chek back for a new painting this front page ever monday (ya bookmark me) or come see me at my Shed at the flea market on the tesuque reservation in new mexico (mid march thru december)
-------------weakly
Tacos al Pastor foto by Kat Livengood
last week in tuscon
with avocado and refried beans at Epsons Taqueria.....
today all i get is two gallons of clear liquid laxative for lunch dinner & breakfast before they send a garden hose with a flashlight up my asshole looking for trouble
last night as i was waiting on my prescription at Wal Greens i browsed the canned food aisle reading about pressed meat and gelatin when a elderly hispanic lady passed by me looking me up and down before suddenly stopping and coming back suggesting there were some very nice jackets up front that are regularly 24.99 but are now on sale for only 14.99.....
i continued reading about pig intestines in a can wondering if the subliminal suggestion of me studying the ingrediant labels of vienna sausages at 9 pm was enough to trigger the nice ladies empathy button
but when i looked up at the video camera surveiling me i realized i prolly appeared to her as more likely a homeless guy hoping to make a meal of pressed ham with a shot of jack daniels than an artist in need of a wardrobe makeover
life grows shorter funnier and occasionally more tragic when i forget the miracle of being alive on a tiny planet in a vast universe and then i cheerfully remember christmas candy is on sale (chocalate reindeers) on the next aisle over and that would be a nice desert to go with the canned tripe and a shot of jack daniels when i lay down to sleep under the bridge tonite
all sumi ink on real good paper
i used to play secret games when i was a kid jeminy and jericho were two of my favorite play friends
sould
they were toy cowboys and i took them on big adventures over the couch and up the chairs to the lookout point on the piano
they are still with me but they spend most of their time hidden under the volcano at the flea market with all the other strange animals i paint but at night they still come out to play around my shed
DEAR MOMA MUSEUM OF MODERN ARTS CUREATOR OF THE ARTS MS ANNE TEMKIN LAST WEEK WHILE IN OKLIEHOMA I STOPED AT A TRUCKSTOP FOR A BATHROOM BREAK (#1) AND WHEN I HAD FINISHD MY BUSINESS EYE TURNED AROUND AND LO AND BEHOLD THERE ON ONE OF THE VENDN MACHINES WAS A PIXTURE OF A WOMAN WHO LOOKD JUST LIKE YOU (EXCEPT HER MOUTH WAS WIDE OPEN AND HER EYES WHAS CLOSD) AND I REALIZD IT WAS A SIGHN FROM GOD (HE HAS ASSURED ME MY TIME IS COMN) THAT I WRITE YOU THIS WEEK TO LET YOU KNOW MY CUTTING EDGE (I AM WORKN ON HORSES AND RABBITS REAL HARD ANDAS I LOOKED ON YOUR WEBSITE I NOTICED THAT SURE ENOUGH YOU DIDNT HAVE ANY HORSES RUNNIN WITH DARK BIRDS FLYN OVER THEM AT THE MOMA MUSEUM) FLEA MARKET ART IS READY FOR THE SOLO FIRST TIME YOU GOT A DRY PATCH AND WANT ME TO MAIL THE NEW HORSE PAINTINGS YOUR WAY (PLEASE GIVE ME A WEEK NOTICE)
WILL BE MAILD JANUREY 17 2012
January 10th 2012 taking a week off while traveling thru Oklahoma and Arkansas and will have something to post next week
Under the Volcano 32 x 32 oily on a door
Dharmageddon
were right about 2012 being the end and has cans of beans gallons of water and crystals piled high in his van....
and if your not ready for jesus you will spend eternity in the firey lake...
Hatman says nature will correct the imbalance soon and possibly it will be the volcano behind the flea that washes us all away....
Guru on aisle C says it doesnt matter if this life ends because most of us are gonna come back and do it again
cant make a dime at the flea its the end of the money thats for damn sure
Peter Bilt says he hasnt a clue it dont matter to him hes gonna drive his truck til they pull him out of his 18 wheeler dead or alive
and me? im not sure about anything but i do know that at night under the light of our moon the dark dawgs the dark birds and the wild horses will come out to celebrate under the volcano the miracle that we are still alive
in the year 2012
my New Book Absurdity is my Friend available now (free shipping til january 1st) 192 pages featuring
End of the Year at the Flea drawing (not for sale)
thanks for coming out to see me at the flea this year in a world of indoor malls, big box stores and corporate discounts it is appreciated that folks will still come see some of the biggest underdawgs in town at the tesuque pueblo flea market...... starting this friday my alley studio on canyon will be open pretty much everday thru the first week of the year.....
one real thing foto by Kat Livengood
an original homestyle hotel At the rim of one the wonders of the world inside the lodge as we get up to leave Today outside of the bright star lodge and the illusion continues parts of the grand canyon and yet the Grand Canyon is still one real thing in a world of virtual living and plastic crap if you take the time to look
The Wheel oil and misc other on wood
its the end of the year at the flea and im enjoying painting in the cold more than usual thanks to the sun and three layers of artificial skin
rabbits are hiding under the metal storage containers an impregnable varmint bunker
the sparrows fly into my shed at 4 pm everyday returning home from a long days work i think they want me to fix dinner and tell them a story
clik here for my end of the year misfits, hidden aways & unwanteds sale
Fire Theft small oily canvas
ya i know they say Bronco Bob died but did you see an obituary? do you know anyone who was at the funeral? dont repeat this to anyone but Bronco Bob was abducted at the flea on a monday when no one was here and i should know im the one who found his open tarps flapping in the wind with his stuff laying on the ground no sir he was taken up into the sky and it wasnt in some holy chariot it was a bolt of light brighter than the sun and darker than the night all rolled together but im not saying we arent gonna see him again because i dont think hes dead i just think he got sucked up into the sky where they are implanting new memories into his brain and i will not be surprised to see him on aisle A again selling his photos next summer course that doesnt mean whoever the fella with long silver hair wearing a big white cowboy hat selling photos really is Bronco Bob now does it?
