Ulasovetz Psalms

Lately Psalm type thoughts have been coming into mind. I have started writing them down as a new “work in progress”. As the first drafts are completed and or revised their current state can be viewed on my website at http://ulasovetz.com. I expect work on this project will continue off and on for about the next year.

New Oil Painting – Daffodil

Here is a photo of a new oil painting now in “Gallery 1″ on my website.

Motor Home Initiation

I accidentally dumped my oil painting pallet upside down (it always falls upside down) on the carpet. Is there another way for an artist to initiate a new motor home? I now have two *permanent* blotches on the carpet . . . one blotch is Cobalt Violet and the other is Ultramarine Blue. I consider myself lucky (oh?) because I was just loading the pallet. When I knocked it down, I had only the two colors on it. Dammit!

Setup To Paint Again

Today I decided to work on some new art. It was too windy outside so I set things up in the trailer. The most difficult task was *finding* everything I needed. Then finally when I started to paint inside, I thought it was too dark so I had to run down to Canadian Tire and purchase a Halogen desk lamp which I could set up in an overhead compartment to shine down upon the canvas. Now I have to go thru a learning curve to be able to adequately cope with the small space available. I didn’t do too badly after I discovered that I could set my Julienne easel on the table and extend two legs of the easel over the edge of the table to the floor. My seat was my sofa but I had to be very careful whenever I had to move within the trailer to not knock over anything.

Although my oil paints are toxic, I use walnut oil as a medium to eliminate the need for turpentine and I use an odorless solvent to clean brushes. This seems to work well in the confined space of the trailer and I didn’t notice anything negative with this setup other than being cramped for space. But I think I can learn to live with that and also take advantage of nice days to paint outdoors where I can have all the space I want. Of course nothing beats having a permanent studio in which to paint.

A couple in the next campsite to me, from Florida enroute to tour Alaska in their motorhome, found out that they could not take fresh meat across the border to the US. An unexpected windfall for me! They gave me enough meat to last me for at least ten meals. Thank you!

Downsizing from a large house to a 26′ travel trailer

It is *not* easy downsizing to a 26′ travel trailer. I have been getting rid of stuff for a week now and I still can’t see any less stuff in the house. I have only 7 days left before the new owners take possesion of my house. My “to-do” list is still long and most of the tasks’ “due dates” are now *over due*. I am taking great care to *not* overload the trailer, and I am taking care to put only a minimum amount of stuff in storage. But whatever it takes . . . I *will* vacate the house on May 15th.

My paintings (children?) will very soon be in storage and not be easily accessible. I will only have *new* paintings with me for the next long while as I create new works, in new locations. Of course I will continue to blog and I will continue to update my website.

Now . . . back to work.

If It’s Spring . . . Why Is It Still Snowing?

In two days it will be April. Yesterday we ended about another one foot dump of snow . . . on top of the still existing four to five feet *everywhere*. This morning started with a temperature of -11 degrees Celsius.

I reorganized the gallery pages on my website to have “gallery 1” for recent artwork and “gallery 2” for retrospective artwork. Thus gallery 1 will be much more dynamic as it will only display a maximum of ten recent paintings at any one time.

New Painting: “Haines, Alaska”

This morning when I crawled out of bed, shivering from the cold, I looked at the -37 degrees celcius showing on the outdoor thermometer and then I quickly turned up the furnace thermostat and started a fire in one of the wood stoves.

This morning I completed an oil painting that reminded me of a warm summer day in Haines, Alaska. Here it is shown below:

More About Aggie

Below is a graphite drawing I completed in 1988 and found while going through my junque. The fancy glasses were in style at that time. Below that, is an oil painting, that I found with it, completed by Aggie in 1992. Aggie’s paintings can be seen in Aggie’s Gallery.

Federation of Canadian Artists – Rejection

I am sorry to say that my application for Active Status with the Federation of Canadian Artists was declined by the jury panel. As they used the art on my website as the work being juried, I suppose I should assume that there is nothing on there that is worthy of FCA membership.

I have a rejection business card with text that I think suits this event. It says: “THANK YOU for at least thinking of me. SORRY, but I won’t be returning the favour.”

Is This Painting Offensive?

Is this painting offensive?

As volunteer webmaster of the Tagish Community website and a resident of Tagish Yukon, I included one of my paintings on the Tagish Community blog site header, with a caption that said: “Weblog Painting by Ulasovetz”. I also included a link to *my* website from a page that was specifically designed to link to local area artist pages and websites. On the “Tagish Business” page there was a link to what I think is the best web hosting site available on the internet and is where my site is hosted and which I recommended to any viewers that may be considering building their own website. On the Tagish “Notice Board” page there was a for sale sign for my house that was actually a link to my website where information about my house resides. That’s it . . . the sum total exposure for myself, a resident of Tagish, on the Tagish Community website.

Now, why this post? I was definitely PO’d because:

1. I was accused of “hijacking” the Tagish Community website because my name was “all over the place” on it. The accusation was by one person that backed up his argument by saying that there were others in the community that felt the same way.
2. I was told that my painting should *not* be in the header of the blog. It is a painting of “Emerald Lake” (near Tagish), not of Tagish, and it gives me exposure that I am not paying for. Oh? What about the time spent as webmaster at no charge? Also, why should I pay for it? I own the copyright, I donated the use of the image, and it enhanced the look of the site.
3. On the business page I had a link to an *American* website host. How terrible! I should *never* promote an American business. Excuse me? I was recommending a host site that I was using, and in my entire career of working in IT I have never run across a better hosting business than “Bluehost”. And there are many American residents in Tagish.
4. Another complaint: “I want free advertising also”. So I prepared an ad for *him* and called him to come over and proof it. He did come over, but said that he didn’t want to advertise (contrary to his previous blog comment) and complained about “hijacking”, and other things, *again*.

If you were me . . . what would you do at this point? I completely purged “Ulasovetz” from the Tagish Community website. There is no longer any reference to “Ulasovetz” on it. I posted a request on the Community blog for a new webmaster to volunteer to take my place. And until then, I volunteered to continue as webmaster, unless the Commuity wanted me to resign before then, in which case I would be happy to do so. I also purged any reference to “Bluehost”.

Are my actions wrong? Should my *purge* not have taken place? Does this Community have a problem? Are their actions correct? At this point I really do not care. I will continue to be an artist, and I will continue with an artist’s temperment. When people like a piece of my artwork enough, it will have found a home and I will continue to produce more . . . as long as I can.