poetry reading in the Great Room

DSCN3718
Originally uploaded by Art Youngstown Gallery

poetry reading in the Great Room, Youngstown, Ohio

Fox River Papermill Buttons

DLudwig-FoxRiverPaperMillBu
Originally uploaded by Art Youngstown Gallery

Art Youngstown posted all the artwork from The Great Room Show. Click to see all

a great big empty space

Bill Hazlett has very nice memoriam for Rick Pirko (who passed away quietly Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2008) http://billhazlett.blogspot.com/2008/10/thanks-rick.html Rick will be greatly missed. I have started a place for people to post their stories and memories here:

http://thanksrick.blogspot.com/

Here are just 4 of Rick's incredible photos: photo credit: Rick Pirko
photo credit: Rick Pirko
photo credit: Rick Pirko
photo credit:Rick Pirko

Now I am going to go cut up and prepare to dry the mountain of superhot hot peppers that Rick grew in his huge garden and gave me -- just because he knew I loved firey things.

UPDATE: And here they were in all their hot glowing glory:

summer meadow

the meadow is starting its summer stream of blooms...: penstemone, orange hawkweed and ox-eyed daisy

in the studio

working on art in Franny the Bunny Slayer's lair

violets on a mountaintop

furry violets in Joseph Allen Skinner State Park, on Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts

Kestrel on the line, kestrel lifeless on the hard rock highway, kestrel in the sky, Canada goose in a still pond,
no leaves only reddish buds, crumbly, swollen streams and rivers, skeins of goose bodies dot the leaden greys,
sole redwinged black bird on every tiny tree top, nuthatch hops, tufted mouse tits in the hemlocks, jayblues swoop and jump, chickadees, crows everywhere, new trailing arbutus leaves but no buds
Picking out 2 fields edged with strong pine scarfs, wrapping and clutching -- what is the pine hold? is it because the first visions came then and it was a time of hope ("Lordy mercy if there comes a time...')
The Desire for Wood.

My brave forsythia looks so promising; found 2 bird nests in the neighbors ancient forsythia hedge.
Gravel snow and river, snow on the high hills, Caution water not drinkable signs posted at Slocum springs,
SawMill burger sign spins, at the Harley shop in the forest "Support the Troops, End the War" ("Sally go round the roses, the roses, they can't hurt you") Why doesnt Obama or Hillary talk about class unequalities instead of focusing on the colour of our skins? Mike Moore sure talks about the income gap but does not call it class; I'm not sure about Nader although he does talk about eco inequality,
Listening to the computerized weather voice for part of an hour, coffee-trucks: truck-coffees. Fluff of a dead skunk across from the Catholic church on the hill, parishioner steps into the road for the Good Friday service and steps back out of the way of the incoming car, (squeal of the stove door heralds warmth of wood, the firery furnace), writer strings together spring, resurrection and vampires' undead-ness, and 2 shows deal with techincal descriptions of death by crucifixtion -- what's the fixation? I like my hotsauce closet very much flaming endorphines of the state, on the sidewalk in the rain a wide wide Bandaid wet but never wide enough to cover all the valleys and wooded hills, with snow, ice and discovery.
Another copper thief starts a fire, it's cold, then it's warm who's got the cat?

late talk with the northern man out of his watershed, strung out on sere edges, the barren, the stark, slashing, and burning up with art, whirly-gigging a werld (whirled) (world) dance, poring over words on a page in the long quiet

bring this

On the red spool table bring:
Dylan Thomas book
Ken Rexroth paper poetry stapled two
book Beat Reader, 2 guys on the cover
envelope rejection slip
tan corduroy hanging in closet patches on elbows
2 shoes

snow for to ski

X-country skiing in the McDonald woods mud trails, snow was deep and a red-tailed hawk overhead.

winter's hard slumber

Tree. Rock. Cold. Cat. Wood. Fire.
That sums up the past 3 months of winter. Every night we look at the neatly-made bed as a place to go and drink a cup of sleep -- it is there, we can see it, the unshaped deep dark softness -- but every late early am it isn't there, it all goes sifting through my fingers, sleep

Here is a string from the comics page one day:
"here ya go Bently, ok ok Johnny what is it, when our coffee is all gone, what is it andy what have you found, a bowl of corn flakes and a bottle of beer, but something is mighty fishy with this heist, betrayed by tuna, my whole world is upside-down, sigh weeks of fretting over Ben all for nothing, it's vital I study the geyser of steam at once, I wonder if this dress needs washing, Betty and I are going shopping for clothes! you can join us!"

syncro I used to own

I used to own this 1991 Volkswagen Vanagon Syncro Minivan!
view more photos here

223,426 miles

• I was the original owner (and the legendary "little ol lady", having babied it and rarely took it over 61 mph!) I never had reason to take it "off-roading" -- except for the dirt roads that can be seen in some of the photos. Often went on state forest dirt roads for TrailCares (hiking trail maintenance).
• 4 + L speed Manual transmission, Baulk-synchronized with additional compound Low-speed traction gear
• water-cooled gasoline engine, 2.1 L fuel-injected engine, digifant engine management system
• Syncro 4-wheel-drive, ("all wheel drive"), manually-operated locking rear differential (what is this?)
• 14-inch steel wheels,
• high ground clearance, skidplates underneath
• Folding rear bench seat/bed combination *,
• 2 rear-facing removable seats **,
grey cloth interior, rear compartment heater, 18.5 gallon fuel tank.
spent hundreds of nights outdoors in the van just parked in the driveway!
** Seats and bed are easy to fold up & down and/or take in or out-- see photos...
• Power rack & pinion steering, power front disc/rear drum brakes, independent front suspension, coil springs & telescopic shock absorbers, front & rear, double-jointed drive shafts

.

screen door

Blue ribbony day-o-way was yesterday for up the storm windows on the storm doors of the storm home we did put (for the first time in 2 years!). It was only beacause we were in need of screenage and thus kilt two birds with one cat... Little Miss Kitty (a.k.a. Frances Jr. Laptop) is not allowed to climb anything including stairs for 2 weeks so we blocked the stairs and put up the 2 storm door glasses.

cold cardinals comments

2 cardinals in the back pines in the morning, bright red blobs. So Very cold; made 2 meals of soup on the woodstove today.

I sure wish this blogger had a blog to link to but in lieu of that here are their thought-provoking commentary on society and the arts: read human stain's 2 comments here:
http://youngstownart.blogspot.com/2008/01/graffiti-pics-from-bears-den.html