Dharmageddon last week at the flea
dark bird landing sould oil on odd bits of found wood 17 x 24
"last i heard of Sister Righteous
at the gorge bridge in taos course she moves around alot as shes always preachin her jesus stuff to the heathens at the market which naturally wears out her welcome pretty fast and it doesnt help that she drinks Johnny Walker red straight out of the bottle when she goes to her van for "supplies" but she'll be back to the flea next summer i would expect cause theres no foot traffic on that bridge til june and my goodness the april wind on the gorge rim might just blow over her van into the rio grande anyway" Voice of Angel
mountain spirit sould oily on canvas (clik hear for one more painting)
yesterday at the flea
now a sparrows buffet
rabbits took cover under my car an RV (Rabbit Vehicle) for the bunnies who wish they could hop inside and drive 55 to the farmers market
armegeddon
for the insects
they all saw it coming begged & prayed for mercy to their bug gawd but nothing could stop the mercury from hitting 32
we danced on the rim of the grand canyon while elk watched us from afar studying every shimmy and shake a new dance sensation for the 4 legged up on their hind legs doing " the meat eater"
wilderness wood parts put together and painted about 48 inches long
sorry no write today it was complete crap will try again next week
the last two people on earth sould 50 x 83 oily on loose canvas clik hear for one more new painting
a dirty little bird stuck his head into my can of rice and beans at the flea yesterday a fair trade for listening to me try to whistle like a sparrow all weekend long....
a tiny particle broke the law of the speed of light mystery being the only constant of the cosmos that can be confirmed in the labs....
he whispered medicine...this is medicine.... his voice was wise he was a great artist of course he didnt tale me that no real artist ever does
im repeating myself im repeating myself into a place where altered states come natural to you if you hum while you walk the words show up later when i paint at the shed
Dead Cowboy joins the Naked Assasin sould big oily on loose canvas
in the summer of 1969
over the persimmon trees past the fence into the cow pasture and i was suddenly a hero to every boy in my neighborhood... i was golden that day as i rounded the bases past a friend who would eventually become a cop and was greeted at home plate by my hysterical team including the asthmatic twins with their chihuahua dog bandito (who despite standing in 80 degree heat was shaking as violently as ever....) those were the days when the game was all that mattered could you hit? could you catch a ball? more importantly would you be on time for the game? religion, politics and the bumps of life hadnt strangely distorted us yet as we played on our field of dreams when the game was over we would drink water from the garden hose maybe eat a candy bar and talk about trading baseball cards until we were cool enough to return to the diamond and play another game in my golden summer of 1969
GIANT 32 x 24 wood scraps from the flea SOULD
october 3rd 2011 dead cowboy came by yesterday he yelled "hey hill billy you ever get tired of painting at the flea?" i just turned the music up louder and smiled he knows what i love its a game we play.... and so back to my screwgun & hammer & saw im buzzing all day long and then comes the soft paint the music if you will notes in my strange song i often wonder what the effect of my sound has on the lizard that is living in my shed this summer does he come out at night and look at the art? does he talk to the toys in my shed? is he guilt ridden that his sound may be responsible for creating all this awful art? next week when i see the lizard i will speakly gently with him from my old metal chair assuring him that i am responsible but that if he has any great ideas for a painting (perhaps a heroic lizard fighting off a dark bird?) im always open to suggestions
Chimayo Coyote photo by Kat Livengood
my monthly (well almost monthly) art and a story from the desert newsletter comes out tomorrow with some interesting new art and photos from the desert and a story about a dream of a bear, a coyote, and a wild horse (sign up here if you arent on the newsletter and want a superiour way to waste time)
NOW sould multiple mixed up medias hammered glued and nailed together (alot of this one can only be seen in close inspection)
"luck" to paint at a flea market in the desert
that i can only describe as
- "kindness"
"now"
Chinle Wash sould big oily clik hear for one more new painting
sept 12th 2011
with no name no face no place
i saw last week to the flea this week they became manifest and began galloping
protected by luck & truth sould big oily mess
sept 4 2011
whats your story?
