Healthcare

I couldn't let President Obama's speech go uncontested. He said many positive things, one being that illegal aliens would not get health insurance and would be exempt from any free healthcare. What he didn't talk about is the Amnesty Project, which will in effect give citizenship to all these illegal aliens and therefore, they will be getting health insurance. If they can't afford it, it will be free. Is that a dichotomy or what?

Can anyone give me a good reason why legalized Americans will be paying for everything and why these illegals will be getting free healthcare still?

And another thing I read in the paper today that Canada is very unhappy with their government run healthcare system and want to change it to be more like the United States. Why are we trying to be more like Canada when we know it hasn't worked for them?

May?

It can't be May already. I thought I'd updated this blog a few weeks ago but it was March! Not that I like to talk about time passing me by, but it is. After a certain age, time whizzes by so fast you think "I just took the trash out yesterday" and here it is Thursday again and time to take out the trash.

Saturday nights are just the same as week nights. Used to be Saturday nights were date nights or eat out nights or movie nights. Now I just say to myself on Friday night, "Oh tomorrow is Saturday, I can sleep late".

So May is on it's way to becoming June. I hope I remember to look at the calendar in time so I know June is here.

OMG, this blog update is pathetic!

Earth Hour

I hope you will join and help the world support EARTH HOUR.




http://www.earthhouramericas.org/official_ads/English/Digital/300x250.swf

Houses

Houses fascinate me. I like nothing better on a pleasant Sunday afternoon than to ride around in different neighborhoods looking at houses. If there is an "open house", all the better.

It's amazing how many different styles there are from Italian, French and English knockoffs to original architecture by degreed architects and by owners out of necessity.

The house above was built in 1774 in a small town in Connecticut and looked quite different than it does in this picture. It did not have the sun room but had an open porch when it was originally built.

The latest picture was taken in 2007 and shows that the side porch was converted into a sunroom and many other changes were made.

Another house in the same area was originally built in 1791 by the son of the family who built the first house. On the property the owner had a tinware shop where he and his father made pots and pans.

The house as it is today with a sunroom added. Both houses have been continually occupied since they were built.

My house was built in 2001, actually started in 1999 and finished at the end of 2001.

These three pictures are shots of my house. The first is a shot of the house from across the street. The second is a picture of the back of the house taken from the side lower yard and the third was taken from my library looking out the window, across the courtyard and into the dining room. It was designed by the architect, Norman Ward and is a very modern style with Japanese aspects to the landscaping. Of course I live in the South where the weather never gets too cold for too long and we are outdoors a lot of the time.

If the weather is nice this coming weekend, I think I'll take Tinker and we will drive around the area looking at houses and the spring flowers in the yards and on the trees.

Yard Art?

Another favorite piece of art is a sculpture by artist Otto Rigan. It is made from green granite and glass. The cut-outs from the original large granite piece contain thick slabs of glass stacked together and look like windows.

The edges of the glass mirror the color of the granite. As the sun sets, the left side facing West glows brightly against the darker sides backed by the granite.

As you look at the back you can see the front window in my house and notice that this sculpture, quite by accident, resembles the angles and mullions of the window.

What I love most about this second image is the figure in the background looking out of the window!

Black

This piece in my collection is by artist Joe Guy. It is cleverly constructed of wood and rice paper (think shoji screen). Hanging separately from the large piece is a mirror that has been blackened out. After the piece was constructed the artist covered all of it with graphite powder and then slowly and thoroughly burnished it with a river rock. You cannot see the sheen from this picture the piece glows as if from within.

Joe Guy's inspiration was the controversial artist Balthus (b. 1908) and his Japonaise au miroir noir or "Japanese girl with black mirror". As a matter of interest Balthus was married to a Japanese woman and she posed for many of his paintings. Balthus was greatly admired in his day by the Surrealists for his fascinating images of young girls. He was reclusive and as a result his life has been the subject of much intrigue and conjecture.

In this photo you might be able to see a slight sheen to the burnished graphite. The mirror that hangs above the main piece is actually a mirror under the graphite.

Joe Guy is a contemporary Texas artist. He is represented by William Campbell Contemporary Art in Fort Worth. If you would like to read about this artist look for "Balthus" by Stanislas Klossowski de Rola, his son. Unfortunately there is no website for Joe Guy. I hope he gets one soon so we can see more of his work.

Getting to Know You

At the end of 2008 and beginning of 2009 I decided to get my art works appraised. Taking pictures and really looking at things sparked my interest in them again. Tracy Hicks is the artist who devised this installation of specimen jars with frog molds in them. These jars fascinated me when I first saw them at an art gallery and knew that I needed to have it in one window in my house which faces East and gets the morning sun. As the sun rises the glow from the colors in the jars fill the wall with rainbows.

The larger jars are laboratory specimen jars and some are filled with oil, some are filled with colored resin and some have both along with whatever Tracy put in the jars. A few have pieces of glass, colored resin and oil.
Some have spiders and dragonflies, molds of extinct frogs, jars and other found things. The small jars inside the large jars are from the Smithsonian Institute and originally had other specimens in them years ago. The jars were given to Tracy and he envisioned them in this way.


I had a ceramic ewer made by artist Peter Beasecker that had gotten broken when a picture fell on it. Tracy wanted a few shards and we managed to get the top in one piece. He made a jar with the top of the ewer in it for me in exchange for the shards which he then put into other jars I imagine. Peter is a friend of Tracy's and he wanted a momento.
This window has been brought to life with all the colors of the rainbow reflecting on the wall and as the sun moves around the colors intensify. This is one of my favorite pieces in my collection.