As I’ve been making work related to the upcoming show themed “Surroundings” I have not been able to ignore the increasing evidence of homelessness in the urban landscape of Portland and it’s started to show up in the paintings. If I divorce myself from the social and personal tragedy of it and look at it from a visual perspective, it is an undeniable ‘texture’ to our city’s landscape. I watch as camps come and go and come again. They spread out as other campers join and the detritus they generate grows as time passes with no sanitation services. It’s troubling and it’s an undeniable part of our current landscape.
Bill Sharp - paintings blog 
Beautific. I am glad you are painting. Remind me of the show – when and where. I think it’s a 3 person one in Portland.
I’ve been pulled back from the world. My dad died on September 10 and it has been a month full of all of the stuff you have to do to take care of your last parent. I’ll send another email that recounts things. At 94.5 years old, it was anticipated and unexpected, since you can never really quite get that your parents are dead. I am doing O.K. considering this is on the heels of my longest and dearest friend passing away in July. Jim’s long time childhood friend whom he visited in Arizona 2X a year died in August, and another local friend died last week. So lots of exodus from the planet. One of the things Joyce was happy about was that she would not have to witness anymore of the 45 disasters. Certainly it was a blessing she missed the Kavanaugh hearings.
I was awarded a residency at Jentel http://jentelarts.org/ for a month in AUG 15- SEPT 14. It was good to get out a town, Wyoming is gorgeous, but it was on the heels of my dad being hospitalized with pneumonia. I got sick before I left for the residency, so I did more resting and restoring than making art while I was there. My dad died the last week I was there, so Wyoming actually helped me a great deal with my grief soothed by the land. There were other artists there (4 visuals, including me, and 2 poets). The other painters were 28 – 33 years old. They all worked hard, but they also wanted to drink hard too. One of the poets from the south was a dedicated (heavy?) drinker, so when he offered to make mixed drinks for everyone (frequently), needless to say the youngsters dropped everything and imbibed. This was less than optimal for me since I was 1) exhausted, 2) grieving and 3) not drinking. I flew my drone, got some really, really small paintings done, read, hiked and biked. Jentel is wonderfully designed and situated in a beautiful spot on the planet. You should apply if you don’t mind living with 5 other people for a month. J
DO take care of yourself. I hope you and Kathy are back together. Head pats to your dog – hugs to you.
Kathy
I was exhausted when I returned, and then all the planning, graveside burial, Memorial Service and extraneous minutia that comes up has keep me hoping until now. It has been really nice to listen to organ music on line to try and figure out what to include in my dad’s service. His service will be NOV 10th ( a little backwards to bury him, then have the funeral, but that’s just the way the Gores roll). I am wistfully looking forward to concluding all of this and attempting to get back to my life. I desperately need to paint just for my sanity. The weather has been a god send just to keep my mood above average.
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