Patti Gibbons Art

One of the best things that I did for myself this summer was to buy a laptop, install a router, and be able to do things like blog in bed. I sit here with my bedroom window open as it is warm out on this early fall morning, listening to the neighborhood dogs barking, the whistle on the train sighing in the background. The streets outside are quiet for the most part, with an occasional car zooming by. The early autumn sun is not strong enough to light up my room, so I must light it with my reading lamp, and a cup of tepid coffee sits on my night table. I sit here and think..how glorious this moment is. I just read a comment from someone on one of my blogs. I don't' know if it is the reader I had some banter with over a local eatery, or if it is someone else. This person was not anonymous however, and though he commented that he often has different opinions than I (good thing John..how boring it would be if we all thought the same!) but he also said that he enjoyed my blog and th...

Am falling a bit behind on my blogging these days. Just too much to do. But at least I still have stories to tell, and they will have to wait. Off to New Jersey to atttend my cousin's daughter's 21st birthday party. I am photographing the party; it will be my third party that I have photographed in the past few months. I don't charge for it as it is my gift, and I do enjoy doing it, especially with young people who are full of life and fun. And, maybe someday, I will get some business and make some money with it! Today's photo is not one of my family, but I have adopted them for the day. I will probably sell it on etsy, where you too can adopt a family or person and give them a new life. Sometime I will post some of my art pieces using these photos. Usually humorous and surreal, and I have fun making new out of old. However, now I must run.....till later, Patti

In today's Catskill Paper blog, I wrote a brief blurb on a visit to the Edward Gorey House. Those of you who appreciated humor, oddity, and being slightly eccentric and twisted, this house-turned-museum is for you. It is a beautiful old Mansard roof Victorian, which he named The Elephant, due to the texture of the paint on the old house. He collected many kinds of figures and objects, and was an admirer of elephants as well as cats, frogs, balls, etc. The photo is of a room in the house with his actual couch marred by the claws of his many cats, and on it is seated a life sized stuffed animal bear from FAO Schwartz which lived on the front porch I believe. Gorey was the artist behind the PBS's Mystery Theater, designed the stage set for Dracula, amongst being the writer and illustrator of many books, posters etc. In Yarmouthport, right off 6A on Strawberry Lane you can find this most intersting museum and gift shop. I used the bathroom there before I left, and as I looked aroun...

I was with a good friend this afternoon and got hot, wet, screamed, and it lasted three hours. THREE HOURS. Such is sailing on the Hudson on an early fall day with the temps near 90, and a brisk warm velvet breeze that caresses one like a velvet glove. Ed let me do most of the steering while he worked the sails on his 30’ boat. I think it was the best wind I have sailed in yet, and I whopped with delight and with a bit of concern when the boat listed a bit too far. I got it up to 7.2 knots, which is the fastest I have sailed thus far. There was little traffic on the river, and I don’t think that it could have been much better conditions to sail in. The sunset was beautiful, and the views spectacular, the breeze constant, the company excellent. I have worked with Ed for 16 years now, and have become the dearest of friends. We have laughed and cried, and since he is an avid sailor, I have gone on many a sail with him over the years. Each year I learn something new, and am now a participa...

On my way to therapy, I was half listening to my iPod which was playing through the stereo in my car. A Joni song came on, “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” which is based upon a poem by Irish poet W.B. Yeats. One of his poems, The Lake Isle of Inisfree, was inspiration for an art lesson. Once I knew this poem by heart…… “I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made: Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee, And live alone in the bee-loud glade. And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings; There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow, And evening full of the linnet's wings. I will arise and go now, for always night and day I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray, I hear it in the deep heart's core.” And I will find peace there. I wil...

I am sitting here with three great blogs to write, but Larry holds the key to each one of them. Either the photos are on his camera, or he has the card with the info on it. He is not home tonight, so I am stuck. And I am really stuck. I have nothing to say. Amazing, eh? So being blocked at the moment (only for the moment) I think I am going off to list some things on Etsy and eBay. And burn a CD for one of my students. Till tomorrow, Patti O Silence Corporation Beach, Dennis, MA. Watercolor

Tonight's sunset lasted a long long time it seemed. Miles - a bunch of songs on my iPod. It was beautiful, and looked like someone was painting the sky with a huge calligraphy brush. Oranges, violets, blues. The perfect ending to what turned out to be a lovely weekend. Time with good friends. Visits to a most lovely Stationery store in Wellfleet; a visit to the Edward Gorey Museum in Yarmouthport. And, of course, art and photos, some of which I will talk more about on my art blog. Three different beaches in three days. Corn chowder, lobster rolls. Walks during low tide. Movies (one of which was Little Children. Wow---) Reading, thinking, absorbing the sun into every pore I could expose. But I am tired and need to sleep. I work hard and I play hard, and tomorrow is a work hard monday. The travelogue will have to start tomrorow! Till then, Patti O