, or major power surges and outages all night long. I had to get up early as I had a therapy appointment at 10 AM, and it was not a moment too soon. It was a dark and stormy morning (envision Snoopy writing this) and I felt rather gloomy. Let's face it-its been a tough week. I am trying to prepare my self for a new life in the world, while I am looking at my elders preparing themselves to leave. And there are all the things that fall in between I started crying in the car on the way to Peg's, and looked in the mirror. I freaked myself out as the blue of my eyes had turned almost black, and the whites were bright red. Somewhere a little voice came to me telling me that I was so beautiful when I cry, (think that was Peg) and I talked back saying: "YOU MUST BE FUCKIN' NUTS!" I looked like something out of Dawn of the Dead. I had the most soothing session, and met up w/Annie to go...

It is a bit after one, and I am sipping on a glass of a Beaujolais Nouveau from France. I purchased it at the local liquor store last week, where I bought 4 bottles of wine for 20.00. Listen, I love a good 20.00 bottle of wine, but on this budget, I go for the cheap stuff, which is actually NOT THAT BAD. I have found a nice Cabernet/Merlot blend for 5.00, and a Pinot Noir for the same price. The creme De la creme was the Nouveau for 3.50. For that much money, I figured I can cook with it, which was my intention when I was making salads for dinner. Lois is coming over with a chicken, and I made potato salad and 5 bean salad, from my FAVORITE cookbook (at least one of the top five), the original Moosewood Cookbook. I needed a tablespoon of wine, so I opened up the Beaujolais as we had finished everything else up (lots of company...ok!) I had to have a sip...and my, it was decent drinking wine! It is light, as you would expect a Nouveau, but has enough body to make it nice to sip on. ...

Remember the film IN THE BEDROOM...well, it has just morphed into IN THE NURSING HOME. The script is already percolating in my brain. It has been a long day dealing with the stresses of family when a family member becomes ill. Tensions and tempers run high, egos take arms, and I am finding it difficult to keep things cohesive and C-A-L-M. I talk to myself as I would counsel a friend or student, and constantly have to put things in perspective and decide what really matters. I went to see my mom. She was pale, very depressed, and pathetic. I don't know if she isn't eating because she is depressed, or depressed because she can't eat. Since she can't talk, it is difficult at best to really know clearly what goes on in her dented damaged brain. The visit to the nursing home is never fun. Since my mother never leaves her room, I am relegated to sitting in an uncomfortable chair in a room with far too much stuff in it for its size, staring at a TV set with either the ...

I worked all day, but in between trains of thought I derailed a few times while talking to the nursing home and to my family. I am getting better at being serene and clear headed in dealing with delicate issues such as proxies, family, and life and death, but I am only human, and a mini melt down in the office of a friend was in order. After I left, I went for a very long swim, (ok, long for me) for a half hour in a lake with Karen. The fabulous Gabrielle was there, who is every bit as delightful as her name sounds. More on her at a later date. (geez, I do have a lot of stories that I have promised, don't I?) I came home, created for a bit in the studio, and made dinner. Larry and I decided to take the wine and eggplant rollatini outside and eat in the glorious golden light of the evening. A storm came through, right after I took the photos for tonight's blog. We ran inside, laughing and running, protecting only the wine and the camera. Who wants watered down wine, and t...

I am off soon to go make some toast before yoga. At least in yoga I will find peace, and force my mind to be empty, and get some exercise. I have been lazy the past two days of extreme heat. I did not sleep well last night; I drank red wine which clogged me up, my mind kept running with the remains of the emotions from the late night phone call I got from the nursing home about my mother. She has not been well, is refusing testing that needs to be done. She fell twice and complained of pain, so at 1 am they were taking her to the hospital. I have not heard as to whether she has been admitted, and I will deal with that after I get back. I may have slept all of four hours total, and my track record for this week has not been that great to start with. I did spend the afternoon yesterday in my studio, and just picked up the paintbrush, got out a few paints, and finished a piece of work in an afternoon. It is a mixed media piece, called I'll be Watching You. I have a few things ...

