Down Home Days

So you cats are about to get a glimpse into a small town USA phenomena called Down Home Days !!!! This is a little celebration that has been going on in this one horse town for as long as I can remember. It used to be a relatively small event with one stage hosting cloggers, southern rock bands and beauty pageant contestants fighting for the grand title of Little Miss Chickamauga. However the most popular site of the event was a parking lot with one lonely junker car, I remember it being an El Camino, where you could pay one dollar to bash it to bits with a sledge hammer....

But now.... it has grown into quite the thing to do... the whole Chicky population seems to come out to enjoy an assortment of activities that include going down big inflatable slides, riding mechanical bulls, getting their hair teased and spray painted into wild shapes, eating BBQ and fried oreos and taking in a wide assortment of music or perhaps even purchase a handmade doll or quilt.

I know it all seems funny, but I love living in a town where you can see kids riding down the street on 4 wheelers, vendors dancing together outside their videalia onion tents and people carrying anything from dogs, kids or snakes in their arms... it is so unexpected... so unpretentous... it just is what it is and there is no where else like this town I know.

Filming Time

Well, things have been so nutters around here that I haven't had a chance yet to give you cats a heads up about all the action taking place in and around little Chicky mauga... my good good friend, John is shooting his short film right here in town this week!!!

I probably shouldn't say too much about the film itself... I know how much Joshers hates it when I give any sort of description or explanation about his films (and lets face it... I am a wordy girl... and most of the time I end up just coming right out and tellin ya what the whole thing is about anyway - such a bad flaw for an artist to have... I should give the audience a little bit more credit and allow them to make up their own minds, righto..... blah)

Any freagin way... It has been nice to be back watching such a collaborative creative process unfold before my eyes... I love film and am ever impressed with the artistic give and take that happens on set.
It is just such a different kind of creativity than what I find prevading in the fine art community... which let's face it, is totally centered on the idolatry of the individual... you know... so introspective... such an emphasis on the names at the bottom of the canvas and the artist and his or her process rather than the actual work... sorry... don't mean to sound snooty... I just think the fine art community could learn a few things from our colleagues over in the films, ya know...

All that blathering to say... watching my husband and an old friend working together on such a creative level is really so cool. I'm so happy that my sweet husband is back on that scene again... and I know he is pretty excited about it too (he is the key grip guy on set...)!!
It is a lot of hard work and we all have been doing very unglamorous tasks to make this thing come together, but it's been a lot of fun too... I find myself doing anything from set dressing to running out to get live worms and signs... I love this weird behind the scenes stuff... Such a fun job!

I'll post some more pics of the shoots lata... have fun kids!

Play Play and more Play

So little Laughfer has reached a place in her little life where she just does not want to be in the house... Period! It is all about playtime and go go go and on to the new! No more exploring the same ol' toys again and again... nope... we are done with that.... So needless to say, I have been a litttle monkey girl entertainer and chaffeur for a 15 month old. Heh...

Here are some snippets of our past few days... at the indoor boo boo proof play ground and SWIMMING... yes, as of 2 days ago we are swimming! Lavender was fearless, guys... Fearless... she just hopped right in that baby pool and splashed and stomped and rolled around to her little hearts content... she was Very proud of herself... and it was too cute!

Ratt a Tat Tat...Here is an Alley Cat

These little square collage pieces have been occupying my spare moments the past few days. This one is a gift for an old friend.... Hope ya like it John!

Anyways... I like the little alley cat slinking around the city... don't cats just make you want to slink or saunter around???

The Big 30!

Yes, Yes... Jen has now officially entered the 30 year old age group! I had a big whopper of a birthday yesterday and I must say it was a blast, despite the big number... thanks to my lovely husband, family, and soooo many good friends!

