Dogs Don't Practice Social Distancing!

     As we Californians practice "social distancing" now for the third week, starting our fourth week

Miss Maggie - the dog that knows no boundaries

tomorrow, it dawned on me yesterday, after stumbling over my dog, yet again, that dogs DON'T practice social distancing. I became aware of that fact after leaving my condo to go to the bank, shop for food and get medicines at the pharmacy. I completed these four tasks in about two hours. It was my first time out to even do these minimal (allowable) chores in 10 days. Even if I didn't see anyone I knew, it was wonderful to just be where humans were masked and six feet away as they all were.

The morning walk ritual that is done
visitors here or not!

  Having a dog you must go outside, in my case, four or five times a day. We have our long walk first thing in the morning, usually before the sun is up, then there are the WPP's (walk, pee and poop) around our condo complex starting around 5 am, then another around 11-12:00, then 4:00 or so to get the mail, and the finally one around 9:00 pm. I don't have to worry about forgetting, a cold nose on an elbow reminds me, just like when it's time for dinner. I may forget, she never does.

     Usually, we don't see anyone in the complex though there are many dog owners here. If we do she heads straight to the owner to be petted. In fact I think she thinks she's a human. I stopped taking her to the dog park to play with the dogs. I realized she ignored her "kind" instead making the rounds of the humans sitting watching their dogs. Being owners they would give her a few pets and she would give them a lick or two, then move to the next one. So much for playing with the dogs.

Meditating in place!

      In fact, shelter in place has meant for her that her master (though I really am not sure who the boss is here) is now always around. She brings her duck to play tug-of-war, licks some part of me to be petted and is ever watchful of dinner time. We have never had so much "together" time before. During a "normal" week I would leave for meetings, dinners, game night and sometimes be gone for hours as she laid out on the patio or dug through the trash inside our condo.

     I now have a constant companion. I go to the kitchen and when I turn around she lays in front of the way out. Read or watch TV in the living room, a black lump is alongside my chair. There is even no privacy in the bathroom. At least she's not as bad as my last Lab. He would follow me into the tiny inner bathroom, close the door and lay in front of it. At 100 pounds, he was an obstacle in getting out.

     Seriously though, in these times where so many of us are living alone, there isn't a better companion. I have come to realize you hunger for contact and no matter how often you Skype, of ZOOM or FaceTime they are not substitutes for a human hug, or chatter, just BEING with another living being. A dog loves to be petted, trots behind me wherever I go ... kitchen, living room, patio, bedroom or the studio. I have learned these past few weeks to stand and look around to see where she is, actually how close she is and is it safe to walk?

Visiting the Grand Canyon with Maggie

    I don't think we could have designed a better companion. Somehow, a robot just doesn't seem to be a solution, a cold metal and plastic object that even if it talks is, well, not human, not something you would want to pet.

     When my partner was here from China, we drove to see my sister in New Mexico with a stop at the Grand Canyon. To her, a car ride is a car ride just as long as she is with me. I find her sprawled out in the back seat like some teenager. I have to urge her out to pee. I need to go now more than her. My sister has three dogs and mine fits right in with dogs sprawled all over the place.

     In fact as we were gazing out at the majestic canyon a man asked about my dog and asked if he could pet her. It turned out he had just lost his dog who looked exactly like Maggie and we were both stunned to find out they both had the same name! His dog had aged and turned grey just like Maggie. He petted her awhile and finally moved on. Maggie watched him go tail slowly wagging like she understood.

     My daughter wrote to see how I was doing and to ask if Maggie was talking back to me yet. I had a good laugh but noticed her looking at me with a grin. How could she know?

After nearly 14 years, my Maggie had to be put to sleep. After returning home from a doctor's appointment she met me at the door and followed me around as usual. In the bathroom I could hear a knocking and when I looked out the door found her in convulsions on the floor. With the help of friends we took her to the vet. It had gone on so long there was fear she had brain damage and I felt that I had to let her go. In the few weeks since I still look for her and even call her when I come in the door. She truly was "man's best friend!"

