Tag Archives: Sioux

My Indian Summer

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Dear Reader,

Indian Summer is defined as a period of unusually warm, dry weather occurring in late autumn, or a period of happiness or success occurring late in life. With my 80th breathing down my neck, I have a one man show, collage classes scheduled with a long waiting list, a couple of lectures on stuff people think I know, I’m healthy, and have a lovely dog.

Feather Color Wheel

This is my Indian summer. I hope my luck lasts, because this is the only game in town, and I’m gonna play it close to the vest, right down to the last “Aces & Eights,” just like Wild Bill Hiccup!

I keep Rosinante, my winged pony, tied up just outside, and I hear her pawing the ground and pulling at the restraints. I never know when I’ll be flown away to my next quest, but I’m ready as ever, and willing to joust with windmills again.

Winged Pony

The soft breezes of my Indian summer, and the hazy red, mountain sunsets, bring back boyhood memories of hot October days, then a cold snap and a huge November snowfall. Indian summer is fugitive, it escapes, and nothing lasts forever.

I’ve been asked, how long will my paper sculptures last? I reply that they will be in landfills for a thousand years, maybe more, if the weather holds.

Feathers in wind

The red feather composition is monochromatic with subtle variations of red orange (the hottest color in the spectrum), with a small amount of green (its complement), to support it and complete the complementary color scheme. Touches of blue are for interest only and only enhance the scheme.

The twelve-tone feather color wheel is painted in full intensity, (the pure quality of color), and is one of many sculptures using eagle feathers as an icon. I am fascinated with the possibilities of feathers as icon, and they were the subjects of my first venture into fine, or personal, art and reflect the Sioux influence on my life.

Carousel Cat

At this time of my Indian summer, I am content as a cat on a carousel. The warm wind is blowing, the leaves are changing to warm colors in a cool forest, and I wake up each morning on the right side of grass…

Thanks for visiting me again…

leo

I’m never content with what I know.
Only with what I can find out.

The Feather Color Wheel is available for $1000.
Two other similar sculptures in the Feathers in the Wind series, are available for $2450 each, at the Grovewood Gallery.

Remember, the Weaverville Art Safari is this weekend!
Come see me and the other artists up on Horseshoe Ridge.

My exhibit is still in its first month at the Grovewood Gallery in Asheville, NC. Click here if you are interested in my collage classes. New classes are being added for January and February.

This is my lovely dog, Stray. Cookie klepto, rabbit runner, and my constant, no-holds-barred, buddy.

Stray

I Must Leaf You Now

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Dear Reader,

I must leaf you now,
Soaring to mold a new life.
Dragonflies lead me.

Fresh October winds carry the leaf, all decked out in its autumn suit of colors, a real show off, an organic dandy, the full range of M&M candy. Autumn is my favorite season and the subject of many paper sculptures since we moved to the mountains of western NC. I’m a leaf picker, a leaf presser and an interpreter of these flamboyant days

Hands picking leaves.

This color wheel is painted in soft tints of the 12 colors in circular arrangement that connects the two ends of the color spectrum. The leaves are painted with a brush and sponge for hue and texture. There is no plan for them. Whatever happens happily happens.

Dragonfly Bones

We had a cold snap and every leaf in the county shivered, looked at their leaf mates and said, “Well, I guess that’s it, time to put on our warm, butterfly colors, get all toned up and flutter into the wind.” Hopefully, dragonflies guide them to the forest floor where they can mingle with the billions of colorful leaves, butterfly, and dragonfly bones.

Down there, among the layers of leaves, the ladybugs search for a warm abode to spend the winter. They fly, but Florida is too far, so Miami is out of the question. They finally cluster in every crook and nanny of our houses.

Ladybug Bones

Geese come flying down our valley in gaggles, and goose groupies gather to watch them bathe in bunches in the ponds, lakes, and rivers. The trees of autumn that line the banks in Indian summer become my paper feathers, painted in fall hues.

Geese in Indian Summer

Indian summer takes me back to the Black Hills, the Sioux, and my boyhood search for arrowheads and the imaginary cache of feathers in a headdress, left behind for me to find, decades later. Ben Black Elk said they wouldn’t be there, but keep looking anyway.

Sioux Autumn

I’ll write about autumn until the first skittle of snow touches the bare trees.

My show opening went very well and the collage workshops begin soon so I have a lot to look forward to. I’m like the ladybugs; I have a warm house, a sheepskin-lined jacket, a neighbor boy to shovel the little bit of snow that falls, and bourbon hot toddies.

“At my age I don’t care about health food. I need all the preservatives I can get. I live in my own little world. But that’s ok, they know me here.”

Thanks for coming to the show and for visiting me . . .

leo

I’m never satisfied with what I know.
Only, with what I can find out.

“Leaf Hands Color Wheel” is available for $1000.
“Dragonfly Bones II” is available for $2000.  SOLD!
“Geese in Indian Summer” is available for $2800.

Both pieces are at my exhibit at the Grovewood Gallery.

My work can be purchased at the Grovewood Gallery on the grounds of the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC. Click on the following link if you’re interested in one of my collage workshops.