birth of a new myth ssoouulldd 39 x 59 oily painting on loose canvas
i danced with a lizard in my shed yesterday every move i made reflected back to me by the syncopated reptile
sometimes it seems we are more like monkeys than we think fighting over who gets the most bananas & arguing about what grunt we will label gawd with
the andromeda galaxy is 2 million light years from earth and has over 200 billion stars in it the tumbleweed cafe is 50 foot from my shed and three chikn tacos & a coke is $5
animal tracks circled my shed this weekend rabbits may have set up fort under my paint board armed with paint brushes peering out thru my tarps at surprised coyotes
when i returned home last nite my headlights caught a skunk sitting on my porch looking at one of my paintings i asked him if he wanted to join my art newsletter
Parallel worlds sould about 15 inches tall
august 22 2011
coyote tracks all around
maybe looking for one of the red finch fallen from a nest or possibly he loves figurative art and thinks my dark dawg paintings reflect the existental crisis of a modern coyote dependent on the trash pile at the flea - i went to an art fair last week in downtown santa fe there must be 5 or 6 during the summer none of which i can be part of cuz im not indian enough to be in indian market im not successful enough to be in the outsider art show im not hispanic enough to be in the spanish market im not a chicken painter so i cant be in the folkfest and im not cool enough to be in art santa fe so i drive 5 miles north outside of town to my shed at the flea market where i write and mail out rejection slips to all those shows.... - and so i look up into the sky from my shed at the flea pondering the vastness of the incomphrehensible nature of life on a small planet rotating around a medium sized star on the edge of our beautiful galaxy overwhelmed with the new found knowledge that theres another galaxy in the cosmos for every star in our sky - one of the gallerys at the show was familiar with my work and despite my not asking if they wanted to rep my work they informed me it was "not friendly enough" to which i respond im not a freakn interior decorator but just in case they are reading this you might be surprised how many unfriendly folks out there have my art on their unfriendly walls - i will give you $36 for that painting oh geez....holy cow....wow thats low?!!? what do i do with an offer like that? well..... i take it of course! there is no dishonor in the survival of an artist at a flea market ya it was a small piece of art ya it was a low price and ya when i was in india 4 years ago that would have paid rent for most of the artist i met for 6 months so ya im happy to sell my art whenever i can - i read a hip poet this month who had moved to paris and smoked cigarrettes while wearing girls jeans with one of those haircuts that looks like he needs a hair cut and despite being a young gun he only used an old typewriter to type out his poems with lots of curse words dropping the f bomb and all its friends as often as he could which seem to work for him but try as i may to jam those words in to my writing im just not built like that every time i try to curse in a write i sound like a fraud so darn it hip im not but then again who cares? im just not built like that
Dead Cowboy sould 48 x 20 on found board
come see me at the tesuque pueblo flea market friday thru sunday
wormholes and bigfoot sould oily on a door panel
the coyote watched the monsoon rains
the fires were gone and the nights were cool hopefully he would see a rabbit today the concerns of the coyote here and now
i saw Dharmageddon at the flea yesterday circling like a crazy raven he mumbled over and over "how much more do they want? how much more do they need?
Traveler the great wild horse stared at the BLM truck wondered why the men in the uniforms wanted to round him up an take him away sell him to some fella who would serve him on a dish in Paris as a horse flank steak
my grandfather hauled watermelons for a living in arkansas i remember sitting in his truck on one of those trips staring at all the bright lights on the console and telling him i wanted to be a trucker... i could tell he was pleased but that he knew something i didnt know... that morning before daylight i ate all 7 egg sandwichs prepared by my grandmother.... food never tasted so good as it did going down the road in the truck with my papaw
the last element a star creates before it explodes is iron the very thing that courses thru your veins and lights up your eyes and minds as you re consider the moon as your mother
EAT EVRYTHING oily on half a table top
two raccoons were sitting on fence poles outside of my window last nite they looked like elephants doing a piroutte in the moon light my friend from el salvadore tould me he had a dream that saddam husseins head was found buried at the flea prolly a coyote thought he could rent a space and sell it to a dead cowboy
an outsider art exhibit is coming to santa fe next month i thought about asking them to come see my shed at the flea market but the gallerys only exhibit successful famous outsider artist as you watch the mess in washington dont forget you are stardust..... burn as bright as you can because we change the world not the puppets in congress
desert vision sould 18 x 14 oil on board click here for lots more art today...
i saw a coyote on the way to coffee this morning i wonder why he was in the middle of the road left a fresh deer skull on top of my shed last week a raven made like a feathered helicopter and tried an air lift show up on time, have a good attitude and work with passion words of wisdom from my african friend at the flea sorry to hear an artist friend was murdered life is full of so much pain so much beauty i tryd to explain the 11 dimensions of string theory he tould me he was a woman school teacher in scotland 600 years ago found letters to a father in an old ghost house last week a young man trying to comphrehend his stomach
113 Vampires, Werewolfs, ticks and spiders about 30 by 40 on a piece of wood sould clik here for a few more new pieces of art july 11th 2011 im way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way too cranky to write anything today so let me just thank all the dark birds (ya thats you) who read this page every monday or that come out to my shed at the flea market to see my art in person.... you are all appreciated and your words and continued support of my crzy dream are often the rocket fuel i need to get thru the hot summer at the flea kelly
the visit big oily on loose canvas click hear for lots of new art
july fourth 2011 i wonder what does freedom mean? as politicians push for continued tax breaks for the super wealthy what does freedom mean? when politicians fight for a bomb factory in new mexico what does freedom mean? when exxon spills millions of barrels of oil in yellowstone river in montana what does freedom mean? when religious fanatics teach that dinosaurs existed less than 5 thousand years ago what does freedom mean? when a country cuts educational funding and supports 3 wars abroad to keep us "safe" what does freedom mean? when labor unions have become a bad word and corporate profits boom in our jobless recovery what does freedom mean? when one of the top rated shows on cable TV is about whether or not a guy can eat 6 pounds of ice cream or not? what does freedom mean to you?