Thank you for reading my blog. I invite you to take the time to read earlier blogs where my emphasis is to explore the ways art and design affects our daily lives ... and always has. I share with you what inspires me with the hope that it will inspire you as well. Comments are always welcomed! 

Be sure to check my ETSY store ... KrugsStudio.etsy.com. I am adding many new and exciting, collectible birdhouses and craft items. Many of the items talked about here will be for sale there!

A Custom Order Kick-Starts Juices Flowing During SHELTER-IN-PLACE

We will probably look back at this time, this "shelter-in-place" time as the lost days. I know they have been for me. Rather than having nothing to do, I found that I had so many possibilities that I was literally frozen in place with Indecision. I have unlimited hours to watch Netflix or Amazon Prime, enough books of my own, unread I might add, to start a library, lots of unseen DVD's, can cook and yes I could paint, birdhouses my forté, and own a daunting stack of blank canvases. Then, there's the yard. What did I do? I wrote a few letters, did a little baking and watched ALL six seasons of HOUSE OF CARDS, a grim gritty Washington D.C. drama that saw an amazing actor's downfall and a story line that could be out of Washington today. I have no doubt this is a far more accurate view than what we saw on the, in retrospect, fuzzy WEST WING.

Inspiration is only a few clicks away.

     At the beginning of our third week of shelter-in-place here in California, I noticed a message on my ETSY account asking if I would be interested in painting a birdhouse that had edelweiss flowers against an Alpine setting. I had been looking at the studio and carefully closing the door for weeks now and going in thought, well, why not? I asked if they wanted it round or square and they wanted four corners for their cabin in Colorado. They were really going to use it.

      We "all" know the song "Edelweiss" from THE SOUND OF MUSIC but I had no idea what they looked like so off to images in Google to find the flowers and some Alpine scenes.

     What I envisioned was a kind of two dimensional painting on a 3D subject, carrying the view around all sides, and the roof. However, I had never actually tried to do that and this was my chance. If they didn't like it there was always the store to sell it on.

Starting with pencil marks to show areas

I started from the bottom up
defining the lower levels first

     My idea was to layer the hills and mountains and use larger flowers in front with smaller ones in back to give the birdhouse depth. Snow was shown on the mountain peaks and a kind of ice river running down one of the sides. Since it already had a cord to hang it I didn't have to worry about adding feet.  For some reason I decided that I wanted to frame the meadow at the base first thinking that each layer moving up would be less intense and finally reach the mountain tops and be crowned by the sky. In fact, the sky was one of the first finished areas I did. The clouds and colors set the tone for the rest of the birdhouse.

You can see the layers of hills as
I moved up the mountain. The flowers
would come next.

Next the flowers were saddened
increasing the feeling of depth.

     On both the foreground and the mid-mountains I used a feathered brush that gave me many thin lines for grass and was used for the rocky stones in the mountains. It worked well. To capture the ruggedness of the snow I used a palette knife and was so pleased with the effect I also used it to suggest the craggy mountains going dark on dark. Finally, with the addition of the flowers you could see the white flowers set off against the darker Alpine setting. As they were filled in and the florets of yellow added and dots of golden yellow and magenta across the field near the base I achieved the look I wanted.

The solid green base helped but
something was missing.

Painting  the base like the birdhouse base
completed the look tying it together

 The last problem was the base itself. What to do? I finally painted it a solid deep green but was not happy. I got out the cut feathered brush and repeated the strokes used on the lower birdhouse. The effect was perfect for capturing the base of the birdhouse.  

      Now, what to do with the bottom? Since they were planning on hanging it I decided to paint the very bottom with a large edelweiss so that no matter how it was viewed all the sides were painted, something you rarely ever see in a painting. I think I achieved what I set out to achieve and the reaction from the soon-to-be owner was very positive.

No space is neglected. A large edelweiss
graces the bottom of ALPINE EDELWEISS BIRDHOUSE

   I used a variety of paints mostly DecoArt or Plaid. I like Plaid for its dense opaque colors, however, it tends the thicken faster than most other craft acrylic paints.

     I guess I proved to myself that you can have it both ways, a 3D scene that when viewed on an object looks like a painting glued to a 6 sided form. Never say never until you give it a try!