My big birfday went a little somethin like this...
sleepy jen wakes to an eager joshie & lavender clutching a cutely wrapped present... the box reveals a picture of pine cones in a basket (that looks suspiciously like the one in our den)... I go to the pine cone basket and there is a pic of our Hemingway books, where I find another picture that leads to another sneaky, unexpected place and so on until..... .... .... drrrrrrrrruuuuuuuuuuuuu (that is a drum roll) I find my real present... which is a brand new tinnnie tiny little cannon digital camera just for me !!!!!! It is so lovely and tiny that they call it an elph... so cute, huh.... and EXACTLY what I wished for!!!!

I kept finding myself missing out on many photo worthy Lavender outings b/c I have no room or extra arms to wield the giagantor camera with broken lens that we always use... you mommies out there know what I'm talking about!!!! We need technology that we can operate with one hand.... yes?!

Anyways... all throughout the day I had these little reminders of my little celebration and how much those around me love me too. Joshers made a lovely breakfast for me... which was very tasty... and we also had a slammin party out here at the house... hotdogs... bonfires... beer... smores... old friends... newer friends... cool rubber stamp presents... and balloons too. Oh ya... I also received a incredibly swanky pair of Confederate colored flip flops that say REBEL across the bottoms... they make me feel WILD... just wild I tell you!!!! Watch out you don't know what I'll do next! I am the super duper 3 0 celebrating, rebel yelling, wild one...... WWWWOOOOO HOOOOO!

A New Work

Here is the latest piece for my new portrait series... it is entitled Mt. 5:6 and it is a portrait of JR, my friend and the pastor of ERPC.

I feel a bit mixed about this one... the colors and composition seemed to turn out ok, but the pencil drawing could be better... I liked the piece this afternoon for awhile... now I think it should have been better... but this is always how I feel when I reach the end of a work. I guess that's why I just don't get it when artists want to keep the art and "have trouble letting it go." I just don't get it... I would prefer that each piece I finished flew off to another country about an hour after its completion.

Anyways, here it is... another one down... more to come.

And for Kate and Cat... the tip about the Acrylic Gloss Medium rocked... you saved my bum and the many hours I put into this piece. Thanks, girls!

Guess What?!!!!

Yep, Yep... It's true!!! The Kring family is now a family of four... the newest addition is very small though!

It appears that I am only 6 weeks and 6 days the Preger, but we just couldn't keep our little mouthes shut any longer... How do people keep such news a secret??? I dunno... but it looks like November 19th is the big day for this little bunny.

All bets are off as to the sex of the babe... of course everyone has already begun to claim that this will be another wittle girl... everyone being my mom, amelia, lavender, leah and others too!!! He he ... we just don't care... a new little baby will be ours soon and we are so very pleased as little peaches!!!

What a magical and exciting time it is to be me! I am always so very impressed to read about the development of little babies in their mamas... how impressive the human body is... what amazing feats are taking place in little ol' me!!!! Here is a snippet of what out little bit is doing in there....

The first heartbeats have begun! The baby is now an embryo and is about 1/17 of an inch long. Growth is very rapid this week. The umbilical cord develops. The eyes and ears begin to form as well as an opening for the mouth. The heart has begun to pump blood and most of the other organs are well under construction. Buds form on the body that will become the arms and legs. Exciting week!

How thankful we are that God continues to bless this little family!

Gardening with the Girl

Here is my cute patootie in the garden!
We planted violas and repotted a peace lily and some succulent plants.
The whole gardening experience was a BIG hit with little Lavender... she had such a blast throwing and eating dirt, inspecting the beautiful flower petals and playing with gardening tools like mama.
What a great helper!!!


Let no one think that real gardening is a bucolic and meditative occupation. It is an insatiable passion, like everything else to which a man gives his heart. ~Karel Čapek, The Gardener's Year

Silly about Spring & my new Wreath!!!

Spring has definitely sprung and I can't seem to make myself stay inside for too long. Lavender and I find just about any reason to be out in the lovely lovely, not too hot yet weather.....we pull weeds, inspect the pea gravel, wash the car (to no avail... pollen everywhere!) and take many many walks.

