Phone pics

These are the start of a new series..not sure where they are going.

Finally back to the studio yesterday. Started work on Saturday at the Cave Visitors Center and they have revamped everything. New paint on the walls, new area for my bookstore and displays. New cabinets for my stock. All in all a very nice redo. Already had the EMTs up twice this weekend. A woman had a terrible headache and her blood pressure shot up about 1/4 of the way up the trail. She came down and the EMTs were called and they took her to the local hospital. Another man with Parkinsens almost made it up but then could not breathe. he was stubborn but finally was wheeled down in the gurney. Apparently all are fine. The trail starts at the visitors center and is 1.5 miles up to the cave entrance. 1100 feet vertical gain..rather relentless. It is paved but a few years ago a maintenance worker was on his motorcycle on the trail and went off the edge and died. That started a big safety program. No wheels on the trail, no strollers etc. Too easy for them to get away from you and the drop off is scary!! The trail is wide, but there are occasional rock falls so the rangers try really hard to inform all the visitors of the dangers and what to do and mostly they don't listen. So the only "vehicles" allowed on the trail are the 2 wheeled gurneys one that stays at the bottom and one at the top and these strange motorized... well for lack of the real term..wheelbarrows. So there is a way to get heavy equipment up and down but no one can ride in them so the danger is lessened. This is the 90th anniversary of the Timpanogos Cave National Monument. They are even Tweeting now...something I have never done! So if you are interested in seeing more about the cave..go to www.nps.gov/tica, or follow on Facebook at www.facebook.com/timpanogoscavenps . Yesterday I met up with Will my "student". He is my son Shane's girlfriends son! He is 13 and a super laid back sweet kid. I hadn't felt well for a few weeks so I had not seen him for 2 weeks. I have been remiss as a teacher as I have no "plan". So we have just been playing. While we play I have talked about contrasting colors, warm and cool colors, some perspective..just whatever comes up. We have looked at other artists and so a bit of art history. Yesterday as usual I had no idea what we should do...so I showed him some of the things I have done. We decided to "marble" paper by dropping oil paint in a pan of water and printing paper. That was messy and fun and we had a great time doing that. So then we decided to walk a block and a half away to a new mural painted by The Univ. of Utah murals class. (I took this class and it was hard work but very cool). The mural is on a long low wall and has several famous paintings on it with the main characters missing. Then footprints are placed on the cement in front of the wall and you "Step Into Art"!

We are going to look these paintings up in my art books next week so he can see the real deal...fun . I had started 2 24"x24" paintings a week ago. They are what I am calling happy abstracts. Lots of drips and water, done with acrylics, sprays too. I left them to dry and now I am at a loss as to what to do with them! I took some wet pics last week with my phone so I will post them separately since I don't know if I can post them from the phone with this post!

Did you see the eclipse? I was privileged enough to live where we got to see an almost full ring of fire. The actual "sweet spot" was a few hundred miles south of where I live. We lost our Miss E. Claire kitty last night. She was over 20 yrs. old and had been suffering from dementia..but was eating and basically doing ok until a few days ago. Poor old thing.

we are down to 3 in house kitties. But an abundance of outside ferals!!! I took the time to do "portrait photos" of my few iris

have a nice day.

Yesterday I did a lot of errands and housework. Then I took my art stuff out to the front yard table and did this little painting/drawing. My husband doesn't like it..but I do because I finally felt like doing something, no matter how bad it turned out to be!

then I decided to play around some more..this is an old etching I did several years ago and I decided to add watercolor and pastel.

and I don't have a lot of Iris blooming but this salmon colored one is pretty. (look for the sheep!)

