the current list and it's no better than the previous lists, depressing but best to stay informed

This man is pure evil, cares nothing for anyone or anything but his ego. Trump is turning the US into just a bigger and more dangerous N. Korea, aligning us with Russia and would turn us into a totalitarian regime and the Republicans, who are just as complicit, will let him. They care nothing for democracy either, only about staying in power. He loved Saudi Arabia because there were no demonstrations, no protests, and he thinks Americans are disrespectful. I flip back and forth from angry to hopeless. I know there are serious investigations going on and eventually some of these people will be taken down but it's not happening fast enough! The only bright spot is the many governors, mayors, and individuals (CEO Michael Bloomberg has offered to pay the $15 million to the UN operating budget for the Paris Accords that the US was expected to contribute) that are standing up and standing against. If 'make America great again' means abdicating our role as a world leader and a light unto the nations, then he has succeeded...

The Assistant Attorney General, because Sessions had to recuse himself because he's fucking involved, appointed an Independent Counsel at the FBI to continue the investigation, a man that both parties find honorable. True, Trump can fire him as well but it will be much harder thanks to the terms laid out by the Ass't AG when he wrote up the order, not to mention how much worse it will look for Trump to have fired two heads of the same investigation. And of course, Trump responded like he always does whining about how unfair he is being treated.

A transcript, and apparently the tape itself, has surfaced of a conversation between Republican congressmen when it came out that Trump and another Senator were thought to be being paid by the Russians and Paul Ryan stopped that dead in the water and swore everyone to secrecy...what happens in the House, stays in the House.

Democrats have produced proof that Pence was told back in November that Flynn was getting paid by Turkey.

After Trump sang Turkish president Erdogan's praises at the White House, Erdogan ordered his bodyguards to beat up the peaceful protesters outside the Turkish Embassy. Trump's response? Silence.

The White House is trying to keep the Office of Government Ethics from viewing documents detailing which former lobbyists have been hired by the Trump administration for positions in the federal government.

After Comey's testimony before Congress, Trump contacted the Director of National Intelligence, Daniel Coates, and the director of the National Security Agency, Adm. Michael Rogers, in an attempt to pressure them to publicly deny the existence of any evidence of collusion during the 2016 election. The two men refused to comply.

Trump, during his visit to the Middle East told a room full of Israelis in Israel that he had just come from the Middle East.

Wilber Ross, Trump's Commerce Secretary, thinks the lack of protest in Saudi Arabia, which is punishable by death, is a good thing.

Trump, on his trip to Israel, told Netanyahu at the end of a press conference, with the press still present, that he didn't mention Israel to the Russians...“just so you understand — I never mentioned the word or the name Israel in conversation. Never mentioned it.”...totally confirming the source of the intel he bragged about to the Russians.

Trump admits firing Comey over the investigation into Russian contact and then tells the Russians that Comey was a nut job and he fired him and now the pressure of the investigation was off.

Not only did Comey create a memo directly after his dinner with Trump when Trump asked him to drop the Flynn investigation, so did Mike Rogers of the NSA when Trump asked him to lean on Comey to end the investigation.

Trump's AG Jeff Sessions, who perjured himself during his confirmation hearing, also lied via omission about his contacts with the Russians on his security clearance form.

And speaking of omitting information on contacts with Russians on their security clearance forms, so did scumbag Jared Kushner who buys low rent properties and then sues ex-tenets that had already moved out for breaking their leases.

Not only did Trump spill highly secret intelligence to the Russians, he told Phillipine president Duterte the secret location of two of our nuclear submarines.

While we're on the subject of spilling intelligence, information from the investigation of the Manchester bombing made it's way into our news before the Manchester investigators made it public and now they are refusing to share any more information with us.

In another show of vindictiveness, Trump sent Sean Spicer back to the US early depriving him of meeting the Pope, the one thing as a Catholic he truly wanted to do.

After promising in a January press conference that his company would donate all profits from foreign governments, Trump now says it's more trouble than it's worth to determine exactly how much that would be in order to comply with the emoluments clause of the Constitution. Too hard and too much trouble to comply with the Constitution which he calls archaic and not good for the country.

Trump and Pence have both recorded robocalls in support of the Republican candidate in Montana where robocalls are illegal. Their work around was to have an actual person dial the phone and ask whoever answered if they would like to hear a recording.

Because his ego demands that he be front and center of any photo op, Trump rudely pushed other NATO leaders aside and barged his way to the front for the photos of the NATO meeting in Brussels.

Trump's White House put out, and reported by Fox that Trump was the first sitting American president to visit the Western Wall in Jerusalem...well, except for Presidents Obama, Bush, and Clinton.

During a meeting with Netanyahu in Israel, Trump got a blank look on his face, stood up and wandered off and his aides had to bring him back.

