Patti Gibbons Art

After three days working in the garden, I quit.  Or, should I say, my back quit.Every cough, hiccough, sneeze, brings a wince.  Enough is enough. The plants are in, and all I have to do is mulch when I feel better. I am now ready to start cleaning up the studio in preparation for a summer of art. The piles have to be gone through, and I am being really hard on myself in regards to getting rid of things I have not used in several years.  I will sell my surplus on Etsy, or give it away to people who will make better use of it. As I was cleaning, I thought about the stump in the front of my house that has not yet been removed by some strong young man whose rippling muscles will vanquish it in one feel swoop.  So far I have not yet found one, but I know he exists and it is only a matter of time before he shows up. In the meantime, I decided to make it a little piece of art out of the very thing that annoys me.  After nailing them to the stump I photographed my...

It is still the season where my art is my garden. I am feeding my soul as well as my body, and this time of year I am getting the beds sown and mulched.  From June on I reap the joys from the beauty of the flowers and the fruits of the vine.  Like Monet, I do not have to go far to find my inspiration. Tonight's photos are of some of the flowers.  A hybrid columbine.  An iris from Karen's house.  The end color of the blue hydrangea that I got on sale at Davenports.  The white tea rose bush that I bought Larry for our "soft anniversary".  Each week the landscape changes and I fill my vase with a new bouquet of flowers. This week I have an abundance ( if you want any, let me know) of wild Japanese irises, the dark purple kind, of white and pink columbine (can get you seeds soon), lily of the valley (I have extra pips!!)  and ferns. Pansies are in pots and in boxes, scattered around the house. For the first time in a year after my illness, my ...

Today was a great day --- FIELD TRIP!! 25 students and 5 teachers armed with picks, chisels, hammers, goggles, and gloves headed into some rock walls that contained Herkimer diamonds and trilobite and other fossils.  The rain held out, and the temps stayed cool for a few hours of searching, exploring, and enjoying nature. I find that the best learning comes from hands-on  outdoor exploration with kids.  It forces them to slow down and look, ask questions, discover, and enjoy the world they live in.  For the most part, they were focused and excited, and some became experts on looking for vugs in the dolostone. A few of the girls and I headed to a huge area that contained many rocks with fossils. We climbed up and down huge boulders,  looking at the fossils from millions of years ago.  We also found the skeletal remains of things that I did not recognize but took back with me anyway. At the end after lunch, we got a tour of the cement factory, complet...

 My gardening work has come to a halt with the cold and the rain, so over the weekend I started a few peat pot trays indoors to satisfy my spring drive to plant and nuture.  After a long day of work, I came home and checked on my babies.  The zinnias and beans were popping their sleepy heads out of the soft peat.  The others were still barely stirring in their seed coats. Watching seedlings grow takes me back to the magic of childhood, when in third grade I did an experiment growing a beans in a variety of conditions.  I made a chart and wrote a paper on it, and won third prize in the school science fair.  I remember being shocked, but also sad, as my parents did not take me to the fair.  I wanted to be recognized for what I thought was ingenious work.  Instead, I got the project back with the prize tag hanging off it.  Perhaps it was that early success that cultured my love for science. In high school I took AP science - Physiology and...

I was a late bloomer. A very late bloomer. But oh what a flower.

I've been working. mushroom hunting gardening attending openings submitting to art shows visiting with friends A LOT (I am getting tired from too many busy nights and not enough sleep) yoga cooking cleaning meditation not writing. not art. But I am percolating stories to tell and I suspect some more art will be springing forth soon. Stay tuned. Photos of morels found on Sunday's very hot and humid hike in the woods. I escaped from the poison ivy, stinging nettle, bugs this time around. And I bagged some shrooms, and really enjoyed the three plus hours of observing nature in detail in the woods.  It was tough however, hiking in 90 degree weather in long sleeves and jeans/high socks and boots while having hot flashes.  Needless to say, I showered a few times that day.