I am having a terrible time getting my blog to post. It is Mercury retrograde after all!

After Auerbach

Charcoal on paper, 30"x22,
price on request (it's in the other room
and it is a large task to get to it. :^} )
If you are interested in purchasing this drawing please
email me at katherine@katherinetreffinger.com

This weekend is open studios in the Grande Ronde.
Artists studios open all over the valley for people meet the
artists, view and maybe even purchase some art. We
artists always hope so. In my neck of the woods Tom
Diamond will be doing glass blowing demonstrations,
Don Gray will be available to chat with in his magnificent
studio, and I will be at my studio with my foot up, a
completely captive audience. So if you live locally
please come by. 10-5 on Saturday and 1-5 on on Sunday.
604 Main St., Cove next to the library. If you want the
brochure for the event please email me and I will forward it.

Crescent Moon Bear

Collaboration with Cindy Bilotti
Oil on Canvas, 40"x90" triptych, $2600 plus shipping
If you are interested in purchasing this painting please
email me at katherine@katherinetreffinger.com

Now...where was I? No, really, I am already tired of
this story. So briefly the rescue team showed up, pumped
me full of pain meds, put me on the back of a ATV flatbed
and away we went, getting stuck on only one berm. I
was put in the ambulance and we bumped our way down
the wash boarded dirt road. Do not think for one moment
that the pain was stopped by the meds. I was a screamer
but not a whiner that day.

The situation did not rapidly change at the hospital. There
was the wait and then the process of figuring out how to
deal with a badly fractured and dislocated ankle with no
specialist on board. After seeing the xrays Kirby came in
and said "Honey, your skateboard is really busted!" About
2 hours into it I was put under and the ankle was put back
in place.

At this point I went home. Tuesday I saw the specialist and
Wednesday I had surgery. All this time I was on drugs and
my sleeping reality was becoming just as real as my waking.
The reality was vivid and yummy, a combination of Peter
Max, Salvador Dali, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

I am off the drugs and on the mend and extremely grateful
for Kirby, my community and the excellent medical attention
I received out here in remote Eastern OR.

Red Shoes

Collaborative piece with Cindy Bilotti
Oil on Canvas, 40"x60" diptych $1600 plus shipping
If you are interested in purchasing this painting please
email me at katherine@katherinetreffinger.com

Okay,......so a week ago last Sunday I suggested to
my partner that he and I go for a walk....an innocent
enough desire. So we loaded the dogs into the car and
headed up toward the entrance to the wilderness area
outside of our town. We had gone about 3 or 4 miles
up a dirt road when we saw an old forestry road that is
now blocked by dirt berms. We decided to try that road,
as we never had, instead of continuing up to our original
destination.

It was a lovely road, as far as the views, with expansive
vistas of the valley and the craggy side of the top of the
mountain. The road itself was a drag because we had to
walk over many berms of loose dirt. They really wanted
to keep out any kind of motor vehicles. Kirby kept walking
ahead of me, the dogs with him and I found myself irritated.
What if a cougar appeared (there are many) or I fell? And
talk about instant manifestation....kaboom I fell coming down
the steep side of a berm. Aren't I powerful? I caught the side
of my foot and slipped sideways, dislocating my ankle. That
much I knew immediately as I lay screaming on the ground
I looked down and saw that my foot was not on the ankle
and both were headed in separate directions. If I had not
already been screaming with pain I would have started then.
Kirby was not very far ahead so he was with me immediately
saw my ankle and called on the cell 911,Thank you God we
were in easy cell phone range!

As I lay in a bed of rock I had two thoughts. It was going to
take some time for the rescue people to get here, and, that if
I spent all that time focused on the pain I was going to be very
miserable. I then said God this would be a REALLY good time
for miracle. That being said I started to pay attention to my
breath as opposed to the pain and was actually somewhat
peaceful for the approximate 40 minutes it took for the team
to get there. I did think how the heck are they going to get me
back with all those berms?

To be continued........