desert cosmos sould oily painting
the starship voyager is now 20 billion miles from earth but still has another 8000 years of fuel left to travel into outer space
the ash that landed on my head at the flea yesterday was from a wildfire in los alamos very close to the labs where the plutonium fuel for the vessel was made
and still the raven sits on the fenceline puzzled by black holes and hidden dimensions and wonders if the dark bird god is just beyond the veil of the event horizon prepared to judge him for a taco bag he stole from a younger raven last week
which made the red finches in my shed giggle like young girls " everyone knows dark birds dont have a soul"
which brings me back to a cosmic fed ex package stashed within the starship voyager which contains information about who we are what we do and a map to our doorstep so lets hope if anyone opens our golden tablet and follows the bread crumbs back to our planet they are vegatarians
afternoon dark bird 21 x 32 oily sould
do you think dark birds wanna be more like humans?
the full catastrophe sould big oily mess
is it just me? or is no one at the wheel of this full catastrophe? that was not a skin walker we saw just off hopi mesa im quite sure it was marie antoinette head and all escaped thru a worm hole reinvented as a navajo girl.... now if someone could just help that polar bear get in the boat we could all sing along la dee daa la dee daaaaaaaaaaa jack kevorkian died yesterday he wanted to know why some folks want control on how we come and go in the world (is this a private fight or can anyone get in?) to me we seem to live in a house with a swinging door where i get regular visits from my dead grandfather and my daughter who never was but always is and of course my dog sam gone from this world 40 years but i do know my shed is here today and the tumble weed cafe delivers my tacos every weekend at 12:30 the rest is a mystery to me much like the lady dressed as though she lived in 1921 paris france who wandered into my shed yesterday while i was painting and asked if i was "Joshiah" i answered "no im not" she turned and walked away undoubtedly searching for someone she vaguely remembered from another dimension despite being here and now
Red Bull sould 21 x 26 oily on found wood
clik here for several other new pieces
from the milky way sould 62 x 32 oily on loose canvas a cosmic rip in the universe my eyes blink its real its not real and ya and so and still the horses run
so it is can ever understand
alchemy of a dark bird sould big oily on loose canvas
its all there sould big oily
may 9th 2011
we watched beavers swim the other night i wondered if they thought the water was cold Mo is from burkina faso and says the jungle made him wise a panther snuck up on me at the shed yesterday and i knew what he meant looked for wild horses in placitas last week they were nowhere to be found later spotted them close to the interstate where they had acess to the G4 network that noise in the night air sounded like a vapor whistle was just a big elk explaining why he would make a good father we have a new thai restaurant at the flea wonder if we should offer boat rides like in venice to catch the european tourist that black widow in the corner next to the record player made kat nervous like a cat my daughter who never was and always is ran circles around my shed until i tied her to a red finch
back of The Shed (u should see the inside) foto by kat livengood
come see me at my shed at the flea market on the tesuque reservation home to alot of hard working folks with great stuff and good food and plenty of dark birds to be seen
the Misfits big oily on loose canvas
april 25 2011 the turkeys crossed the road looking for a room whiskey & blackholes consumed that nite the jackass was embarrrased and wanted to be somewhere else ive become obsessed with the curve of her ass scruffy the dawg offers tours at monument valley men dumped electronics in the arroyo near galisteo my daughter who always was and never is watching the mustang from nevada so much dust and dirt blowing i often wonder my landlord uses a mexican detergent
stardust we are sould paint on boards, rusty cans & flea market crap
imagine the odds of your toothbrush landing in the toilet and the mystery of the world seems obvious i still miss my dog Sam who was my best friend 45 years ago we wandered the pine trees humming our secret song the red finch wonder why i sit in their shed at the flea market the dark birds wonder why the finch consider me worth gossiping about
occasionally i still wonder if i could make a comeback as a baseball player but yesterday when i climbed the ladder at the shed i realized i had lost my fast ball as a child i hid my red wagon filled with rocks in a neighbors garage first hints of the child finding beauty in odd things
the shed in april 2011
at 20 mph i marveled at the beauty of loose tarps dancing in the wind at 30 mph i stood in awe of the power of nature as it moves dust, sand, pollen & tumbleweeds with ease at 40 mph i noticed birds flapping frantically in the sky while vendors & tailgaters alike took shelter in their cars at 50 mph gravity rules and all kiss the ground sending out desperate prayers at the speed of light but the SOS never reached the ears of god or possibly she just doesnt like flea markets because the wind blew all weekend long
flea market art big multy media
april 5th 2011
i can hear it snowing when i wake in the morning the air is softer than usual i start with coffee and a reminder from the ether that i am loved and to work with passion today and so off i go fleaing santa fe 5 miles north to the tesuque reservation i drive thru red mud in the empty parking lot then walk slowly to my shed looking at the mountain all the way the bead traders and rug dealers were here an hour ago i open the tarps to my shed slowly hoping to see a varmint in my space none there today except for the invisible dust devil who thinks he is an interior decorator and rearranges my shed every nite i smell eggs coming from the taco stand where luis is cooking green chile burritos i set up my space putting things back in place say hi to trader jack and mo and smell the cool clean mountain air as i look north to taos and then west where the volcano sleeps the great recession ripped Aisle J apart i am one of the last remaining from years past dead cowboy is gone, angel mary is gone and dharmageddon left last year still there is nowhere i would rather be i love the flea market and the people that work here its the only place ive ever been welcomed as an artist and that is what i feel this snowy morning in march 2011
three horns of truth, (sould) ghost rider (sould) and measure of time (sould) click any image to see more art from the week at the flea
alchemy birds sould oil on canvas
japans radioactive wolves have been driven out of new mexico the FDA killed of thousands of black birds last month because they were said to be pests mysterious earthquakes rattle arkansas where corporate frackers shatter the earths crust in search of natural gas and i cant even buy a piece of fish at the store without worrying about growing another eye on the side of my head due to mercury poisoning... so is it just me? or are we becoming the blight on earth that we seem to be trying to control? call me a luddite with a twist i dont think we have to quit the world but one things for sure there are too many people on the planet and not enough wilderness
dreamr sees dogtooth in underworld sould
dreamr says everything is more intense this year its all vivid colors and strong lines tied together with 6 pound test and this year there will also be dog tooth as well as more fish bile in my shed so when the flea market opens this coming week i will be there wearing my gas mask as i usually do and there will be dark birds patrolling the aisles as they usually do and the trickstrs hatch door will be open rite next to my painting board more so than ever so come on by and talk to gorilla boy chat with cherry the talking doll and watch tuco as he glides around on a roller skate its all there at the tesuque pueblo flea market in 2011
trickster realm sould oily on cabine door
febuary 21 2011
what do i do?
