The Fezziwig News by Stu Jenks

Nampeyo (1860?-1942) and Rhonda Holy Bear (1959-

"When I first began to paint, I used to go to the ancient village and pick up pieces of pottery and copy the designs. That is how I learned to paint. But now, I just close my eyes and see designs and I paint them." - Nampeyo.

 

It's worth getting off the Interstate or taking a cab from the airport if you have a three hour layover or simply worth a special trip.

Denver Art Museum's American Indian Art Collection.

I made my third journey to DAM's Native collection just a couple weeks ago. It has a wonderful permanant collection and newer work by living Native artists they rotates in and out.

Included in this post is some work by Nampeyo, the famous Hopi potter and by Rhonda Holy Bear, the Cheyenne River Sioux artist, plus a detail image of Standing Bear's tipi and an Edward Curtis photograph of a Hopi potter.

At each visit, I see something old that I knew I loved and something new I didn't know existed. Isn't that what a great museum visit is all about?

So visit the Denver Art Museum when ever you have the chance.

Oh, and yea, they have some pretty good stuff by some white folk too.

All images (c) Stu Jenks 2012 except for the Curtis of course (but I did take the pic of his photo. And a friend just told me it is of Nampeyo herself. Great image. A great potter.)

 

"Lusk, Wyoming Hoop Dance"

"Lusk, Wyoming Hoop Dance" (c) 2012 Stu Jenks

I'm feeling a little lost in my life.

I think I'm a little lost in Wyoming.

At least my insides match my outsides.

"Hoop-Dancing With An Angel/Ghost"

"Hoop-Dancing With An Angel/Ghost, Dragoon Springs, Arizona" (c) 2012 Stu Jenks

"Red Rock Water Tower"

"Red Rock Water Tower, Arizona" (c) 2012 Stu Jenks

"Danica Kissing..."

 

"Danica Patrick Kissing Her Husband Before The Race, Phoenix International Raceway, Arizona" (c) 2012 Stu Jenks

Quote of the day at yesterday's Basha's 200 in Phoenix, Arizona:

The 43 Nationwide drivers parade by us, roaring their engines on the warmup lap before they drop the green flag. The intoxication smell of race fuel rises to my nostrils. My nose flares with delight. I motion with my hands, wafting the blessed fumes into me. I close my eyes in ecstasy. The guy next to me says, "Do you like that smell?"

I smile.

"I love that smell," I say.

He smiles back.

"That smell is better than an barbeque I've ever smelled," he says "Ever."

I laugh.

Yes ,it is.

Danica drove OK. 22nd I think. She learning NASCAR. Like all Formula One and Indy Car drivers who move over to NASCAR, it'll take her a couple years to learn how to drive the perpetually-squirrelly autos that are Sprint Cup and Nationwide cars.

And it was sweet, so sweet, to see her husband kiss her, as she went off to work.

Long may you run, Danica.

"From The Saddle At Owl's Head..."

"From The Saddle At Owl's Head, Arizona..." (c) 2012 Stu Jenks

Many of y'all are familiar with my images of Owl's Head (See the image at the bottom), yet few of y'all have seen the view from Owl's Head. Here are a couple taken last week from the saddle.

Back to work on 'Dementia Reds'

On the advice of counsel, (that counsel being Mary Ann Harris and Charles de Lint), I'm letting the novel sit for a while before I go back to revise, edit and fix it. Charles suggested to start another novel. Good idea. I have another novel in mind, but instead I'm going back to a book I put down while I was writing the novel: Dementia Reds, the memoir documenting my mother's final journey into dementia and death, and my sister's succumbing to her breast cancer. I left the book after I had written two funerals but not the third. Just glancing at the document now, I really don't have much more to write. (Fingers crossed. I said the same thing about the novel.)

I left Dementia Reds in the Fall of 2011 for a lot of reasons. I was still pretty angry at some people in Virginia and North Carolina, I was in the midst of selling the tear-down house in Raleigh, and there was that pesky novel and all its characters running around in my head. But now, I need for the novel to steep, like a pot of Earl Gray. And I'm not so mad at the vultures and the overly-righteous from my ancestral South. I mostly just miss the hell out of my sister Pamela.

So thanks, Charles and Mary Ann. I hear your counsel. Oh, and on a business note, Dementia Blues is my only book that's selling. Give the people what they want. To buy.

Love and light,

Stu.

p.s. The above image was taken while Pamela was still alive, when I visited her near the end of her life. I got a sweet free upgrade on that rental car, receiving a hot red Mustang from Enterprise. Pamela and I had fun, punching it hard on the Beltline on our way to chemo. And below are pics of my sister and mother when they were young and healthy.

