Necessity may give birth to invention, but the mother of art is frustration. If you want to build a strong vocabulary in an artistic medium, you must achieve frustration. Fail at it. Badly. Repeatedly. If my current frustration level with metal clay is any indication, I'm about to become the DaVinci of PMC. Here's what I'm telling myself: This is [...]
If you're wondering what's up with The Leg: We're hanging in there. LOTS of other stuff has happened that'll show up here as I get time to write, but mostly? We're hanging in there. On Friday night, Sept. 16, 2016, I fractured my left femur just above Elmo, my replacement knee. I lived in a wheelchair, facing hip-high amputation of [...]
Kathy Engholm here. Cynthia invited me to write a guest article about my new(ish) art show booth furniture (shown above). My previous post was about the main parts used in designing the booth. In this post, I'll describe the setup process for this gallery-style art show booth. Before a show For many basic life activities, I use physical objects to [...]
Today is jitterday, IOW, my monthly trek down to the orthopedics hospital, where they do all kinds of x-rays and studies to discover if Elmo and I will stay together. The docs will be looking for signs of healing and bone growth. If they don't find any, we wait for another month and go back for a recheck. If they [...]
Happy crashiversary, Elmo! Two months ago, the bottom of my left femur seceded from my leg. If I've learned anything from this, it's that patience really is a virtue. Trouble is, I'm not that virtuous. "I saw this and it's exactly YOU!" a coworker once beamed, handing me a refrigerator magnet. It said, "I want it all, I want it now, [...]
It's like a horror movie: You walk into your chicken coop and roosters attack, spurs and beaks shredding your jugular like carnitas, killing you deader than Kentucky Fried. Apparently this can happen if you have chickens. Kinda makes Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds look like a Sunday afternoon in the park with Tweetie. Mom's friend Marla, who comes every week [...]
"You need to paint a rock this morning," decided Selene, one of my favorite daynurses* at The Fortress. "And I will paint this rock because...?" I asked reasonably. "Because only two patients showed up for recreational therapy this morning, and Amber needs your support," she said firmly. She wheeled me on down to the art therapy room, I painted a [...]
Kathy Engholm here. Cynthia invited me to write a guest article about my new(ish) art show booth furniture (shown above). My first post was about the requirements I set before starting the design. In this post, I'll discuss the key parts that allowed me to meet those requirements. Basic structural design Mating pieces for connecting rails to posts [...]
You knew there had to be a meltdown, right? Mine came Wednesday morning and by all accounts was a great success. Go big, or go home, ya know? On Friday night, Sept. 16, 2016, I fractured my left femur just above Elmo, my replacement knee. I lived in a wheelchair, facing hip-high amputation of my left leg, for about two [...]
"I'm sorry," I said, falling back with a sigh, "I don't quite have the hang of being an invalid yet." Dave had been rubbing cream on my sore leg, but now his head came up, "Invalid?!?" and his eyes flashed, "You're NOT an invalid. Where did you get that idea?" On Friday night, Sept. 16, 2016, I fractured my left [...]
