Tamp steamer

This is the tramp steamer I'm making for an old friend who had seen a similar piece of mine and wanted one. This is made of copper, wire, pencils and acrylic paint. It is 18" x 14". I call it Tramp Steamer.

As you can see it's three dimensional. Its cargo, a giant heart, is being lowered into the hold.

This is the boat in an earlier stage. To get to this point I had drawn paper patterns and traced them onto sheet copper. I cut the copper with shears and riveted the sections together. I made a ladder out of aluminum wire.

I had painted the sky light blue but converted it to violet. Then I painted the hull to make it look like a beat-up freighter. More changes are in the works.

A Saratoga primer

Bill and I went to Saratoga yesterday to see the horses run. Of course from our vantage point in the infield, you mostly see the horses on the giant TV screen. But that's OK because you're there and you soak up the color.

The filly at the top has just been hosed down after her race.

The little girl below had one of the best seats in the house.

I wonder if she picked any winners. I know we didn't.

Some people get all dolled up to go to Saratoga.

Others don't.

After the fourth race we retired to the Man of Kent for sustenance. We didn't have to drown our sorrows. That's because we bet, as Bill puts it, modestly.

So there you have it - everything I know about horse racing.

The handstand

This is a painting of my mother I did about 10 years ago. I was using the photo I showed you August 22 as a guide.

That black object at the lower right is not part of the painting. It's a corner of our TV table. I was too lazy to take the painting off the wall to photograph it. The painting, 74"x37.5", hangs in the living room.

It was part of a series I did called Family Album. Painting my parents, who died in the mid-1960s, was a way, I suppose, of reuniting with them temporarily.

Comparing my painting to the photo, I see that I failed to capture her grace as well as I would have liked to. And I made her legs too thick.

In another painting I tried to portray her mental anguish. I struggled with it for a long time but it never worked out.