HAPPY BIRTHDAY JON!

Happy Valentine's Day

I returned from a week of business travel Friday afternoon to a loving husband full of surprises. What a warm, welcome reception--a dozen roses and the surprise UPS delivery of a variation on a Claddagh ring, which I'll wear on my right hand with the heart pointing towards me ("someone has captured my heart").

It's still winter here, with temperatures dipping down to 19 degrees while I was gone last week. This means more time indoors, anxiously anticipating Spring. We spent the rest of the weekend preparing meals for each other, reading, learning, hiking among the volcanoes on Albuquerque's West Side, getting organized for the year ahead with our new desktop year planner, and excitedly choosing seeds from catalogs for spring planting: eggplants, peppers, squash, corn, onions, potatoes, you name it.

A simple, but fulfilling weekend. We hope you all experienced the same! Happy Valentine's and President's Days.

Spring Projects

The weather is warming up here in New Mexico, and while storms are approaching next week, it's a nice preview into what's in store over the next few months. We have so much to do to prepare for springtime:

- Finish our indoor projects: American clay on the walls of our common living areas, replacing baseboards, and finishing a painting or two to hang on our new walls!

- Set up our guest house as my new art studio: we haven't used it since we moved here over a year ago, and the garage was completely uninspiring. The house has heat and a swamp cooler, so it will be more comfortable for artistic endeavors. Plus, there's a bathroom and a kitchenette where I can clean my brushes, etc.

- Set up gutters and water tanks for rain catchment on our detached garage and the house

- Choose vegetable and herb seeds for our new garden area in the back (4x the size we planted last year--we're growing, literally!)

- Read up on keeping chickens (for next spring--not this spring) so we can begin converting part of our horse barn into a roost

- Read up on preserving and canning vegetables so we know what to do with the huge harvest we'll likely have this summer and fall

I planted bulbs in December and can't wait to see them peek through in about a month. Apparently, it's the gardener's secret: sprouting spring bulbs give you some gratification while you wait for warmer weather to grow the rest of your stuff. I like this idea, and can't wait to see the tulips, daffodils, crocuses, and hyacinths peeping out to greet us.

That's all for now, folks. Until next time....

Artistic Release: Monotypes Class

The past two weekends, I've (Val) been in a monotypes class at New Grounds Print Workshop & Gallery in Albuquerque with my brother, Brad. Since it's been a bit of a tough few months for both of us, it was nice to get our minds off things in a 9-5 Sa/Su art class. After a couple of classes, Brad and I headed to the local Irish tavern, Two Fools, where Jonathan met us one night to hear about everything we'd learned in class. It was a great way to start off an otherwise grueling year.

Monotypes are, as the name suggests, one-of-a-kind prints. In the most basic terms, the artist paints an image onto a smooth plate called a matrix, then runs it through a press on a piece of paper to create the print. Traditionally, artists sketch something original onto the plate without referring to another image (so, they paint from their heads--like improv Jazz). They can either run several plates in layers to create a final composite image, or paint an image all at once and run it. We learned all kinds of different techniques in the class: working with textures, subtractive painting, working with different additives to the inks, a technique called Chine Colle (Chinese collage), etc.

One technique we learned was to run the plate a second time on a different sheet of paper to get a "ghost" image, which I found to be the most fun. After running a ghost, I painted layers onto several plates and ran them over the paper with the ghost on it for different effects. You can see an example of this with the two different versions of this "conch":


While I've dabbled in oil and acrylic painting since 2001, I had never heard of monotypes. The medium thrills me because it satisfies my need to finish things quickly and completely (although I don't feel these prints are finished because we didn't have much time in class). It's pretty expensive to continue with monotypes since it requires access to a printing press (I'd have to join New Grounds as a member to use their printing facilities) and the inks and tools are costly. But to repeat that free feeling, to be in that kind of FLOW, it may be worth it!


Here are my favorites. The Asian-inspired print on the right was a class favorite and, during our final critique, even won the gallery owner's vote among the top 3 prints of the class (although she said it still needed some work or even a do-over to really pack a punch, and I agree whole-heartedly):

Hopefully, more prints to come!

2009: A Rough Start

We're not accustomed to writing bad news on our blog, but these days it seems to be the prevailing news going 'round for us. Not only did we lose our buddy, Maximus, last Monday, but today my company Autodesk announced significant layoffs. My job is "secure", thank God, but I had to let someone go today, and like Clint Eastwood's Mr. Kowalski in Gran Torino says, "you don't want that on your soul."

I've lost some dear friends in this restructuring, friends who have shared with me political drama and angst and bizarre trips to places like Houston, Japan, Calgary, Plano, and Boston to do our work. We'll likely keep in touch to rehash old stories, but it's sad to have to move in different directions from here.

Needless to say, I'm draining a good bottle of Paso Robles Merlot right now, and hoping for the best on those 750 displaced Autodesk people who are swimming in the growing pool of U.S. unemployment. I'm also praying for our country and our global economy, that it rebounds from this dark, insidious corruption that is causing so many so much pain.

It's a tough day--a tough year--for the Ashes.

Maximus "Cat" Ashe: ca. 1993-2009

Known by so many people. Known by so many names. Please say a prayer for our dear Maximus. Our old friend is suffering from acute renal failure and will be euthanized today. He lived 16 wonderful years and we are definitely blessed to have known him. I won't get sappy, but this cat was the best there ever was...and the best there ever will be. See you later Maximus. Godspeed.

New Year's Resolutions - Welcome 2009!

This year's theme for us:

"Less and More"

- Less waste, more planning ahead

- Less sameness, more adventure

- Less naivete, more informed decisions

- Less sitting around thinking about it, more doing
- Less random television, more deliberate, edifying TV

Happy new year everyone!

V&J