our new pup prancing in the snow

It’s a good thing that our new pup took to the snow because we’ve gotten a ton of it this winter. Here’s a pic of her prancing in the snow— I was hoping to get a shot of her running through the yard with her nose plowing piles of snow to eat, but she is just too damned fast— so this will have to do.

Filed under: family, life, maine, personal., pics, portland. , dog, pics, puppy

more progress on the house

Despite the rough beginning to our week, when we woke to a house with no heat as a result of our aging boiler igniter and motor,progress on the house is marching on and its beginning to look like a whole new house. The siding on the front of our house is done, replacement windows are in and despite the 4” of new snow last night and the on and off snow/rain all day I came home this afternoon and was greeted with a view of our new metal roof on the addition (2nd pic).Now work is beginning on the inside— tomorrow the studio gets a skylight and the lower roof gets finished. We have just about a month and a half before its all done and I can’t wait!

Filed under: family, kevin + karen townsend, life, maine, personal., pics, portland., thoughts , home, home improvement, life, personal.

before and after

here is our house as it looked in Jan 2006

and here is how it looks now in February 2008

The updates and the addition are still going on despite the 4-5 foot piles of snow and the 12 degree weather. We are loving all the changes so far and just can’t wait for the rest of the work to be done.

Filed under: family, kevin + karen townsend, life, maine, personal., portland., random , home, home improvement, life, personal.

unthirsty bug

So we’ve had our Deisel bug (see earlier post) for just over a week and a half and I am having fun driving it. But the thing that is surprising to me is just what 45+ miles to the gallon feels like in practical usage. I filled the car up on the night we bought it (11 days ago) I have driven it about 230 miles in and around town as well as on the highway and I still have half a tank of gas left. I must admit, my inner geek is eager to calculate the actual gas mileage when I refill the tank.

Filed under: life, portland., random, thoughts, travel

life on the road

It has been a while since I took the time to post or for that matter to write anything. For the last few weeks we have been running around and traveling— and it has been exhausting. Over the last few weeks we spent so much time in the car with 2, 14 hour round trips to NJ and then 30 minutes in the car to go anywhere or do anything while we were there. Every trip back to NJ just reaffirms our decision to move to Portland and reclaim OUR lives.

Filed under: family, maine, personal., portland., thoughts

back to school

I have reached a point where in order to move forward I need to go back to school for my MFA. Both as an artist and an educator this is the next step I need to take in order to elevate my thinking, understanding and making of art. I am looking at low-residency programs which will allow me to participate in intensive study periods in the summer and winter with time between to work in my own studio on my own terms, while maintaining a regular dialogs with a mentor here in Portland. Now I just need to get to work, and make it happen.

from : Some Rules and Hints for Students and Teachers
By John Cage

RULE 7:
The only rule is work
If you work it will lead to something
It is the people who do all of the work all the time who eventually catch onto things.
You can fool the fans – but not the players.

Filed under: art+photography, artsy., life, personal., portland., thoughts

artful espresso

I enjoy the occasional cup of good coffee, but I have a daily craving for the perfect espresso machiato— a shot of espresso topped with just a bit of milk foam. (sorry Starbucks, but I’m not talking about you) There is one place in Portland that makes such a drink— Arabica. And if I had unlimited funds I would go twice a day. With out any exaggeration, Arabica makes THE BEST espresso machiato I have ever tasted, and Karen loves their cappuccino which comes out looking like this. Now Starbucks makes a decent, strong and slightly bitter cup of regular coffee, and any espresso drink with milk in it is very drinkable there. But once you taste real espresso with its rich almost terracotta colored crema and thick bitter-sweet, velvety goodness, Starbucks espresso just feels like burnt, brown water in your mouth. My problem now is that I have had this miraculous machiato I crave it daily and the espresso I make at home doesn’t even come close to satisfying me.

I must find the best beans for eliciting the ever elusive rich, reddish crema and the sweet side of espresso, so that I may quench this thirst from the comfort of my home—

I wonder if they would sell me the beans they use at Arabica…

Filed under: eating, food., life, portland., thoughts

spring to action

Our weekend disappeared in a wink. One suggestion lead to a multitude of actions that involved the re-arranging an re-thinking of at least three rooms in our house. It all started with a simple idea to move some book shelves out of our studio in order to make some more room. But then, where do the shelves go? After a full Saturday of lifting and moving all is calm again in the house and it feels even more like home. In the studio we gained floor space and a new work wall, Teagan’s room feels like its larger and our guest room looks pulled together for the first time, instead of like a feeling like an orphanage for unwanted and forgotten furniture. We have been in this house for over a year, and while a lot has been done it feels like we are just now putting on those touches and making those tweaks that make a house feel like a home. The added bonus is that we are slimming down with each series of edits and tweaks that we make around the house. We keep ditching and donating any unused or unneeded things, even Teagan has stepped up and filled three, rather large, boxes with her un-played-with toys since we’ve been in Portland.

on a side note:
for the first time in our lives, our weekly recycle pile is larger than our trash pile.

Filed under: family, life, maine, personal., pics, portland., random

wow.

Teagan isn’t feeling well today and is watching the movie Cars for the gazillionth time. So I fired up Virgil, my trusty ibook, and began cruising for new-to-me art sites. In the process of searching I found a lot of great sites (see the del.icio.us links) but I also came across a name that sounded familiar: Tara Donovan. This is some one who graduated CCA+D two years before us and went on to do grad-school at VCU with one of our former professors: Kendall Buster, who’s work is incredible and incidentally she now has a book out on critique. Back to Donovan’s work— it has grown and changed so much from her under-grad thesis exhibition that I saw as a sophmore, and now she is getting amazing solo shows and producing works that are sublime. Finding her work is just another in what is beginning to feel like a string of inspiring moments.

Filed under: art+photography, artsy., backstory, life, personal., pics, portland.

fresh Maine crab cakes.

This is my own, original crab cake recipe. It has been receiving rave reviews from all who have had the pleasure of indulging in their lilliputian lusciousness. The secret to this dainty and delectable dish is to use fresh crab meat. I happen to live in Portland (ME) and have access to amazingly fresh local crab. I use Portland Lighthouse crab meat. It is available in local groceries and is fresh (never frozen) and has no chemicals and no preservatives and the taste is sooo buttery and sweet. The other thing that has made my petite, piquant crab cakes so popular is the mango and avocado salsa that I serve on top of them. I think I have sufficiently hyped up this dish so with out further ado here my recipe…

Filed under: food., life, pics, portland., recipes