Hillary Clinton in Tunis, Tunisia

Photo: EPA from The Telegraph.

By no means do I expect anyone but serious political junkies like me to watch all 18 minutes of this video, but I post this to make a point.

Often I resist being too political on the StuBlog, out of fear it'll hurt my business, but my income from all my creations is way down anyway, so what could it hurt?

(An aside: I may have to use my LISAC and do intakes and run treatment groups for unremorseful felons again. I'm happy I can make money doing intakes and running groups but I really hate the work. Most felons have no desire to be in recovery. Hell, they don't even want to stop beating their wives and girlfriends, much less cut down on their drinking and drug use. It's why I left the treatment field in 2009, but I might need to go back, to pay the rent. I don't want to, but you often have to do things you don't want to do. Point is I'm going broke anyway, being an artist, photog, writer, musician, whatever, so I might as well let fly with my strong political opinions cause it can't hurt book, CD and print sales. Sales already suck. (Except for Dementia Blues.) I'm not feeling sorry for myself. I'm just facing reality. So why not? It'll be fun.)

So here's my main point:

We Democrats nominated the wrong person in 2008. Hillary Clinton should be The President of the United States, not Barack Obama. Barack needs to be liked way too much and due to what I believe are unresolved issues around his father, he acts passively when he should lead with passion and conviction.

Hillary Clinton would be a great President and it's probably too late. In 2016, she probably won't run.  She may want to retire from public life. She might see herself as too old as well.

But I'm having serious buyer's remorse. Have for a year or two. So much so that I'm no longer a Democrat. I'm a registered Independent now.

And just so I piss off everyone, Rick Santorum is a crazy man, a religious bigot, a nut case. He needs to go home. Newt is a con man who really doesn't want to be President. He just wants to make money out of his meanness. He needs to go home too. Ron Paul is consistent, true, but Crazy GrandPa forgets the Constitution has been amended a good number of times since 1787. (This can be said for most Republicans in Congress and around the country.) And Mitt Romney is a rich man who has little compassion for the working class and for the poor. And he appears to be missing a screw. Many rich people are compassionate and kind. Mitt ain't one of them. Plus he's as phony as a three-dollar-bill.

So watch Hillary and see real leadership in action. Minute 16:20 and on is truly great statesmanship.

So keeping fighting the good fight. Say truth to power and all of that. But say it with love. If you can. (I can only about half the time. I often say "I'm a nice man until I'm not") And know that all of you, even the violent felons, are in my prayers. OK, I pray for my friends and family first, but I eventually get around to praying for the jerks.

Love, and light,

Stu

...The first draft of the novel is done!!!...

The first draft of the novel is done!!! It came in at 149,000 words, 552 pages in my document. Yeaaaa! I can't tell you how good it feels. The ending made me cry, as I hope it does you. (Last word in the novel, which won't change in revision: Sighs.) I want to jump right back to the beginning and start revisions, but Mary Ann suggests I take more than just a couple days off. OK. I'll take off three or four days. LOL. But then it's fixing this and revising that, then off to the editors. And I have ideas for the next novel in this series, too. I have some pretty great characters, I think, and I want to see what they will do next. But first things first. Get this novel to print.

One serious note: It took about a year to write this novel, but it almost didn't get done. With Mary and Pamela dying and all, I didn't work on it for about six weeks and it was so hard to get my momentum back. But I did. But it was difficult. If you are working on a novel or a large work, I recommend you plow through, even if the field is frozen. I've been told I'm very lucky to have gotten back on track.

Speaking of track, good luck to Danica Patrick tomorrow in the Daytona 500 and in the rest of Sprint Cup and Nationwide races this season. I might just have to go up to PHX next Saturday to watch her race.

By the way, did I mention I finished the freaking first draft of the novel?

Yeaaaaaaaaa!

"Deaths & Injuries" is now on iTunes and at CDBaby.com

"Deaths & Injuries" is now available at your local iTunes store on your computer and on your mobile devices, and at my CDBaby.com page, both as a digital download and as a physical CD. You can also buy the physical CD at the Fezziwig Press Store. CDs are $12.00 through me and $13.00 through CDBaby.com (S & H extra.) And the digital downloads are your standard .99 cents per track.

Thanks, y'all.

Stu

p.s. The above image, "Ed-Lil" is on the inside cover of this CD. Just tired of putting the same cover image on my blog to promote this CD. If you want to see the cover, just scroll down.