October news

It has been several months since my last communication. I have not dropped off the planet or gone into recluse. I have been very busy and have done so many things I can’t remember them all. This last weekend I went with two other Ya Po Ah residents to Astoria a small city on the Columbia River. The weather was perfect, sunny and warm.  We drove up through farm land of rolling hills mostly nut farms, fruit trees, vineyards and  cattle. The trip back was along the coast. It is beautiful, long stretches of beaches, but I like the east coast better. The west coast is windy and rains  most of the winter. I prefer granite shores, inlets and islands and the four seasons of weather. I do like the variety of plants and trees here and spring is especially beautiful. The people here are friendlier and I don’t think I could find a better place to live anywhere.

Doug and I drove across the country with most of my paintings and I had to put them in storage here. For the last two months I have made several trips to the storage place and brought back many paintings which  are now  hung on the walls of the halls of Ya Po Ah. There is a lot of room with eighteen floors. I am lucky I found a person with a car that likes art and is having a great time finding the residents that want paintings in their space in the halls outside their apartments. He put up posters in the elevators and had people contact him and he is keeping a record of where every painting is. After we get the paintings, sort them out  and record them I hang them in my hall and people come, chose what they like and bring them to their floor. Right now there are about 35 on my  14th floor and there are about 100 on the other floors.

Chris is very busy and I don’t see him as much as I would like. I go to the farm about once a week. With all that goes on here I haven’t painted much. There are many scenes I want to paint as I am always excited about what I see around me in the environment. 

Photos below

in my room

in the hall

door to my studio apt

hall

packed  and stacked in Maine

farm land

fall color

plums on the ground

climate change march

German festival in Mount Angel

Astoria 

strange structure in river

pelican on structure

seals resting on docks