Sorry for the constant switch of my look on Blogger. It is a free service, and I was bored with the layout, even though I changed from black to white. I don't like most of the layouts, am having problems tweaking the html, so I am plodding around until I find one that I can settle into again for a while. Comments appreciated of course! Yesterday I won my third blog award. I am honored that others appreciate my honesty in writing. If you were to describe me, it perhaps might include words like "zesty, funny, caring, zany, and honest". That can be good or bad, depending upon the situation. But it is honesty in the best of sense of the word. I am supposed to list five blogs that I admire, but I am going to have to do a bit more research before I can find another five that I enjoy reading. Actually, visit DLM to the World , I have just listed the link today, it is written by my co-worker who has taken a leave of absence after getting a divorce, and headed to Valencia, Spai...

BROADWAY JOES: ELVIS AND MARILYN FATIMA ON HER SCOOTER BUZZIN ABOUT TOWN. DONNA,NEIL,MALCOLM,BETSY AND MEL, THE AMAZING DOG. THESE ARE SOME OF THE WRITERS, ENTREPRENEURS, MUSCISIANS , TEACHERS/PROFESSORS THAT I MET THIS MORNING ON MY WALK! IN a nutshell the Sandwhich generation is referred to adults who are taking care of their aging parents while having to deal with the issues of their teenage or slightly older children. In my case, my mother is having some serious health issues in the nursing home, while I have a child who though currently free of stomach cancer, has a severe hiatal hernia, disintegrating hips and spine, PTSD, and have I mentioned that she is having a difficult pregnancy? (thank you George Bush and Iraq for a few of these issues) AS the eldest and health care proxy, I am dealing with my mother, who is refusing certain medical tests which ultimately COULD lead to her death. The question here is, do we override her decisions, get a court order to declare her incompe...

First of all, I want to stand on the top of Overlook and yell down to my doctor (whom I love love love mind you) that I WAS RIGHT. Losing my water pills and not taking them HAS created a reaction in my body which has created tree stumps in place of my usual saplings, and made me feel like I could fill a pool with the water in my body. How do I know this? I hijacked a pharmacist at my local 24 hours Walgreens. It is early, and since I have been off my feet for 8 hours, all is back to normal. Plus, my friend who takes similar medication, gave me a few of her pills. I know, I am not supposed to do that, but geez, what is a girl to do? I have SOME ego...even after getting rid of most of it as per Mr. Tolle. And my clothes were not sized to fit the Pillsbury Dough Girl. I have made a change in the title of my blog today, in a flash of inspiration from Sir Phil in Cottekill. I joked with him about my "slogging" around the Hudson Valley, and for the heck of it looked up the wor...

I am dumping Ad Sense. I am a tolerant person, but over the past year I have found a few ads that were like a visit from a door to door salesman. You can't wait for them to go away. Besides, at the rate I am going, it will be four years before I MIGHT, and I say MIGHT get my 100.00 check. I have dealt with ads for older men looking for love, for funeral homes, religious ads for the path to Jesus, and so forth, but todays ad for the book from the Christian right exposing the dangers behind Eckhart Tolle's book A New Earth, did it. I just went back there to double check it, and give you some quotes from the ad site, but instead another ad on GERD popped up. I will leave ad sense on my art blog as I rarely get too personal on that. Todays oil paint ad there seemed innocuous enough. I will forfeit my 23.00 on my personal blog for sanity. I am not surprised that Christians are up in arms about this book, because Tolle warns us of doctrines that promote superiority over others. H...

I have not slept well in two days now. Funny thing is I am not tired, in fact, I feel rather manic! I went to the doc yesterday with another list of complaints and again she said "welcome to the world of peri-menopause". I told her I was going to a specialist to see what SHE can do for me, at which point Lynne looked at me and basically said,"HRT, or grin and bear it". I am hoping that Helen will give me a magic pill and I will never have another period again...... Besides not sleeping, I have gained 6 pounds of water weight in a few days. Lynne insists that it too is due to my bodily changes, but I beg to differ and blame it on the fact that I am no longer taking a diuretic for my blood pressure. I eat well, work out several+ times a week, and refuse to ditch my smaller sized clothes. Maybe I will get parasites again, or have another gastro-intestinal virus or upset. It has NOTHING to do with the salt in those potato chips that I devoured at the barbecue th...