Mitch McConnell, Senate majority leader, thought congressional procedure worked just fine for the last 8 years while they obstructed everything President Obama tried to do. Now that Democrats are doing their best to obstruct the cruelties of Republican policies and the shoe is on the other foot, he thinks that congressional procedure doesn't work so well.

Trump, on his first international trip to meet with other world leaders praised the repressive Saudi regime from which most of the 9/11 attackers came from, making a $110 billion arms deal with them allowing our arms and helicopters to be made in Saudi Arabia while in his meeting with European leaders lectured them about not paying their 'fair share' for NATO proving once again that he does not understand how NATO works and declined to re-commit the United States to Article 5 which says an attack on one is an attack on all making it dependent on whether or not the attacked country was spending enough on defense in his opinion.

Trump also refused to commit to honoring the Paris Accords telling them he had to think about it and then days later, out of spite against anyone and everyone who doesn't adore him, announced he was pulling the US out of the agreement putting us on the side with the only two nation in the world who did not sign on, Syria and Nicaragua, because he doesn't believe in global warming. Well, I always said that human beings would be one of Mother Earth's least successful lifeforms because of our arrogance. Too bad we will change her face in our death throes and I never thought it would begin in MY lifetime.

Trump's performance in Europe was so poor that Angela Merkel has stated that Europe can no longer count on the United States.

White nationalism/terrorism has risen dramatically given a big boost by Trump and verbal and physical attacks by whites on non-whites and non-christians have also increased dramatically. In one such recent attack, a white man was verbally attacking two women he took to be muslims and three men came to their defense. The attacker, wielding a knife, murdered two of these heroes, wounded the third, and then called it an act of patriotism. Trump's response? Total silence.

While Trump has had nothing to say about the murder of the two men who stood up to protect American citizens from a white terrorist, he did manage to congratulate a Republican, who physically assaulted a reporter days before his election, on his win in Montana.

Jess Sessions, Trump's AG who is supposed to be tough on crime, accused the NYC police department of being soft on crime while he gave corporate criminal banks a slap on the hand and a small fine. But, hey, if you get caught with little marijuana you can expect to be jailed for life in a for-profit prison.

In his continuing effort to undo everything Obama did, Trump has announced that he will rescind the looser relations with Cuba.

Trump, who always puts his business and bank account before country, admitted that his difficulty in opening golf courses in Europe influenced his EU views.

Russia demanded their diplomatic property in the US back 'or else' that Obama denied them access to for spying and Putin's lapdog Trump will oblige them.

Conservatives and Trump were angry about a comedian's photo of holding a bloody fake Trump head but they have no problem cozying up to Saudi Arabia who regularly beheads people.

Trump's White House has issued 17 ethics waivers for his staff (more than Obama did in 8 years). What does that tell you about the ethical nature of his staff?

And speaking of his staff, people are resigning and he can't find anyone to replace them, he still has many positions left unfilled crippling the government, he would replace many others who he thinks aren't loyal enough but he can't find anyone who wants to work for/under him.

one day has been pretty much like the next

This has been the content of my days for the last few weeks...sculpting wax and foraging for pecans. Doesn't make for great blog posts.

Oh, another one of those.

I have one more to go and then we will have 7 new pieces to cast. I've narrowed the selection down to two images, neither of which is remotely like the one it is replacing. I can't really remember the criteria I used when I made my original selections except that I really liked the image. I still like it but I couldn't make it work in the wax to my satisfaction and I'd rather try something new than try that one again.

We have amassed quite a lot of pecans. A big storm blew through last Monday and did an excellent job of knocking them out of the trees. It seems as if the tree that lost three large branches last year is trying to outdo itself and the other two this year. I started shelling them this week and now that I learned how to actually use the fancy pecan nut cracker I bought last year (thanks to a youtube video that I stumbled across earlier searching for nut crackers), it's going much easier. When I asked the guy at the place where I sell my extra pecans how to use it he showed me a technique that I could never get the hang of. Turns out it was completely wrong. OK, not completely wrong, just half wrong.

Last week, we had a couple of days of cooler weather and I dug up more grass along the concrete bunker over at the shop and planted some of the things I moved from the city property. Well, two things. The spider lilies and one of the rooted cuttings from the yellow angel trumpet. The little angel trumpet went into immediate wilt since it basically went from shade to full sun so right now it's being protected by shade cloth while it recovers.

We don't usually have commission work in the summer because it's too hot for one thing (and we have the grandkid visits) and our clientele is on vacation or has kids out of school. That's fine with us as long as it picks back up in the fall. Which it usually does except when it doesn't. So far this fall, there has been little activity and no results. I'm not too worried because of the sale of the city property this summer and I did want some time to work on my other work. I don't want no work, just not 6 months worth dumped on me at one time. Or maybe even that. Now that we are out here and not wasting two days out of the week traveling, it would be easier to handle.

