Finito....Onward and way Upward.....

I finished the heart and will post some photos when I can find them on whichever computer I put them on.....

We put the Modern HeArt on our little Thule trailer, covered it with soft blankies, strapped it down and I took it to the clear coat place so they can put clear coat on it. A week from Friday it will be presented officially.

On other topics, I am finding that I am involved with too many of those social network things. Twitter and Facebook and of course, managing (poorly) about 4 blogs. I'm not posting to any of them on a regular basis, just sporadically and in the case of the blogs (this one in particular), I feel guilt about that. I see that I do have 97 posts on this blog and I guess over about 3 years of time that may not be too bad, but I'd really like to do a better job.

**************************************************************************

We are leaving to visit our favorite fire tower in Wyoming tomorrow morning. The Spruce Mountain Fire Tower is quite awesome. We are renting it (yes, you can rent it) for 2 nights. You cook, eat, sleep and gaze while 55 feet in the air in a room that has windows all around. The views are incredible. It's very cool to sit on the deck and drink your coffee in the mornings. Here's the link to Spruce Mountain Fire Tower in case you think you might want to try to get a reservation (it's not easy). I think I've mentioned this tower in a prior post and possibly even posted the pictures below, but I'm too lazy to look for it.

As mentioned, it's 55 feet in the air at an elevation of 10,000 feet above sea level. There are stairs. Getting all of our supplies to the top is a challenge. The Forest Services provides a little pulley system with a bucket for hoisting up the smaller items. We strap some of the larger items (bedding, lawn chairs, etc.) to the rope using carabiners and haul them up that way instead of doing the stair thing - it's wears you out - seriously. Water is in gallon jugs (cooking, drinking) and food will be hoisted in small batches. We hope the propane frig works - it has the last two times we've visited. Then there are clothes, bedding, my potty (for those night time wee wees, beats going down all those stairs to the outhouse), lawn chairs, the little grill, eating utensils, a couple of pans for cooking on the propane stove in the room, electric lamps (no electricity), the DVD player (charged) and DVDs, books, toiletries and probably other things I haven't mentioned. We are bringing our nifty Cabela's shower tent and the niftier shower unit which will be set up at the bottom of the tower. The shower unit runs on batteries. One end goes in a warm bucket of water, you turn the unit on and the other ends gives you a really, really nice shower. We find that a shower at the end of the day helps us get a good nights rest. I'm planning on making a Fire Tower movie and will post it whenever I can get around to putting it together.

The Heart Progresses.....

Yep, it's wild. I hope the sponsor will be pleased and not horrified. The original design I submitted showed only one side of the heart and I have incorporated some of those original motifs into the product. However, I've wandered a bit and added other motifs that they did not see, so hopefully, it will not be something they do not like. That element of suspense adds an unwanted bit of anxiety to this whole project. If not for that, I would be having a ball. Most of the time, you just make art and hope someone will like it and buy it. This is already paid for, so I just hope the sponsor realizes that artists have a hard time working within too many constraints. So much of the time, I see things in my head and then re-create them. I do pre-plan designs, but most of the time my finished work resembles the original intent to varying degrees.

I am trying to finish this up within the next week so I can get it clear coated. I think the clear coating will bring out the color more and give it a much more completed look. That's the goal before the heart is scheduled to be "unveiled" in the first part of July.