Zao's Garden

Oil on canvas 48"x36" $2200 plus shipping
If you are interested in purchasing this painting please
email me at katherine@katherintreffinger.com

Well I am almost back among the living. I am too
tired after 2 nights of little sleep to tell the story of
what happened but I will. It makes good story telling.

Anyhow I thought I'd stick my toe back in the blog
water with a painting I did about 5 years ago and has
been a part of my personal collection. I decided to put
it back on the market.

Have a great day my friends. With everything I have been
through this week I am extremely grateful for all levels of
friendship.

Stopped in my tracks

Hi everyone. I injured my right ankle on a beautiful hike and had surgery 2 days ago. It will be a bit before I am back up and running here in the blog world. Send your healing energy my way. CREATE, CREATE, CREATE!

Puerto de Colores- New eBay

Oil on Canvas, 9"x 6", Starting bid $47.50 Bid Here.

I better stop doing these eBays pretty soon or I won't
have any small paintings left for my show in October!
Speaking of which I went and firmed up the plans for
the show with the gallery owner yesterday. Really fun!
The show opens at the Satellite Gallery on October 15th
in La Grande Oregon. Chris Jennings runs the gallery
and is a pleasure to work with. With all he has on his
plate he asks the artists to curate their own shows.
The Monday before the opening I will be at the gallery
hanging the work with Chris. Did I already tell you
that Frank Janzen, master printer of Crow's Shadow
will be showing his sculptures with me? I am looking
forward to this!

Karen Betty Tobias- Art and Meaning

'Organ' Wool felt and fibers 2009

"What is the meaning of doing art for you?"

Art means expressing myself. It is an ongoing process
of learning and getting to know me better. It tells me
about myself in relation to all the other people and
beings on Mother Earth and even what goes beyond.
Art means bonding to Mother Earth and opening the
view to all the wonderful beings and creatures we
have the pleasure to share this space with. It is my
way of expressing my respect.

I have been traveling around the World a lot with
my art and this year it brought me to South-Korea,
the Dominican Republic and Italy for exhibitions and
teaching. I had the gift of getting to know such
wonderful people. I especially want to mention my
friend Peter Benzing over there in the U.S. It is an
ongoing story about learning about people, culture,
nature and how everything goes together.

Sometimes I finish a work, stand back and have a
look at it, wondering "Was this really me who did this?
How did I do this?" I am very happy as long as it just
happens again and again and I am blessed by the joy
that I have about the things that come out of the total
ME. And for course its great to share this with others,
like Katherine and YOU!
'Convergence' Drawing on paper, 20 cm x20 cm (approximately 8"x8") 2009
Karen Betty Tobias
Germany

Karen's links:
www.karen-betty-tobias.de
www.wunderwesen.de
Her email: info@wunderwesen.de

Deep Sea Diving

Oil on canvas, 36" x 48" $2200 plus shipping
If you are interested in purchasing this painting please
email me at katherine@katherinetreffinger.com

As I promised last week I am posting my latest
painting. While working on this piece I was reminded
of a book I read many years ago by Reshad Field Last
Barrier a story of a Westerner who travels to Turkey to
study under Sufi Mystiques. I believe it was semi
autobiographical. At one point he goes to a retreat and
sees a woman with a tangled skein of yarn. Her whole
day is spent untangling the skein and retangling it to
start again. She was in the process of untangling her
psyche and her way of thinking. She was not just doing
it for herself, she was untangling the greater psyche also.

There were moments in painting this where I felt it
would never work and that I was not sure I even liked
to paint. I remembered this woman and felt in my way
this was my skein of yarn. My process of working is to
create chaos and bring it to a peaceful place and lose it
again into chaos until it becomes an interesting and
finished piece. During this process I feel I am working
myself to a healthier level of sanity. It is often a walk
through the fire, as I let myself go through my fears,
doubts, and anxieties. I wish I could say what many
of the artists I have featured say that they are their
happiest and most peaceful when they are creating. I
mentioned this to my friend Don and he said he has a
friend who says he paints when the pain of not painting
becomes greater than the pain of painting. I laughed,
but there was a a part of me that agreed. There is always
joy when the piece is finished and I love what I did. This
was one of those times.