And Usually on Wednesday I have cake

Well, no, not really. It's time, spring, that time of the year when things start to turn green, right after everything has turned yellow. I was down for 3 weeks with a broken welder, got it fixed supposedly. But the place I took it didn't fix it and charged me a lot of money, so I took it back, was refunded, and went to buy a new welder. Still getting used to the new welder. I've finished the deer for the master gardeners' demo garden.

really? It's the correct way on my computer...arrrggghh! Buck

Doe and fawn

And I've made a few other things lately. The owl was a custom order.

Owl

 

Helper Robot

 This little robot hopefully found a new home. I've been leaving a few like these around Carrollton, GA. Hopefully I'll be leaving some in Atlanta and Decatur, GA.

Red Dog

https://www.etsy.com/listing/127736527/red-dog

Many more projects coming down the line, I've revamped on of the flamingos, crazy only the pink and red ones sold, not blue, nor green, not even orange. Strange indeed. ;-)
A pond drain cover with a bottle tree protruding from it is in a pond some where in Ranburne, AL. I made some bird legs for a friend that is going to create some ceramic birds on top of the legs, can't wait to see what becomes of them. I've got a few pieces to work on for the master gardeners' demo garden, an art in the park piece for this summer, a garden stake for the Scrap Bin, http://www.scrapbin.org/ , and a tree to hold some hummingbird feeders. Ohh, crap, I better get busy!

Beaten Broken Blue

My hands are cut, bruised, burned, stained, and abused. They are my tools to create my work. Try as I might they do get damaged, covered in grease, oil, and whatever. Metal pieces push into my skin, I feel them through the heat of the steel. Still I go on, I create. And this is some of what I've done recently. When will it pay off? When will I stop?

https://www.etsy.com/listing/124964189/the-salty-dog-original-metal-art

https://www.etsy.com/listing/124966562/penguin-metal-art-sculpture

https://www.etsy.com/listing/124298764/blue-cat-metal-art-sculpture

https://www.etsy.com/listing/123758497/a-blue-legged-cat

Dogs, deer, and pigs Oh My!!!

A dog, a bearing dog...

bearing-hound-original-metal-art

Another dog!

A spotted flying pink pig!

 D'oh! A deer, a silver deer.  silver-deer-original-metal-art-sculpture

A Flying Pink Pig, oh, my!!

a-flying-pig-original-garden-art 

So, that's what's been going on lately. Happy New Year to everyone! Last year was fun, last year is done, and this year will hopefully be a great one!

Robot Travels

Once upon a time there was a tiny robot. He wasn't the strongest robot or the fastest, just a little guy that liked to travel.

 

So, he went on a trip.

 He went to a gallery and saw some hungry frogs.

 

He rode on the back of a flying pig!

 

He took in some sights in Newnan on the back of a horse.

 

He met a very nice girl! They high fived each other!

 She showed him a palm tree.

 They stopped for some water.

She got the water from some kids.

 And finally the robot was home! And he was very happy!

Dreaming of Alabama, driving on a dirt road, having a picnic

I dream of 1 day being away in a place, far, far, well not so far away, just across the river and in a different time, ok, just a hour earlier. 1 day, one day I dream of a far better life. I hope and dream. I see rusted cars and trucks, empty bath tubs, pine trees, and chickens. I pass slowly by the house that was once a home, a family gone but not forgotten by the house, it's lonely. 

I, on the other hand am not. I dream of tomorrow, I dream of Alabama. I dream of a new tomorrow.

And gardens to come, and gardens to come!

The Summer and the Flying Menagerie

Bot Dog

Summer, cicada, dragonflies, crows, yellow jackets, and butterflies, they come and they hang out with me. The crows I think are laughing at my jokes, or maybe just the comedy of me stumbling around extension cords and metal piled up here, there, and everywhere.

The cicadas come and visit me in my studio at night, landing on my arm. Why? Then 1 lands on my table. I don't want to burn the small noisy creature, I move it outside, it flies back into the studio. Again I move it outside, this time it stays. :-)

The butterflies come out, flitter and flutter around me while I weed the garden stopping occasionally to alight on a flower. I remember one of the first big words my daughter said clearly, butterfly. She's fascinated by them, so am I. I will always have that connection to butterflies.

The crows, walking around the grass looking for something to eat, they watch me, they are making sure that I stay on the right path and don't look back at the failures. Forward and positively they are keeping me focused on what's ahead.

Ahh, the yellow jackets, I do not like you. Twice this summer I've been defeated by stumbling onto your home. So, so sorry. But land on my lip and I will defeat you.

The dragonflies come around and visit me at my studio, they make me happy! The way that they fly is incredible! I'm jealous of that ability. Yesterday they came to visit me while I was at a friends pool. She must not have seen them. She seemed sad. If she saw them I think, maybe, just maybe that might have made her day. Maybe tomorrow.

We did see the clouds, heavy and light gray in the sky. Why did they have a dark outline? Much like a child's drawing that outlines everything in black, it was not the way one usually sees clouds.

I've been working a lot in the studio, that is good!

Random thoughts on a cloudy day with a beautiful Sunset

http://www.etsy.com/listing/104777071/the-holey-and-smashed-pig-metal-art

So, I've been thinking about pink a lot lately. Maybe because of all the pigs that I've been making. The one above got smashed with a few holes in it. Pink, I remember when I lived in the lakewood neighborhood in the city of Atlanta, my neighbor across the street who was 85 at the time would mow her lawn with her pink sweat shirt, sweat pants, and a large pink bow in her hair, she and her husband had lived there since 1955. I used to change light bulbs for her because she didn't like to climb the ladder, one day she said, "Come see my kitchen I had it painted!" Oh, yes she did, pepto bismal pink or about the shade of the pig above. Wow it was a sensory gut punch to your eyes! She loved it and she loved pink!

At my last house neighbors would ask me were I lived and I would tell them the purple house, followed by, "Next to the pink house!?" Yes, was my response, it was a brighter pink but they toned it down a bit. The ladies in the pink house were awesome neighbors, but they moved and so did I. They had painted a few rooms in the house pink also. Once I asked if the welding and metal work that I did in the backyard bothered them and my neighbor said "My house is pink, I don't have room to complain." Awesome! We got along well.

And finally tonight I went back to the Sunset Mustang Ranch Studio to finish up some pigs. Through the gray clouds an arc of pink fluffy clouds broke through! I get these amazing sunsets at my studio space, strange looking out at a transmission shop and a bunch of cars parked around there that there is almost always a glorious sunset from the courtyard next to the dirt track mustang by my studio.

Some of the pig near the studio