I'm Back in Business!

My sanity has slowly returned.

After fighting with my Mac OS off and on for the past five weeks, I'm finally back in the driver's seat. I've learned more technical stuff than I care about. Turns out that all of my glitches and false starts led back to the new RAM which I had my service technician install. My goal was to max out the RAM on my computer. When I brought my Mac home, I immediately had a problem starting up. As you all now know, it went downhill from there. My son (who is smarter than I'll ever be) suggested that I take the new RAM out. I could have done that, on day two, but I just knew that that solution was too easy. So I struggled along until last Friday, and got so frustrated that I finally opened the back of the computer and jerked out the RAM. Guess what??!! As soon as I put my old RAM back in my computer all problems ceased. Unreal. Five weeks. FIVE WEEKS of pure agony. And to think that I even had the hard drive erased. Replacing and rebuilding old files has not been fun. Geez. I'm a bit smarter now.

Last week, I took a leisurely drive to Camp McDowell located outside of Nauvoo, Alabama. It's located in the northwest quadrant of the state, in an area which I have not explored very much. I met with a lovely young woman who is the Director of the newest branch of the facility THE ALABAMA FOLK SCHOOL at CAMP MCDOWELL. She loved my portfolio of lino block prints. I'm signed on to teach Linoleum Block Relief Printing the weekend of December 7th -9th. This is exciting! It's a wonderful opportunity and I'm looking forward to meeting lots of interesting people. The Folk School at Camp McDowell is modeled on the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina.

And speaking of lino prints, here's my latest cut. The title of it is "Like a Marlin To Its Gourd." In June, when I participated in the art festival at Aldridge Gardens (Hoover, AL) a couple came over to my booth to chat. The guy, who had grown up in the South, seemed to identify with all of the block prints that had gourds. He said that the imagery of the gourds and the birds reminded him of a saying that he had heard his father utter many times, while working the farm. I loved his story. Many times, the images in my block prints are based on stories or sayings or some recollection that has jarred someone's memory. Patrons love to share memories (of days gone by) with me as they view my work and reflect on their formative years growing up in the south. Friends and family have shared stories of their youth, also, and it has afforded me an opportunity to record some of those memories through my interpretation via block prints...and needlepoint, too. I love the south . . .and all things southern!

My next art venue will take place in October. Don't forget to mark your calendar for Saturday, October 6, 2007 the 44th Annual Bluff Park Art Festival.

MacIntosh OS Mayhem

I love my MacIntosh computer. However, my home OS system has been down for nearly one month and I have not been a happy camper.

I'm a Mac OS (that's "operating system" for those of you who are Mac challenged) diehard so there's no need to suggest that I consider a PC. Over the past few weeks, I have been at the end of my rope trying to figure out what to do and how to do it. . .with regard to getting my system back up and running. I'm a great designer (and I say that with the utmost humility) but when it comes to the tech stuff, I'm like a fish out of water. None of it makes sense. And for me to function at full capacity it HAS to make sense.

I'm unable to pinpoint the exact day or time when my trouble started. I knew that I had a problem -a REAL problem- when I had to call APPLE CARE more than twice in one evening. The technician would talk me thru a troubleshooting phase and each time that I thought that the problem was resolved, invariably something else would go wacky as soon as I hung up the phone. It's been a roller coaster ride and then some. I had the option of taking my system to the new APPLE Store located right here in Birmingham, at the Summit, but I am intensely loyal to the authorized Apple technicians at PERRY COMPUTING in Homewood. These guys care. I like the fact that they know me. Anyway, last week it came down to erasing the hard drive. Ugh!

The deed has been done. My computer has been returned to me. So far, so good. Hopefully, I can get back on track. Unfortunately, I've lost every bookmark/address and will have to rebuild my list but if that's all that I have to do, it's a small price to pay.

I've been so distracted with my computer that I've lost precious time cutting new lino blocks for next art show. I'll be an exhibitor at the Bluff Park Art Festival, Bluff Park, on Saturday, October 6th. Time to get busy!!