This sweet little rain lily popped up around the yard of the new shop after one of our rains.

the map wall

It's October. Not only that, it's the tenth of October. I'm always sad to see September end because when September is gone then starts the endless holiday season...Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Marcmas*, New Year's. I can already feel the pressure building.

*for those of you who aren't in the know, Marcmas is Marc's birthday.

I'm never one to wish winter in but it is always such a relief when January finally rolls around.

I'm already too busy with real work instead of the make work I busied myself with for the better part of the last year and a half. So what did I do? I said yes to participating in our friends the glass blowers' annual open house the first weekend of December (which is early this year, including the last day of November). What was I thinking! Well, besides wanting to spend a weekend with people I don't get to see very often anymore. I have nothing to sell since I have been spending my efforts on the botanica erotica series and the peach box.

Now I must find time to make a dozen or so small pieces. I have an idea that I think I can pull off, sort of a little reprise of my rock sculptures I did years ago. But. Must. Keep. It. Simple.

So.

I am making progress on the drawings for the patterns for the mountain wall. I'm working on panel 3.

The map wall has been installed. Not exactly how I wanted to spend my one Saturday off a month from the store, but I was glad to be there once I got there. The team from the glass company did an amazing job manhandling those big panels in place, making all the minor adjustments so that all the lines lined up across the four panels. There's a lot of reflection though from the bank of windows across the room. I don't know what they may or may not do about that. Perhaps if they added some additional lighting up in the cove.

they already had panel 1 in place when I arrived

panel 2 in place

panel 3

angling panel 4 up into the cove

panel 4 in place

cleaning

The map wall on the 10^th floor of the Houston offices of Invesco.

dry

new Texas rain gauge

I'm also feeling some discontent because the drought continues with no relief in sight and none maybe expected the rest of this year and into next, thanks to that little bitch, La Nina.  Even more of the state is classified at the highest drought level and has set a new record for the driest year ever with just over 15 inches of rain in the last 12 months and the last two months were the hottest on record.

The first tropical storm of the season to come our way came and went and gave us not a bit of rain. Oh, it rained around us, got close enough to smell it and the city got some good rain, but it skirted us completely.

There was a news program on the other day about the drought and how it is affecting farmers and ranchers. The reporter took a yardstick and slipped it in one of the cracks in the earth. It went down 30”.

As I mentioned before, the ranchers are selling off their stock because all the pastures are dying or dead and hay is at such a high price that they even cut and baled the 13 acre field behind us. The cotton, so tall and lush and full last year barely comes to my knees this year.

The last time I was in the city a couple of weeks ago, the trees were clearly suffering but still living. Driving in on the West Loop past Memorial Park this last trip in I was broken hearted to see how many had died. Tree after tree...mostly pines, oaks and cypress.

As if we hadn't already been having August temperatures since the beginning of June, now August is upon us. Last week we had triple digits every day with a heat index of 120 and not even a hint of rain. I'm so thankful for all the trees around our house here in the country and in the city and that they seem to be doing OK. The temperature drops at least 10˚ in their shade.

The lakes and ponds and rivers are drying up. A little stream down the road from us that always has water flowing is dry. No water, no bugs, no plants, no food for birds and other wildlife. Nothing we can do except wait and wait and hope that when fall comes, if it ever comes, it will bring us some rain. If not rain, then at least lower temperatures.

Still, a few things seem unfazed by the heat and lack of rain. The yellow bells, the mexican bird of paradise and the wild mexican petunias continue to bloom without looking droopy and sere.

The Book Of Wren

I'm woefully behind in my reading. A day in the city, a week focused on work. Full size art work done for the two jobs, now just waiting on the glass.

The wren box is now officially finished. I know you all are tired of this particular piece, it has taken so so long to come together but I am very very pleased with it. I've been wanting to move into multi-media for awhile and I think this is a first good step in that direction.

The scroll, with the story of the wrens raising their little chick, is made of parchment vellum, wood, thread and tied with raffia. The seams in the parchment are sewn by machine but I had to do the sewing by hand around the sticks.

So here is the last, and official, picture of the wren box.

The Book Of Wren

8”w x 8”h x 3”d

glass, bronze, vellum, wood, thread, raffia

the scroll

4”w x 1”h x .5”d

the scroll unrolled (out of focus, I know, but I didn't realize it til after I had rolled it up and now it won't lay flat for another picture.)

the scroll in the box

(also not a great picture)

the story:

The Book Of Wren

The wrens are

very curious

about our shop.

I see them in there

quite frequently

poking around.

It's attached

to the studio part

of the house and

I watch them come

and go

through the open

door.

Last year

a pair built a nest

in the shop

in the rag bag

hanging on a nail

by the door

to the studio.

