New pieces for 2011!

Happy New Year! I have started this one out with a bang! I have been working with my sister making art mirrors and furniture for our business Harlan Mckenna Designs, and have been taking a once a month trip down to Atlanta to Scott's Market for that. Right after our first trip in November, I had a little accident on a woods trek and landed wrong on a steep jump and completely tore my ACL. Meaning, I now have only three ligaments in that knee instead of four. Of course I was immediately scheduled for surgery which would have been first thing in the morning, this day the 13th, had I not called today to cancel! Seems pretty crazy to cut myself up with holes drilled in both leg bones and a cadaver ligament, bone grafts and screws placed in when I have been able to run several miles, weight train as usual, and just about everything else I usually do with no pain or problems. The first month it did hurt and of course I did limp about the first couple of weeks. Believe you me, I took the injury very seriously and still do. I would not subject myself to a life of pain or a sedentary life, but I have really, miraculously, and perhaps abnormally, had little trouble with this knee. So, I can atleast continue strengthening it a few more months and see where I am then. I really have way too many irons in the fire to go through several weeks on crutches, with serious rehab time driving to and fro the Physical Therapist, and then full 12-18 months before I have a "normal" knee. It really seems "normal" to me now, barely two months since the injury! I am thrilled!

Here I am at our last atlanta trip,...displaying a moon I took for kicks in front of some of the pieces my sister and I make.

And for the STJ update today,..I pulled out some Valentine WIPS and finished them off, cute little ornies trimmed in feathers,...giving them a warm and cozy look! Maybe all the recent snow here caused me to add the trims,....
Here is a moon shaker on STJ, actually, he is a moon on a stick as I usually do not make these hollow. He has different ribbons dangling from his vintage tinker toy wooden stick handle and a few bells and rusty stars.,..
Back to the biggest Valentine heart,..

A snowflake,...And Praise be to the Gods I can once again revel in a Halloween color palette! I really do not enjoy any other one, truth be told.

This black cat has a paper Dresden black cat embellishment on his hat from a trip to The Tinsel Trading Company in N.Y. back in October,...time to use all these little bits of this and that I have collected,...and a hand sewn crepe collar in purple orange and black!
Here, kitty kitty!!
Here are the pair together,..
I painted in some teeth,..
That's all for now! I have about four other posts saved in this blog that I need to finish and publish. Time has really gotten away from me and I hope to post more here soon.

Thanks for stopping by!!

A White Christmas and a Momentous Passing,...

Here in N.C my family had a Christmas that we will never forget, as it was at once sad, beautiful, and magical.

On Christmas Eve, our oldest horse and animal member of the family, a 38 year old Leopard Appaloosa (my Father's horse and his dearest pet), Sugar, passed away due to natural causes.

My Father's good friend Todd baxter painted this beautiful painting of my father and Sugar.

This painting is worth a thousand words,....

As sad as it was, it was a beautiful and meaningful time for him to leave us, on Christmas Eve. When my sister and I were growing up, we had a yearly tradition with out father of going on a Christmas Eve ride. We would each hop on our horse, (Dad always on Sugar, myself on Charger, and Dusti on either Judy or Giddeon, depending on the year) and we would ride down past the big pond and springhouse and through the woods beyond and into "pasture number one", where we would then take off full speed for a good gallop and romp to the top off the nearest hill. We would let the horses graze as we would philosophize and discuss whatever was in our hearts and minds, at the time, together. Memories we will all share for years to come. This spring,..after all THIS thaws,...(these pictures were taken around my house in Cabarrus County,...I have yet to get some pictures of the farm in the snow this year. I wish I could find myself snowbound at the farm!! I used to love riding in the snow when I was a kid, it was a rare and special treat. These days I enjoy hiking in it almost as much with my dog.)

Frozen textures and shapes that transform the ordinary, stopping me in my tracks,..

The steam on the camera lense created a beautiful shot,..

The snow on the trail I usual run up had me mushing through instead,..

So this spring, we will usher in a new era by bringing home some new horses, and ones the kids can ride. There will never be another Sugar, but the farm would not be the farm without the sound of nickers, snorts, laughing children, and galloping hooves. Until then may the snowy frozen ground be a peaceful resting place for Sugar.

Run, Lyla, run!
It's all too beautiful for words,..

If you don't look closely at this one below, you may miss Lyla as she is the same golden shade as these hanging on leaves,..
The colors here below are in perfect complimentary harmony!

Old fence behind the high school where I stop for a stretch,..

It has been an unforgettable winter here in N.C so far, with more snowfall than I can remember in a long time. A beautiful White Christmas. Rest in peace and stay in our memories, Sugarboy.

Dad's New Series of Highway Paintings!

My father is painting every day now. He has been painting plein air, landscapes and cattle, old buildings and barns, anything that catches his eye in the perfect light around where he lives. He recently had an idea to take photographs while driving on a road trip to Tennessee for a smokejumper awards ceremony, where he accepted an award on behalf of his smokejumper friend, John McBride, who died last May. (Dad was a smokejumper in the 60's in Alaska and put himself through design school working seasons at a time.) For the past 11 years, he, John, and other retired smokejumpers have been doing volunteer wilderness trail maintenance work together with The National Smokejumper Association. John was cofounder of the trails program. When Dad is at home, he is completely consumed with painting. I am always excited to see his efforts of the week. Below are the resulting paintings from the quick photographs he snapped on that drive. He paints these on primed canvas panel in oils.

This one here is my favorite...


The best things about his paintings are the loose and bold way he applies each stroke, you can see the paint so well in person, and I love the resulting abstraction! If you squint your eyes while looking at any of his paintings, they appear even more solid and real!

An interesting thing about my father and his eyesight, he is color blind. When discussing his paintings with him, and I say, "oh, that green, right there," he will say "that's green!?" It's so funny how subjective sight and color is, anyway. Who can really know what another person sees? He almost lost his sight several years ago due to a cataract corrective surgery gone bad. He was one of the unfortunate 1% of people who get an infection. He almost lost his sight due to the resulting infection and it took a year or more of surgeries to get his sight back to what it was pre-surgery. He also is a sharp shooter, gun collector, and bullet maker, and so loosing his sight would have been particularly tragic.

This one is another favorite of mine, I love the looseness and thick impasto brushwork! It's just so lush! Wintry, too!

Here is another beauty, I love the watery mist and spray underneath the truck,...

And the light here is so warm and inviting! Reminds me of that cheery moment of driving solitude we have all experienced, perhaps when you just start a long drive, in the morning, and are just enjoying the sights as they pass you by,...

This one has a more hustle and bustle feeling to me,...

A mundane sight transformed,...the highway sign we are all familiar with,..I particularly like how the view through the truck's windshield is a darker patch of blue,...

And this one is so full of action, you can hear the rush of the big rig as it passes, almost feel the vibration!
This one, again, because it is my favorite. So serene,... and almost comforting. The universal driving experience of private thoughts, and the resulting emotion and induced meditation of being hurled through the world at high speed through a changing landscape are captured so well in these paintings.

Thanks, Dad for showing us a glimpse into how you see the world!

Huge Wintry Moon Lantern Available On Ebay!
Am finishing up a round of orders but was able to list one large moon last night, he's only on for 5 days ending late Monday night!

Have been making ornaments that will be up for grabs soon ,too!

Here is a detail of the big guy:

He is 15" deep! Will be strung with a wire bail for hanging...

And a recent devil lamp, already sold,...

Thanks for stopping by!