March 4, 2005

Hello everyone,

Hope your holidays were happy and enjoyable!

As usual there have been many things happening in our lives and we’ll relay a few of them.

Last October we attended a surprise birthday party for a neighbor, Leroy Andrew, a farmer who was turning 60 years. There was an entire roasted pig on a spit and wonderful salads and cheeses, dips, etc. Leroy was truly surprised. We gave him my painting of the hay field right outside our front door. Leroy had just cut and bailed the hay and the bails stretch into the distance in neat rows. It was special to him because it was his work. Another surprise gift was a live rooster in a shopping bag. Not too many people would be able to stick their hands inside the bag and pull out this live chicken.

We attended Tom and Dee Dee’s Halloween party. They are members of the Swift Cycling club that Ken rides with. We went in street clothes because we thought that costumes were not required. However, everyone else was in costume. One of Dee Dee’s businesses is engineering of high altitude chambers for athletes and race horses. They train the body to increase oxygen carrying capacity by sleeping at 12,000 ft altitude. Their bed room is enclosed in one of these systems. She uses Tom as her subject to measure heart rate, etc.

As always it was great to see Dave Logan when he stops by on his return from visiting his son, Michael, in California.

November and December I had a one woman show at the Universalist Unitarian Church in Boulder. Two of my paintings sold, but to date I have not received any monies for this. They are very slow in paying and not as organized as you would like. However, it is good exposure and artists go for exposure.

December 14 was our 31^st anniversary and Ken made arrangements at the Brown Palace in Denver for dinner. This building was originated in the 1800’s when the gold and silver rush brought wealth to Colorado. It has its own aquifer which is the hotel’s water supply. The lobby of this hotel is palatial with wonderful chandeliers, gold sconces on the walls and just very elaborate. It would be an excellent place to hold one of Ken’s International Standards meetings.

Zeus continues to have more problems as he grows older. He is now on Prednisone to help control his itchiness. He has lost control of his bowel movements; a major nuisance. He is our little boy, but has become an old man Shepard.

We have had more snow at our home than we have seen since moving here. Of course, the mountains have received many feet of snow. Our water supply comes from Grand Lake west of Rocky Mountain National Park and that reservoir has not yet fully recovered from years of drought. We are hoping for more winter storms to remedy that situation.

We hiked with friends from Denver, Nick and Debbie on January 1^st in the Rocky Mountain National Park. It snowed lightly all day. The photographs were not lending themselves to this year’s Christmas card. However during one exercise walk at nearby Pella Crossing, I stopped to admire the field to the south of the trail. It had snowed recently and a lone pair of tire tracks was visible into the distance. Since that time, I have painted that picture and it came out great. It will be our next Christmas card.

The most important one man show in my budding art career occurred in January at the Macky Auditorium on the Colorado University Campus. I hung 19 of my paintings, none smaller in size than 18 x 24 with some being 40 x 30 (not including the frames). It really showed great in their gallery and several concerts drew crowds during this time. A lady was interested in the painting “Grand Teton” and after the show came down, I delivered it to her home in Boulder. She also wished to purchase “Sunset over Perdenale – Ghost Ranch, New Mexico” but with a different frame. This proved to be a big issue. We agreed that I would take off the price of the frame and matting. We also agreed that she meet me at Art Warehouse, framer of my choice, to select another frame. Earlier on she told me she was indecisive. This was an understatement. It took her over an hour to select a frame. I never worked so hard on a sale before. The problem was she could not visualize the frame around the painting. I finally convinced her that one would look very good. The colors in the frame pulled out colors in the painting. It was a good fit. I made the sale; my biggest yet.

I am a board member of the Longmont Artist Guild. We plan on offering our members four art shows during the year. The first took place in January at The Great Frame Up, a framing shop. We had over 250 in attendance at the reception. The next show will be during Strawberry Days at the Boulder Fair Grounds in May.

In August the Longmont Artist Guild will collaborate with Boulder Art Association to hold a show at the Boulder Fair Grounds. This should be quite a large show in a great location.

At the end of January Ken had a business meeting at the Phoenician in Scottsdale, Arizona. This resort is so palatial is feels too opulent for us. It is interesting to see how the wealthy live though. While at the Phoenician I had an opportunity to hike up Camelback Mountain. I almost reached the summit and was probably only 10 minutes away when I decided to retreat. The trail had become rock climbing and being alone I did not want to take the chance of falling or injuring myself.

Scott, our son, drove down to Scottsdale from his home at the Grand Canyon and we spent a couple of days exploring town. There are an enormous number of art galleries. While talking with one person at a particularly attractive gallery I asked how much art they sold. His response was that Scottsdale was second only to New York City. Some of the art was by an artist who also had work in Estes Park. The prices were double in Scottsdale those in Estes Park. Pricing artwork is tricky. If you price is too low people don’t feel it is worth buying. If it is too high, they won’t buy because its overpriced.

My work was juried into the Lincoln Gallery in Loveland. This is really a good step up into a major gallery. Just a couple of weeks ago I placed artwork at our local Vectra Bank. The manager had asked Longmont Council for the Arts to have my work displayed there.

Another fantastic opportunity came up just recently. I delivered two of my paintings to the Temple Buell Theatre in Denver. The artwork is part of a display by the Pastel Society of Colorado. Driving into Denver is still not comfortable for me, so equipped with maps from Mapquest and Google, I departed. Viola! I did find my way; mission accomplished.

In November I was again at CU for their research program testing. While laying on the exam table with an IV in my arm many blood pressure readings were taken. This was quite high; 166 over 78. They advised I should see a doctor which I have done and am currently on Lisinopril. Unfortunately, when you are on medication, CU does not want you in their research program. I am grateful that they did find my hypertension and that the problem is now corrected.

Ken is refurbishing the Lotus 7 again. The car is up on jack stands and the engine is removed. He is fixing oil leaks, worn parts and other annoying items. It needs to be back on the road when summer arrives.

He has also purchased two web domains: woodcolorado.com and dianewoodartist.com. He has been studying HTML and Web publishing concepts diligently and has a new website up and running at dianewoodartist.com. He has much more that he wants to do when time allows. Nancy Hevenor built a website for my art some time ago, and she is wonderful to do that. It looks like you’re off the hook for updates. Thanks, Nancy.

Our email addresses at att.net are still effective, but we have been having problems with AT&T service. We now use diane@woodcolorado.com and ken@woodcolorado.com. Ken wants to have email addresses with our own domain so we can keep them even if we change ISP’s.

Ken has been training to maintain a better level of fitness with trips to the weight room and biking at least 6 hours a week in the winter months. This should increase as the weather warms up. He is in excellent shape.

This is enough for now. The next report will feature my May trip to meet son Scott in Cusco, Peru.

Love,

Diane and Ken