I am discovering that this little one is quite like her mama when it comes to the outdoors... she begs to go outside, reaching for the door and when she gets out there I catch her kissing our pretty red bud tree and giving it a big hug... What a tree hugger! ha

Anyway... all these lovely days inspire me... to plant flowers (I know the violas won't last too long, but hey... so pretty!), to make a new foam flower wreath for the door, to not pull the dandelion "weed" that is growing in my rose bush, and to enjoy the gentle "spring snow" that falls from the Bradford pear trees as the wind blows. Walking in these little white petals makes me feel like a garden nymph!

And Spring arose on the garden fair,
Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;
And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast
rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.
~Percy Bysshe Shelley, "The Sensitive Plant"

At Long Last

So here i am... finally. Things seemed to get all busied up in no time around here. Joshers and I have been busy celebrating the birth of my bro's newest little girl, Naya Faith!!!! So exciting! She is just really tiny and has this wonderful fuzzy full head of black hair!!! I think she may just be the cutest newborn to ever cross my sight.... so precious.... so lovely. I think we forget just how tiny and fragile these little angels are when they first arrive.
Anyways... I was so excited about the wittle one that I made her a little something to brighten the walls of her pretty little room. The triptych collages with the little girls here are for my new niece. They are kinda in the same stream as the "children's art" that I have done in the recent past (like the 2 pieces that hang in Lavender's room... for those of ya'll who have been to my house!).

This second work is a portrait that I did of my sweet sweet husband... the guy who makes me the best version of myself.
It is the first of a series I have been referring to as "A righteous man." The piece is kind of a tribute to the heart of my husband and an acknowledgment of James 5:16.
I plan on making several more of portraits to accompany this one. But, I will definitely make some different technical choices... like the choice of paper for the portrait. I had loved loved loved this brown packaging paper that Josh's portrait was created on, but the beeswax really penetrated the paper and made it so dark that the image is hard to detect... I was also very disappointed to discover that the beeswax also diluted to pencil itself on the drawing... it made the wax a bit grey... which I didn't mind, except that the drawing just got more and more faint... ugh ugh ugh! I was so pissed... oh well. Live and learn, right???

Anyways... all this to say.... for the first time in a while I am really really excited about the art that's happenin in my studio. This portrait was one of those landmark pieces for me.
I'll keep ya posted!!!

The Big 1st B-Day!!!

Since little Laughfer's Birthday falls on Wednesday, we decided at the very last minute to do a little (very little) Birthday party this weekend. We had planned on having a joint b-day celebration with little Juden over at the Green's, but Joshers was sicky sick and poor Lindy is just so about to go into labor that we changed the plans last minute.

But I have to say I think it came together just fine. We had a really great time and little Lavender was really really exuberant about it all.

I decorated with a dog theme, since our girl just can't seem to get enough of dogs right now. And I have to say I didn't think she would really get that into it all, but I thought she was about to explode with excitement several times. She would start rocking and saying "DAWG DAWG DAWG!" So Cute!!!!!!!!!!!!
I made her a dog cake all her own to destroy (mission accomplished), little dog & dog bone cookies, and another dog cake for the rest of us. She was so giggly and excited and all that hard work was just soo worth it.

We love this wonderful little girl the Lord had blessed us with... She suprises me everyday with her joyful heart and her sense of adventure. I am ever so happy to be her mommy and to see the new things she's doing and the unique little person she is becoming.

Oh... thanks for all the lovely presents guys... so nice!!! Lavender is fiercely playing with all the dogs she received!!! And she really likes to look at all the cards that came with her presents... What a funny one!

Here are some pics of the event... the cake, the messy kid, the labors of love.

Yet another film

So as a follow up to an Inconvenient Truth, Joshers and I decided to view 'Who Killed the Electric Car' this weekend.

It is so nice to view a documentary and not be left with the feeling of being smacked in the face with a barrage of heavy handed jargon... ya know.