Hi..this is a bit for Carol. My son's girlfriend has a 13 yr. old son who needed some art lessons. So he comes to my studio one day a week and we play! First we made these background papers with fluid acrylics, wax paper and plastic wrap. Then we decided to go a block away from my studio and draw the South Salt Lake water tower. After a bit of sketching..we decided to choose a background paper and go for it! Voila...this is my result. The boy's result got posted on Facebook..which you can see if you friend me at Kay E Hale. I was happy with this version and have since beefed up the bottom sketch of the weird little building at the bottom of the tower. I did take it to the ISA meeting where it could be peer critiqued. A new thing they are doing. I got 2 critiques and they were good. Although I purposefully did not put in every detail of the water tower and surrounding trees and buildings. One peer thought it should have more detail. Another felt the background colors competed with the drawing. I am a firm believer in letting the viewer "finish " the drawing or painting themselves...but I have discovered my penchant for bright color has muddled the focal points in many of my paintings. Not that I will stop doing paintings with bright colors..but maybe being more conscious of contrast and shadows ought to help. I do get carried away with what the colors are doing! That said I am pretty satisfied with this drawing and will post the updated one as soon as I take a picture of it. In the meantime I have done no art. I really have wanted to but I have been feeling really unwell lately and joint pain and depression have "dogged" me for several months. I finally broke down and found a new Dr. (one block away from my house!) and visited with him yesterday. Blood was let and Monday will reveal what issues I might be contending with. Years ago I had gastric bypass for weight loss. I would never recommend this procedure to anyone unless they were so morbidly obese that they could not move. Because if you can move..you can lose weight. But I believe I was in the throes of a major depression and instead of looking into that, I was told I could get this surgery and all would be well. You would think that I could have seen through this claim but in a dark depression I was grasping at anything and felt if I could lose the weight I would feel better. Actually I did lose 100 lbs. and looked terrible and felt even worse. Since I could no longer absorb nutrients the same way I became anemic. I also had little or no support from the staff at the medical center who was making gazzillions touting this as a weight loss miracle. Once treated for the anemia..I began to feel better but my skin was something else!! Losing 100 lbs. means your skin has no where to go!!! So to counteract the turkey neck and other skin issues..I decided to eat things I should not. I was more active though and had a better body image but gastric bypass does not work if you do not change your whole life. And have money for plastic surgery afterwards! Over the years (20+) I have learned more and have gained back much of what I lost and lost it again a few more times. The losing of weight is easy if you decide to do it..the keeping it off is harder. Now that I am older I have come to some amazing revelations. The biggest is that I no longer focus on weight loss. I focus on being active, eating properly and feeling good. That can be easy if my depression is under control. But if it isn't then I struggle. So back to the Dr. visit. Once he found out about the bypass surgery from over 20 yrs. ago..he is suspecting anemia again and that I might be deficient in several areas of vitamins and minerals. He does not suspect diabetes..since gastric bypass usually eliminates the threat and has even "cured" it in patients who submitted to the bypass surgery for weight loss. Something about the rerouting of the digestive system. Then we discussed that I will be on my anti-depressant for ever and to quit being stubborn about it and just take it. Since I have no side effects..well yes I went and refilled the prescription and that should help! So with a proverbial kick in the pants to get moving again..I seriously felt better after getting home again! Even without knowing what is physically wrong..I am not too worried. I am feeling hopeful. I also have decided that the garden is not happening this year. it was simply the one bit too much for all my plans and was making me worried since I could not get the energy up to do it. The plants I have as seedlings will get planted probably in the small gardens out front as soon as they get weeded and trimmed and I will plan to get gardens ready in the fall. Funny how relieved this decision makes me. And I can go to farmers markets and get fresh produce. If this is "too much information" for most of you I apologize..just look at it as a cautionary tale of learning to care for yourself and knowing what you can and cannot do. There is no shame in having limits to your plans as long as you are happy and healthy. Have a great weekend

Mother's Day Cards I did yesterday.

yesterday I went to the Utah Valley Art Show to see who and what had won prizes. Most of the winners didn't bother to show up! I do know they let you know by phone if you are being awarded something. It was part of an artwalk that I did not go on. There were plenty of interesting although amateurish paintings and drawings..and I have included myself in there! All who entered got in. I never look at this venue as a place to sell. It is in the Health and Justice building so people from all walks of life are there for various reasons and the art is something they see on their way to getting food stamps, dealing with health issues etc. So it is truly art for the people! I doubt any actual art buyers, curator types, gallery owners go to see the art..but it is a fun little show. All the prizes are money with a certificate and ribbon. Even the honorable mentions get $20.00! I did not get any this time. But that is fine. I won 3rd place 2 years ago. There were some nice encaustics, and an artist I like by Rebecca Willard. She does highly textured acrylic landscapes in whimsical colors and shapes. Ran into a young man who I knew from the University. He worked only in graphite doing portraits from photos. Although he is very skilled I think he felt out of place and soon was gone without a word. He was there with his wife/girlfriend? and he had a table set up to promote his art. he had 2 pieces in the show and wanted $4000.00 each for the drawings. He as I said is skilled and seems to have gotten a bit more creative in his compositions..and he is making a living apparently!!! This does speak to the community in general here in this county. Very religious, family oriented, Republican, insular. They love paintings of white Jesus, Joseph Smith and LDS temples. Young Anthony's work fits with what they love. Some days I wish I could command real $$ for my paintings but I cannot do the type of art that sells here..well..will not do. My mantra is "I do what I want to do" and it probably keeps me from breaking through the barriers!! The idea I came away with was a punch card featuring photos of details of some art from the venues participating in the art walk. You find the paintings, get your card punched and win an IPAD! I was thinking this could be a fun thing for our open studios. Today it is cold and windy and I plan on painting some small "Mother's Day" cards for my Mom and sister. I looked at the store yesterday and really felt like I could do better..or at least it will be original!!! I will post photos of these when I get them done! In the meantime you can see young Anthony's work at www.woolffineart.com and and Rebecca Willard's art on Facebook.(Becky Willard)

Have a great day!!!