Between complicated and difficult

My Notebook (thanks, Doug).

"There's a big difference between complicated and difficult"

I wrote this in my notebook at a gallery talk by painter Norman Lundin shortly before the pandemic hit -- it was his response to a comment that his paintings seem simple (which they do -- until you look closely.)

This is the first tabletop photograph I've taken in a VERY long time.

This photograph "Kathy's Piano" is the one I have in the annual 10x10x10 show sponsored by Tieton Arts and Humanities. "10x10x10" (inches) is the maximum size for any work in the show. This show, open to all mediums, is in a cavernous repurposed fruit warehouse and mine is the only silver print of the 170 works in the show. We went over to Tieton for the opening preview party.

The village of Tieton (population about 2000) is on the plateau northwest of Yakima by 25 miles or so. A decade or so ago the population was about 600 and the town was dying after the boxing of fruit from the surrounding orchards moved to Yakima leaving several large, air-conditioned warehouses vacant. A high-end publisher of art catalogs and books, Marquand Editions, moved into one of the buildings and it became "The Warehouse" hosting not only their business but several other craft-heavy art studios. This in turn spiraled into Tieton Arts and Humanities that now sponsors a wide variety of events and workshops.

One of the workshops in the Warehouse does mosaics. The village is dotted with beautiful mosaics including reproductions of apple box labels like this one (with zebra striped shadows from the arbor above it). Orcharding is still a major issue in Tieton and there are several huge storage warehouses there in which, as I understand it, the apples are kept until they are moved to Yakima to be boxed for wholesale. The wooden field boxes in which apples come in from the orchards are stacked and ready for the upcoming harvest.

The saga of the ill-fated ON READING show at the Edmonds Art Commission Gallery.

The Edmonds Art Commission hosts an annual writers' conference each October. Prints from my ON READING project were scheduled to show in their gallery space in the library in 2020 -- oops, pandemic canceled the conference and the show was postponed until 2021 -- oops, the library still wasn't open because of pandemic restrictions, the conference was virtual, and the show was postponed until 2022 -- oops, a water pipe in the library burst causing major damage and it is closed for repair until further notice.

We will probably get to hang the show in 2023 (depending on how the library repairs shake out) but I did prepare a 5 minute slide show of what it will look like if it ever hits the walls.

https://tinyurl.com/onreadingedmonds