    I am so pleased with this I am trying a variation in the round. No matter how many you try, even with the same design they each have a wonderfully unique, distinct personality.

Thank you for reading my blog. I invite you to take the time to read earlier blogs where my emphasis is to explore the ways art and design affects our daily lives ... and always has. I share with you what inspires me with the hope that it will inspire you as well. Comments are always welcomed! 

Be sure to check my ETSY store ... KrugsStudio.etsy.com. I am adding many new and exciting, collectible birdhouses and craft items. Many of the items talked about here will be for sale there!

The TIGER KING Phenomenon

Joe Exotic and Tiger friend

     It seems that during every crisis there is something that catches our attention as a distraction from the thing we are really facing. 9/11, earthquakes here in California - we had one near Palm Springs last night, runs on the stock market, riots and wars somewhere in the world focus our attention on something grim. We often need a distraction to look away if only for a brief time. Days after 9/11 and the unrelenting covering of that tragedy, I remember we went to see the movie RAT RACE. Silly yes, but I got two hours away from reality and some good belly laughs to boot. This worldwide Pandemic is no exception. While I can't speak of what people in China or Italy, France or Spain are watching, reading or doing in their time of "shelter-in-place," I do know what America is watching. 

Viewing Netflix documentary JOE EXOTIC: Murder, Mayhem
& Madness

     People in the United States and even maybe around the Netflix world are watching TIGER KING: Murder, Mayhem and Madness. This seven part, mini-series, a form of docudrama made for Netflix is so wild and well, crazy, that no fiction writer could make this stuff up! 

     It relates the tale of Joe Exotic, a Gay renegade combination of Oklahoma cowboy, Gay queen, animal lover and snake oil salesman who created a larger than life persona. Truly, there has never been someone quite like this. 

     Born Joseph Schreibvogel (A German name that translates to "writing bird") Joe Exotic among other names, legally took the names of his last two husbands so legally he was Joe Maldonado-Passage.

     This docudrama chronicles his beyond reality lifestyle, one so bizarre that as detestable as he and many of his competitors are, you just can't turn away. Why? Because you simply can't believe what you are seeing not only just from him but from some of his competitors and the fact that there are more exotic tigers living in the United States than in the wild. Unacceptable!

Carole Baskin, Joe's nemesis of
BIG CAT RESCUE in Florida

     Joe manages to gather them in Wynnewood, OK, a bleak place in the middle of Oklahoma that apparently gave no oversight to his G.W. Zoo. Joe's nemesis is Carole Baskin, who runs BIG CAT RESCUE in Florida who in her own right is a suspicious and shady character. She tries to shut Joe down thinking he is profiting from the breeding and selling of his 200 Tigers, lions, cheetahs and a whole bunch of other wild creatures.

    Baskin is no saint. Her millionaire husband disappears after their marriage and she suddenly has a fortune to continue their rescue of big cats. The husband is never found (Joe speculates that the body was fed to the big cats in Baskin's care) and we learn that she makes a healthy profit pleading for volunteers to help run her own zoo (that are not paid) acting like a 60's flowerchild. She and Joe have a web presence and they capitalize on it. The images of her with a wreath of flowers in her hair, flowing blouses, with animal prints everywhere - house, clothes, vehicles, she tries to create an image of a loving, caring woman. She is not.

Joe with two of his five husbands

      Joe is no stranger to the matrimonial aisle. He meets his first husband in the 1980's, a bouncer at a Gay bar who dies in 2001 from HIV complications. In 2003 he meets another 19 year-old, John Findlay. Joe, Findlay and Travis Maldonado marry in 2014 (you see the wedding tape). Travis may be straight but is enticed to stay for pot and toys. He accidentally shots himself in the G.W. Zoo gift shop while talking with Joe's campaign manager. Finally Dillion is found on Grindr and in 2017 they marry. Gives new meaning to ménage a très, no? Some say Travis and Dillion were straight.

Joe ran for President and when that failed
for the governor of Oklahoma. He got 19% of the vote!

