Hidden Object, Contest, Prizes

Remember this mural?

mural at Sequoia Outdoor Sports in Three Rivers

Now, there will be a hidden object painted in this mural, visible Saturday, May 11, 2013.

No clues. You are on your own to find it.

It does not appear in this photograph. You need to go there in person.

I apologize to those of you who do not live near by. However, you can have a little fun any time you are in Three Rivers, checking the mural to find what is hidden and where it is.

The first three people who find the hidden object and go into Sequoia Outdoor Sports to tell Carolyn what and where it is will receive a prize!

  1. First finder: day pack with water bottle, hat, mug, beverage coolies, frisbee, map handkerchief and notecards featuring the mural
  2. Second finder: water bottle, hat or visor, mural notecards 
  3. Third finder: water bottle, hat or visor, mural notecards

These are good prizes, so we are making you work a little. You have to get yourself to Three Rivers and LOOK and go into the store. 41891 Sierra Drive, 561-1190, open 9-4:30.

Have fun! 😎

 

My Amazing Friends, Chapter Five

Back when I had a list of 80 people waiting to get into my drawing lessons (dang, what happened??), I met Nikki Crain. She eventually became one of my drawing students, and we became friends. Not only does she draw very well, she is a master weaver.

We have done many shows over many years together. (I used the word “many” too many times and it has ceased to look right to me. Isn’t that a weird phenomenon?)

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 We like to be neighbors on the stage at the Perfect Gift Boutique, where we often help one another set up, talk to customers, and pass time between customers.

We enjoy the Senior League Bazaar each year at the Three Rivers Memorial Building. Nikki weaves and educates customers about weaving, the Fibonacci sequence of numbers, how to wear a shawl or a scarf, fibers, soy candles, and just stays cheerful and helpful. That in itself is uh-MAY-zing.

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One time I handed one of my plates to Nikki and she made some wonderful placemats to match.

 The mini version of the placemats,  called “mug rugs”,  are coasters that don’t stick to the condensation on your cold glass and then drop off in your lap and startle you. They are beautiful and useful, a winning combination.

Nikki and I spent a morning together so that she could learn more about blogging. It was fun, of course, and now you can follow her beautiful work on her blog, Handweaving by Nikki.

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Nikki usually opens her Three Rivers studio on First Saturdays. You can see her looms, her fibers, her work and her amazing self!

Still Goofing Off Instead of Working

How does a California artist goof off and get away with calling it “business”? It’s all business. Everything is a source of inspiration. Everything is inspirational when one lives in a beautiful place.

Sorry to rub it in. Forgive me?

Thanks. Glad I got that cleared up between us.

A California artist gathers her two closest friends in the entire world, who immediately love each other. They invent a game of dropping a pebble off a bridge over the Kaweah River to see who can land a hole-in-one in the rocks below. The California Artist takes photos and wonders how anyone can be so blessed to have such Ah-sum and Uh-MAY-zing friends.

It becomes a business trip when your walk takes you to the lavender garden of an amazing friend where you view your painted saltillo tiles and help place them while your friends get a preview of a breathtaking yard.

Definitely a business trip. No miles to write off. But, my hard-working conscience is eased by the fact of visiting my tiles and helping to place them.

On Sunday, I really did take a day off. I got to meet Gizmo and Gonzo, a taggenberg (maybe that is what the goat girl said) and a nubian.

After meeting these little guys, I finally understand why we call nasty bike tire-popping thorns “goatheads”. They are shaped like the heads of goats. Duh.

Isn’t Three Rivers the most interesting place to live?

My Amazing Friends, Chapter Four

Tomorrow is the Three Rivers Hidden Gardens Tour. I think you can still get tickets here.

My favorite spot on the tour is my amazing friend Barbara’s lavender garden. (Your favorite might be Anjelica Huston’s place, which I’ve only seen from the road or in Architectural Digest a few years ago.)

