Feb

1

Dealing with things/ War Ponies

Filed Under Judy Wood 


Dealing with things seems to be the theme of my day today. Started with having to remember to go to my sister and her husband’s place to deal with their elderly dog, Mike. They took an early flight out of here to Mexico and the house/dog sitter had a meeting so I needed to go over and escort Mike off the bed and into the back yard for a break, also give him his breakfast. Then about an hour later I was booked to drive my friend Sue to the airport, collecting her mini-Dachshund as I did so and bringing him home to stay here for the weekend. Problem was I couldn’t get out of the driveway at the first stop. My car would start fine, but it was stuck in park, and I couldn’t get the gearstick to budge. Went back into the house to phone the dealer’s service department, who gave me a tip on what to try. Turned out I couldn’t do what they suggested (needed to pry off a very small and awkward plastic housing and couldn’t manage it). In the meantime, I tried one last time and got out of park, so at least I was mobile again, although mildly anxious about the whole thing.

Picked up Sue and Mogo (the mini Dachshund), got Sue to the airport in a timely fashion, then stopped at the dealership, conveniently located on a direct line between the airport and my house. They had a couple of suggestions that made sense (likely it’s a sensor malfunction due to the combination of humidity and cold) and the working theory for the moment is that if it happens again, don’t panic and just give it a bit more time to warm up. So, there’s pretty much the entire morning dealt with.

Oddly for me, I have a *lot* of professional commitments to deal with for so early in the year, all with deadlines, and some of those deadlines are getting rather close. I always meet deadlines but often push to the last minute to do so. I have so many commissions, shows, entries, and what- have-you to keep track of that I actually went out and bought a whiteboard with several coloured dry erase pens so I would have all my deadlines in front of me, coloured coded as to what they are. Makes me feel pretty important!!

Having spent the morning “dealing”, I decided maybe it was time to deal with some of this art stuff as well so I don’t have to worry about it. I filled in the information sheet for an “Artists Against Hunger” art auction and decided which image I will be sending along. I’ll get the forms and a sample photo into the mail and then I won’t have to think about that one until it is time to deliver the work. I also plan to get a couple of other sets of forms/entries off this weekend *and* start a collage for one of the shows I have committed to. I’m feeling quite heroic here.

War Ponies seem to be the other theme of the day. I love generating war pony imagery, both in photography and in my other media. So far I’ve done them as stained glass window pieces, in mosaic, digital photomontage, and mixed media collage. The art auction piece is a digitial photomontage, titled “Warrior Princesses”. The mares in the original photos are young Warmbloods from my trainer’s breeding program. I do shots every year of the new foal crop and of the young stock not yet in training. It was Shawna, daughter of my trainer, and an instructor herself, who titled this image. She’s the one that puts the miles on these youngsters after their initial training, and she has an intimate knowledge of them. The young mares are often the ones with grit and attitude, as these girls show. I’m of the opinion that “war pony” is all about attitude, so I feel free to adapt whatever breed or type of horse seems to have that style when creating my artwork.

The other “war pony” piece I’ll post here belongs to the barn manager at Ebon stables (where I ride). This horse ( Homer) is a favourite subject of mine, and in fact will be featured in the collage I am about to start. This version is a digital photomontage. I love crows and ravens and put them into my work whenever I can. Seemed like a natural add-in for this one which I did for Homer’s owner, whose last name is Blackbird. Works for me.

Comments

One Response to “Dealing with things/ War Ponies”

  1. admin on February 2nd, 2008 10:49 am

    I know what you mean about being stacked up with too many commitments and not enough time! I’ve been trying to keep track of everything in a private blog with an event plugin, but maybe what I need is a good, old-fashioned whiteboard or calendar on the wall, so I can see everything in a glance.

    I never would have guessed those were young Warmbloods. Once you work your magic on them, they can be nothing but war ponies to me. :)

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