thelmasmith

I’ve always been a Macintosh person. Smalldog is a macintosh merchant in Vermont. They are an interesting business. They set out to intentionally change all the negative concepts about corporate business. I have no affiliation with them. I do have permission from Don Meyer, the CEO, to reprint his editorial; the hotlinks added are my own and not attributable to Don Meyer.

Climbing out of the Money Pit
By Don, don@smalldog.com

The Pentagon has come to congress with yet another request for an extra $142 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is really time to think about our priorities again. The president is vetoing legislation that would provide health care to poor children, which would cost the taxpayers about $7 billion a year and provide health care to another 3 million children who do not have it now. In addition, our bridges and infrastructure are badly in need of repair and we cannot afford to make the necessary expenditures.

What is really important to us? Is maintaining a presence in the middle of a civil war in a region where the people don’t really like us more important than making sure our children have access to quality health care? Is this really all about the oil, as Allen Greenspan indicated in his new book? Wouldn’t it be smarter to spend the $177 million A DAY that we spend on being in the middle of a civil war on things like energy conservation and renewable energy sources so that we do not have to send our sons and daughters to fight a war?

As the candidates for President squabble about how long it would take to withdraw our troops from Iraq, the situation just keeps getting worse. No one doubts that if we just panic and withdraw that it would cause some problems, but I think that the jury is out as to whether those problems would be more severe than the problems that are caused by our presence in Iraq. Withdrawal is not enough, however– we also need to reach out to others in the area to help us provide stability for the innocent Iraqis as we take our nose out of their business. Instead of watching silently as Israel bombs a site in Syria and rattling swords against Iran, perhaps we should be relying upon diplomacy, humanitarian aid and our dwindling supply of goodwill to re-establish ourselves as part of the solution, and not the problem.

George Bush has made a mess of our foreign policy and he is leaving a very difficult mess for whomever follows him as President next year. It is a mess that has cost us nearly 4,000 American soldiers, countless civilians and put in place another mercenary army (read: Blackwater) that is beyond the law. We are exacerbating a very difficult situation by remaining in Iraq; we’re not solving any problems and creating a huge new army of terrorists. We are putting our tax money to work against our own interests!

The time for withdrawal from Iraq is now. The time to pay attention to our own priorities of health care, education, transportation and energy is also now. Oil is just going to become a more scarce resource with more demand from more places and it is the country that prepares itself through conservation and development of renewable energy that will have the most prosperous economy and the most secure citizens. We cannot be tentative about this– it is time to admit that we have made a grievous error and bring our troops and mercenaries home now.

Share your opinions at Barkings, the Small Dog Blog: http://blog.smalldog.com.

End Soapbox

Don Mayer
CEO

1673 Main Street                                100 Dorset Street
Waitsfield, VT 05673 USA                   S. Burlington, VT 05403
don@smalldog.com

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802-496-6257 Fax

The good news is that I have finished the Defensive Driving Program on the net. I still need to go in to the NTSI office and take the test.

The better news is that the structure of the net teaching is designed to force you not only to pay attention but to hone your peripheral vision. Verification questions can pop up in red, small print; answer in thirty seconds or less.

The strange news is that this is the only image in the entire course that is completely out of context. The stockings and the shoe are at least fifty years old. I wonder where they found this? I also wonder where they found a car with powdered coral rock on the floor.

I’ve been here and not here. I signed up with Pima College for a Printmaking class and a Museum and Galleries Practices class. So I’m running to town three times a week and trying to shoehorn grocery shopping and errand running into that fuel usage. It’s interesting but fatiguing.

The first printmaking assignment was not intimidating. Thank goodness. I’m rather pleased with myself as I had never done carving before. This is the scan of the proof sheet for Lady Alice. The print block is 4″ x 2″; I was using up someone’s purple ink. Click to enlarge.

The second printmaking assignment was alter ego. I finally asked Karen, my table mate, what she had done about the topic. “I know who I am and I’m happy with my life; I don’t need Wonder Woman. I just did what I wanted to.” This after I had been through four iterations that neither fit the assignment nor was anything boldly graphic. I could not figure out how to carve the things I had drawn.

I had been through my image files on the external hard drive and even dug out the snapshot files from before I owned a digital camera. Nothing made any sense. Finally at one in the morning, after tossing and disturbing every cat in the house I just gave up and got out of bed. I went and pulled a snapshot of a tree I have always loved. The hell with the assignment; I know I can make a good positive/negative out of this one.

This is the unproofed plate. Click to enlarge. I painted the grey battleship linoleum with gesso so that I could see my cuts. My fingers and fingernails tell me that there is some clean up to be done once I see a proof. I can feel the chumbles that will give me trouble.

The textbook prices will make one cringe. However, when I saw the amount of technical detail in this one: A Printshop Handbook: A Technical Manual For Basic Intaglio, Relief, And Lithographic Processes. I did not hesitate. One good text book is worth a dozen, popular press, quilter focused, technique and process books. This one is authored by Beth Grabowski. I wonder if there is any kinship with Kerr Grabowski.

The other textbook, The Complete Printmaker is both historical data and technical information. I think one could work a lifetime with these two books.

So, though I am more than usually silent, I am here and I am working. I have four days a week at home. Day by day I have been working my way through deadlines; real ones and ones I have imposed on myself.

The other fly in the ointment is a speeding ticket. How humiliating to drive a roadster and get caught in a speed trap going so fast: 46mph.

Do click on the thumbnail.  This image is much better larger.

I went down to the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory last week. I had not been to theVisitor’s Center in a long time. It was gratifying to walk in and after all these years look up and say, “Oh, those really aren’t too bad.” It’s part of never particularly liking any work when it’s first finished. It’s pleasing to see that the pieces, each specifically dyed for it’s place in each quilt, are still gracefully doing their jobs.

They are getting some morning sun. What I thought was north was in fact east. But driving up the winding mountain road over the foothills into the base camp at 4200 feet leaves one with no known landmark and no way to assess direction. From indoors in the Visitor’s Center one has not sufficient light to designate direction of light even knowing the time of day.

It’s pretty cool, after so many years to revisit work. Yes, they are losing some color due to the light. No, there is absolutely not one thing that can be done about it. Textiles are ephemeral; it’s easier to accept that truth. The subtleties of change are more apparent when one has years between visits.

In the meantime, a lot of quilters come and enjoy. Even the gentleman who runs the gamma ray experimental program has commented on them. They are not accurate astronomy; just an artist’s interpretation.