5:17 is when the first bird sang outside my window this morning. 5:34 is when the sun rises. By 5:34 I had already had my tart cherry juice, made my coffee, opened up the house to let out the stuffy humid air, and turned on my computer. I went to bed early (10 pm) so that I could be up and alive by 7ish, but I did not bargain for being awake since 4 am. I can't say that I don't mind the silence of the early morning. Larry is deep in slumber, the cats did get up with me and eat, and now Shiva is screaming to get back into bed with his favorite human. It is a rainy day here, a good day to work in the studio, I do have a doc appointment mid day, and will perhaps go and buy a flat skillet for my encaustics on sale at Macy's, and maybe even wander into Barnes and Nobles to sit with a stack of art magazines. I had been lazy most of yesterday, just taking care of myself. That is something that I have had a hard time learning - to love myself enough to do what I need to do or NO...

If the weather is good, I go to my local farmer's market on Saturday morning. I say hi to the local farmers and merchants, and buy some of my food for the week. This week for 23.00 I got four meals, which included crab cakes, eggplant rollitini, and fresh mozzarella cheese. Not bad for two of us. That, supplemented by fresh salads, and perhaps a few other things I have, will keep us very happy and well fed for the week. I sampled some Cassis, had a glass of fresh current juice, and chatted with my many friends and neighbors along the way. It is a pleasant time, a time of community and good vibes. With the energy crunch, I see this style of living becoming more of a reality and necessity. By supporting local farming and merchants, we save on the consumption of gas by trucking, we eat fresher produce, we add to the local economy, and we build a social network and develop relationships which are sadly missing in today's society. For a few hours I went to Karen's for a swim,...

Shot w/Top Down facing rear Blueberries Who's that Girl? Not Picking These And these REALLY scared me! In the past 24 hours I have been all over the Hudson Valley. An appointment in Woodstock, then a pajama party in Hyde Park with girlfriends. We ate dinner on the deck of Lois' new condo, which is not far from the Poughkeepsie Yacht Club, AND the railroad, whose trains are louder than any subway I have heard! We watched two movies, The Golden Compass (for the most part enjoyable, but disappointing ending) and the odd, sensuous and edgy FUR, a fictionalized biography (is that like a double negative?) about Diane Arbus starring Nicole Kidman. I was going to show that in my new upcoming film class, but after watching it, I decided that I want to keep my job. I got to bed at 2:30 am, was up by 8:15, and headed home to get ready for my hike to The End of the World (sounds like a Wim Wenders film) which is really the far end of the Peterskill creek in the Shawangunk Mountains near M...

Those of you who read my blog on a regular basis may have noticed that I changed my template from black into white. While black may be strong, powerful, and contrasts well with my artwork, it now is too dark for this summer and life so full of light, hope, and inspiration. I flashed back to the Cat Stevens song "Into White". Some may think is was written while he was on an acid trip, others convert it into the beauty of simplicity, and peace. I prefer the latter. A snippet from a moment of observation or meditation. It is my mantra for the day. I built my house from barley rice Green pepper walls and water ice Tables of paper wood, windows of light And everything emptying into White. A simple garden, with acres of sky A Brown-haired dogmouse If one dropped by Yellow Delanie would sleep well at night With everything emptying into White. A sad Blue eyed drummer rehearses outside A Black spider dancing on top of his eye Red legged chicken stands ready to strike And everythin...

I am still up to my ears in trying to sort out my life in two rooms..my dining room, and my back room which houses my computer and my ebay/etsy stuff. I am starting in those two rooms because they are close to the refrigerator. (only kidding)No matter how much I sort and file, the piles don't go away. What is up with that? I also decided to print up more of my blogs. I am not sure what I am going to do with over 700 entries over the past few years, but there are some good thoughts and lots of great art work, and when I went to see where I left off last summer, I realized that I had stopped printing them up in September of 2006! I was in shock! Where did all that time go? It drips like water through our hands....I finished '06, and figured that each day I am home I will do a month. I read through some of the blogs, and felt some of the same pain that I felt when I -wrote them, especially the blogs when Megan was in the hospital,then when she was diagnosed with Leiomyosarcoma,...