This flick does a really great job of presenting the facts for what they are while intertwining the life experiences of some really charming characters. This film allows the viewer to explore environmental issues and yet you still truly enjoy the story of the EV1 (the first electric car in development for consumer consumption).

This flick is informative and pro active without the heavy hand of an overly politicized director (did someone say Micheal Moore???)

If you watch this flick be prepared to leave with the following:
Information
More awareness of the ever growing monster of Greed
Hopefulness for the future and alternative energy technologies
perhaps a desire to actually do something... eh eh eh

If you're interested in more info about electric cars check this out:
http://www.pluginamerica.com

very Inconvenient

So this was one of the films we watched over the weekend.

I have to say that if you haven't seen this one yet, you might really want to check it out. I know the subject matter in this film is sensitive for a lot of people, however I think that their is a lot of well documented information that is pretty crucial to our understanding of the events of the past couple of years...

And yes, yes, I will warn you that the film is littered with propaganda and partisan politics... however, I think that the film is still successful in conveying its overall point - that global warming is real and that our environment is responding catastrophically to our over consumption.

Perhaps this film is particularly relevant to me since Joshers and I had a front row view of the onslaught of the hurricanes that wailed on Florida in 2004 and 2005.... or perhaps it is b.c I always feel an incredible amount of guilt for not assisting with the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in some way, shape or form...especially after witnessing FEMA's lack of basic managerial coordination skills when cleaning up in Florida. I could tell you loads of hilarious and absurd stories about Josh's experience working with FEMA and my own in coordinating temp workers to work with FEMA... but I save those for bonfire chats.

yep. i guess that's all folks!

Laughfer

so here is the cutest girl in the world (aka Laughfer according to Juden).

i wanted to share these pics so you cats could see how much she's starting to look like a kid (the babyness seems to evaporate sometimes)... and b.c. i think the light on her little eggy face is just beautiful. the whole time i was snapping away she was proclaiming"LIGHT LIGHT LIGHT!" I love that...



and since the "cutest girl in the world" barely slept at all last night, i am going to take a napsy wapsy.

more lata kids.

Cogs a turnin'

I'm sitting here watching a tiny little Ladybug trapped in a glass of water on my desk...(yes, i have this very annoying habit of leaving half full glasses of water over every square inch of our house) This poor little ladybug is working with feverish persistence to break out of the glass house he had gotten himself into...

This is a metaphor for my creative self... stuck in a glass house.

It seems like ever since the holidays have past and there are no more presents to make all the surprises have been revealed, there is just space left. The New Year has come and gone and I have art in only one gallery and one retail space. With no new shows coming up that seem to be something special, interesting or inspiring and with the 4 Bridge Art Fest not panning out I seem to be left with time... I feel a change in my work a-brewin'... the cogs are turning and ideas are incubating. I feel the need to rush them into fruition and to let them simmer at the same time. But I guess ideas are better when they have time to marinate and blossom.


Change is coming... I'll keep you posted.

and i did rescue the bug!

Longwood Gardens: Part 2

So here are more glimpses into our Longwood Garden journey... I absolutely adore these pics! And let me tell ya, this is only a mere smidgeon of the plethra of pics I took on our little outing. I am in love with long exposure shots. They are my new thang.

Longwood Gardens: Part 1

One last thing about our Philly trip... we went to this amazing place called Longwood Gardens. Apparently it is quite a popular spot around Christmas because the trees and landscaping are strung from trunk to peak with bazillions and bazillions of tiny little Christmas lights of all shapes and colors.... Amazing! I simply thought we were headed to a little park with some twinkly lights and couldn't imagine why in the world there was such stand still traffic leading into a little ol' parky... but then... we arrived to see this...........................................(please fasten your seat belts for a very long journey into a sacred wonderland)......................................................................................

2 sweet girls

i just had to show yous two of my favorite pics of two of my favoritest girls... lyla and fern.

what blue blue eyes...

so sweet!

luv um!

stay tuned for more big face pictures a la jen!!!!!!!!!!!