“Love Seat”

“Toilet”

“Jon Blogging”

“Through the Bathroom Door”

When I was 16 years old, I was hanging out with my sister and a couple of friends one night, we had a few beers and pierced my ear. We used ice, a ear piercing earring, and a TV Guide. After we got the first one done I decided it was enough. Anyway, I liked having only one earring, at the time it was unusual and I felt it set me apart from everyone else. People would ask me why I had only one ear pierced and I always had a hard time explaining it, but to me it just felt right. Lately I’ve been thinking I’d like to be able to wear a pair of earrings. (“Change of Life,” Sue at the front desk of the Inn said) A long dangling earring from each ear. So today Jon and I went to Brattleboro and walked past SilverMoon Adornments, an eclectic shop that had and “Ear Piercing” sign in the window.

Patti Newton the store owner was from Lynbrook, Long Island the town next to Valley Stream, where I grew up. We made an immediate connection. She balanced out my ears by placing the new hole on my right ear just below the old one, ( Which was always a little high, to be expected from a bunch of drunken teenagers). Then I bought an earring for Jon who has 2 holes in his ear from long ago, one still open.

Patti’s 13 year old daughter, Jade, had cards for sale. I fell in love with these two. They look like those drawings from the 70′s of “pretty women” but are really photos of glass fairy figurines under a beaded lamp. Patti said Jade was an artist and a writer, that her mother knew it and said it made me smile.

Today was my last day at my part time job. Nervous and excited at the same time. We’re spending a few days in Vermont, celebrating the Winter and New Year and the changes to come. This is the sitting room of the Inn after a couple of glasses of wine and a few games of chess.

Rita walks through a field of burdock and discovers she is covered in dried burdock seeds. She realizes the only way to get rid of them, as time consuming as it is, is to pull them off of her one at a time. She walks out of the field dropping them behind her as she goes.

THE COW BARN’S FROSTED WINDOW PANES

soft in the night he must have come

to paint the panes one by one

the portraits of feathers,rivers and valleys.

to touch and carve with such graceful skill

surely an artist perched on the sill.
“Jack Frost was here,” my father said.

“See what he has done.

taking his knife he captured some

cold scrapings from the masterwork.

his mark is harsh and deeply drawn

just an egg shaped window

unmasking blush of early morn.

Mary Kellogg 2006

I was sitting inside the house all warm and sleepy when I got the urge to post a Christmas photo of the lights in the window of the studio barn. I threw on my coat and went outside and snapped a few of photos one after another. When I looked back at them, only one had this strange mist hanging over the barn. Spooked, I ran back into the house. Once inside, I told Jon I scared myself and showed him the photos looking for an explanation. There was no mist or wind, “maybe it’s your breath” he said.

I like that idea, that means I am in the picture too.

So here’s to  the mysteries in life.  Be warm and Happy Holiday.

I’m still working on the sketches for Rita and her power animal. My drawing teacher in art school said if you want to learn how to draw anything, get a big roll of brown paper and draw it a hundred times. So that’s what I’m doing, 100 power animals and 100 Rita’s or until I get it right.

Rita tossed her apron of silence and is howling at the moon. She’s conjuring up her power animal, a part of herself she didn’t know existed.

It’s the longest night of the year, and the sun didn’t show up during the day. It’s cold and Freida spent her day in the studio with me never leaving her bed by the wood stove. Sometimes I make her move over and sit next to her in front of the fire to meditate. Every once in a while she’ll put her head on my knee. Mostly she just sits quietly until I’m done and when I leave she stretches out again.

I made this potholder really quick at the end of the night. It came so easily and I think the ease and enjoyment shows.

Did a phone interview with Melinda Moses of Spin It Up today. She found my blog online and does marketing for artists along with a lot of other things. It was more of a conversation than traditional interview, which works great for me. We had a good time and I’m looking forward to seeing what becomes of it.