I received an email from a dear friend, resplendent with images of the flag, eagles, and pictures of soldiers. It was wishing everyone a happy 4th of July, and she asked us to thank our soldiers for the job they have done, and for their sacrifices they have made. I reacted a bit strongly, and wrote a response - rather a diatribe - about my disgust with Bush, our government, and how I was NOT proud to call myself an American, though I hope someday that I can be part of a culture which is not materialistic, selfish, and destructive. I cc'd this response to all the people who were on the forward. This is not the first time I have done this, as I have received some pretty politically incorrect garbage in my mailbox, and I have been taken off many people's forward list, which is good if you saw some of the ultra conservative, bigoted garbage I have received. I mean, on one side of their mouth they tout being so "AMERICAN" while out the other they are degrading other races...

After I came home from Nova Scotia, I found a lovely comment left on one of my blogs. I don't often get comments, it has to be a really funny/angry/heavy blog to usually get a response. People are busy, many don't have time to do more than a quick scan of what I am writing, and even fewer have the time to drop me a comment. It isn't about responses, and it isn't about whether or not anyone reads my blog that I write (though if no one read it --- I would be sad ) but I do get a shit-eating grin when I get kind words from someone, or knowing that what I have written has inspired/touched some one's life. Annie Kelleher is a writer and has a blog "writers and witches, and words...oh my!" who gave me a Arte y Pico award. I am excerpting her explanation of the award: "This award, originally started by Esey, was created to be given to bloggers who inspire others with their creative energy and their talents, be it writing or artwork in all medias. The Arte...

No photos tonight, and brief ruminations about the day. I have much to say, but I am tired. I struggle to maintain my art, my peace, my stability. Since I got back home, my daughter has gone into labor again, and once again, the miracles of modern medicine have stopped it. However, it is not without consequence, and she has been quite ill from the medication. She is in the hospital for at least several more days. The 900 miles that separates us is difficult. I don't talk about it much. Her cancer, her pregnancy, her other ills. If I dwell on it I put myself into a tail spin. I walked about the Farmer's Market today, greeting old friends. Then I came home and buried myself in my studio. I find it takes a bit of time in there before I can break out the serious work. In the meantime, I organize and make small objects d'art. Tonight Larry and I escaped to Karen's house for a last minute party. The weather cooperated at the last moment for a gathering, complete with fi...

inside the ferry From the Ferry Dock Bridge in Maine Anne and Pamela in Belfast Out trip back was more fun than the trip going there I have to admit. The ride along the northern coast of Nova Scotia was lovely, with a stop in Digby for lunch. We stayed in Belfast, Maine for one night, and spent a few hours shopping in very cool shops and boutiques. Our last stop was at a pub in downtown Portland for drinks and lunch before we did the final leg home. I advise taking the ferry at least ONE way, as the drive on the main roads is mostly populated with pine trees, with some scattered water here and there, unless you have time to take the coastal route. Then the drive might be worth it. It is only a 5 hour trip to drive to Portland from here, and a 3-4 hour ride across on the ferry. So your trip is 8 hours, instead of 12-16, depending upon where you go in Nova Scotia. It is pricey, as one way it was 130.00---- and we were sharing the car fee three ways AND we went to Bar Harbor, not Po...

It is early Wednesday, and I am getting ready to leave the lovely little town of Belfast, Maine. The coast of Maine is lovely, dotted with used book stores, antiques, and all kinds of things that we have not even begun to explore. I am heading home, and as soon as I pull into Kingston, I have to pick up my art work from the Cancer show. More work to hang in the house. Today's photo is of a sun dog, a weather term that my friends told me about--according to wikipedia: it is an atmospheric optical phenomenon primarily associated with the reflection or refraction of sunlight by small ice crystals making up cirrus or cirrostratus clouds. Only in Maine. Off to the showers, and ,off find a cup of coffee. Later Patti O Weather Station