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Barbara and I have been having great fun putting together some stepping stone/plant identifiers. Her daughter painted a couple of saltillo tiles with lavender for her a few years ago. Barbara loved them, and decided she wanted more. Her daughter now lives far far away, so she commissioned me to do these tiles.

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I think it may fall into the category of Odd Jobs.

But, this post is about my amazing friends, and Barbara is truly amazing her knowledge of plants, her ability to work tirelessly in her gardens, and her appreciation for beauty.

When people talk about lavender, they sometimes mention English, French and Spanish. If they are like me, they most likely don’t realize there are many many version under each of those categories.

This is Spanish. The flower tips look like butterflies.

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French lavender has leaves that are sort of toothy and serrated. I didn’t paint anything that detailed on the tiles.

 

I painted 24 tiles with different names, and another 11 with pictures and no names. They are all for sale for a price not determined at the time of this writing, and a percentage of the sales benefits the Three Rivers Union School Foundation. (Sorry, we don’t ship tiles!)

 

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My Amazing Friends, Chapter Two

This will be a long post. I hope you will savor it, instead of filing it in the category of TLDR*.

The series, My Amazing Friends, began this week with Bob. Let’s continue with Barbara, also of Three Rivers, a gardener extraordinaire.

oil painting by Jana Botkin

Barbara grows many plants, knows them all and is best known for her lavender. She is so passionate about her gardens (not just a yard, not just a garden, but GARDENS, plural!) that she works under floodlights at night in order to keep them in order.

wisteria oil painting by jana botkin

Two years ago her lovely grounds were featured in the very first Hidden Gardens Tour of Three Rivers, to benefit the Three Rivers Union School, which is always in peril of closing or being absorbed into the Woodlake School District.

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I had the honor and privilege of seeing the place on the official pre-tour, a return visit or two with my camera, and being present with my easel and paints during the official tour.

This year Barbara’s garden will be on the tour again. Tickets are still available, and you will get to see 4 places, including Angelica Huston’s place. Barbara’s will be the best on the tour, in my completely unbiased (harharhar) opinion!

Okay, getting too long, to be continued tomorrow. . .

*Too Long Didn’t Read

My Amazing Friends, Chapter One

The word “amazing” is overused these days. It is often pronounced “uh-MAY-zing” and has taken the place formerly occupied by “awesome”, pronounced “AHHH-sum”. My uh-MAY-zing and Oh-so-wise Dad was bothered by the description inflation of “awesome”. He said that very little was truly awesome, short of God or his (God’s, not Dad’s) handiwork. I’ve grown up with the word “amazing” usually reserved for God’s grace. . . heard the song?

Nonetheless, I have some friends who amaze me with their creativity and generosity and abilities. Today we begin learning of those friends.

First, there is Bob. He lives in Three Rivers and is a superb craftsman, a unique Tulare County artist (or would that be “artisan”?).

Look what Bob has made:

Fantastically beautiful and functional, oversized and modified Adirondack chairs from salvaged redwood. These chairs have arms large enough for a cat, some knitting, a plate of food, a skinny friend’s hiney to perch, or the Wall St. Journal in its entirety. When I sit in one of his original designs, my feet stick out in front of me, and I want to shout, “OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!”

Bob modified his design to fit smaller humans, such as myself. I am not small, but medium. Bob is not medium, so sometimes I have to remind him that things which fit him swallow up medium people such as his sweet wife or me.

Look what else Bob made for me:

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This is a GIANT easel on wheels that lock. I’m reluctant to get paint on it. When it is all set up with a canvas (AFTER I finish the year of drawing The Cabins of Wilsonia) then I will take the plunge and begin using this AHHHH-sum and uh-MAY-zing piece of equipment.

To view Bob’s work, go here: Kelbro Stoneworks

Tomorrow I will post at The Cabins of Wilsonia.

Making Stuff, Chapter 5

Tile, tile, everywhere!

Anyone out there aware of Pinterest? I’ve heard it can suck you in, turn you into a materialistic and self-centered spoiled brat who wastes hours looking at stuff, wishing for stuff, and collecting pictures of stuff.