some are easier than others occasionally i spend all day trying to remember what ive forgotten and sometimes i envy those that say thay have the map of life like the lady in salt lake city last week who had a bible plus the lost chapter which told her exactly what to do every day in her life including what pantys to wear which reminds me of flesh the deeply flawed rotting stinky epidermis that every artist brushes up against in their pursuit to exhibit their art dear artist dont forget the business of art is not about the art and every rejection every attempt to stop me brings fire to my pulse the passion of which reminds me of the one i love that whispered to me just yesterday "you are a good man" and that is where i stand today i love i am loved and i do the best i can in this life somewhere between heaven and hell
(new paintings next week i promise)
the sky over jackson hole wyoming foto by kat livengood
febuary 7 2011
its super bowl sunday and all over the world people are watching football as though world peace depends on it while polaris floats 240 trillion light years away which means true north is shifting in our world every....single.......day but somethings never change yesterday at a grocery store in jackson wyoming i heard a cowboy with a green bay sweatshirt ask the deli clerk if she could cook a lobster for his super bowl party and dye it green "not a problem senor" the hispanic lady said "we dont have a pot of boiling water but we can microwave it and spray it green!" which brings me back to the new north star drifting over egypt where the old guard seems to still believe that stars still circle the earth despite the planet having traveled 2,592,000 miles thru space and time since yesterday so you can only imagine it must have felt as though the planets had re aligned when the white folks invaded native america and the church explained that the heathen sinners would be cast into hell fire if they didnt take up with jesus which oddly enough become part of their ghost dance ritual where the saviour does indeed return but the evil white man is destroyed and the indians saved bringing me lastly to a small winged dinosaur on exhibit in thermopolis wyoming which almost exactly resembles the common chicken on a molecular level so the next time you go to KFC and wanna shake things up a bit dont forget to order a bucket of supersaurus wings
the Map sould big oily on loose canvas
no words today too cranky to write maybe next week will type bettr blech
tiny yellow birds sould 61 x 32 oily canvas messs
news from the desert this week... dharmageddan reports he has discovered why native americans are not as crzy as white folks.... according to the sage its all about the eyes for instance australian shepards are so inbred they are often born with blue eyes much like white folks which invaribly means the dog is crzy or will go deaf.... mack truk says theres a 52% chance if two guys pull up next to each other at a truck stop urinal they will stand next to each other in pissless silence for 1 minute and 23 seconds till one of the embarrassed bladders simply zips up and runs for the door.... moonbeam says that indian road 63 just west of shiprock is almost impassible due to boulders in the road and wonders if navajo witches or maybe aliens from planet transcendence placed them there as some sorta trick or treat... either way last month she saw a man on the road but he quickly turned into part wolf and part tv set with rabbit ears and running into the desert nite..... flowerchild writes that a horse haven south of gallop states its focus is to help horses regain their self esteem and wonders when the horses will start practicising yoga and aroma therapy at the ranch thats all from the desert this week
sit down sould oily, pencil on board and bone 31 x 18
"dude you should try selling roasted corn on the rez at tuba city they get paid on the first of the month and i do real good selling beads to the young girls..." his name was cowboy but he was all hat and no cows more likely to follow the grateful dead than a good market and every morning before business started i would see him sitting in his dodge ram fogging up the windows with maui wowie just like a pre-party at a concert until his customers showed up which would cue his boom box with foghat or the dead or maybe some zeppelin announcing the greatest bead show on earth had arrived and was open for business
gone sould loose canvas oily painting
he reminded me of captain kurtz from the movie appocalypse now... he was gone way down the river and had let it all go from is previous life which was rumored to be mortgage banking in little rock and now he was living out of his car selling small goods from central america able to live on less money in a year than some spent in a month... "its all over" he said "theres gonna be a bloodbath very soon and the assholes in washington are gonna be the first to be hung from the cellphone towers" his name was Dharmageddon or at least this was the name he gave me when he rolled out his goods next to my shed i had seen him the year before when he pulled up in his dusty old RV and there had been whispers in the market that he was insane and it was best not to talk to him but the old man didnt need anyone visibibly present to continue his rant "collapse is immmenint....the mayans knew it! the navajo know it! now i could tell you this was an unusual case and i dont meet folks like this very often at the market but the truth is im surrounded by good soldiers at the flea that have gone AWOL and they are some of the most sane people ive ever met of course there is the consideration that a few folks think im crzy myself
jokers wild sould big oily mess 30 x 65 more less
another great year at the flea market has passed so its always kinda sad when i pull the tarps for the final time in december to close up the shed but sometime in march i will be back out there again where i belong but in the mean time come down the alley to my winter studio and have some coffee with me i should be there friday-sunday and by appointment til i return to the flea next spring
birdz sould about 7 foot by 2 1/2 on a closet door foto is poor as it was late yesterday when i finished it but its a good one
the folks at the flea market constantly inspire me to work hard every day and to be relentless in pursuit of my passion because it is not only my true path but for others it is also the right thing to do as their families and loved ones depend on them in this great recession.... so as with most folks that make things or work hard every day there is less need to talk as their walk is evident to all those around so they lead with their lives and this is what i hope to do keep my head down lead with passion and let my work speak for itself