     The animosity builds and Joe gets distracted. He runs for President then Oklahoma governor getting 19% of the vote in a campaign you might only see in an X-rated movie house. He blatantly copies Big Cat Rescue's logo, makes threats online about killing Baskin. The final straw and the one that got him in jail was his attempt to have Baskin murdered. He gave $3,000 to one of his employees to make the hit, but the employee, no stranger to the legal system and prison, takes the money and had a good time before returning. Nevertheless Joe was tried, found guilty for that and Federal Game law violations and is currently serving 22 years.

    How much money can there be in holding big cats? I saw an article today that estimates that Joe, today, is still worth $10 million. That's a lot of cats!

     The draw though is that, well, it's utterly disgusting and mesmerizing. I have long been a non-fiction fan because you just can't make this stuff up! It seems that people and events stagger the mind that until they happen, make us unable to consider, even think about. It's a train wreck from beginning to end and, like a crash on the freeway, we just can't look away. I would even question that you could "design" this, but as you watch you clearly see it was. Every step was choreographed with, however, not a clear ending in sight.

   Except for the murder-for-hire attempt, is Exotic any different from Buffalo Bill Cody? Or the Ringling Brothers? They had wild beasts they exploited making money off the public paying terrible wages as they tintilated the public while fattening their wallets. While Joe may have paid his employees less than minimum wage he did give people, many felons, a second chance. Baskin, wealthy in her own right, uses "volunteers" for free and lived a pretty good lifestyle, wealthy herself. So who was living off the fatted hog?

Maybe he should have called himself Joe Cody
or Joe Ringling. Truthfully is / was there
any difference?

   We have a month more, at least here in California, to "shelter-in-place." Look at the murder and mayhem and take your mind off CORVID-19!!! It couldn't be a better distraction for a truly American story, maybe even the story of the American dream.

  This documentary also highlights the perils and danger of these "private" zoos, shelters ... whatever you want to call them. We need to remember that wild animals are, well, wild! One of the cats nearly bites off the arm off one of his employees, others are scratched and mauled. He was lucky. Here in California a "pet" wild chimp literally bit the face off its friend and handler. It had been there for years when suddenly ..... More than we should, we read about or see and hear stories of patrons getting killed or maimed in private zoos, far more often than an official zoo. As I said, these are WILD animals and you can never let your guard down. Why do we go? The thrill, the danger? Clearly the folks visiting any "shelter" or private zoo could be putting their own lives in danger. However, if someone puts on a show, there will be an audience. Making a buck is the American way.

The "Donald" as Joe. Rumors on Facebook said junior
compared himself to Joe. Someone took him up
on a potential look alike. But, it's all fake news, right?
Remember his ancestors were German and his
mother was Scottish and his wives Slvenian.

    Remember, a good many American heroes of the past on closer inspection today could be considered murderers, cheats, land grabbers, crooks, sexual predators. This modern era looks at things very differently TODAY as they did back THEN. It's only now that we are re-writing what is and is NOT acceptable. Consider ... Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, the glass ceiling, the good old boy network, equality for African Americans, women, the LGBTQ community, the faces of immigration, even religion! 

     As much as many in this country would love to believe this is a "white" country the reality was we never were. There were already people here, we forcibly brought people from Africa, and not a few either. Immigrants came from England, Ireland, Scotland and Germany at first then the flood came from everywhere. Each wave was never welcomed. The Chinese were brought to build our railroads and forced to return to China. Mexicans were good enough to pick our crops but not to live here, at least not permanently. It's happened to them all. We didn't want Catholic Irish or Italians, Jews were marginalized, Nordic folks were only good for the lumber industry. The list goes on and on.

     Here in California we are to shelter-in-place until the end of April after already doing it for two weeks. So I say, why not? It's better than the show in D.C.

Thank you for reading my blog. I invite you to take the time to read earlier blogs where my emphasis is to explore the ways art and design affects our daily lives ... and always has. I share with you what inspires me with the hope that it will inspire you as well. Comments are always welcomed! 

Be sure to check my ETSY store ... KrugsStudio.etsy.com. I am adding many new and exciting, collectible birdhouses and craft items. Many of the items talked about here will be for sale there!