Me? It just makes me want to make more stuff. Useful, functional, beautiful Real Stuff.

I kept seeing these wonderful garden ornaments on Pinterest. They seemed like gazing balls, but they weren’t reflecting. Instead, they were . . . yep, you guessed it. . . TILED!

After chasing a few links, I learned these were bowling balls. Tiled bowling balls?

Where does a non-bowler find an old bowling ball? If you are me, you ask your friend Bill, the source of anything cool or unusual or necessary in the unending journey of Making Stuff.

After Bill sent me a bowling ball, I looked through my mosaic supplies. Whoa! Check out the teacup handle! That’s also from Bill.  This is how the bowling ball looked when everything was attached but not yet grouted.

 

There isn’t much planning available when tiling a sphere. You just pick your colors, get your pieces together, and begin attaching.

Don’t try to pick this up by the teacup handle, ‘k?

Making Stuff, Chapter 4

Usable, functional, beautiful, real stuff  that I made myself. This is the grown up version of a toddler saying “Me do it!!” No pipe cleaners (are those actually for cleaning pipes?) or glue guns for this chick!

Last time I warned you not to put tile on things that were rotting.

This time I am warning you not to put tile on rusty discs that will then contain water. This was a beautifully tiled bird bath, welded from a couple of discs, a pipe and an auger tip by Cowboy Bert. The water and the rust caused the tile to discolor, and then the tiles began to fall off. Well, bummer. Now I just repaint it blue every year. It’s time again, wouldn’t you agree?

This is a weird little table top that is secured onto a weird little concrete pipe. It is the perfect place for storing your can of Off, which is necessary when you are sitting in your Adirondack chair while BBQing in the evening. (There is an abundance of mosquitos in Three Rivers.) Perhaps you should be pulling the oxalis instead of just sitting.

My friend Bill either made or salvaged this table base for me. He is the source of many cool items, most of which are the basis for more coolness.

In fact, Bill is the source of many of the tiles I have used in my quest to cover almost everything I own with bright colors and grout.

But Wait! There’s More!

You didn’t actually think I was done showing you all the tiled items and other things I have made? I wasn’t kidding when I told you that I love to make stuff!

Mural Make-over

Happy Birthday, Audrey!

Nope, that’s not the subject of this blog post. But, sometimes an aunt has to do what she has to do. I’m in awe of my niece, proud of her, and so pleased to be her aunt.

In March of 2012, I painted a mural on the side of the building that was to become Sequoia Outdoor Sports. This is a business that is needed in Three Rivers, where thousands pass through on their way to Sequoia National Park for camping, backpacking, hiking and snow-shoeing.

I thought it turned out well, in spite of the fact that they requested sequoia trees where there are none. I am a hired paintbrush, and it is my job to make the customer happy (even when it causes a slight tic under my left eye).

The mural faded. This is highly disappointing, since I use high-end mural paints that are formulated to be lightfast and very saturated. I work from just the primaries, so I order the blues, yellows and reds with the highest lightfast rating. Apparently, even the magic of chemistry is not enough to compete with the sun on a south-facing wall.

Heehee, this reminds of those horrid photos they take of people right before a makeover. Weird unbrushed hair, no make-up, icky facial expression . . . in this case, it is shadows on the mural. That’s so you can fully appreciate the contrast to the final product.

Okay, now I know people will be slamming on their brakes, chattering excitedly to one another, “Where did that come from? What sort of business it that? We must check it out!”

I agree! You should check out Sequoia Outdoor Sports. It is a classy place, with a tremendous amount of great gear for camping and backpacking and who knows what else – ummm, they do! Why lug your old gear to Sequoia when you can travel without all that stuff, rent the best, turn it in at the end of your trip and not have to clean it up? Hmmmm?

P.S. In the local paper’s annual Best of Kaweah Country, this mural was voted the favorite in Three Rivers! In my humble opinion, it was because it was the newest that year. But, thanks, Three Rivers!!