by kat livengood
news from the desert this month ..... hatman reported to me that the flea in yuma has set up a disco in hopes of raising sales in the great recession which made me wonder if theres an opportunity to offr dance lessons to the snowbirds..... last week rugman at the flea told me he wanted afghan food for lunch and is planning to open a kebob restaurant next year which could be a big hit with the dark birds as even thay need variety in their diets .... it was reported recently that a tourist with a cheap digital lens tryd to foto the famous el tovar lodge at the grand canyon backpeddling rite up to the rim trying to fit it all in til he tripped over the fence and plunged 1000 feet to his death clutching his camera all the way prlly determined to post the images on facebook ..... Dakota the great timber wolf of the wolf sanctuary in new mexico is reported to have a huge fondness for dark birds as well as ground chuck and supposedly wonders if Romeo the fox really thinks hes a wolf when he howls along with the dawgs ..... a truckr man from tuscon reported that a barefoot lot lizard he had picked up in the warm sun of Gainesville had tryd to steal his boots when thay stopped for gas in chilly Chicago telling him as she ran to the truck stop in her shorts and tank top that she needed them more than he did.... this week at the flea it was about 40 degrees in my shed so my paintings didnt exactly catch fire but luckily kat livengood shared some of her great fotos with this dirty desert dawg.... please stay tuned for more news you wouldnt ordinarily get (for good reasons) from the high desert of new mexico
everyone ive ever known sould 26 x 21 oily on found boards framed real nice flea style
everyone ive ever known this life or that life before or after this or maybe occurring simultaneously on a distant planet is already here always was dreaming rite along with us in some sorta mad shuffle of cards where occasionally we appear as a coyote in one dream and a dark bird in another for reasons we have long forgot and that may not matter anymore because as you read this you are in 10,000 other places being many different things for people you have known all your life
animal dreams sould oil painting on dresser drawer hanging at my studio at the flea
hatman left the flea yesterday heading for yuma and all those wonderful snowbirds from canada that need a bonnet in the desert sun he will be missed by the sparrows whom he fed in his tent which brings me to the hawk who will also miss hatman very much who was unfortunately waiting for the sparrows in the tent yesterday and i will miss hatman as well thank you for the feather i found in the tent after the desperate squirmish between the cage fighting avians and which strangley leads us to a kat who found the feather when i left it on the stone she w ill also miss hatman as she was quite sure the elusive magpie talefeather she so desperately seeks would eventually meet the hawk where mad dawg would pick it up and bring it down the alley to her
a red dark bird sould smallish oily on found board
there must have been 20-30 deer grazing on grass in towne that nite earlyr we had seen a wild turkeys crossing the road and before dinner we had watched a herd of buffalo trotting down to the creek for afternoon water so when i turned on the tv later that nite and saw a story about an old preachr man trying to brainwash young kids into believing that dinosaurs were on the ark only a few thousand years ago and that science had it all wrong i began to realize why i paint animals and nature most often because apparently some humans are worse than insane thay are deliberately as dumb as dirt and dangerous as well
wolf dreams sould oil and bone on found board
the two other wolf dawgs had died yesterday after being locked up in the abandoned horse trailor on interstate 580 for a week but the remaining wolf was stronger than the hybrids he was a full blooded artic wolf and there was a memory of strength in his muscles and heart that had carryd him thru this ordeal as well as the previous years that he had suffered as a carny act in parking lots, circuses and obscure malls but the gig was up for the owner and there was no place the man could parade the wolves without fear that he himself mite end up in a cage so when the cops opend the trailor door on the highway that day the wolf bolted down the road as fast as it could run getting as far away from man as it could and returning to the wild
dark bird @ canyonlands by kat livengood
its long been thought that the ancient wolf was domesticated by man to serve his own needs but recently the pointy headed folks made a discovery that the dark dawgs moved closer to humans for their own reasons shifting the focal point of the painting to the wolfs eye not mans which brings me to a problem (or what i thought was a problem) namely my inability to paint humans straight up without a a coyote tale attached to the hindquarters or a bird beak featured as a nose or writhing snakes becoming long tangled hair but now im beginning to understand all you have to do is use the wolves eye as you read the front page of the newspaper or look at facebook or just take a drive on the innerstate to realize we need more wild things because humans alone arent solving the human problems and the wolves knew it.... thay came closer to the fire because thay knew we needed help
sould big oily
things are moving fastr now prolly once you get into the rinse cycle with all 11 dimensions moving full throttle theres less reason for the bicarbonators to get hung on one silly bubble but pay attention to the third floor apartment where smoke is coming out the window there may be one can of sardines up there that will get hot enough that the fish will zip the lid clean off and jump on the couch with the remote control to watch old gunsmoke reruns til the cat gets home with the neopolitan ice cream which would be a disaster for the feline if u can imagine a smokey apartment with melted dairy and sardines
high desert trikster sould real big
6 dark birds sould on a big bord
i had a really good burrito at the flea this week (eggs, hash browns, bacon and green chile) made by the tumbleweed cafe and as i sat there eating breakfast looking at my paintings injoying the new mexico summer weather i realized how good it all was but also realized what a close call it had all been (and its not over yet) as evidentally every art plan i had dreamed up in the last 20 years not only faild but what a freakn disaster it would have been if thay had workd out