Every time I went

out the door

the wrens would

dash out.

Eventually, they

got used to me.

They laid two

little eggs

in the nest

in the rag bag.

One day I came

through the shop

and saw a broken

little egg

laying

on the concrete.

The nest was robbed,

abandoned

with one little egg

still in it.

This spring, the wrens

built another nest

in the shop.

This time they built it

on top of the motor

housing for

the door opener

that doesn't work,

up close to the ceiling.

They hatched one little

baby wren.

When the baby

was brave enough,

it fell-flew

to the ground.

It's parents were ever alert

and they coaxed it

out of the shop, into

the natural world.

They shepherded it

they fed it

they watched over it

they moved it

constantly

looking for food.

They taught it

how to fly

how to talk

how to forage.

They fluttered down and

flew up

down and up

down, up.

They led baby wren

in a circle around

the house.

Every day

I could hear it

crying

feed me, feed me.

One day, baby wren

hop/fluttered

into the lower

branches of a

bush.

Another day

the lower branches

of a tree,

tail feathers almost

grown in.

It follows after

mom and dad

feed me, feed

me.

I track the wrens

every day,

follow their migration

around the house.

I am learning

their

language.

I venture too close

and baby cries

danger!

The parents have

the little wren

on the ground now

most days,

it must learn how

to feed itself.

They know

I am no

danger.

Recently

all three wrens

were in the shop.

Perhaps next year

I will have two families

building nests.

printing on glass

About a year ago, Houston's first 'glass center' opened. What I mean by that is that there have always been personal stained glass studios or stained glass/fusing studios whose proprietors also taught classes and there are a few private glass blowing studios, one of which offers classes, although this is more of a 'warm' glass community since our climate does not really lend itself to having a furnace running year 'round.

We also have the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft that has an artist-in-residence program and offers workshops, but their kilns are not really suitable for glass and they really don't like how messy glass can be. Lamp workers they are OK with as it is fairly self contained but casting is a messy deal and they really didn't like that.

So when Bob Paterson opened Hot Glass Houston, a resource outlet for Bullseye glass, a company that specializes in facilitating artists using glass as a medium, he not only provided a local resource for the glass many of us use but he also brings in very accomplished guest artists to do workshops in an amazing array of techniques.

And so, this past Monday and Tuesday, I participated in a workshop on transferring imagery to glass in an effort to finally figure out how I want to make the 'pictures' for the memory box.

There are several ways this can be accomplished...fusible decals, emulsion stencils for sandblasting, painting with enamels. This particular workshop taught by Carrie Iverson is a technique she developed from classic printing techniques coming from a printing background as she does. She prints on paper, on fabric and other substrates and she got interested in glass.

In this workshop, we used a traditional lithography printing technique that had been modified slightly for glass. I did take my camera but I did not take a single picture because almost from the moment I picked up the brayer and rolled it in ink, my hands were covered with ink and gum. Basically what we did was this:

We mixed printer's oil-based ink with a waxy substance and used a roller, a 'brayer', to transfer the ink to a laser print that had been coated with a gum solution first. After enough ink had been transferred to the print (the ink only stuck to the black of the image on the paper), we picked up the paper and flipped it over onto a 6" x 6" piece of glass, ink side down, and burnished it transferring the ink from the paper to the glass. The next step was to sift glass powder onto the still wet ink. Then you fire it and the ink burns off and the glass powder fires in.

My first impression was that this might be the way I wanted to go but then I thought maybe the results wouldn't be crisp enough. The first day we did two pieces in the morning, each on a single layer of glass, one fired to tack fused (you can still feel the texture of the glass powder on the glass), the other to full fuse (feels completely smooth).

black powder tack fused on clear

black powder full fused on white

In the afternoon we did three pieces, each two layers thick and fired to full fuse. There's a whole lot in here about colors of ink, colors of frit, colors of glass, reactives, layering, tones, etc. that I'm not going to go into but here is the result of my first day. I worked with the images provided by the class.

On the way there on the second day, before I had seen these, I was pretty convinced this wasn't going to give me the look I wanted, not crisp enough, or maybe, since this is a reliquary for a memory, that would be better because memories fade, right?

I was pleasantly surprised by the results of the previous day.

That second day we did three more pieces 2 layers thick, all to full fuse. I still didn't have any images of my own to bring in, being as we were at the city house, but several others in the workshop did and they shared around.

I haven't seen my pieces from the second day, that will have to wait til the next time we are in Houston, I'm kind of curious about one of them though. I wondered how it would look on sandblasted, etched, glass so on one of my tiles I used the blast booth to sandblast one of the clear pieces and then 'printed' the image on the sandblasted surface and stacked it on another piece of clear. Might be an interesting technique for the architectural work.

Anyway, I'm intrigued enough to try some on my own.