So a couple months ago, Josh and I went to Mitch Hoffart's house to look at some storage units he was getting rid of. Well Mitch was nice enough to give us a little tour of his house while we were there. The firm Josh works at, Stahl Architects, designed his house, and it's really cool.
Mitch is a local artist, so we got to see a bunch of his work throughout his home, and even some works in process. As we stood in his livingroom talking, one painting really caught my eye. Josh and I basically decided that we wanted to purchase one of his paintings, and Josh inquired about that one since he knew I liked it. Mitch has some other cool pieces at Gallery 514 in downtown Fargo.
So guess what? We bought it. Last night Mitch came over and helped us hang it in our living room. We are planning to hang it in our new bedroom downstairs when it is completed... but that's not quite done yet (notice, no recent posts on basement progress). Mitch talked a little about the process that went into the painting, and also some of the meaning behind it. Now, I'm somewhat of a "l'art pour l'art" person. Art does not need to mean something beyond just being pleasing to the eye to be worth something to me.
The title of the painting is "Last." Mitch explained that the white tree is symbolic of the last tree on earth. The white birds symbolize threatened species. There is even a faint "ghost tree" painted. So then of course I completely fell in love with the painting again. (If you know me or read my blog, you know that I'm a bit of a green nut.) This painting was meant for me.
As you can tell, I am quite excited about this. For my college graduation, I saved up all of the gift money I received and bought my first painting. I am still in love with that one as well. And now my collection is growing... slowly. Mitch said last night, "Only buy art you love." And that's what I'm doing.
Here's Turbo. He's eleven. He enjoys being pet. I think that's really all he ever thinks about. He just got a hair cut. Doesn't he look fantastic? The groomer said he was a good boy. He likes the attention. He also likes to lay under the desk when Josh or I am working there. That's where he is in this picture.
This is Aurora. She's a princess. There's even a song about her... it goes like this, "Hail to the King, Hail to the Queen, Hail to the Princess Aurora!" She's a bit more multi-faceted than Turbo. She likes to be pet too... sometimes. Usually she's staring out the window. Just like she is in this picture. She likes to tease Asher. She also likes to watch birds and catch flies and sit in the linen closet.
As a kid, I thought these "helicopter" seeds were awesome. It was cool to watch them fall from the tree and whirl around til they reached the ground. Then I would pick them up and peel the brown part off to reveal the green seed.
Ants love peonies too. I think the ants chew on them and help them bloom or something.
I don't have one of those things you're supposed to put around your peonies so they don't fall over. So, mine fall over. Since my poor peonies are getting closer and closer to laying on the ground, I decided to cut some to bring in the house. It's fun to bring in fresh flowers from my garden! Now I just need some more to bloom so I can cut more flowers!
She bought it at a special sale (that I couldn't go to, darn it) at one of my new favorite stores in downtown Anoka called Krista Artista. They have fabulous stuff there... even some artwork by one of my favorites, Betsy Bowen. This groovy checkbook cover is made by Northern Brights... apparently they make cool purses and stuff too! I would like to check out their store in St. Cloud someday.
Do these flowers look familiar? Well they should, I just blogged about them in the last couple weeks. Unfortunately, some creature has taken it upon itself to destroy my beautiful irises. Out of three blooming plants, two have been wrecked. This one was bent over so I cut it off and put it in a little vase on the dining room table. Making lemonade when life throws you lemons. Anyway, so far the bunnies are not afraid of the spray that I bought to deter them. The smell makes me gag and run away as fast as I can, and makes the dogs shove their faces as far into the fence by the garden as they can to get a better whiff of it. I think it makes the bunnies laugh.
Here is Tom and the book of his senior pictures that I made him.
Me and the graduate!
Amanda and me.
Kari, me, Josh, and Asher.
I have been blogging for one whole year now. Yay! And hasn't it been fabulous? Hopefully this year will bring even more interesting posts from me (that is, if you considered this past year to be at all interesting to begin with...you must have otherwise you wouldn't be reading this).