the absurdity of humans sould (big)
i know people arent half human & half coyote and i know she doesnt have wings like a dark bird (or at least i think i know that) but its all kinda fuzzy to me i dont live in a world of absolute truths atheists bore me religious fundamentalist do also and im not exactly comfortable with the we are all one crowd (the dining habits of maggots are deeply disgusting to me) with their smug certaintys of the mysterious sublime so i live in absurd mystery fully aware that even scientist cant seem to work out einsteins theory of relativity unless thay plug in multiple dimensions of the unseen of which i am privy to maybe one so lets just say i deeply suspect something is going on that i will never understand but occasionally i do reach around and check my backside for a coyote tale
at nite sould biggie oily mess
so last nite im watching a science show where a pointy headed fellow is explaining that the universe we live in is 15 billion years old and either expanding or contracting like a two bit acordian which either blows your mind or makes things local in a no exit sorta way but what i do know is that im gonna die and your gonna die prolly sooner than we thingk so it maybe an exaggerated hope that i could inspire folks to be less afraid of dying (when im often terrorfyd) and more passionate about living (when im often getting in line) but as i tould a friend of mine today absurdity is my friend and we go back a long ways
ouroboros sould big oily mess (kinda like life maybe)
black next to white next to red proportionately should give me the perfect painting (i think) .... a nice lady walks up and asks me what the dolls in the cage mean which i always answer with a question eventually leading us to the age old philosophical pondering of are we one or separate with the world but back to colors and proportion what thay dont tale u about all that jazz is the line that delicate meandering thread that holds these bold colors together is the mysterious part of art that u cant capture with a formula which pretty much explains why a conversation about a transcendent truth isnt going far when we all know the bears will eat you
sould oily on loose canvas 60 x 32
i read a resume on canyon road last nite of an artist that proclaimd to be a shaman a mystic and a visionary who could also talk to animals..... ((im not sure the resume sayd anything about art)) the artist was represented by a fancy gallery who sold the art for outrageous prices that few folks will ever understand and that only a few rich folks will ever own so maybe my repulsion to this sorta elitism comes naturally from growing up in small town in arkansas or maybe its because im on aisle J at a flea market making art next to a hard working guy from guatamala who lives in his van and sells colorful blankets and hats for 10 dollars a pop i dont really care why anymore the flea is where i belong i show up everyday to paint and its honest work
(clik pixture for new weakly art)
i think im dying no your not u say that all the time well this time i think somethings really wrong with me ya we all know that no really my shoulder is thrown out my gut hurts my leg is killing me and i cant afford a doctor if i were u i would watch out for that snake that wandered into your shed yesterday it was a biggie wasnt it? ya what do u think it meant? a lady tould me it was about rebirth shedding a skin or new beginnings hmmmm...maybe u really are dying
sould big messy oily
lady...I am burning man! (oh my gawd did i really say that?!?) why the hell would i wanna go to a dance party for yuppies from san francisco who wanna get layd in the desert? (will i never cease shooting myself in my poor aching feet?) well....i just thought u mite injoy the art she sayd.... it was early in the morning at the flea and i was cranky from a sandstorm the day before and she was prolly rite about the art but the smell of organized anarchy as an act of something real in the desert complete with clean porta potties for every tom dick and harry who wants to be cool was too much for this middle aged guy who never was cool enough to begin with and besides i really do make art outdoors in the desert at a flea market
the flea in june big oily mess sould (clik the pix for more new art)
ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! lady you shoulda lockd the door these porta potties aint rocket science ya know? just ask the couple that was getting it on in the handicapped one an hour ago....
last month we were worryd about snow and the wind was so bad things were being blown clean off my shed and tents were being rolld over like tumbleweeds.....
yesterday it got so hot part of mohammeds tent caught fire which was not even the biggest news as this is was the hangover weekend from last memorial day as alota folks zeroed out at the flea....
a lady walkd by looking greatly disturbed when i was making dolls and askd me if i was insane which im kinda used to coming from folks that look like mascots for wal-mart but when i slowly looked up at her and answerd with a soft "yes" she quickly shuffled rite on past me and i was able to get back to work....
theres a large cow skull hanging in my shed ( its not the last cliche u will see from me) late in the afternoon i saw a finch fly into the eye orbital where she had built a nest from some of the same debris i build dolls with and a minute later a bright red male finch followed her and landed on the tip of the horns its crzy like that out here but its what i call home
tuco out of found crap
yesterday about an hour after i pulld open the tarps another refugee pulld into my shed it was tuco.... i had passd him on 285 north as i was driving to the flea noticing that he was rolling along in the slow lane hould ing up traffic but he held his own and appeard to be injoying the drive (what with his hair flowing in the wind and all) although i did wonder how he signaled turns and if bug kill was a problem
this moutain was once under water sould oily bigie mess
i gave up on this painting 2 times this weakend 50 mile per hour gusts with dust that feels like a spiteful brown snow storm will challenge your heart like that.... now top that off with the inevitable flood that is bound to follow the next volcanic eruption and that on saturday just before i left the flea i saw billy the kid sitting in my chair and that a fella on aisle D tould me he had seen a red heifer which foretould the end and i knew i couldnt quit the painting as this would prolly be my last chance to ever paint in this lifetime
lava flow sould big messy on canvas
"do u paint pigs in a bubble gum pink color?"
fleaing the volcano sould small oily on bord
you leave your art here at the flea market during the week? ya its a great place to store crap isnt it? well surely the pueblo supplys a security guard or an alarm system so no one will break in dont thay? nope but these bungee cords keep the tarp pulled real tight to block most of the dust and some of the varmits out what if someone steals your art? lady no one steals art from a flea market artist hell i can barely sell it
land of volcanos sould 24 bye 36 on a board
yesterday while it was snowing at the flea i heard and then saw a frantic humming bird fly by
this is afterall the paradoxical land of volcanos and dinosaurs route 66 and solar panels and saviours who are still walking in from the desert
like a fella i heard the other day who told another he was jesus christ he had nothing and was clearly homeless and even quoted the saviour himself
sayd he heard that on Oprah the other day hayzeus continued with his sermon on the counter top til finally the lamb bleated "whatever" and walkd away
dreamworld sould biggie oily i grew up in a small town where wal mart every day low prices and tyson chickn mcnuggets were the local heros gawd knows it swallowed me for a while but when you are only using your eyes to see what can be things can get black and white real fast luckily for me my dreamworld was always more vivid than my real world
Temptation (clik the pic to sea painting upclose) studio at the Flea
i have been tould several times by sophisticated artty sorts that i should not do my work in front of folks outside at a dusty flea market but i dont really have that luxuary and anyway i figure we already have enough artist locked away in air conditioned condos working with state of the art paint brushes pretending to be Oz behind some silk curtain making high priced fancy art that will never see the light of day
mad dawg sould 36 x 24 oily mess
there were flower paintings in the window the sign was professionally done the steps were swept clean a visa logo was prominently displayd on the wall the owner of the gallery wearing her art uniform with thin black glasses smiled limply at everyone but sayd nothing really if u want some of that crap walk down canyon road if u wanna see mad dawg come down the alley
march dolls made of found crap
thay were a rag tag bunch of refugees fleaing tv, religion and kentucky fried chikn happy to be in the big desert where its lean and clean the dark birds tould them about my shed at the flea and one by one thay all moved in
heavy rain sould 16 x 20 oily on the wood
heavy rain is forecast its been a long dry spell the sort u can forget u are in the middle of u just start expecting less water all the time til u realize cotton mouth isnt a natural state of being
civil a zation foto by dreamr every time i return from a journey to the four corners desert i feel more at odds with the grotesquery of modern living twittering and twattering facebooking 4 $ and myspacing advertisements of grandeur pandering to whatever can make a buck (or get a good *uck) and who are these folks? mostly just lousy avatars i suppose
the fat brown cow prolly deserved it one thing u cant ignore about the universe whether u believe in heaven or karma or evolution (chose the descriptive destination place of your choice!) is that there seems to be an odd circular justice in the world and this roadkill now isnt even good enough for hamburger
ghosts of chaco canyon sould 63 x 33 mol oily mess on canvasas
the weather is cooling off now its a good time for a sunday drive to the flea mattr fact a friend of mine drove his classic 74 LTD to the market yesterday to look at my new art but he had to ride home with me when a hose blew up like a wild snake under his car hood
sould1973-----------------------------------------------------------------------dreamr rides a red horse sould yesterday at the flea the heat broke in my shed and the cool dream opend up again (im ok im ok im ok) it had nothin to do with temperatures so im riding into the desrt tonite chasing mystery with a bottle of firewater and dreamr on a red horse floating across the vast new mexico nite tryn to catch a ghost in a picture box
summers over sould 8 by the ten oily mess on board (clik the pik to sea moore weakly art)
thank gawd (or who ever im supposd to thank) for this summer in all its glorious over heated mess i nearly drank my paint thinner a few times at the flea in august and when i sent out my monthly newslettr i pissd off half the christian universe (the other half is fervantly prayin to save my lost soul) so with that in mind maybe gawd really is to blame for this big mess the summer of 2009
dead cowboys sould
thay dont ride horses but thay do got the escalades thay dont got the 6 shooters but thay do got the platinum card thay dont do the whiskey but thay sure do love the starbucks times have changd out west the new story hasnt been tould and what we got left standing is a bunch of dead cowboys
sevenohtwothreeonesix. sould say it carefully its a magic code.... when u whisper it to the wind at the tip of cebolla mesa looking over the rio grande gorge the river grabs your breath and circles the globe with it until suddenly u may find the cold wind of the east rushing against your face as u hurtle along on the transsiberian express
new mexico portrait sould oily messy biggy
dont worry about it your not meant to be understood matter of fact no one is... just roll out of your center like a hot july thunderstorm but dont be surprisd when those that aint will git in line to rain about it
banks bombs and porn sould 22 x 30 on thick thik th ick paper
some call it a recession i call it a regression its where we are today banks bombs & porn
sould return of the green man ...biggie oily paining
the banks are collapsing our one eyed kings dont know what to do folks say the planets end is near but its not so humans may not make it but the planets always gonna be were just seeing the return of the green man while the grey men get buried in the wrong sort of green
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